Summit County Seed Library

The next step needed for our current local food movement to evolve is to perpetuate the knowledge and culture of seed saving. Our vision is to establish a Seed Library which offers free access to seeds and seed saving education to everyone in our community. The initial focus is to raise awareness about choosing better growing seed at high altitude, followed by how to increase the genetic diversity of our own seed stock through seed saving. We will then be able to begin developing seed stock that is more resilient and regionally adapted to our soil and micro-climate.


The people involved in getting our Summit County Seed Library started are:

Kyla Laplante and Kyle Wiseman, Summit CSA lead farmers

Emily Roesel, Benny Hubley, Kate Christopher, Jon Blank, and Kelly Lesch,

Colorado Mountain College Interns

Jen Santry, Community Programs Director, High County Conservation Center

Holle Vliet, Local seed-saving expert

Sherie Sobke, Owner, Alpine Gardens

Our vision is to establish a Seed Library which offers free seeds and provides education on how to properly save seeds and about the importance of doing so. We aim to foster relationships among our gardeners by emphasizing the importance of a collective seed resource better-suited to our climate. The ultimate goal is to become a model for our neighbors to follow by developing a larger regional network of seed libraries that serve surrounding counties.This project is essential to enable our budding garden network to become an independent food growing system in our community.

• Scout and finalize location for Seed Library; meet with Frisco Library by August 31, 2013
• Begin press-release for our campaign, September 9, 2013
• Complete ioby crowdfunding campaign by October 4th, 2013
• Set up Seed Library location by October 31, 2013
• Collaborate with library staff on how the checkout/return policy for seeds will work by January 31, 2014
• Organize/catalog seeds and set up seed saving informational table in library by February 31, 2014
• Run educational workshops, March 2014 
• Seed Library launch party and seed swap, April 19, 2014

"The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates a loss of cultivated agricultural biodiversity of 75% since 1990, when the seed market emerged...During the last 30 years, the seed sector has gone through massive concentration processes, leading to...not more than 10 multinational companies controlling 74% of the global seed market...Maintaining seeds diversity is essential to ensuring agriculture systems are resilient to the threats they face."

At 9,000 feet above sea level, Summit County, Colorado is a challenging location to grow vegetables and flowers. With the support of local non-profit, the High Country Conservation Center (HC3), our community has built five community gardens in the past five years. This season marks the inception of the Summit County Garden Network and the official launch of its website. Each of the gardens, comprised of about a total of 300 gardeners and volunteers, are now linked to each other, a public calendar, and resources for growing food in the high country. The Summit CSA (Cultivating Students of Agriculture) is in it's second phase of becoming a self-sustaining farm share program. It now incorporates student interns from Colorado Mountain College (CMC) who acquire school credit, develop research and gain hands on experience while working in the field. The next step in expanding our sustainable food movement is to implement a seed library within our community in order to build a collection of high-altitude, regionally adapted seeds. Saving seeds ensures the conservation of the genetic diversity of our heirloom seed stock.