On an unseasonably crisp August night, Decorah locals — and plenty of out-of-towners, judging by the full hotel parking lots — gathered to enjoy a concert on a local farm.
The annual performance pulls a lineup of local powerhouse musicians to support the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), a locally beloved and internationally recognized organization that works to preserve American crop biodiversity.
It started in 2000 after Iowa legend Greg Brown visited the farm and was invited to play a show.
As artist David Huckfelt describes it, the first concert was played inside the barn on a hot summer night. What followed was two decades of music, community and art in celebration of the Seed Savers Exchange, interrupted only by the pandemic.
Huckfelt says that while several national acts have come to play at the farm, the lineup is largely local and shines a light on all that Iowa has to be proud of musically. He likes to "keep it Midwestern.”
The 2024 lineup included many familiar faces for folks who have attended the concert in the past. Elisabeth Maurus — known by her stage name, Lissie — started off the night’s festivities.
Maurus is a nationally touring artist who, after living for 15 years in California, moved to Decorah to be closer to her family in Rock Island, Ill. She’s become a mainstay on the SSE Benefit Concert lineup along with Huckfelt and Lee County’s William Elliot Whitmore, whose set included everything from a John Prine cover to a folksy song about avoiding disaster from the comfort of a below-ground bunker.
They were joined by Iowa Blues Hall of Famers Joe and Vicki Price and Anishinaabe singer/songwriter Annie Humphrey, who Huckfelt describes as an "off-the-grid consciousness raiser.”
Restoring relationships
The event was emceed by Sean Sherman, an SSE board member and James Beard Award-winning chef and community educator. Sherman, who is known as the "Sioux Chef,” has gained national acclaim for his work to revitalize Indigenous food systems.
Huckfelt points out that SSE didn’t always have Indigenous board members, but people like Sherman and the folks at Seed Savers have parallel worlds and goals. He says their work of preserving heritage, history and tradition also aligns with the music artists he works with and they all coalesce around a common message of taking care of the land and each other.
Today, the Seed Savers Exchange participates in a larger national effort to revitalize and preserve Indigenous food systems through the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network Seed Rematriation program. Rematriation — an intentional alternative to the patriarchal term repatriation — is a movement to restore relationships between Indigenous people and their ancestral land.
In the context of the Seed Keepers Network, rematriation aims to preserve ancestral plant varieties that were lost due to displacement by collecting both seeds and the knowledge of how to grow them. In the effort to secure food sovereignty, advocates say establishing seed sovereignty is the first step.
The Seed Savers Exchange participates by rematriating seeds in its collection to their cultures of origin.
Preserving history through seed collection
The Seed Saver’s Exchange was founded in 1975 by Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy. Early in the marriage, the couple inherited a true relationship test: two heirloom seed varieties, entrusted to them by Diane’s grandfather. Grandpa Ott’s parents first brought the plants to America when they immigrated to Iowa in 1884 and had grown, replanted, preserved and eventually passed them down.
Thankfully, the newlyweds were also able to grow and preserve the seeds with such success that "Grandpa Ott’s” morning glory and the "German Pink” tomato would go on to become the first two plant varieties in the Seed Savers' collection.
The collection grew and eventually became what it is today: The nation’s largest non-government-run seed bank. The total collection currently houses around 20,000 varieties, including the original two from Bavaria that started it all.
The SSE is one of more than 1,700 gene banks where seeds of different varieties are stored and preserved with the goal of preserving genetic diversity.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that around 75% of crop diversity was lost in the 100 years leading up to the year 2000. From Seed Savers to Norway's "ultimate back-up,” the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, these operations aim to preserve crop biodiversity as a means to adapt to climate change and secure the global food supply.
But while the Svalbard vault acts as a potential savior in some "doomsday” scenarios, the Seed Savers Exchange has a more focused collection. The SSE specifically focuses on preserving heirloom seeds, which are plant varieties that have been passed down through generations without breeding, and open-pollinated seeds, which means they were fertilized by natural means like bees or wind.
And — as its name suggests — the exchange is an open market seed swap where gardeners from around the country offer seeds they’ve grown to other hobbyists. SSE’s headquarters, the Heritage Farm, acts as the nexus of the organization’s preservation efforts, research and outreach.
Sitting on nearly 900 scenic acres in Iowa’s driftless region, SSE’s Heritage Farm boasts apple orchards, flower gardens and more for visitors to explore and learn about the heirloom varietals that have been lovingly preserved.
And the work doesn’t stop at the seeds. As part of the organization's ongoing stewardship efforts, SSE seed historians also document the history and personal stories of the seed savers who contribute to the Heritage Farm’s collection.
From the "Rio Zape” beans that set Steve Sando off on a journey to start his own company to a 2,400-mile hitch-hiking journey in the 1970s, the personal stories behind the collection’s seeds span decades and generations. To seed savers, each plant is a memory, whether it's as profound and sprawling as a family’s immigration story or as acute and meaningful as biting into a favorite homegrown dish.
Ultimately, each seed is a piece of history that reflects the community that grew Seed Savers — and the community that continues the work to sustain it to this day.
Seed Savers approaches a major milestone
Huckfelt says that while supporting Seed Savers is a "no-brainer,” there’s a lot going on in his home state to be proud of.
"The fair-minded, accepting values of the Midwest that have been sort of battered lately are alive and well in Iowa.”
He points out how people banded together in his hometown of Spencer, which experienced catastrophic flooding over the summer, and how local musicians rallied to save the beloved Pomeroy music venue Byron’s.
“It makes me happy to see [Iowans] trying to save things that are valuable to us.”
And hundreds of Iowans showed up. Locals and plenty of people from out of town gathered with picnic blankets and lawn chairs to sit, sip local beer and cider and enjoy a solid lineup of live music in a place where you can still make out a faint outline of the Milky Way. The night was "magical,” as advertised, especially for those who looked up at the night sky long enough to catch some of the Perseid meteor shower.
Looking forward to next year’s concert, Huckfelt says they’re due to start planning soon, as 2025 will mark an important year for the Seed Savers Exchange.
“Mark my words, there will be a big event to celebrate 50 years of Seed Savers, and a big concert next year.”
Seed Savers Exchange is an underwriter of Iowa Public Radio.
