TUCSON — Hundreds of heirloom seed bundles were passed from hand to hand under the shade of mesquite trees Saturday morning at Mission Gardens, a four-acre living agricultural museum at the base of Sentinel Peak. Experienced gardeners and novices alike sifted through baskets or boxes containing packages of seeds and took them home to grow.
A highlight of the event were the Chinese heirloom seeds collected in a unique plot of Mission Gardens, which has been cultivated in Tucson for over 150 years.
The garden is operated by the nonprofit Friends of Tucson Birthplace, which launched the Chinese Garden in 2017 with the help of local residents and the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center. The group contacted local residents who tended small gardens or kept seeds inherited from their grandparents and sowed long beans, Chinese melons, eggplants, Chinese cabbage, radishes and luffa.
They have rescued and reproduced about 40 varieties, hoping the seeds will return to the community.
“We need to put them out there. That’s how we preserve them,” said Dena Cowan, curator of Mission Garden’s collections. These unique vegetable varieties are already adapted to the region, Cowan said, and the only way to ensure they don’t disappear is for more people to grow them and produce more seeds. she said.
Seeds have been passed down from generation to generation within families and communities. Mission Garden has already shared some of its heirloom seeds with school nurseries and volunteers, but this is the first time the group has publicly exchanged or donated seeds on a large scale, Cowan said. .
In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the garden partnered with the Pima County Seed Library to vibrio lotus To provide seed exchanges and gifts to the public and to share stories of Tucson’s Chinese gardening history and traditions. They also offered a wider variety of seeds, not necessarily from Asian vegetable and green varieties.
At the event, Mission Gardens received seed exchanges from some participants and donated 21 vegetable and cereal seeds to the Pima County Seed Library. The seeds will be listed in the library’s catalog and will eventually be available to all library patrons, said Jeff McWhorter, co-chair of the Pima County Seed Library.
The first gardens grew near the Santa Cruz River
The first Chinese National Treasure seeds were brought to Tucson in the late 1870s by families of wage laborers who came to work the mines of the Arizona Territory and the Southern Pacific Railroad. Many became merchants and farmers.
“At the time, there was no one growing vegetables on a regular basis, so they weren’t selling very well. Tom says. based architect and longtime board member of Mission Gardens.
Hue Thom said Tucson’s first Chinese garden was built on leased land next to the then-flowing Santa Cruz River, about half a mile from Mission Gardens.
Chinese grocery store It surged from the 1920s through the 1960s. The family had a vegetable garden behind the store and sold Chinese vegetables, greens and other produce to Mexican and British residents.
Something similar happened in Phoenix. Nancy, a 4th generation Chinese American, her Tom grew up in an area where she has five Chinese grocery stores just a few blocks away. She used to walk with her grandmother through different shops, where she traded her seeds and vegetables with each other. Both her grandmother and her mother grew gardens from heirloom seeds in addition to their day jobs.
“But the children in these shops grew up but didn’t continue gardening. They all became doctors, engineers, or not,” said Hue Thom. “It was done around the ’60s.”
Mission Garden wanted to grow a Chinese garden. The site has more than a dozen plots planted with a variety of vegetables, fruits, and grains that form the chronology of Tucson’s 4,000-year agricultural history, representing all the cultural and ethnic groups that have contributed to Tucson. I’m here.
In 2016, Tom and Nancy, who are also directors of the nonprofit, spearheaded efforts to restore and cultivate Chinese landraces.
“We reached out to many Chinese families who were here in Tucson to see what seeds were still there because many Chinese stopped gardening here,” said Nancy. Tom said.
They were particularly interested in cultivating these varieties so that they could educate the younger generations of Chinese heritage about food and gardening traditions. The efforts, garden clubs and cooking demonstrations are popular with the public.
“This is an opportunity to rekindle interest,” said Nancy Thom.
“Food is glue”
Biblio Lotus, the latest in the Pima County Public Library diverse Voice Group was founded two years ago after library staff and neighbors expressed a need to create spaces to better serve the Asian American community. The initiative was prompted by the discrimination and violence experienced by many locals in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to share our culture and celebrate the contributions of our community,” said Sharon Yang, librarian and president of Biblio Lotus. “We want children to learn about their ancestry.”
The group works to expand the library’s collections, focus on Asian-American authors, increase services and programs offered to members of the Asian heritage community, and partner with local organizations. increase.
Biblio Lotus has teamed up with Mission Gardens, the Seed Library, and the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center to create an eight-page booklet packaging Chinese heirloom seeds and recipes collected from Tucson families. In it, Mr. Yan posted a family recipe for stewed eggplant. The booklet also features recipes from librarians with Indian and Vietnamese traditions.
Biblio Lotus is committed to involving more partners from diverse communities in Asia. Pima County’s Asian population stood at 31,367 in 2020, not including those claiming to be biracial or multiracial.
“Public libraries are for the whole community, and there are diverse people living here,” Yang said. “The Asian community is part of the community.”
Musician Lee Schmidt of the Jasmine Asian Music Ensemble, who performed with colleague Nan Lang at Saturday’s event, said food culture and traditions are also ways to highlight “commonality.” She remembered a Thanksgiving dinner where they shared food from 12 countries.
“Food feels like glue,” she said. “Cultural background is the richness of human beings.
Sharing and sowing seeds is a matter of ‘survival’
Mission Garden not only sells Chinese heirloom seeds, but also climate-adapted local varieties that the group has cared for over the years, including Tarahumara chickpeas, Odum pink beans, Magdalena coriander, low-water arugula and blue corn. donated to the public library.
This donation added to the Pima County Seed Library’s catalog of over 200 open-pollinated and heirloom seeds, established nearly 11 years ago. There are 19 libraries in the county that operate the program and allow library patrons to check out seeds.
Users do not have to return seeds after sowing, growing and harvesting, but about 30% do. The program has been so popular that from January through April he said more than 28,000 seed packages were checked out from public libraries, McWhorter said.
The library also created large gardens at nine library locations to begin planting and producing seeds for the catalog.
“Seeds are living things and need to be planted, nurtured and re-harvested. Just sitting on a shelf does no good to anyone,” McWhorter said.
Kelly Wilson, Pima County librarian and one of the program’s founders, said the importance of preserving traditional foods and seeds transcends culture. It’s about ensuring food that grows well in changing climates.
“I think we rest on the laurels of the people and cultures that came before us and took the time and effort to select, grow and adapt to this environment,” Wilson said. He added that what worked well for past generations will continue to do so. It won’t work if the climate changes dramatically in the future.
“The environment is changing and it really is now up to us to continue to nurture the seeds to continue that success.
In her view, seed production by big agricultural companies is focused on what works to produce the vast amounts of food we eat today, but “the genetic It will narrow the “representation” and will not be able to adapt to modern society like a family heirloom. Future tasks.
“For me, seed sharing, seed farming, experimentation, all these things are very important for human survival,” Wilson said.
Clara Migoya covers environmental issues for the Republic of Arizona and As Central.Send your tips and questions to clara.migoya@arizonarepublic.com.
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