A BOULDER FARM’S HARVEST IS SEEDING COLORADO’S AGRICULTURAL FUTURE.
Jars of seeds in the seed house. PHOTO BY HELEN OLSSON
THE CENTER OF ATTRACTION at a recent Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art exhibit was not a watercolor or a kinetic sculpture. Instead, visitors were transfixed by shelves of large glass jars jammed with multihued seeds of corn, beans and squash, a trio known as “the three sisters.” The artwork by Anthony Garcia Sr. was part of an exhibit titled agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land, but these jars were more than artifacts. The seeds are powerful symbols of hope for a sustainable, regenerative future food supply.
While the exhibit has moved on, visitors and gardeners can visit the artist’s inspiration at Masa Seed Foundation’s farm (masaseedfoundation.org) just east of Boulder, home to Colorado’s only public seed house. More than 125 glass jars of seeds fill every square foot of wall on the first floor of the historic farmhouse. The foundation’s offsite “backstock collection” seed bank currently keeps a library of more than 1,000 native and heirloom GMO-free varieties of adapted seeds safe as a genetic storehouse for preservation and breeding.
A patchwork of lettuce at Masa’s Botanical Plant Nursery and Gardens. PHOTO COURTESY OF MASA SEED FOUNDATION
Unlike brand-name big box seeds, Masa sells only varieties organically grown and harvested on the farm’s 30 acres. “We’ve been building a sustainable seed bank by breeding seeds over successive seasons adapted to the sun, water, soil and wind conditions of the Front Range,” says Laura Allard, who directs the Masa Seed Foundation along with its founder and agricultural director Richard Pecoraro. “These are traditionally bred, open-pollinated and locally adapted varieties,” she says. In other words, Masa’s seeds aren’t hybrids, which Allard calls “Franken-form seeds.” Masa’s goals include breeding seeds that will thrive in the coming years despite climate change. “There are no prom queen plants here. We want our children’s children to be able to grow these crops.”
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