Strong Roots & Open Circle Seeds
by Ree Slocum
Surely you’ve had this experience: You’re out with friends and trying out some new foods. At first bite, your ability to listen to words falls away because your taste buds are bursting with exquisite flavors. Well, that experience is something that recently delighted me with one of Strong Roots’ Sharlyn melons. “It’s so sweet and juicy with undertones of pineapple and coconut,” farmer Sorren said, “People swoon!” I can attest to salivating for more once I tasted the beautiful, luscious fruit. The melon, like all the plants on the Strong Roots farm, is open-pollinated and carefully chosen. Besides being a favorite with the Strong Roots farmers, Gina and Sorren, the Sharlyn has become a local legend.
Gina began selling vegetable seeds from her Laytonville gardens fifteen years ago as Laughing Frog Seeds. Her style as a grower was permaculture-influenced, with curving raised beds and nary a straight row. Sorren spent 25+ years learning organic farming in far-flung locations, riding her tractor wherever she went. Her style is all about efficiency and production, and curving raised beds are not even imagined. When the two joined forces in 2014 on a farm that had grown only grass hay for decades, they began not only converting hay fields to food crops, but integrating market growing with seed production.
“It’s been a learning experience for both of us,” Gina says, adding that for her it’s been “a completely unlooked-for gift and an opportunity to do things on a larger scale.” For Sorren, adding the special requirements of seed propagation—isolation distances, extra time in the field—has been a logical next step and a welcome challenge. The partnership works, she says, because “we’re both passionate plant people.”
Sorren’s farm business, in all its locations, has always been called Strong Roots. Gina’s seed company changed names with the move to Potter Valley and is now Open Circle Seeds. In addition to produce sold around the county through the Mendo Lake Food Hub, Strong Roots runs a thriving business selling spring and fall garden starts at the Ukiah Co-op, Mariposa Market in Willits, and Weathertop Nursery in Laytonville. The farm still sells grass hay to customers who come to the farm for it. And everything is certified organic.
All this activity could be a chaotic jumble if the parts were all separate, but each informs the others.
Promising new varieties, like Huerfano Bliss orange honeydew melon, are grown to sell as starts. If they’re vigorous and fast-growing, they’re trialed in the field—often alongside other varieties for comparison, as Huerfano Bliss was in 2018 with a total of 20 melon varieties—and the fruit is sold as produce. Gina says incredulously, “Picture this—Sorren’s minimum for any variety is a hundred-foot row.” Sorren gives her a look that seems to say, “Well, that’s obvious.” If the variety proves to be delicious and productive, it’s grown for seed the next year in an isolated field at the back of the farm, as Huerfano Bliss was in 2019. Then the seeds grown on the farm are used for starts as well as for Open Circle Seeds. Even the hay plays a part. Over a hundred bales are used every year as mulch for garlic and onions, asparagus and artichokes.
Melons are definitely a theme at Strong Roots, and each variety grown for produce and for seed was chosen because it stood out for its fabulous taste combined with vigor, productivity, and resilience to climate stresses. “We found, as we got to know Potter Valley more, that it used to be known for its melons and watermelons and was a central point for melon and watermelon seed growing,” Gina says. Sorren adds, “So we’re trying to revive those traditions.” Some years they have a watermelon or melon tasting party where people choose their favorite. “Usually there’s no surprise as to the favorite. It’s frequently the one we chose, too,” Sorren says. Winners so far are Mountain Honey cantaloupe, Huerfano Bliss honeydew, and, of course, Sharlyn. Among watermelons, Crimson Sweet holds the #1 spot, with Early Moonbeam as the best yellow variety, and an orange heirloom called Sweet Siberian—a small apricot-colored watermelon with floral undertones to its sweetness—as the winner grown for seed in 2019.
Seed comes first at Strong Roots Farm, both in details—seed crop locations for the next year are planned first, and other crops fit in around their requirements—and in the big picture view. “Without seeds, we’ve got nothing,” Sorren says, “and just like everything else, the world of seed is in a dire situation.” Gina adds, “Over 90% of all the seed resources in the world are tied up in just three multi-national chemical companies. But it’s one of those rare things where ordinary people can make a huge difference. What could be more important than our food supply? And the most actual good you can do is go out and plant a garden.”
And pay attention to the source of your seed. “Seeds are the one aspect of agriculture few people think about,” Sorren says, “Even organic farmers often overlook where their seed comes from.” To be sustainable as the basis of our food supply, seeds need to be from open-pollinated varieties, meaning they can be grown true from seed year after year. Organic seed makes a difference, and Gina points out, “Organic seed produces plants with better built-in defenses against pests, and they’re better able to take up nutrients from the soil and air. Seeds grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides are adapted to need those inputs.” For even more garden success, look for locally adapted varieties like the ones offered by Open Circle Seeds, or use seeds you save yourself. “The truly amazing thing is how quickly plants adapt,” Gina enthuses. “They can make changes in their DNA in just one growing season,” Sorren elaborates. “We start with the best varieties we can find, and then every year we grow them they just get better adapted to our region.”
Potter Valley provides challenges that are perfect for adapting plants to the widening range of stressful conditions the changing climate presents. “We go for short-season varieties whenever we find them,” Sorren explains, “because those are the plants that jump out of the ground and grow fast, and we don’t know what the season will bring.” Recent years have included the 115-degree days of 2017, the 2018 summer of smoke, and 2019’s short colder season. Gina and Sorren have confidence that the plants they grow can meet the challenges and adapt to the changes. You can help grow a resilient local food system with your food choices—by planting your own garden with locally adapted seed, or simply by eating the produce of our local farmers.
Strong Roots sells their produce, starts, and seeds at the Ukiah Co-op and Mariposa Market in Willits. Their open-pollinated seeds are also available online at opencircleseeds.com. To find out more about seed saving, visit seedalliance.com
Ree Slocum is a fine art freelance photographer and writer who calls the edge of the wilds in Mendocino County “home.” She takes pleasure living with bird song, the breathing fog, and wildlife’s cast of characters when not on assignments. See her work at ReeSlocumPhotography.com.
