McDonalds Corners Seed Swap

Mar 11, 2015

Over 30 local growers attended the 4th annual McDonalds Corners Seed Swap, which took place at the MERA schoolhouse on March 7. The event invites local growers to share the bounty of their cumulative efforts to grow and save their own seeds, many of which are heirloom and heritage varieties that they have been experimenting with for years. Set up inside the MERA schoolhouse were tables offering up a wide variety of vegetable, flower and shrub seeds.

Kristine Swaren is one of a small group of local growers who founded the annual event, and she owns and operates Blue Chicory Garden, where she and her husband produce honey and grow a wide variety of produce that they sell at the Perth Farmers' Market.

Swaren said the annual seed swap began not only as a way to help local growers share seeds but also to help them inform each other about what they have been growing and experimenting with, many with the goal of acclimatizing specific varieties to the local area.

Swaren is currently in the process of setting up a seed savers' network and guests who attended the event were invited to sign up to be a part of it. One benefit of the new network, Swaren said, is that it will encourage local growers to grow specific plants that need to be grown in isolation from other varieties to prevent cross-pollination.

“Take squash for example, which needs to be grown in isolation. The network will enable growers to plant and harvest one type of squash each year while other growers can plant and harvest other types. Then, at the end of the season we will be able to share the seeds and plants and swap them at the end of the year without the possibility of cross-pollination.”

Swaren was excited about a number of seeds that she acquired at the event, including the Doe Hill sweet pepper, a variety that has a very short growing season and survives in colder weather. She was also excited about a number of soup bean varieties, which she said “are very easy to collect seed from and a great plant to start with if you are new to seed collecting.” Hollow Crown Parsnip seeds that local grower Linda Harvey has been collecting were also on hand and in abundance and is one species no longer available in seed catalogues. “One of the goals of the seed network is to also save seeds from older varieties of plants like the Hollow Crown parsnip that are no longer commercially available.”

Swaren said that these days seeds are becoming more readily available from local growers and she gave the example of the Mountain Grove Seed Company located near Parham, where local grower Dawn Morden has been selling a wide variety of local historic and heirloom seeds.

Swaren said the annual seed swap is growing every year and in addition to its regulars, who keep coming back year after year, there are always new faces in the crowd. Growers who missed the Seed Swap at MERA and who want to join the seed network can email Kristine at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..