8 Spring 2016 Applegater
Cowboy up!
BY SANSA COLLINS
There’s no denying Jerry Henning
is a cowboy. From his hat to his truck
to the border collie circling his ankles,
he’s country through and through.
Everybody knows Jerry. He has lived
in the Applegate Valley since 1974 and
is a vital part of the community. Jerry
serves on the mounted Josephine County
Sheriff ’s Posse, volunteering his time
and expertise to track down lost hikers.
Boy, can he tell you stories. Yeah, he’s a
little rough around the edges, but give
his heart a spit-shine and you’ll see it’s
made of gold.
In 2009, Jerry was hired as a
farmhand for Sanctuary One, the care
farm that has since grown into a vibrant
part of the Applegate Valley. Working
with the frugal budget of a responsible
nonprofit, he found new ways to reclaim
the term “Jerry-rig.” Did an 800-pound
rescue pig bust the gate latch? No
problem, Jerry can fix it. Are the Angora
goats rubbing their fuzzy butts on the
fence again? Don’t worry, Jerry knows
a guy who can hook us up with an old
street sweeper brush for them to rub
on instead. Need to unload thousands
of pounds of donated dog food stacked
Jerry Henning, farmhand at Sanctuary One
since 2009, is a role model for
at-risk youth who work at the farm
and also a Big Brother volunteer.
on pallets? Get Jerry on the tractor. If
you have a barn full of hay you’d like to
donate, just call us up and we’ll send him
on over. Just be sure to have a slice of pie
ready because this old cowboy’s sure got
a sweet tooth.
In addition to all the farm work,
Jerry serves as a mentor for the at-risk
youth who come to work at Sanctuary
One. Many of these kids have no positive
male role models in their lives, no one to
show them by example what good work
ethic is. Thanks to his time volunteering
with the Big Brother program, Jerry has
developed an easy, joking way with the
kids. The boys especially respond to his
example, soon vying to make him proud
with how many irrigation pipes they
can lay out or how many wheelbarrow
loads of compost they can shovel into
the garden. Even if they’re at the farm
for only a couple of hours, the kids will
leave with a positive memory of the time
they came out to Sanctuary One and
Jerry showed them how to “cowboy up.”
When you adopt a farm
animal from us, Jerry can often be
hired to transport your new animal to
you. Take a look at our website at www.
sanctuaryone.org to see all the fun, fuzzy
faces of our rescued alpacas, llamas,
horses, goats, sheep, ducks, chickens,
geese, cows, rabbits, and, of course, cats
and dogs. Like any reputable rescue, we
have a no-breeding policy to ensure that
we’re not adding to the overpopulation
problem. And it goes without saying
that our babies should never end up on
a plate. But if you just want some happy
hens to scratch around the farm or a pair
of goats to help keep the blackberries
at bay, we encourage you to consider
adopting a rescue animal. Every animal
adopted into a loving home opens up
space to rescue another, so when you
adopt one animal from us, you’re really
saving two animals.
Sanctuar y One boasts a
support base that is as varied as it
is passionate. We are thrilled to see so
many different types of people among
our staff, interns, volunteers, donors,
and visitors. We all have different diet
and lifestyle choices, but we can all agree
that the magic created at Sanctuary One
transcends differences and equalizes us
as human beings sharing the earth with
other creatures. You might be a rancher
or a vegan artist, a hippie mama, an
old cowboy like Jerry, or something in
between.
Whoever you are, we invite you
to visit the sanctuary. There is a place
for you here. You might be inspired to
volunteer, walk rescue dogs, or weed
in our gardens. You might fall in love
with one of our adoptable animals and
bring home a new horse or goat to your
farm. You might be moved to donate to
support our amazing work. Now is the
time to “cowboy up” and become a part
of Sanctuary One.
Sansa Collins
Animal Care Manager
Sanctuary One
541-899-8627
sansa@sanctuaryone.org
two years, more than 250 varieties from
more than 20 breeders have been pledged
to open source. These include seeds from
Williams breeder and seedsman Don
Tipping, at Seven Seeds Farm, and from
myself. More than 20 seed companies,
several based in Oregon, now offer Open
Source seeds.
The Open Source pledge says: “You
have the freedom to use these OSSI-
pledged seeds in any way you choose. In
return, you pledge not to restrict others’
use of these seeds or their derivatives by
patents or other means, and to include
this pledge with any transfer of
these seeds or their derivatives.”
Open Source seed is a new
choice for farmers and gardeners,
a choice where the grower once
again is in control. A list of Open
Source pledged seed and links to
seed companies that sell them can
be found on the Open Source
Seed Initiative website at www.
osseeds.org.
OSSI invites anyone
who has created a new variety
to pledge it to open source. It also
invites seed companies to partner in
promoting these unrestricted seeds, and
food producers, retailers, processors, and
restaurants to become food partners.
This is the OSSI alternative: seed
that is owned by the grower and cannot
be restricted. To learn more, visit the
Open Source Seed Initiative at www.
osseeds.org. When buying garden seeds,
look for the OSSI logo.
Jonathan Spero
Lupine Knoll Farm
spero.jonathan@gmail.com
Open Source Seed:
The past meets the future
BY JONATHAN SPERO
Not long ago, all seed was in the
public domain. If you bought seeds,
you owned them outright. No longer. In
recent decades, the balance between the
power of seed companies and the rights
of those who grow plants from the seeds
has shifted sharply against the grower.
In the 1980s it became legal
to patent seeds. Now, saving the seeds or
improving them with further breeding
becomes a crime. Taken together with
seed industry consolidation, this means
fewer choices for growers. A company
can buy, and remove from production,
a line that might compete with its
profitable line. The farmer, once the heart
of an independent society, is now at risk
of becoming only a cog in someone else’s
food system.
There is a new choice: the
Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI).
Instead of accepting restricted so-called
“intellectual property” (what makes life
intellectual property, anyway?), new
cultivars can now be pledged to open
source. Instead of accepting restricted
seeds, buyers can choose open source
seed varieties, which they own outright,
can save, resell or improve, and, at the
same time, support breeders and seed
companies committed to public access.
The concept of open source software
says that if you create coding, you can
“free” its use and commit it to be open
source. If you use a sequence of open
source coding in creating something new,
you owe no one, but you commit that
new software to likewise be available.
The “free” carries forward.
Applied to seed, if you use an
open source-pledged seed variety to
create something new, the new variety
must also be open to being freely used,
shared or improved by others. In less than