@MadsMcKeever 1/ Yup, they have that rep. I'm consistently struck by the truly planetary intelligence revealed in functional, regenerative homecoming, wholly at odds with facile, nationalist madness. We rely vitally on 'diversity composites' of material from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China...
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Excerpt from tweet thread beginning here: 4/ Our relationship with the former Soviet Union continues to deepen. Why? For one, where public-domain plant-breeding programs in the capitalist West were largely gutted by the 1960's, the scientific plant-breeding establishment throughout the Soviet republics continued... 5/ ...to develop open-pollinated workhorses for modern production through the 1980's. Elsewhere, the ubiquity, immensity and significance of 'dacha' horticulture has supported exceptional depth, resilience and pride in heirloom diversity and stewardship at the grassroots level. 6/ And with plentiful, short/cool-season locations and varieties, many exceptional cultivars adapt superbly to climates such as ours. (For example, once the fall of the USSR freed material our way, Siberian tomatoes quickly established themselves as commonplace, local mainstays.)
@SeedsDiversity 3/ Don’t let the poetry fool you. Because we’re no fools. We’ve emerged at the forefront of the PNW ‘future heirloom’ intelligence network with a proven record identifying and freely, widely sharing the most promising annual and perennial cultivars in our bioregional midst.
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