Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, Maine, has the distinction of being the oldest high school seed saving program in the United States. It was co-founded by Medomak Valley High School teachers Neil Lash and Jon Thurston in 1991. Neil Lash will give a talk on the school’s Heirloom Seed Project on January 9 at 7:00 pm at the Camden Public Library, as part of the library’s “Green Growing January” series of speakers on sustainability and environmental issues. Lash will also help the library kick off a Seed Library program at the library. Lash’s slide talk presentation will highlight important tips to consider in beginning a personal seed saving collection, including isolation distances, inbreeding depression, and drying/storing seeds.
“We would like to locate as many locally grown, open-pollinated seeds as possible,” said Lash of the Heirloom Seed Project. “Many of our seeds have been passed down from generation to generation and provide a wealth of information, memories, and history. We want to collect, document, and share these memories before they are lost and forgotten. In several cases, people who have provided us with family seeds during the past fourteen years have passed away. If the effort had not been made to save and catalog these seeds, they would be a lost memory from the old days.
“Secondly, and increasingly more important, is the act of saving seeds to promote biodiversity. The unique genetic makeup of these seeds is the result of forces and situations that will never again be duplicated. Whatever interesting qualities in the plant’s taste, aesthetics, disease resistance, or ability to grow in Midcoast Maine will be lost if the seeds are not passed on to others to perpetuate.” Medomak Valley High School’s Heirloom Seed Project is in constant pursuit of seed with historic provenance.
This year the project grew four plants featured in the National Academy of Science Press book, Lost Crops of the Incas, along with Choctaw sweet potato squash which is linked to Lash’s ancestors. The Heirloom Seed Project also maintains a living-history arboretum of 33 trees which includes trees from Monticello, the battlefields of Antietam and Gettysburg, and most recently a tree from the historic Isaac Reed mansion in Waldoboro, where Bertha Smouse in 1820 designed the Maine State Seal.
Since 1991 the focus of the Heirloom Seed Project has been collecting, growing, and disseminating historical and genetically significant seeds and plants. The project’s seeds have been sent to 43 states and 8 countries, 13 living history museums, and several international research facilities. For the past several years the project has been growing ancient indigenous landrace Biblical wheat. This wheat is on the verge of extinction, as 90 percent of Israel’s wheat is imported from the U.S. One of the most historical wheat seeds they offer is Hourani, an indigenous durum variety originally found in the storage vases of Masada by the Israeli archeologist Yigal Yadin. Hourani is the roasted spring wheat mentioned in Leviticus 2:14.
The program has a huge online catalog of seeds available at http://msad40.org/seedsavers/NoteShare/Notebooks/MVHS_Heirloom_Seed_Catalog/?1
Visitors to the online catalog will learn that the selection of the heirloom seeds that Mr. Lash and his horticultural students have collected is truly quite phenomenal. There are around ninety varieties of rare bean seeds of all different sizes, shapes, and colors that they offer including beans from South America, Vermont, California, England, France, and Sweden. Beans from the Passamaquoddy Indians, the Tuscarora Indian Reservation in California, and several other Native American tribes are available for sale. There is an Highland bean brought back from a soldier from the Mexican War in 1846, and a bean brought from France by Marquis De Lafayette around 1776.
Four varieties of cucumbers; ten varieties of garlic; two varieties of ground cherry; four varieties of Jerusalem Artichokes; seven varieties of lettuce; four varieties of wheat; nine kinds of cantaloupe; eight types of watermelon; ten types of potatoes; four types of garden peas; five kinds of pod peas; three types of soup peas; and two varieties of cowpeas are all offered by the Medomak Valley High School students. As for carrots, students have kept busy growing the ancient Afghan variety which has large irregular shapes in various shades of purple. All types of peppers (hot, non-bell sweet, and bell sweet) and squash (maxima, mixta, and pepo) and tomatoes (red, orange to yellow, pink to purple, and other colors) are offered. Bernard Newbert rhubarb and two varieties of rutabaga can also be purchased.
Medomak Valley High School offers twenty-seven varieties of bush/snap beans; forty-four varieties of pole beans; thirty-three varieties of pole/snap beans; three varieties of lima beans; and the Windsor Jubilee Fava Bean similar to the variety grown by Thomas Jefferson.
Those who know of Neil Lash’s expertise in history are not surprised to learn that his students are growing seeds from the time of Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Lash is a history buff who is extremely knowledgeable of all periods of Maine and American history. He and his students have contacted various Native American tribes, historical societies, gardening organizations, and museums to request rare heirloom seeds. The students were also able to acquire seeds from George Washington’s Mt. Vernon estate and gardens. In 2012, they sold eighteen varieties of flower seeds that were from the gardens of George Washington. Flowers from various other sources were also available for purchase. They included such varieties as heirloom columbine, old-fashioned poppies, flax, tobaccos, hollyhocks, ihi, mallow, petunias, Mexican sunflowers, morning glories, tarahumara, dahlias, and sunflowers.
The American Chestnut Foundation donated a small 15×30 greenhouse to Medomak Valley High School because of the collaborative work that was taking place. Roll-up sides and raised beds were added to the donated greenhouse. Mr. Lash and the Medomak Valley High School students worked with the Maine Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation several years ago. The students planted two thousand chestnut seeds from wild Maine trees. The seedlings grew in the donated hoop house on site at the high school.
The chestnuts had been in cold storage all winter in a process called stratification without which the seeds would not have germinated. At planting time, many had roots, or radicals, emerging from the nut shells, indicating viability and readiness to grow. Nuts were carefully inserted into the growing media. After watering, they were lined up in the greenhouse that provided a 55 %-shade environment for the growing shoots that followed root development. In 2001, Mr. Lash’s classes planted hybrid chestnut seed that the Maine Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation planted into their new breeding orchards.
Neil Lash and his students have been a powerful force in the seed saving efforts in the state of Maine. His knowledge, dedication, and tireless efforts to preserve biodiversity are truly a great source of pride to Medomak Valley High School and the state of Maine. He has enabled his students and members of the community to gain an appreciation for flowers, vegetables, and trees that figured predominantly in the history of the local community, the state, the country, and various locations throughout the world.
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