Heirloom Seed Development (HSD)

HSD is a core student research & development project at SMART schools. As a component of campus farm operations staff and students will collect, evaluate and propagate heirloom seeds. Though there is a place for some hybrid seed, it is usually a significant annual expense for small farmers around the world who could otherwise bank their own seeds. As profit-driven mega corporations dominate farming the world is loosing heirloom varieties – we can save them. As a standard research project students will also conduct selective breeding to improve heirlooms and develop new stable cultivars. Drought and salt tolerant crops are also exciting avenues we wish to explore in the future. World class science is possible on small experimental farms like ours.

Eating Good Food: Having tasty vegetables is no good if you don’t eat them. We share info in our Facebook Group Earth Farms & Space Science – talking about delicious recipes, plus how to store and preserve food in healthy ways. Our students will draw on everything we discuss. Here is what we grow and serve on campus. Serving delicious and nutritious food is going to do much more than saying “eat your vegetables!”.

Superior Flavor and Nutrition: The focus of our work is to grow produce with higher nutritional content and as a result superior flavor. Modern produce cultivars are genetically fragile hybrids optimized for factors like perfect appearance, long shelf life and ease of transport. This produces the unpleasant, flavorless, nutrient deficient varieties most people today have no choice but to consume. Our vertically integrated, local farm to local table model does not involve shipping produce for thousands of kilometers. Produce is used fresh, sold locally or processed into tasty shelf stable ingredients for later use and sale. Therefore our efforts optimize plant resilience, yield and nutrition. Flavor tends to better for more nutritious produce because taste is a biological indicator for nutrients – your body tells you what it needs via taste-buds. Every cultivar in the HSD seed bank will be delicious, nutritious and breed true for use year after year.

Ending Malnutrition: We are also working on small, high yield crop varieties. Small plants can be grown in containers, perfect for urban gardening and even food production in space. Small quantities of nutrient dense produce increase food security in any community as bulk staples tend to lack important vitamins and minerals. Fruits and vegetables are the best source of micronutrients that are bioavailable for use by the body. One line of our research covers cherry and small to medium sauce tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes already have an excellent range of flavors and can often bear fruit at 70 days or less. Using our techniques and seeds that can be banked, city dwellers can have fresh produce and herbs at minimal expense. Good harvests can be turned into tomato sauce, chutneys, etc. and canned. A few high quality herbs, fruits and vegetables may not end world hunger but they can end malnutrition for millions.

Please Contact us directly if you can advise us on heirloom crops and healthy food.