Slow Food USA Launches Plant a Seed Campaign

by Leila Goldstein

Slow Food USA has launched its spring Plant a Seed campaign with a goal of starting 1,000 biodiverse gardens across the country. The kits include supplies to plant a Three Sisters garden, traditionally a trio of squash, corn, and beans. When planted together using the indigenous companion planting technique, the three crops help one another thrive.

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The seeds selected for the campaign include Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn, Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, and Christmas Lima Beans. Stowell’s corn variety was called evergreen for its ability to maintain a fresh green corn taste in the field. The Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is one of the oldest varieties of pumpkin cultivated in America. These pumpkins are flat and lightly ribbed, and look a bit like a wheel of cheese. The Christmas Lima Bean is sometimes called the Chestnut Lima for it’s full-bodied, nutty taste similar to a chestnut.

These three particular seeds are on the Slow Food Ark of Taste, a living library of distinctive foods facing extinction. The catalogue encourages farmers, chefs, and consumers to seek out endangered foods to keep them in production.

For every kit purchased, Slow Food USA will send one to a school in need. You can order a Plant a Seed kit here and grow your very own biodiverse garden!

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