Photo by MICHELLE MCCONNAHA
Homestead Organics Farm co-operator Laura Garber shows some of this year’s seeds hanging in her drying shed before they are cleaned and shared with the Triple Divide Organic Seed Cooperative that has 10 member farms across Montana.
Seed saving: preserving the future by stewarding the present MICHELLE MCCONNAHA Ravalli Republic
Homestead Organics Farm, Inc. a fourteen-acre certified organic farm just south of Hamilton is part of the Triple Divide Organic Seed Cooperative with 10-member farms across Montana. Members must be certified organic in Montana and follow safe standards for growing seeds. “It is a group of organic farmers in Montana that all wanted to grow seeds for Montana gardeners and farmers,” said Homestead Organics Farm co-operator Laura Garber. “We share seed-saving knowledge, the best practices for seed growing and since we’re a coop, we each steward different seeds.”
Homestead Organics has been stewarding about 34 crops including the Yellowstone Carrot. “We grow it, plant the seeds, harvest the best roots and replant them,” Garber said. “We are maintaining the Yellowstone Carrot. No one grower could grow everything a gardener would want because of cross-pollination. We have to have separation and by having 10 different members we can each grow some of the crops and together we have a full catalog.” This year the Triple Divide Organic Seed Cooperative has 150 varieties of seeds. Every co-op member is growing a different variety of carrot so Triple Divide customers can select which type they enjoy best. Being a good steward means being selective with seed selec-
