Seed-Saving Workshop for Beginners

Join Professor Patrick Bottiger, from Kenyon’s history department, in this FREE hands-on workshop. He will guide us through the process of seed saving from the initial act of planting, through cultivation, harvest, seed extraction, drying, and storage. We will practice extracting seeds from squash, tomatoes, corn, and other plants. Throughout the program, we will discuss the cultural and ecological significance of each stage. A seed-saving guidebook will be provided. Meet at the resource center. Short Bio: Patrick Bottiger studies the agricultural histories of Native North America through the cultivation of heirloom plots of corn, beans, squash, and sunflower. Each year, he plants and tends these varieties in historic plots not only as objects of study but as living archives of regenerative practices developed and sustained by Indigenous communities in early America. Central to this work is the ethic of return: every seed harvested is carefully dried, preserved, and deposited back into the seed bank from which it was borrowed, ensuring the continuity of both genetic lineages and cultural memory.