"Preserving seed diversity and talking about it"

Before the industrialization of agriculture, it was taken for granted that everyone who grew vegetables also produced seeds. The result of this millennia-old cultivation technique was a huge diversity of plant varieties - optimally adapted to the local environmental, weather and soil conditions. But this wealth was once upon a time. Only ten percent of the vegetable varieties that existed 100 years ago still exist. The seeds available in DIY stores and supermarkets have displaced the long-established varieties. Family varieties passed down through generations have disappeared from gardens. In their place came new, officially registered varieties - comparatively few, often infertile hybrids, for whose distribution companies collect license fees. Private varieties such as the "Kröger runner bean", for example, which the Kröger family from Schwerin bred on their own for decades, are considered "forbidden".
Saatje dedicates herself to seed propagation of vegetables, herbs and flowers - year after year at the same location in her organic nursery in Wilsen near Rostock. This is the only way for the varieties to adapt to the Mecklenburg location and climatic changes over the years. Saatje see seeds as a cultural asset and treat them as such. That is why they only propagate seed-resistant varieties and ensure that the rarer varieties in particular find a new home in many gardens in our region. Anyone interested can find out more about this in Steffie Busch's lecture.