Archiving Seeds: From the Clouds to Dirt or an Archivist Even in Retirement

My two weeks of retirement didn't last nearly long enough. I found myself working even harder than I had ever before. I found myself still archiving but archiving vegetables instead of papers and photographs. We discovered the family heirloom beans in the freezer of an aunt. It started us on a quest to find other heirloom seeds from the area. We found a nursery in Washington County that raised bed plants from heirloom seeds, and a group in Kentucky headed by Bill Best that saves heirloom seeds from around Appalachia. We planted the whole garden in different types of heirloom vegetables and we are working to keep it alive through this spell of heat and drought. I am pleased to report that we have been successful so far.

The garden is doing great with corn reaching way above our heads, and we harvested some tomatoes that weigh between two and three pounds. These old seeds are amazing. So, besides the prospect of canning a year's worth of vegetables for next year. We intend to save those seeds for the next year's garden. I think this archiving project could be among some of the most important efforts that I have ever done. There are no acid free boxes involved, but I have no doubt that we are saving Appalachian food culture.

I have started work at Appalachian State University as the University Archivist. I am sure that those Hollinger boxes are in my future here. I am looking forward to further exploring archiving Appalachian history and culture in this new setting and working on new ways to share this information through the web.