Seed keeping with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Join Future Harvest at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for an in-depth field day with farmer Ira Wallace. We will tour Acorn Community Farm, learn about heirloom seed keeping, marketing strategies, and discuss what it takes to obtain organic certification and whether it's a good fit for you.

About the Farm

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange offers about 800 varieties of vegetable, flower, herb, grain and cover crop seeds. We emphasize varieties that perform well in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, although gardeners and farmers over the country grow our seeds. As of 2017, over 60% of the varieties we offer are Certified Organic, and over 60% are grown by small farmers we know and contract with directly. We offer many unusual Southern heirlooms,including peanuts, southern peas, naturally colored cotton, collards, okra, roselle, turnip greens, corns for roasting and meal, and butterbeans. We do not sell chemically treated seeds.

We are a worker-run cooperative where every worker has a voice in the decisions of the company and where workers receive equal compensation regardless of the economic value traditionally placed on the jobs done. We strive to provide a flexible and enriching work environment where each person is inspired to take on multiple roles and to think creatively about how we can continue to improve our work. We have a commitment to quality in all aspects of our service to our customers

 We promote and participate in seed saving and exchange, ecological agriculture, reducing energy use, providing locally adapted varieties, and regional food production. To further these aims, Southern Exposure offers: heirloom varieties to conserve and distribute rare and endangered varieties; open-pollinated varieties to encourage seed saving and exchange among gardeners; disease- and insect-tolerant varieties to reduce pesticide use; and varieties for local and small-scale growers to encourage regional food production.

About the Farmer

Ira Wallace is a seed saver, an educator, and the essential intellectual and physical energy behind Southern Exposure Seed Exchange—one of the country’s best known and most respected sources for heirloom and open-pollinated seeds. Raised by her grandmother in Tampa, Florida, Wallace developed a love of gardening. Under her grandmother’s tutelage, she grew mango, avocado, pecan, and soursop trees; tended an enormous garden; and raised chickens. At New College in Sarasota, Florida, in the 1960s, Wallace designed her own major and dug deep into the philosophy and practice of cooperative education and living.

Ms. Wallace traveled the world, exploring organic agriculture, seed saving, and cooperative living. In the 1980s, she joined the Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, Virginia. Nearly 100 folks who value cooperation, sharing, nonviolence, equality, and ecology call Twin Oaks home.These days, Wallace splits her time between Twin Oaks and Acorn, the Mineral, Virginia, community she helped to found in the 1990s.

Event Logistics

Please bring a water bottle, lunch, and sunscreen, and wear clothes you'll feel comfortable exploring the farm.

Questions? Contact amymullan@futureharvest.org