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CapitalPress.com
Friday, March 5, 2021
Siskiyou Seeds builds ‘Noah’s ark of agro-biodiversity’
By ALIYA HALL
For the Capital Press
At Siskiyou Seeds in Southern Ore-
gon, owner Don Tipping said they don’t
actually grow seeds, “We grow people.”
“We only farm about 10 acres ... and
we can only grow so much food, but
in seed, we magnify that out so much
greater,” he said. “Through our com-
pany we’re able to touch tens if not hun-
dreds of thousands of people to help
them grow better food and connect
them with family, their environment
and health.”
Although Siskiyou Seeds was estab-
lished in 2009, Tipping started growing
seed in 1996 when the farm was called
Seven Seeds Farm.
At the time, Tipping was producing
varieties for national-scale seed compa-
nies. Now they grow about half the seed
themselves and work with other organic
growers, offering a diverse selection of
vegetable, flower, grain and herb seed
that is open pollinated and grown using
biodynamic methods.
The transition to owning a seed com-
pany wasn’t intentional, Tipping said,
but when a friend who owned another
seed company died, he was given those
seeds.
“I got the seeds and realized what
a treasure trove it was,” he said. The
buckets contained 300 varieties of seed
that have been grown in Southern Ore-
gon since the ‘70s.
“There were things that worked for
this area. Not just anything will grow,
especially organic,” he said.
As a student of permaculture, he sees
ing with new crops and seeing how
they do here,” he said, adding that the
foodie culture has impacted this as well
because there are more opportunities to
grow more varieties of species.
Tipping’s interest in seeds started
with learning how to save seed, and he
still encourages his clients to save their
seeds, which is part of why open pol-
lination is so
Siskiyou Seeds
important. He
Don Tipping, center, talks about his
is also offering
operations. He is the owner of Sis-
seed cleaning
kiyou Seeds in Southern Oregon,
screens that
which was established in 2009.
they make on
the farm to
help people in that journey.
the farm as an ecosystem.
During the COVID-19 outbreak,
“The different categories (of seed) is Tipping has benefited from the increase
like having Noah’s ark of agro-biodiver- in gardening, with sales growing three
sity,” he said.
times from what they were the previ-
Tipping described his farm as a ous year. To help maintain this growth,
research and development facility, he is designing a job for managing
where they trial different crops to see social media and customer service.
“The direction moving forward
how they perform, because there isn’t a
long agricultural history in the area.
is nourishing,” he said. “It’s like put-
“We’re still in the pioneer phase ting compost down before you plant.
of learning what crops work for the You can’t harvest fruit until you plant
area. Every year we’re experiment- a tree.”
ON THE
COVER
Seed potatoes are
the main crop at Stein-
mann Farms near Ash-
ton, Idaho. For more on
the Steinmann operation,
go to Page 7. Photo cour-
tesy of Steinmann Farms.
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