A wondrous family heirloom was unearthed amongst mounds of dust-covered boxes in storage. To our sheer delight, it is my father’s mother’s father’s handmade box of seeds. I don’t know much about our family history, but I think I would have liked this guy. As a child I was rocked in the creakiest of rocking chairs – a chair that still sits in our living room – which I only as an adult learned was also handmade and carved by this man. But this box has to be the ultimate treasure.
Beautifully carved, with a simple latch, and lined with green velvet, this mysterious box houses almost two-hundred small glass vials, each with its own hand-carved cork stopper and almost illegible handwritten label. It contains many familiar seeds- cucumber, musk melon, apple, lilac, radish, turnip, lettuce, beet, evening primrose, barley, wheat, aster, and pumpkin- but also contains some more curious ones, like “yellow locust”, “bidens”, “bladder campion”, “blue bur”, “mullein”, “hound’s tongue bur”, “curled dock”, and “chess”. There are dozens that I might need a degree in botany to figure out, and/or someone who can decipher this man’s writing! (If you happen to be reading this and are a master gardener/botanist/historian of curious seeds, please contact us!!!)
My best guess is that this box dates back to possibly the 1930s, maybe even earlier. It seems an appropriate finding for our century-old farm, and certainly is a relic we’ll always treasure! But now… to see if any of these seeds might be viable!
-Rebecca
What an interesting find! I can help you out with a few of the ones you’ve listed. Bladder campion, mullein and curled dock are weeds native to Asia and Europe, but are fairly widespread in North America. The young leaves on curled dock are edible and high in vitamin C. Still, I wouldn’t recommend trying to propagate those particular species, they’re considered invasive.
Looks like your ancestor was quite a collector!
I can identify most of the plants you listed. I’m willing to guess that chess is actually cress. 🙂 You can email me if you’d like me to help you figure out some more. Bay
I would consider contacting the World Seed Bank in Norway for advise. It is a treasure.
What an amazing find and great link to your history!
Wow! What a find! Quite possibly a cure for mutated seeds, food insecurity. And medicines. There are seed vaults all over Canada but your ancestors saved the grandadies of them all.
That is so beautiful~ so meaningful! So useful! Keep us updated!
Please post the entire list. This would be the perfect thing to crowd source information for.
I for one would love to come back and see what you’ve learned!
(Post read from Kingston Memorial Center Farmer’s Market Facebook page)
It would be wonderful if you cold post the whole list or clear pics of the bottles so that we could try to help you decipher the names!
Hello again, it is Kate again in Ottawa. Also closer to you is the Heritage Seed Sanctuary in Kingston Ontario. And there is an event soon, called Seedy Saturday in Kingston on March 11 at the LCVI high school,. The place will be full of seed savers – people who really know how to take care of and ‘ rescue/ resusictate old old varieties like those you have found. I will be at Seedy Saturday representing my work at USC and also Seeds of Diversity. Maybe you can stop by and bring this amazing thing you have found. – kate
The botany department at University of Guelph would be fascinated by this collection.
What a treasure indeed. You have received an amazing gift to treasure and to discover.
Wow, what an amazing find.
Hi, my name is Lyne Bellemare and I work for Seeds of Diversity. If you would like, we could make test on those seeds and we could write the story about it (sorry for my English, I’m french speaking).
see our website http://www.seeds.ca
Thanks!
Newly minted seed saver here hopes that these seeds are viable. That old treasure could revive some “lost” varieties.
What a gold mine in deed! Fortunate that you found this wonderful treasure! It makes me think of Vandana Shiva and her passion for seeds. Are you familiar with her? This treasure box of seeds is a wonderful family heirloom in more ways than one!
You may find this article from Michigan State University interesting:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-worlds-longestrunning-experiment-is-buried-in-a-secret-spot-in-michigan
I recognize some of the plants you list. Bidens is “beggar tick”, a kind of sunflower-like plant with seeds that have two barbed spikes and which like to get into animal fur (or your clothes). Mullein is an invasive plant in North America (there are a couple of species moth mullein and common mullein). Curled dock is a relative of rhubarb. Probably most of your “curious” seeds are from plants which have real or reputed medicinal or edible uses. If you’re having trouble with the handwriting, “Chess” could be a grass by that name, or “Cress” a mustard relative, or “Cheeses”, a mallow relative. Probably most of the rest could be found in Wikipedia, or tracked down with a google search.
Moth mullien, by the way figures prominently in the experiment described in the link above.