Beech Tree News Network

When our granddaughter eats watermelon, she always asks for a small bowl for the seeds.  She saves the seeds to plant the following year.  She learned that from her Papa, Garey Hughes.
    We always save seeds.  Some of our seeds are heirlooms and go back generations in Garey’s family.  Others are seeds that are readily available on the market each year, but I still save them out of habit.  We have seeds from past years in our freezer and also in the freezer in Garey’s shop.  I used to wonder why Garey’s mom, Aggie, had a refrigerator in her basement dedicated completely to seeds, but the days are fast approaching when I see Garey and me doing the same.
    I think as you get older, you value things from the past.  Not just antiques, but the way of life that got you to where you are.  Seeds are part of that way of life for our family.  I’ve sold some of our seeds to heirloom seed companies, but mostly we just give them away to anybody interested in growing them.  
 Seeds are from little families of their own, and I hate to see anything die out.  It has always grieved me that the big American chestnut tree was nearly wiped out by blight, and I really admire the people who are working to develop gene coding for an enzyme that will combat the blight.  I didn’t realize that any of the giant trees remained until I read recently that a grove was discovered in 2006 in F.D. Roosevelt State Park near Warm Springs, Georgia.
 Also, according to the American Chestnut Foundation in Wisconsin, there are almost 2500 chestnut trees growing on 60 acres in West Salem, Wisconsin.  Those trees are descendants of trees planted in the late 1800s by a man by the name of Martin Hicks.  Mr. Hicks planted less than a dozen trees, but because they were planted outside the natural range of the American chestnut (south and east United States) they escaped the initial blight.  In 1987, blight was beginning to show up in these trees, as well.  The foundation wants to make these trees blight resistant then introduce them back into the nation’s forest (Wikipedia.org).  I wonder if Martin Hicks could even imagine that his little grove of trees would produce the progeny that could some day save that entire species.
The Creel cream crowder pea that we grow was nearly wiped out by blight in Alabama.  The seed has been in Garey’s family for nearly 100 years.  His mom and dad had saved some seeds from years before the blight, so Garey and I planted them in Kentucky and have managed to save that family of seeds.  Garey’s cousin in Alabama is going to try to grow some of our seeds next year to see if they can once again thrive in that area.
  Garey and I have always grown the Jewel sweet potato.  It is sweeter than the Beauregard, Puerto Rican or Carolina Red that most people in this area grow.  We gave plants to a few farmers in the area who were willing to try them.  As much as we like to garden, we realize that the day will come when we won’t be physically able, and it would be nice to be able to go to local farmers markets to buy the descendants of seeds and plants we brought to the area.
Garey always plants water melons because our granddaughter likes the idea of going out into the garden to pick her own.  This was not a good year for melons on our farm.  Because of the rain, we planted and replanted with little success.  About a month into the growing season, Garey noticed that a voluntary Crimson Sweet had come up at the end of the pea row.  He left it, and it’s a good thing that he did, because it was the only melon that made it to maturity.  He and Sabria picked it.  When they cut it open, it was wonderful.  “I guess God knew mine weren’t going to make it, so he grew one for me,” Garey said. 
Today, I was bagging dried seeds for next year.  I put the little water melon seeds into a clear plastic bag and wrote: God’s Crimson Sweet, 2016.  I’ve always heard give credit where credit is due.