A Story of Abundance: Salt Spring Seeds

In the small packets in which seeds like to travel by this time of year Salt Spring Seeds are on their way to destinations throughout the Gulf Islands, across Canada and around the globe. But, these are seeds with a difference. If you grow a tomato plant from seeds purchased from Salt Spring Seeds you can harvest the seeds from your tomatoes, plant them next year and they will produce plants just like the first plants you grew. More tomatoes. They will grow “true”, as Salt Spring Seeds founder Dan Jason tells me. That isn’t the case with most hybrid seeds you buy.

What a losing idea for a business you might think. All you have to do is buy one packet of tomato seeds from Dan and you can grow tomato plants for generations without having to buy any more seeds. That’s what people did before seeds were patented and hybrid seeds became the norm. But, selling heirloom seeds, as the seeds that grow true are called, like Dan does via Salt Spring Seeds is a robust business that has continued to grow over decades. On his website or through his bestselling book, Saving Seeds Dan will even instruct you in this gentle art.

Culminating in his development of Salt Spring Seeds and his valley farm on the Island Dan’s journey began in childhood on a patch of dirt in his Montreal backyard. It was his move to Salt Spring Island that made the realization of his growing dreams possible. Dan and I met on the Island and shared an early interest in growing soy. At the time, the prevalent thinking in agriculture was that the Pacific Northwest climate was not warm enough to grow soy. With a thriving crop today and over many years Dan proved this thinking decisively wrong.

The interview with Dan that follows is rich in information and colourful stories from the lore of seeds. Catch an account, for example, how Ethiopian wheat migrates to the west coast and proves itself a vibrant crop here.