The Utopian Seed Project
Celebrating diversity in food and farming through crop and variety trials in the Southeast.
The Utopian Seed Project is a hands in the earth non-profit committed to trialing crops and varieties in the Southeast to support diversity in food and farming. Our utopian vision is to create an engaged network of growers, gardeners, farmers, foodies, cooks and chefs to help educate and celebrate this diversity. We are based in Asheville, NC and are working towards an overarching vision to create food sovereignty in the face of climate change through diverse and regenerative agriculture.
Crop Trial Focus Areas
Exploring Varietal Diveristy in Southern Crops
We are conducting crop variety trials for traditional southern crops to explore the diversity on offer. It’s exciting to realize that the genetic diversity within many crops can give us culinary and climate resilient opportunities.
Tropical Perennials Grown As Temperate Annuals
We are experimenting with growing crops that are native to the tropics, but with some additional care can thrive and provide diverse food in our region. This is an exciting area of crop research with some incredible culinary and potential.
Promoting Underutilized Edibles as Food Crops
We are growing and assessing some of the many wild, native and underutlized food crops yet to be explored or fully appreciated. With some simple selection or breeding work, many of these crops could offer great culinary promise.
In 2020, The People’s Seed joined forces with The Utopian Seed Project. The People’s Seed is the legacy organization of a legendary seed and farming advocate, Tony Kleese. Tony recognized the need to develop a new system for a fair and open seed industry to ensure a sustainable, climate adapted food system for the future. Learn more about our ongoing work HERE.
Yesterday we took a field trip to the @gaiaherbs greenhouse and Tommy Leonard showed us around.
This year I'm mentoring two seed growers (Tommy and Debra) through an @organic_seed_alliance program, which was the initial reason for the meeting. I also have two interns who attended (Halsey and Jordan) plus my local board members Yanna and Asheligh, plus a two person film crew who we're working with to produce a seed saving video series with a Southeast SARE grant.
So it was quite the seed gathering and felt great to connect!
#seedsaving #seedmentor #seedcommunity #fieldtrip
Perennial soughum from the @experimentalfarmnetwork has given us an albino baby. We have a full row of this going in, but I don't think this one will make it (I've seen this happen in corn too, but the plant can't photosynthesize and dies).
#soughum #perennials #edibleperennials #experimentalfarm
@soil3organiccompost have sponsored an interesting trial this year. We're testing a couple of things.
1. Planting density and harvest yields. Bag 1 will have 1 plant; Bag 2 will have 9 plants; Bag 3 will have 30 plants. We also have replicated in ground plots next to each bag.
2. Nutrient uptake. We've taken a pre soil sample and will take a post soil sample after harvest.
3. Root development. We will excavate and measure the roots at the end of the season.
4. Container vs. in ground planting. We'll compare the two plots.
We're using Heavy Hitter okra as our test variety, which means we could see enormous yields with the single plant plot!
@southernexposureseed has sponsored @lovesomegreen as a Research Assistant this year and Jordan will be heading up this trial as part of his work. Thanks also to @row7seeds and the @nellnewman foundation for their support.
#okra #heavyhitter #croptrials #experimentalfarm
Planting Kenaf from the @experimentalfarmnetwork today, along with a sneaky mallow intruder
#kenaf #mallow #hibiscus #marvelousmalvacea
Great opportunity for black, indigenous and farmers of color from @leahpenniman
and @federationofsoutherncoop
#Repost @braidingseedsfellowship (@get_repost)
・・・
Apply at this page: https://www.soulfirefarm.org/food-sovereignty-education/immersion/fellowship/
More project friends today! Long days at @ashevilleherbfest but we shared a lot of plants, spoke to a lot of people, and are happy with so many #rainbowhair friends 🙂
Lots of fun at the @ashevilleherbfest today. Check out some of the friends of our project who swung by to say hey 💜
#community #plantsale #rainbowhair
Come see us at the @ashevilleherbfest - we've got overflow plants from our trials, so you can join the fun!
Sochan, Hot Peppers, Turkish Rocket, Yacon, Egyptian Walking Onion, Blackberry, Red Chokeberry, Achira, Taro, Water chestnuts, Elderberry, Solomon's Seal!
We're at the @sowtrueseed booth 💜
BIG day yesterday. We (mainly @lovesomegreen) seeded 122 varieties of okra (and related species). We accidentally went 21 varieties over, but luckily we have some awesome friends and @soulandsoilproject will be growing the overflow varieties!
This year I've been seeding direct into @soil3organiccompost and really enjoying the results.
Jordan Collins is helping our project out as part of a @southernexposureseed sponsored Research Assistant Internship. @nellnewman Foundation and @row7seeds are supporting sponsors.
#okra2021 #okra #varietytrials #abelmoschus #seeding #farming #seedstarting
Have you ever wondered what it looks like to pre-soak 122 cultivars of Abelmoschus spp.?
We have A. esculentus; A. manihot; A. moschatus; A. tetraphyllus; A. caillei; A. tuberculatus; A. ficulneus; A. crinitus.
It's going to be an exciting year! @southernexposureseed sponsored Jordan Collins (@lovesomegreen) is jumping straight into the okra mania!
These seeds include the high oilseed content varieties from the @usdagov for our @oliverfarm
sponsored okra seed oil project!
Big seeding day tomorrow.
#okra #abelmoschus
The Experimental Farm Notebook
We’ll be publishing updates throughout the growing season so you can stay up to date with what we’re up to and how the experiments are going. This will be an informal narrative of our highs and lows, successes and failures, with photos and fun facts!
Thanks to our Sustaining Sponsors
