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Post by pugs on Feb 11, 2009 22:27:14 GMT -5
I haven't had a chance to look through it yet.
Listed members are down to 690.
If anyone wants me to check for something, let me know.
Pugs
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Post by flowerpower on Feb 12, 2009 6:17:11 GMT -5
Is 690 alot lower than previous yrs?
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Post by pugs on Feb 12, 2009 12:55:35 GMT -5
FP,
You have to go back to 1987 to find a lower number, 628. Every year since 1996 the number of listing member has gone down.
Here are the number since 2000:
2000 - 904
2001 - 900
2002 - 835
2003 - 814
2004 - 807
2005 - 801
2006 - 756
2007 - 726
2008 - 716
2009 - 690
But the number of unique offerings has generally gone up; this year there is 13,263, down 13 from last year.
Pugs
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Post by macmex on Feb 12, 2009 15:10:52 GMT -5
Personally, as a member, I'm not very concerned. There was a time that many seemed to join just to use the yearbook like a seed catalog. Now the SSE has come out with a catalog which seems to make everyone happy without having to pay the high price for membership.
My yearbook was waiting for me when I got back from Mexico Saturday night. I don't know how long it had been waiting. Every year, when I first get my yearbook, I immediately start thumbing through it... and looking to see how many things I've sent out are being re-offered. That's really my main motivation for membership, to get the rare varieties I grow into others' hands.
George
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Post by paquebot on Feb 12, 2009 20:22:56 GMT -5
Looks like a problem this year is missing listings. Two listed members complained that some of their tomatoes were missing. Figured that they simply forgot to list them. Then started looking for mine and the first 2 were missing! Oh well!
Martin
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Feb 12, 2009 21:04:57 GMT -5
And they are probably the varieties you have the most of to offer, right?
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Post by sandbar on Feb 12, 2009 22:25:57 GMT -5
Looks like a problem this year is missing listings. Two listed members complained that some of their tomatoes were missing. Figured that they simply forgot to list them. Then started looking for mine and the first 2 were missing! Oh well! Martin Hi Martin, Just received my yearbook today and looked up Wisconsin 55 to see if you had it listed (of course, you do). I just joined SSE a few weeks ago primarily to support SSE's efforts to preserve our genetic heritage. Obviously, a great side benefit is the ability to gain access to varieties unavailable in the commercial market and to support the efforts of growers like you working to maintain valuable varieties. I hope to save enough seed this year to begin listing varieties, too. In figuring out how to order from folks, I noticed that your address listing notes that you have 174 tomatoes up for offer. Is there a way I could obtain a complete list of what you have to offer? I don't want to order just one packet from you ... I would like to have an assortment. ;D And, I would also like to know what your favorites are ... that might help narrow my choices down. If this isn't possible, that's OK, I know you have a lot going on with helping your wife get her life back to normal. Just let me know one way or the other and I'll send off my order to you for the Wisconsin 55 and anything else that I can find by scouring the yearbook. Thanks, Steve. PS: I hope and pray your wife continues to improve. Glad to hear the good report recently. I will continue to pray for her (and you, I know it's a strain on you, too) and watch for updates in the forums here. Please give her my best regards. |
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Post by alkapuler on Feb 13, 2009 1:14:05 GMT -5
-the SSE Grower's Network has become the orphan child of the organization it founded
-having been established to promote a decentralized conservation of heirloom flowers, food plants, medicinals and herbs, it has become the custodian of a huge seed collection, and become engaged in the sale of seeds as a major activity
-extending and developing the vision and direction of the grower's network, the core of the SSE, is up to members, contributors and basically those interested in extending the range of interests from predominantly anglo-european based food plants to the undeveloped foodplants local to our northamerican ecosystems that were used by the native amerindians before the immigrants arrived
-from sea to shining sea, from ecosystem to ecosystem, from valleys to the mountains, from deserts to the rainforests, there are species worthy of development, worthy of inclusion in the SSE, and worthy of engagement by talented, curious, active gardeners who are interested in more than the repetitive offerings of tomatoes, curcurbits and solanums
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Post by canadamike on Feb 13, 2009 1:25:09 GMT -5
I think our european friends here, starting with Frank ( Orflo) and then many others have done a tremendous job at opening our eyes to our own ( and other's) native food plants. And other tastes in the usual families too.... Cheers to them!  |
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Post by orflo on Feb 13, 2009 1:52:18 GMT -5
Michel,
the credit goes to everyone, all people who preserved local foods, local varieties, people collecting them, people publishing things on these foods, and so on...
Alan, you've got the point, the SSE has drifted away from the original point of view, I see little interest fom their side in preserving really old or uncommon edibles, whether these are peppers or scandix pecten-veneris (which they didn't list this year, claiming it's a herb, and still they list parsley, chervil,...).
The smaller Arche Noah, based in Austria, does a better job (it could still be better, but that's another point) promoting these nearly-lost varieties. Part of the problem is mentioned here: Arche Noah is smaller, they have more contact with the base, their members. They didn't go for commercial activities the way SSE does, no direcrtor's board based on people with fancy titles and probably to occupied to be really involved. We should in fact create some sort of edible plants preservation centre of our own...
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Post by canadamike on Feb 13, 2009 1:56:51 GMT -5
I think we are Frank, but just not calling it that way. we are one databank away from a perfect one I think... As for Arche Noah, I just can't read it...  I tried the translators, they write good jokes  |
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Post by PatrickW on Feb 13, 2009 12:15:03 GMT -5
My biggest problem with the SSE is their reluctance to make use of technology. I understand many members are unable to effectively make use of computers, and I'm not suggesting making fundamental changes that would leave out these people, but they could really do a lot more to make their resources more accessible to a wider audience at a more reasonable price. It's a constant irritation for me, for example, that I have to pay US$55 for an overseas membership, solely because that's the cost of mailing the printed membership materials to me. Because of delays in international mail, I generally don't get the yearbook until March 1st or so, and I have pretty much no chance of getting any seeds until April or so, too late to start most things indoors. Why in this day and age of people sending emails and chatting with each other on Facebook, can't I get an electronic version of the membership materials emailed or made available for download, and a corresponding discount in the member dues? An electronic version could have other benefits, for example now it's very time consuming to search through the listings in certain ways. For example if I want to search all varieties and look for those with 'Amsterdam' in the name or description, it's just not possible. It's not even possible to do this effectively on their online version of the yearbook ( yearbook.seedsavers.org ). An electronic version might also be updated in real time as varieties become available, allowing among other things for everyone to see some of their listings were dropped, while there was still time to do something about it. They could also save themselves a lot of trouble be allowing people the possibility to enter their offerings in online. I for one would be much more willing to offer more things. Because I'm an overseas listed member, I'm reluctant to offer very much because I never get any requests for seeds, and the overhead of writing everything on paper, sending it in the mail and someone else typing it in is just too ridiculous for the couple of things I might end up sending out every year. Times are changing, and with the Internet the SSE no longer has a monopoly on trading valuable seeds. The SSE is also asking a lot of money for something that can be done nearly for free in other ways. I think they really need to find a way of reinventing themselves and what they offer, and I'm afraid they just missed a valuable opportunity in picking a new president. I don't know that deVault is really going to be the one to embrace the change that needs to take place for it to survive. |
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Post by paquebot on Feb 13, 2009 13:45:33 GMT -5
In figuring out how to order from folks, I noticed that your address listing notes that you have 174 tomatoes up for offer. Is there a way I could obtain a complete list of what you have to offer? I don't want to order just one packet from you ... I would like to have an assortment. ;D Since you know the code, find all of the WI LO M varieties listed. Most will have the same identical descriptions used by IA SSE HF. That is, nothing. Look for WI LO M - HAS to find them. Or, contact me with e-mail address and I will reply with a complete list. Also remember the bargain pricing of $2 for listed or non-listed members alike plus the previously unheard of 6 for $10. Martin |
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Post by grunt on Feb 13, 2009 16:47:12 GMT -5
Michel: You aren't kidding, you really are a "homo sapiens computausorus canadensis ". I did a google search for Arche Noah, and the second listing is www.arche-noah.at/etomite/index.php?id=52 , which is the english version of the site. (sorry michel, just couldn't resist. Val says I didn't try very hard either). |
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Post by alkapuler on Feb 13, 2009 17:29:15 GMT -5
-wonderful, its time to take back the SSE Grower's Network by putting it on the web
-choosing to print out the huge book, or paying for someone to do it is up to each one of us, while looking at it online, editing our listings as they happen, changes the process from a static, once a year, to a dynamic, any and all times, phenomenon
-and it doesn't need to have fees or dues
-this year, there are 200 pages (ca 6000) of tomatoes
-few folks provide seeds for umbels, brassicas, other biennials
-local native food plants are ignored, undeveloped
-folks who get seeds from the network rarely reoffer them
-the taxonomic ordering of the listings is alphabetical, superficial and silly
-there is a world flora and a well organized view of all the plants called APGII
-by seeing the individuals in the whole, we see patterns of manifestation, and the places where we need to broaden our collections, develop deeper resolve to interact organism with ecosystem, garden with the biosphere
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