Fresh Take
Fresh Take is your roundup of all things related to organic and sustainable living. Join Florida Organic Growers staff and guest experts as we discuss everything you need to know about sustainable living, organic agriculture, and how to make the best lifestyle choices that benefit you and the environment. So if you’re an eco-warrior, a dedicated farmer, or just someone looking to make more conscious decisions, tune in to get your Fresh Take.
Fresh Take
Unlocking the Power of Seed Saving: Transforming Food Systems and Empowering Communities
Join us for an enlightening conversation with Hillary Miller, a passionate educator and advocate for sustainable agriculture. Raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Hillary shares her transformative journey into the world of seed saving, offering insights into how it can preserve biodiversity and empower communities by making food more accessible and affordable.
Explore the often-overlooked significance of seeds and their foundational role in our food systems. We discuss the environmental impacts of commercial seed production and how organic gardening and traditional food preservation methods can contribute to a healthier, more resilient food system. With practical advice for beginners, Hillary dispels common misconceptions about seed saving, encouraging small steps and community engagement as the path to food sovereignty.
From seed libraries to growing heat-tolerant plants like Okinawa spinach in Florida's climate, we delve into initiatives that reduce dependence on commercial supply chains. Listen as we emphasize the importance of reclaiming vital life skills through master gardener programs, 4-H youth initiatives, and regional gardening networks, fostering a locally-driven approach to food security and community pride.
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Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to Fresh Shake, where we explore powerful ideas, small steps and big impacts in the world of organic agriculture and sustainable living. I am your host, lana Shahabedin, and today we're diving into the world of seed saving, a simple yet transformative act that connects us to our food, our communities and the planet. Joining us is someone I've had the pleasure of getting to know fairly well over the last several years in the food system space Hilary Miller, a remarkable educator and advocate who has made a lifelong impact wherever she's planted roots. Raised in St Petersburg, florida, hillary's journey of championing food systems and nutrition programs in Florida and now the Pacific Northwest is a testament to her dedication and efforts to empower her communities through food. Together, we'll learn how seed saving empowers individuals, preserves biodiversity and fosters food security for generations to come.
Speaker 2:Hilary, welcome to the show. Oh, it is great to be here, thank you. I'm so happy to see you and have the time to talk to you about this topic, because it is quite timely, considering that we do have an upcoming holiday centered around seed saving, and that's the National Seed Swap Day, and the Seed Savers Exchange has deemed this type of event to be about celebrating the community and connection between people and seeds. So I'm excited to kind of talk more about this holiday with you. But before we get into that specific piece, I'd love to learn more about you and your personal connection with seed saving. What brought you to this type of practice?
Speaker 3:Very great question. Well, growing up without enough to eat every day, first and foremost, just like in loving food and experiencing food, and I worked for the family nutrition program in Florida and part of that work I became the PSE specialist policy system and environmental changes and it gave me the opportunity to help gardens grow in different communities that were underserved, and not only that, but encouraging use of seed banks, seed banking and people in the neighborhood to actually start taking the plants home, taking the seeds home, growing seeds in their neighborhood and then sharing those seeds with more people, and on and on and so forth, and not just community centers but schools, pretty much anywhere people gather food pantries. I could just keep going on and on with the seed saving, but for me it's all about food.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let's take a step back for a second and define, for folks that don't know the practice of seed saving, what it really entails and why is it so important for us to do and continue this practice.
Speaker 3:Well, I think the easiest definition is literally saving seeds. Saving seeds from the food you eat so that you can replant the seeds and share them with other people for the future. It saves you money in your pocket. It makes food accessible, food like from farm to table. If you're growing your food right there, you're helping with your carbon footprint, you're helping the grocery bill and you can do it at any kind of space that you have. So I think that's like the easiest, smallest definition I can think of. Another important reason to save seeds is to save the diversity of the species. You want as many different types of plants as possible for like, for your nutritional needs, for diversity, for disease resistance, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:And so for the upcoming holiday, the National Seed Swap Day, do you have you participated in this kind of event before the celebration?
Speaker 3:Not officially. It's funny you mentioned it because I was looking at this Web page today, so I've done it, but on a micro level maybe not. Well, actually, no, that's not entirely true either Kind of the entire state of Florida, because I worked with a group that was giving away seed kits and seed kits planting, and I was anybody who wanted them. We were making sure they got them. So I guess I've done multi-county wide type projects and I'm even working with seed saving projects. Even though I'm in the PNW now, I still have projects that I was working on in Florida that I'm checking in with and making sure they're still going.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yes, and that's how I remember you know us talking about this conversation. To begin with was your efforts to really bring this to light for a lot of the communities in Florida, and so I'd love to get more deep into this topic, and obviously we touched a little bit about the environmental impacts. You mentioned biodiversity and bringing that into the picture, but what are the other things that you think people need to know about the practice of seed saving when it comes to other aspects of the environment?
Speaker 3:Well, we started a food forest in Midtown, which is a historically Black neighborhood in St Pete, and people from the neighborhood were coming and giving us trees to plant there and different varieties of trees and tropical trees that are kind of endangered are being planted.
Speaker 3:So we're keeping that species as well as encouraging people to try different foods to eat, because one of the tenets of SNAP-Ed, which I work in, is to eat the rainbow. So they're getting more nutritional needs met and the area of town that this was planted in is a food desert, so there are no closed grocery stores and the majority of the population down there doesn't have a reliable source of transportation. So it reaches people from all generations, from youth up to the elders in the community and it's a part of food sovereignty and food ownership. So they're getting to do something that's theirs. They can see that it's theirs and it's growing and they take pride in it, because there was also a problem with litter and that field and it was just sitting there collecting trash and if you take ownership and pride in it, you're not wasting litter and food in there, you're actually going to compost it. It's like a whole system. There was composting, we want rain barrels and I feel like it just affluences all aspects of life.
Speaker 3:Mental health care, especially in the PNW. We talk about how having a garden and gardening is really good for your mental health.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's such a good point to bring up and I mean you touched on so many things that, like I want to take a second to dwell on a little bit which is the fact that most of our seeds come from commercial production.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting because in the food system we don't really, you know, in our courses that we talk about nutrition, and even in social justice, you know, it's kind of overlooked, I think, as a topic, and seeds are the foundation of food.
Speaker 2:So when we're talking about the connection between people and food, seeds I think have to be a part of that conversation, right, and it seems that for a lot of years that really hasn't been the case, but in some places that is starting to become a more popular topic. So I think the ideas that you shared about, you know, the transportation, the packaging, the production of seeds like that's a really big aspect that I think we forget in talking about environmental impacts and also taking charge of your own growing practice, the food sovereignty piece is so powerful. I think we also often forget the role of people in food just the average consumer, and how they can really take control back, like you said. So another aspect is, you know the idea that people will maybe start to be more avid organic gardeners, right. So what do you think the benefits of that have been in your experience, besides the mental health aspect?
Speaker 3:Well, I think, nutritionally speaking, and maybe the less in the exposure to chemicals, because we have such a huge toxic load that we're carrying around Like you, breathe, you drink the water. You only can control so many different aspects, right, but if you're growing things organically as possible, you're not getting that same exposure, because we know there's certain plants, certain fruits and vegetables that absorb more of those chemicals than others. So I think that's really important to be aware of. Now. Would I tell someone not to eat food that they got from the grocery? Absolutely not. You have to eat what's available to you and you only have so many resources. But, as we learned during COVID, our food system needs an overhaul, because we're only a few days from the grocery stores being empty from food. Look at this most recent Bob Cyclone that we had here. The grocery stores on Whidbey Island had to start throwing away perishables because, well, the power had been out for so long.
Speaker 3:What are you going to do in a situation like that? It's not like the olden days. You grew your own food, you canned your own food, you stored it in your root cellar or your basement, so you had some kind of reserves in case something happened. Right Now, again, that's not an attainable goal for everyone. I don't have a root cellar, but I do have a balcony. I have a place outside. I can do a little postage stamp garden and grow food. Like that we can do community gardens. So maybe you don't have a space at home in which to grow things, but you can use your local neighborhood community garden to grow food that you're eating, and a lot of gardens will let you do it for free or for a low cost, so that it's not another barrier to access of.
Speaker 2:I think there's like an evolution in gardening lately in terms of people wanting to start growing their own foods, even fermenting their own foods, canning, preserving those things that were kind of the antiquated practices of food systems, I think are being brought back as a more popular way of, you know, eating and enjoying food as well. So those are really great insights and, as far as you know, I think there's a lot of maybe misconceptions about seed saving, that maybe it's just too laborious or too complicated. Tell us more about those.
Speaker 3:Okay. Well, I think with anything new there's some trepidation, like there's a little fear associated with how do I do this? How do I start? Where do I store them? Oh, I don't have enough time, all those concerns that are just part of the human condition and I completely understand. So I say start small, right, where do you store it? Well, your countertop, the fridge, maybe, depending on the temperature of your place.
Speaker 3:And what seeds are you saving, on the temperature of your place? And what seeds are you saving? Save the things that you eat all the time because you know you love them, you know you're going to want to eat them. Save the healthiest, most juiciest, delicious looking plant and it will hopefully produce the same for you, and then pick it yourself up again. Maybe you start and you forget to water them or you don't clean them well enough, right, that's another thing people don't know. You just need to clean the seeds before you save them because you don't want mold or bugs, especially if you're in Florida to try and enjoy the seeds you've saved, but also just being able to pick yourself up again, because I've done seed saving by accident.
Speaker 3:Frankly, you're like oh wow, this is real, real ripe and it's kind of too far for me to eat. I'm going to throw this outside on my makeshift compost bin. I say makeshift compost because I'm a very lazy composter. Like you can get a bin, you can turn it and all that. But my method has always kind of been let's just throw it outside. And a lot of times those things start growing and you're like, yay, I have a volunteer plant that I can now harvest from and then I can just save the seeds that came off those plants, right, like your peas, your legumes, your beans, all of those. You wait till the little the pod dries out and gets brown and then you keep the seeds. They're like the easiest, I think, low impact thing to save Because like you just pick it and you just save it.
Speaker 2:That's a good point and so, yeah, I feel like for the folks that think it is way too complicated or too time consuming, it's definitely a feasible thing to do because, just like you said, it could be a matter of just tossing an apple or something into the backyard and seeing what happens saving the seeds, cleaning the seeds. It doesn't take that much effort, and we'll get into the actual tips in how you can start this practice in a moment here. But I also want to talk about for a second the other myth, which is do you really need to have a large garden or a space to be able to start saving seeds and growing your own foods?
Speaker 3:Not at all. You can do it in any space you have. When I lived in Arizona I had a window box and it had cucumbers and tomatoes and all kinds of things just in my living room. So really any space that you're in you can grow something. Maybe you just do fresh herbs because you're limited for time and space. That's fine too. They have cute little hydroponic towers that are like mini, mini size, like little growing inside kits, so you can do whichever investment you want. Like five bucks is all you have to spend. That's fine. You spend five bucks. You upcycle some containers, you have something to grow at home, saving seeds. Keep all your old jars and then clean them out and then store the seeds in there. It's doable.
Speaker 2:Those are really good points, and I think you're touching on other pieces of this kind of sustainable life practice, which is just reusing other things that you also have in your own home, even like egg cartons and things that, like you, typically throw out. I've been seeing so many videos lately about saving those things and reusing them and not putting them in our landfill, so those are really good ideas. I think that our listeners can just start to apply today after listening to this. But I also want to kind of go back to the basics for a second for seed saving. So once you have a plant that, let's say, you want to harvest the seeds from, what are the tips or the steps you need to take in order to harvest them appropriately?
Speaker 3:Okay. So it depends on the kind of plant, because some are juicier than others and you have to do it at a certain time. So I would say, for beans, legumes, peas those are like my go-to. Anything that makes a little seed pod like Egyptian spinach is awesome. We grew some of those at a school and they were in raised beds. It got taller than me and it produces pods all over the place. So you just let it go to seed, that is, you let it go past the date where you're actually going to try and eat it, because now it's got the flowers, they've been pollinated. Oh my gosh, look, it's got little seed pods on there that have thousands of seeds, thousands, thousands and thousands. So with those you literally just kind of open up and they're teeny, tiny and you put them all in an envelope and you label it and you stick it somewhere until the next growing season. That's it For ones like that, super easy, already dry when you harvest it.
Speaker 3:So something like tomatoes are really juicy, right. So you got to let them. You let them kind of ferment a little bit. You like take all the seeds out and you just sit them somewhere and it gets all nice and goopy on the top. So you know, the fermentation process has kind of taken that coating off of the seeds a little bit. You can't see me, it's a podcast. I'm over here like moving my fingers through the imaginary tomato seeds, feeling how goopy it is, talking with my hands, you know. So then you rinse them off and use a good strainer, just something that won't let your seeds escape through them. Myself I have something real small seeds escape through them. Myself something real small. I'll put like a few paper towel inside the strainers, like as you're rinsing it they won't wash down the sink because we need them and then lay it out to dry. So you just want them really, really dry before you actually are going to store them. And that's tomatoes, that's tomato seeds, something like squashes. Again, you're going to pick once it's really ripe squash Watermelon is very similar.
Speaker 3:You pick it once it's something at a stage where you would eat it. Since you're saving the seeds, you can let it go past when you would eat it, because you want to make sure the seeds are really, really mature and they're ready. If you're going to save them and then squash that gourd and like get all the seeds out. If you've ever carved a pumpkin, like a jack-o'-lantern. You know it's goopy, but you know messy can be fun too.
Speaker 3:So you get all the little seeds out and they still have the little strings and stuff on them that we don't eat, but it was what's attached in the seed to the inside and you just need to rinse those off again. Rinse them off really really good Get all the flesh off of them and then dry the seeds. I've seen different arrangements for that, like a screen. You can spread them out on a screen and then put a fan on them for a couple of days. Just want to make sure they're really, really dry before you then store them and label them. Store them somewhere cool, put the date on them so you know what date you harvested them, and then you're ready to plant again next season.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean, that sounds really easy to do.
Speaker 2:you're making it sound like no, you know, only a few minutes here and there and you're done water, the seeds some time yeah, maybe, except for the squash and the, the more juicier um fruits and vegetables that you just mentioned, that you know you have to take the time to thoroughly wash. So, in terms of how long these seeds last, what does that look like? In terms of, like you want to save the seeds this summer but you want to plant them next year? Like what is that? How long do these seeds typically last?
Speaker 3:I think that's completely fine. As long as you store them well. They should last for at least a year and maybe more. It depends on the species, the variety, the climate Like, and maybe more. It depends on the species, the variety, the climate Like. If it's super humid, you putting them in the fridge will help them last longer for you. And of course, the germination rate, like how many seeds are actually healthy and viable, are going to make a new plant. It's going to vary based on which kind of plant you're using. So the first year you should be golden shouldn't be no problem and then each succeeding year you'll have fewer and fewer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, and as far as drying them properly, do you recommend air drying over like the actual hair dryer method?
Speaker 3:Who's using a hair dryer. I mean, I suppose you could use one if you had it on a cool setting, but it would depend on how many seeds you're using and why use the electric when you. I mean when you could just lay them out, let them dry. That's basically what I would do In Florida. I probably would stick a fan on them or, if you're somewhere super humid, don't put them in sunlight, because we really don't want to fry the poor little seeds before they get started. You want to keep them dry so they don't try to germinate before you're ready for them to become a new plant, because that'll affect how many plants you'll get the next year, and even if they only last to the next growing season. Well, if you save the seeds that result from that, then you're good to go. If you just save a few seeds every growing season, you should always, always, have that plant.
Speaker 2:Right, right, that makes a lot of sense. So, as far as the seeds that people want to save at home, do you recommend you know, just like you said before about whatever food or item you have at home that you think is tasting amazing and you're saving those kinds of seeds Do you have a recommendation as far as, if people don't have a particular fruit or vegetable at home that they want to grow, where they should source those seeds and how they could find out what's growing native to their area?
Speaker 3:I love this question. I was hoping you'd answer this question because I know I go around a bunch of topics and I thought of this earlier. So my favorite thing was to go to my neighborhood nurseries and I'm talking the person who's growing food in their backyard and say, hey, because those are the things that you already know are successful. They're already happy in this environment because a lot of times when you order seeds from seed catalogs, they come from all over the country, from different places, so that may be the best seeds ever, but they may not work where you live for your particular environment. So if you find plants that are already growing there, they're already happy and you source those seeds again carbon footprint, supporting locals, supporting a small business and native species. I got a lot of plants that I would distribute.
Speaker 3:People had never heard of before but they grew really well in Florida. So it's like you're used to spinach. Like a lot of people want to grow the spinach they get at the grocery store. That is not the spinach that grows in Florida. Like, really, like, really, really. It's too hot, too hot for it, and that's true with a lot of different lettuce varieties In Florida. They just don't like it. But you can grow other species that will be perennials and will just keep growing, like my Okinawan spinach.
Speaker 1:It just keeps going.
Speaker 3:It's the gift that keeps giving. So I much would rather grow something like that and learn to taste something new that will be successful. Hey look, you're still alive. This is great. You go out and harvest some for your salad and keep moving. Maybe you water them a little bit if it's super, super dry. Some of my poor little ones, I mean, it was really well dry and maybe I had to go on a trip. You come back you think they're dead. You water them a little bit. Oh my gosh, you made it. Yes, so that's my method.
Speaker 2:That's exciting to see when something is actually going to come through the soil and it's green and it looks perfect and new. I love seeing that, even in my own plants at home, just household plants that are just sprouting a new leaf. It's such a nice little feeling in your heart, but I'm sure that there are. You know, with this comes maybe some practice makes perfect. But what do you see? As far as some of the common beginner mistakes, or saving seeds. Yes.
Speaker 3:I think not cleaning them well enough, really Like, if you're lazy I myself, you know you worked a long day things happen. Oh, I'm sure it's fine if I leave that little bit of pumpkin on there, or squash or whatever. Maybe you don't want to clean your tomato seeds off all the way, or maybe you don't let them ferment a little bit, get a little goopy. Well, if you leave it and it's still a little damp and you go to store it, then you're talking like mildewy or mold, which is going to inhibit the growth, or it's still moist and it starts trying to germinate and sprout in your fridge. So now you can't really use those seeds because they weren't stored properly, forgetting to label them right.
Speaker 3:It seems like such a simple thing, but let me tell you I had some seeds that were given to me, but the person had no idea what they were and I wound up never giving them to anyone because I'm like what is that? This is great, thank you. But what are? I don't know, and like. Sometimes I can look at a seed and tell but you?
Speaker 2:But what are?
Speaker 3:I don't know and like sometimes I can look at a seed and tell, but sometimes I'm really not sure what that is. Wow, I mean, the fact that you could look at a seed and tell is pretty impressive.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I just I love that and I know you've been really active actually with seed libraries and making sure people can access seeds in in different capacities. So what? What does a seed library typically look like for someone who has never been to one, and what is the idea behind it?
Speaker 3:So we have seed libraries. There's some in Florida. You should check your local library because they are in a lot of libraries and they look like the old school card catalog If you've never seen one. It's a multiple file with little drawers you can pull out and it usually has seed packets and you can just take them. You can let them know, you give them your library card number, you walk out the door with seeds to plant in the yard. It's amazing and I'm glad you got to see libraries because they all can look different. We have one in my office here now. It's a collaboration with the local Master Gardeners and I love it. We got seeds donated and so over $8,000 worth of seeds so I've been able to take some to a high school. I met with somebody from Seattle Public Schools and she came and got a huge bag of seeds to distribute to multiple different schools.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 3:Throughout the entire school district, so it gives my heart joy.
Speaker 2:That's really exciting, yeah, cause I also don't think that seed libraries are talked about enough. Even with the local public libraries that we have, I don't think there's enough marketing about it or just people talking about the fact that you can get seeds from your library. There is not enough push for that kind of thing. So definitely I encourage everyone listening to ask your local libraries if they have a seed library and how to, you know, start using that. So that's definitely something that folks should be aware of. And I also want to bring into the conversation, just in general, the impact of seed saving in the food system. How do you think, hillary, seed saving really can change the narrative of our food system today if more people started to practice this?
Speaker 3:I think they'd have to sit up and take notice. For one thing, it would help the food system, because I've heard the fact that Pinellas County is the peninsula in the peninsula of Florida and it would only take about three days of being cut off of the food system to start running out of food. So if people had food in their own backyards, there would be less reliance on the grocery store. I think the shift of attitudes towards food like marketers would have to think about wow, we've been doing this for years. Maybe we should do things that enhance this, or how can we support this instead of just, you know, making overproduced things that nobody actually really needs to consume. I wanted to bring up another fact too for people with SNAP-Ed, which is the major population I work with, you can buy seeds and food plants with your SNAP dollars. So that's another thing that I don't think is talked about enough, but I think that would help a lot for low-income families to start becoming even more self-sustaining, self-sufficient, less reliant on the local infrastructure that they maybe have trouble accessing.
Speaker 3:I love what you said about seed banks, because I had to go and seek out that knowledge to find out that we had seed banks.
Speaker 3:I didn't know they existed till I started looking for them.
Speaker 3:So I think knowledge really is power, so things that we can do, things like this podcast, things like going to local events, things like the Tampa Bay Collar Green Festival, which you joined me at this year I keep emphasizing that and working like reaching across the Bay Like it used to just be St Pete and then it's now Tampa Bay, reaching out to different counties and different regional hubs to see and to share seeds, because that increases the amount of diversity of things you have access to and it also helps your wallet, because the grocery store is not getting any cheaper.
Speaker 3:So, as you're growing things at home, you have better access and if you have the room in your yard to have fruit trees, maybe having an exchange just throughout your neighborhood where people can come get the mangoes and then if you're growing something else, you can share that with them. I'm also a fan of like barter and trade, that everything doesn't have to be dollars based, because I think that would support people who are lower income or having trouble with getting to a grocery store because of transportation and other issues.
Speaker 2:Absolutely no. Those are such great points, and thank you for also mentioning the Snap EBT users, because, again, that's another great way of spending those dollars. And even I'm thinking of the people that might be really, really new to growing food and are not sure whether or not the seeds that they're starting to save are going to be successfully grown in their backyard or in their balconies. Are there resources or tools that you recommend people check out in order to know what might grow best in their climates? Like, are there those kinds of things that you would like to share with folks listening?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I recommend highly your local extension office because extension is for helping people find solutions. It will be attached to a local university and they will have a whole resource and a lot of times they'll have master gardeners. You can contact a horticultural desk so that you can ask them about the seeds, the growing conditions. There will be classes and courses that are either free or at a reduced price to help you kind of get your foot in the door if you're interested in doing something like this, and I would look for local nonprofits. Back in St Pete I was a part of the Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition, so looking for places like that that have an interest in growing and urban gardening, I think would go a long way as far as getting started, because I know it can be daunting to start anything new and I really don't blame you. It can seem like a lot, but food is one of the most important things you can do.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes it is, and I like what you said before too, about working across kind of regions and looking at even networks that exist, like local seed saving networks, seed swaps, community gardens, nurseries, like looking into all of your local established gardeners or places that are currently doing something similar to this and trying to lean in for their help and their support, especially the extension agents as well. And so, before we kind of wrap this up, I'd like to know, from your perspective, what do you think the future of seed saving looks like, how do you think that it currently, in the current perspective of things, how it could be better, and what would you do to encourage people to really, you know, pick this up today if they could?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that is like a lot of really great questions. So I think the future of it looks like more people getting involved. Our master gardeners here had, I think, 500 applicants for this year and they only have just over 100 spaces, but 500 people applied knowledge. There are people who want to learn about gardening, saving seeds, growing their own food and, like you mentioned, canning. We do pressure can testing at the office so, like you can bring in your pressuring gear, we can make sure that it's working correctly so that your food is safe to eat. So I think there's going to be a lot more people interested in that.
Speaker 3:And 4-H agencies like 4-H. Like if we can encourage more children to get involved, get more volunteers to work with 4-H agencies. Like 4-H. Like if we can encourage more children to get involved, get more volunteers to work with 4-H. I did the Super Saturday here and it was really heartening to see all these youth who are so well behaved and so interested in what I was teaching them and so capable. Like it teaches you more than just learning. It's self-sufficiency, but not just OK, I know how to put my clothes on in the morning, I can go to school. Life skills like things we actually need and that have been lost along the way. So I think encouraging that and maybe how we approach social media Now.
Speaker 3:I can't tell you what to do with that, because it's a huge, huge thing, but a way to reach out to people, to cut through the noise, because there's so much noise online. But there's also useful resources and useful organizations. So I would say more collaborations and more partnerships, because collaborating is how we get anything done, like they've never had a seed bank in my office before and I got here and I've been here just over six months and we have a seed bank.
Speaker 2:Yay, that's excellent yes.
Speaker 2:It makes me so happy. And just just speaking on collaboration between the both of us, I know that while you were still in Florida, you and I started the seed saving group in the Florida Local Food Network, which is part of our Florida Local Food Project at Florida Organic Growers. That's a lot of terms right there, but we are really trying to shine a light on this topic as much as possible and work with people like you who are really wise, you know, can provide the wisdom and experience and support into encouraging people to do something like this that not only can affect your health and mental well wellbeing, but also your complete surroundings. So it's really nice to have you on the show today and I'm really grateful to have this opportunity to talk to you more about this topic and share more light on this.
Speaker 3:Thank you, it's been really great to be here today. I really try to rein myself in, because I get off on this topic and I'm like, oh, but this thing, and then this oh, and there's also this, you know. So yes, we.
Speaker 2:We definitely could spend another few episodes chatting, you and I, and I think that we'll probably have you back in the future for sure to talk about some other things that you and I both love very dearly. But I would like to take a moment also to thank our listeners for joining us for this insightful conversation on seed saving with the incredible Hillary Miller. We hope you're inspired to start saving seeds, whether it's from your favorite backyard tomatoes or a community garden project, and remember that this simple act can really have a profound impact on the environment, our food systems and future generations. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who loves gardening or sustainable living tips. You can follow us for more tips by listening to Fresh Take on wwwfoginfoorg or by searching for Fresh Shake in any of your favorite podcast streaming platforms. Until next time, keep saving, thriving and making an impact.
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