5/ Ultracross Collard (Cottage Grove, OR, selection '24) represents our ongoing efforts to localize N. America's finest collard diversity. Our population includes Utopian Seed Project's 'Ultracross Collards', a 21-variety composite interbreeding population from North Carolina.
@IrelandSeedSov To prove the point, here's how the ASN Seed Increase Initiative is adapting/evolving the population Chris describes, in Oregon just now. We're growing it out mid-state to take a looksee, and simultaneously managing a stewarded, isolated, seed increase, at scale, in S. Oregon.
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Comment on Facebook post here: Nick Routledge Admin Top contributor Don, some years ago we stumbled into familiar use of the term 'future heirlooms' - those 'varieties' ancient or modern, stable or segregating, 'recognized' or 'unrecognized', we've identified as holding most bioregional promise - locally-proven, readily reproducible, all-round performers, etc. Frankly, we find the term has a certain magic to it. It's kind of elastic; inclusively respects past, current and future; spacious enough to allow for holding a diversity of identifiers; and, of course, suggests a keen eye for strong performers - those accessions most likely to settle in, further co-adapt and forge on through the decades. And, interestingly, the term seems to cut through the noise, confusion and ecological naivety in an 'ah-hah!' way. Whether we're talking vegetables or fruit, people 'get it'.