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Native Seeds/SEARCH

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What is Native Seeds/SEARCH

Native Seeds/SEARCH is a nonprofit organization based in Tucson, Arizona whose mission is to conserve, distribute, and document the adapted and diverse varieties of agricultural seeds, their wild relatives and the role these seeds play in cultures of the American Southwest and Northwest Mexico.

Contents at a Glance

Saving Seeds
Native Seeds/SEARCH humble beginnings to...
Native Seeds pots
Saving Seeds
Doomsday Seed Bank
Annual Tastes of the Desert

Native Seeds/SEARCH humble beginnings to huge success

I first learned about Native Seeds/SEARCH in the early '90s when they were based in a back room of the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Back then, they were a fledging seed bank, gathering native seeds from local native farmers who were trying to restore their traditional farming practices.
It was just a few years earlier in 1983 when the four founders, Gary Paul Nabhan, Barney Burns, Mahina Drees and Karen Reichhardt pulled money out of their own pockets to start the organization.

The seed bank back then consisted of glass mayonnaise and salsa jars filled with a handful of native seeds brought in by neighboring native farmers. Little slips of paper inside the jars inventoried species and source of the seeds. Fairly primitive but it worked.

Now over twenty-five years later, Native Seeds has it's own retail store featuring not only a great inventory of seeds from at least seventeen different tribes, beautiful gift baskets containing a variety native food products, amazing Tarahumaran baskets and bowls and Pascola masks of the Mayo.

Their list of services is long, ranging from operating the seed bank which contains over 2,000 varieties from Southwest tribes. Many of these seeds many be uniquely banked with Native Seeds/SEARCH because of the unique cultural and spiritual significance they hold for the Native tribes.

Traditionally, saving seeds was considered a very high honor and was usually reserved for tribal elders and medicine people. Today, Native Seeds/SEARCH fulfills that role while at the same time educating tribal people about the value of their native diets and agricultural traditions.

According to NS/S Director of Conservation Suzanne Nelson, "Many of NS/S's collections may not be represented in international gene banks, such as the newly opened "Doomsday Vault' in Svaalbard, Norway, which makes the collection that much more unique and important.

NS/S was also the organization that was behind the research that rediscovered the relationship between desert plants and diabetes that I wrote about in
my lense on native foods.

In addition to their growing seed bank and heirloom garden, Native Seeds also runs an Native American outreach which supplies Southwest tribal families with free seeds so that they can reintroduce these important crops into their communities diets. NS/S runs the Cultural Memory Bank Project and a website/online store.

Native Seeds pots

Saving Seeds

Doomsday Seed Bank

Doomsday Seed Vault: Along with the Doomsday Vault, I'm adding emergency and survival supplies for you to check out here.
Doomsday Vault: A seed vault containing millions of different seeds from around the world. Situated deep within an arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is perhaps mankind's last hope to avert world famine.: The Svalbard International Seed Vault (coined Doomsday Vault) will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change.'An insurance policy' and 'Th
The Doomsday Vault : Open-for-Business: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault aka the Doomsday Vault is an official project of Norway to house and protect millions of seeds in an Arctic warehouse, just in case the world comes to an end......and the only survivor is Will Smith, and he is hungry enough to start a garden...(Sorry, wrong movie.)This

Annual Tastes of the Desert

In Native American communities the love of gatherings, music and food is synonymous with our culture.

Every year, Native Seeds/SEARCH hosts a huge banquet and cook-off featuring the products of their passions; the foods and spices of the southwest desert.

The event, which gathers chile lovers from all over the country, serves as a primary fundraiser and also a chance for community members, gardeners and cooks to come together to experience the sensational blends of traditional southwest foods.

Native Seeds also hosts smaller events regularly such as the favorite Chiles and Chocolate, which allows customers to try on new tastes and baking mixes that they sell in their retail store.

Frequently, James Beard Award Winning Chef, Janos Wilder, will also stop by the 4th Street Store there in Tucson to give lessons on using local, native foods. What an opportunity to learn first hand some of the secrets to really making those chile dishes sizzle. You can pJano's cookbooks at this site www.janos.com

Squidoo Southwest Cooking Challenge

2008 Tastes of the Desert Menu

I have no idea what the recipes to these dishes are. If you like to cook, and are good at it, and you love Southwest cooking, I'd like to challenge you.

Below is the menu from the 2008 Tastes of the Desert banquet.

Pick a menu item, sign up under the menu item with your squidoo lensmaster id and then get to cooking.

Experiment making your own perfected version of the recipe and we'll publish all the recipes under another lense. You might even create your own lense sharing your secrets.

Take plenty of pictures of you preparing your meal and your finished dish and include them in your lense or Contact Me and I'll get them onto the contest lense.

With family coming for holidays, this is a great time to try some warming Southwest dishes.

The only rules:

1. Must be YOUR recipe, it can be based on someone else's but you must make it original in some way.

2. The primary foods must be native foods and reflect a Southwest style of cuisine.

3. You must be a Squidoo member. If you're not already a lensmaster, destiny awaits you and it's free. You can do that here.

Sound fun? Let's do it! Ready, Set, Go!
Good Luck! You can also go to the Tastes of the Desert lenseand learn more!

Native Seeds/SEARCH

What is Native Seeds/SEARCH

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Saving Seeds

Native Seeds/SEARCH humble beginnings to huge success

Native Seeds pots

Saving Seeds

Doomsday Seed Bank

Annual Tastes of the Desert

Squidoo Southwest Cooking Challenge

2008 Tastes of the Desert Menu

1

Southwest Caesar Salad with Cornbread Croutons

2

Pueblo Red Chile Stew

3

Spicy Tepary Bean Ravioli with Corn and Chile Cream Sauce

4

Chile Rubbed Brisket of Bison Braised in Mole Dulce

5

Blue Cornmeal Dusted Grilled Trout with Red Chiles and Garlic

6

Mesquite Grilled Chicken Breasts in Poblano Sauce

7

Savory Amaranth Cakes with Wild Mushroom Sauce

8

Chocolate, Ancho Chile and Almond Tart

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

Southwest Cookbooks to inspire you

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Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

Super Native Foods

sustaining, nurturing and healing with native foods

Love the feedback, please share your ideas and opinions are very much appreciated.

Way beyond green

by gbenton789

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