When I knew I was going to Oregon, high on my list of places to visit was the Sweet Home of Adaptive seeds, where Andrew Still and Sarah Kleeger grow seed of many vegetable varieties organically including several perennials, offered through their Adaptive Seed catalogue (see https://www.adaptiveseeds.com). I think I first came across Adaptive Seeds when I was offered seed of one of their varieties, Tuscan Arugula by a seed trader. Further, there was a story attached to the seed, which were collected by Seed Ambassador, Kayla Preece from Agricultori Custodi, a seed preservation group in Tuscany, Italy.
Adaptive Seeds evolved out of the Seed Ambassadors project, for which Sarah and Andrew are best known in Europe. In autumn 2008, I visited seed saver, breeder and grower of unusual vegetables in Belgium, Lieven David. He wrote to me soon afterwards: “I enjoyed your visit very much too. Your tour now reminds me of the Seed Ambassadors’ (http://www.seedambassadors.org/) visit on February 2, 2007 : sharing seeds & plants & knowledge & tastes !”. For Andrew and Sarah had travelled to Europe on a combined vacation and seed collecting trip and they became known as Seed Ambassadors! Since then, over 800 varieties of new food plant varieties have been introduced by the Seed Ambassadors which includes my friend and long time leader of Danish Seed Savers, Lila Towle!
When Chris Homanics, who was showing me around the area near to Eugene, suggested that we give his friend Andrew Still a call to see if he was home, I jumped at the opportunity! It was great to meet you guys and see your great work first hand! This picture album is a little memento of my visit on 28th August 2015. Please feel free to correct, add etc. I lost what notes I had taken at the time!
http://www.edimentals.com/pictures/index.php?/category/93
By the way, Sweet Home is where they are located;
Wikipedia: Sweet Home is a city in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The population was 8,925 at the 2010 census!
I would encourage you to support these guys who are doing great work for increasing food security through conserving our vegetable diversity! Again https://www.adaptiveseeds.com