Glass jars of multicolored corn kernels.

Stewardship Stories: George McLaughlin

Even though George McLaughlin’s academic and professional background is in theology rather than biology or agriculture, George has been playing in the dirt for as long as he can remember.

Whole green tomatoes and two green tomato slices

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Bill Minkey

Over 26 years, Bill Minkey has donated nearly 500 varieties of tomatoes, beans, lettuce, and peas to the Seed Savers Exchange seed bank collection, and in 2017, Bill listed 1,011 varieties in the Exchange.

A wooden box with jars and packets of seeds inside sits on a shelf

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Garden Favorites

As these intrepid visionaries demonstrate, seeds are all about community. Like-minded gardeners and seed savers build this community on the Exchange, a network for sharing and swapping seeds.

Two red tomatoes and two tomato halves on a wooden surface

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Mike Dunton

Some of Mike Dunton’s earliest childhood memories are of being out in the garden with his mother or grandparents.

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Steve Sando

In the late 1990s, Steve found Seed Savers Exchange, and the tomatoes he craved, but he also discovered what ultimately became the passion of a lifetime: heirloom beans.

A group of people gather outside of a large red chicken coop

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Glenn Drowns

Glenn Drowns’ passion for gardening started when he was two and a half years old. “I used to crawl through the fence to our neighbors’ to escape from my mom, and help [Evelyn, the neighbor] plant her garden,” recalls Glenn, fondly.

A group of red, yellow, and green tomatoes growing on vines

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Bill McDorman

Bill McDorman started High Altitude Garden Seeds (which later became Seeds Trust) in 1984 while living in a small mountain town in Idaho. He hoped to offer varieties best suited to the cold, short-growing season of the area.

several people tend to plants in a greenhouse

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum

Landis Valley’s Heirloom Seed Project has over 50 volunteers who help to maintain their collection of historic Pennsylvania Dutch seeds. This includes several that they first found in the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbooks. Featured photo courtesy of Landis Valley.

A garden of orange flowers in front of a greenhouse

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Alan “Mushroom” & Linda Kapuler

Together, Alan and Linda have donated almost 140 varieties of heirloom seeds to Seed Savers Exchange.

A group of green and yellow striped tomatoes on a wooden surface, one tomato is halved to show the seeds inside

Stewardship Stories

Stewardship Stories: Tom Wagner

Before Tom Wagner ever started breeding the now-popular ‘Green Zebra’ tomato in 1958, he learned the value of saving seeds by shelling beans around the farm table with his extended family.