
Friday Apr 11, 2025
Seeds To Savor
Today I'm talking with Annie at Seeds To Savor. You can follow on Facebook as well.
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You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters, and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free-to-use farm-to-table platform emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups, and help us grow a new food system. You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe.
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share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Annie at Seeds to Save Her Farm and she's in Colorado. Good morning, Annie. How are you? Good morning, Mary. It's so nice to be here. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming. I love it when the people I invite have time to talk with me. It's really great. What's the weather like in Colorado this morning? Oh, it's a gorgeous day today. Yeah. We're like, we're at, I think we're going to get up to like 65. So just, it's perfect.
00:59
Nice. It's always sunny here. Well, that's awesome. It's only going to get up to like 30 here today. Where are you, Mary? Minnesota. Minnesota. Okay. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's really sunny, but it's windy and it's cold. The news, the good news is that the weather guy says that's going to warm up on Wednesday and we're just going to keep warming up until we get to like, you know,
01:24
reasonable April, end of April temperatures for Minnesota, which is 50s, 60s for the highs. Yeah. Yeah. In here, it's like we can get snow. We had a blizzard on Mother's Day three years in a row. And so we're like, I'm sure you're the same there, right? So you're covering your blossoms, right? So the apple trees are in full bloom, the plums are in full bloom, the peaches are in full bloom, and then along comes a blizzard.
01:53
We honestly, I've lived here for over 30 years and I have not seen snow, real snow in May, but I've seen heavy frost in May and that's what does in our blossoms. we keep our fingers and toes crossed in May that it does not frost. So, okay, so tell me about yourself and what you do and I know you do a whole bunch of stuff so start wherever you would like. I always tell people I've worn a lot of hats.
02:22
Um, yeah, I do a whole bunch of stuff. So I am a cookbook author, I guess we'll start with that. I have two cookbooks out. The first one is called, um, where Fino's happy heart. Um, and it is a collection. if in Colorado are, um, the iconic ingredient, um, the state food is green chili. And if you know Colorado, um, it is a, it's a.
02:53
very regional thing. We and it's in Colorado and New Mexico. So Hatch of course is like most people are familiar with. But there's always this like very friendly rivalry between Colorado and New Mexico who has the better green chili. I'm not going to say who I think. My green chili is the best. So there you go. My husband is indigenous to Colorado. And so he always talks about growing up with green chili, but you know simmering on the back stove all the time, always.
03:23
So that was kind of a passion project and I had a grant. I went down to do work with a senior center and I collected stories and recipes and we created that cookbook. So that's where that came from and it's a lot of fun. About a year after I published my first cookbook, I was diagnosed with celiac disease. that was actually in the spring of 2023.
03:53
And I had lost my best friend who I like, she was my friend since I was like, you know, a kid. She was, and she, and then six days later, my sister died from a fall, complications from a fall. And then three weeks later, I was diagnosed with celiac disease when I was in first place in a national cooking competition. So it was like, was, was flattening.
04:23
Literally flattening. And when I was able to finally look up again, I realized that I was really, I guess I found gratitude. And I realized that I was really fortunate that I was able to handle food. I know how to cook food. I grew up in Ogallala, Nebraska.
04:50
Heartland of America and the agriculture, agricultural. So food has always been just a part of my life, right? So like my mother was an amazing cook. actually known as an amazing cook. We did all the entertaining and all those things. So when I realized that I was a, know, that I felt fortunate about what I can do,
05:19
I felt like I could help other people. I kept seeing people say like, it's hard to navigate a truly gluten-free lifestyle. Like with celiac disease, you can't have any gluten at all. That means cross-contamination. That means like you can't have a burger grilled on a grill where they've grilled a bun. Or, you I mean, you can't eat in certain restaurants. It's a lot. And as a food writer, for me, it was identity loosening. Like I felt like I'd lost my identity and I...
05:48
didn't quite know, you I was like, what do do now? So I wrote my book, my cookbook, took me about a little over a year and that is simply, it's called Simply Gluten Free, Real Ingredients for Everyday Life. And it's really about, it's very, it's probably the way that your audience cooks. It would be the way that your listeners cook, that us homesteaders are like, we're like back to nature people, right?
06:17
So we cook from real ingredients. We don't use a lot of processed foods. But that's not how a lot of people cook. And a lot of people don't know how to cook. I felt like that was something like my homesteading background, my agricultural background, my food background, all were ways that I could help people navigate this world of living gluten-free because it's very, very, it's very much harder than I think people realize.
06:44
And celiac disease is life-threatening. it's not, you know, it's, can't, it's, you just can't cross the line ever. So that's what, that's what I, I guess that's my current, my, my current self. We do our farm is seeds to savor farm. We do seed preservation work here. So.
07:11
I guess I can, tell you how we got into that. How I got into running. Yeah, so I taught middle school in Aurora, Colorado for a little over a decade. And I took my students to Washington, DC. That was one of our things that we would do. And I would take them to, it was May.
07:37
And we would go to Mount Vernon, which is the home of George Washington. And I was an American history teacher also. So that was what I did in one of my lives. we, in May, Mount Vernon, the docents in Mount Vernon are doing their seed and plant sale. And I was completely
08:06
captivated by the thought of taking seeds from there and bringing them back to my home and growing those seeds in my home. And I just thought that was the most amazing thing. So I started really getting diving in deeper and started collecting seeds from historically significant people and places. So I had seeds from Van Gogh's garden and I have seeds from Georgia O'Keeffe's garden and
08:35
Shakespeare, the Anthos from the Shakespearean garden. And that just really captivated me. But when I started digging deeper, I realized that as lovely as that is, our seed security and our seed diversity has decreased by something 90%. I regularly see 80 % in the last 100 years.
09:06
So what came clear to me was that we were really at risk of having a monoculture environment for all of our produce and the risk of losing our seed heritage. So I actually watched a documentary called Seeds, the Untold Story and the only place I know of to get it is Amazon.
09:36
And not everybody's doing that right now. But I'm not the only person I know to get it. they interview one of the people that they interviewed talked about like the seed vault in, you know, up in Svalbard. I think that's right, Norway. And just the risks to our seed diversity to losing these all these this, you know, varieties of seeds and our heritage. So
10:06
One of the people that they interviewed was Bill McDormand and he and his wife, Belle, are the founders of the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance. And I was like, these are my people. I need to talk to them. So I reached out to them and they invited me to attend, they have a seed school that they do. And it's a week long intensive.
10:34
about seed preservation and how to save seeds and how to start them and the importance of us preserving and growing seeds outside of what you buy in a big box store packaged by Monsanto or Bayer, guess. And so we learned a lot and then my husband my husband did the class too and we
11:03
have gone out into the community to teach how to save seeds. And we start with seeds that aren't easily crossed, like lettuce and beans, because they're self-pollinators. So that's usually where we start. we donated to seed libraries.
11:34
That's the work we do with seed preservation. Nice. Okay. All right. So I have a couple of questions out of all of that because that's what I do. the books, it's High Prairie Press, right? Yes. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Is that your publishing company? It is. So my degree is in English and I taught
12:03
reading, writing for years. my end, when I was a teenager living in Ogallala, Nebraska, my dream was to be publisher. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to New York and I was going to work with Big Five and I was going to be a And that's not how life worked. really, you know, I was just recently attended a big publishing summit, the Women in Publishing Summit, which is attracts like all the public, you know.
12:32
Everybody's there, Ingram and Lulu. I've been going to this for a few years. So I like, feel like I have sort of an identity crisis right now because I'm like, you know, an author and a cookbook and all of that, which kind of happened almost just by accident, to be perfectly honest. And then I'm also doing have a publishing company, which was my dream, which has been my dream my whole life.
12:59
Um, which I love and I love, you know, being a writer and a publisher. I love that. And my, and high prairie press was really the fulfillment of a dream. When I started, when I was, so what I was planning on doing at that, um, let's say in 2023, when I, when I was telling you about the spring of 2023, was literally on my way to meet with a chef who wanted me to publish his cookbook here in Denver. And so I was.
13:27
driving and my brother-in-law called and he said, you need to come and you need to come right now. So I dropped that clearly. that didn't happen. So my life went in very different direction after that. I was talking to the women in my publishing summit and some of my colleagues who are publishers and kind of dealing with this out there
13:56
you know, talking about the books, talking about the cookbooks, which is great. And I love that. I love that was able to, you know, the cookbook has been a great thing, but my heart is in publishing and your audience is actually who I want to publish what I want to publish. And I was offered, I was offered to be an imprint for a publishing company in Colorado Springs. And it was a tough one to, I actually ended up turning it down because
14:23
I was like, no, I want to be my own. I want to do this. I want it to be my publishing company. But what I want to publish is exactly what your listeners do. Books about seed saving, books about homesteading, books about canning, books about food in general, preservation, growing, all of that. That's the information that food security, that...
14:51
I worked a lot in food security because I taught eighth grade in an impoverished, well, seventh and eighth grade, but I taught middle school in an area with a lot of poverty and the symptoms of poverty. so I just kept food in my cupboard for my kids. They needed food. If you don't eat, you can't learn. And food producers are the base of our...
15:20
our existence, right? Like we know that. And food security is so important. So that's what I want to publish actually. I love that I did the cookbook. I love being an author. I love her. I'm a writer. Like that's what I've always been. So that fits. But really my heart is in getting that information out to people, you know? How to do it. Yeah. So my next question is...
15:48
Are they paperback books that you put out? are they, how are you doing it? Is it digital? Is it hardcover? What is it? Sure. Yes. I love talking about publishing. Me too. Love talking about publishing. I loved your interview with the editor of... it Hoving? Yes, I loved that. I was like, oh yes, I hear you. I feel you.
16:18
Okay, so, um, my books were both designed in Canva. Okay. They tell you, you can't do that. And I said, hold my beer. And, you know, and actually, I said, hold my cider, because I can't drink beer anymore. The thing I get back the most is how beautiful they are, because I'm an artist, apart. And so that's, that's everything I do, I infuse with art. So it's, it's, the books are beautiful. They're beautiful.
16:49
Um
16:51
We go through, so, you know, okay, so all of my colleagues, all of my publishing colleagues all say the same thing, like, you know, at the publishing summit in March, which if you're interested in publishing, you should certainly attend the Women in Publishing Summit run by Alexa Big Wharf. She's the person in publishing right now. And we go through Ingram. so you can really, Ingram has like,
17:19
So Ingram has been the public printer and distributor of books forever. They are it. When I man, I was a manager for Walden Books. If any of you remember Walden Books. I do. Way back when, right? I worked for Walden Books when I lived in San Diego in the eighties. And right down the road was an Ingram warehouse. They, because, know, like San Diego shipping, right?
17:49
Yeah. Huge warehouse. They were the printer, the printer and distributor in the world then in the eighties. Well established. They are still it. And we had a lot of conversation about that at the summit, right? Like, so it's like, they're expensive. Like that's part of the issue is that they're expensive. You can do almost any trim size with Ingram and you can do...
18:17
you can do pretty much any, you know, can do hardback and then you have paper weights that you can choose from. In fact, when I first finished, when I first did the, cookbook, I chose 50 pound paper and it was too light weight for a cookbook. Like you want your pages to have some substance in a cookbook, right? Cause you're going to set a spoon on it or whatever. So I, that didn't work. And I went back and did a, did a higher paperweight and it's so much better.
18:47
Um, we can do anything. We can do eBooks, paperback, hardback, any trim size. Um, we do go through Ingram. If you don't go through Ingram at some point, you will not be ordered in bookstores or gift stores because they all go through Ingram. That's a problem, right? I mean, clearly, but it is what it is. Like we have to work with that. all of what I, I guess what I was, what I was started to say earlier, but didn't finish is that
19:16
all of my colleagues, you know, we're all like, the world of publishing right now is the wild, wild west. It is a, pardon my language, shit show at the moment. And that's good and bad. we, you know, go ahead. No, you had something to say, Mary. No, just said, mm-hmm. And the reason it's a shit show is because there are so many ways to get a book out to people now.
19:45
I mean, and it's going, the reality is, and I've always said this, the cream rises to this top, right? Like that's not gonna change. And there are things that aren't gonna change as far as like, you you can't replace heart, right? You can't replace that with like AI or with, you can't do that. And that's a whole, right? Like that's a whole world. But yeah, it is. And it's been going on for, you know, it's been going on for almost 20 years, like really the upheaval.
20:14
I would say 15 maybe in publishing and who knows when the dust will settle. But for now, know, we as publishers and through, you know, women in publishing and through our, you know, I have a, in fact, I have a workshop directly following this interview. am doing a workshop with Alexa. It's, you know, we're, we're, we're together. We're banding together. We're learning. We're uplifting each other.
20:42
We're helping each other. I love that community. The women in publishing community is amazing. And that's because Alexa, that's because she infuses it with her love and care and concern for quality. And all of us are, all of us are. it's, it is the Wild, Wild West. It is. And it's, like I said earlier, it's good and bad, right? Like it, it, creates opportunity.
21:13
But it also, like you said, like, you know, anyone can put a book out, right? I mean, anyone can do it now. And that's who knows? I don't know. Who knows? think I think it's fabulous because some people really do have a great thing that they want to get out in the world and they actually can write. And this takes some of the barriers away. But there's a lot of crap out there, too. You and I both know this. So, OK, so we've been talking about
21:41
Publishing and writing in books for at least 20 minutes I would love to have you back and talk about this more about you wanting to publish like the people I Would love to do that because I just think I agree with you so completely that like this is opportunity isn't it like this is opportunity for people to To you know teach others and get their voice heard
22:09
Yeah, and I would love to have you talk about how you want to do that, know, as the publisher, because most people don't know how any of this works. I mean, I do because I helped a couple of friends ebook publish years ago and I didn't know what I was doing. I'm really good at editing, so that worked to my favor. I made grocery money and they made grocery money. We were happy with that. It worked out okay. So tell me, for the last...
22:35
eight minutes or so, tell me about your farm because that's the other part I wanted to hear about. Yes, of course, of course. So Seeds to Savor, we're Seeds to Savor farm and that we are at 6,300 feet. So we have a lot of, we really deal with a lot of challenges of, well, let me just say that when I bought this land, I weren't five and a half acres. And when I bought this land, I bought it for horses and horses and growing are not the same thing.
23:04
That has been a challenge. There's so many challenges, just the wind. And when you sit here at 6,300 feet, so we can see from Pike's Peak to Long's Peak. We have a view of the entire Front Range. But that means wind, like the wind constant. And the sun shines all of the time. And we don't have trees. We're here on the prairie. So it's been a lot of challenges. We've learned that certain things
23:33
Like we grow potatoes really well here. I grew tomatoes for a chef for a while and heirloom tomatoes. it was just, there's such water consumers and we really, we're really, really careful with our water here. Colorado is the only state that has no water that flows in, nor does any water touch our borders. So all of our water falls from the sky. And so that's...
24:00
It's a challenge, you know, and we live, we're on a well. So that's an aquifer that is, there's so much to say about water in Colorado, so I won't go there. our aquifer has dropped. I've been here for 25 years. Our well pump went dry. We had to replace our well pump, which was terrifying. But water is such an issue. So I stopped growing.
24:29
I just don't do that anymore. We grow a lot of brassicas and we do, I don't do as much, I used to do some market gardening, but I haven't done that for a while. But we might, we've been talking about kind of getting back into that. We're going, we're doing a cattle panel greenhouse that I'm super excited about, because I want to put a pool in it. So we're trying to design it so we can put a pool in it. The pool would be a heat sink.
24:57
Um, also add moisture to very, very dry hair, very dry hair. We are semi-arid. Um, so that's a challenge too. Uh, lavender grows really well here, just like, you know, um, but it's, it's, I've been focused the last couple of years on more on publishing and writing and producing. And so, um, I haven't put as much energy in, but
25:26
We are definitely energized to do that this year. We're getting chickens again. I haven't had chickens for a couple of years. I've missed them. So we're getting chicks this spring from a local breeder. So I'm super excited about that. just got new chickens like five weeks ago from our friends who let their chickens breed, think.
25:54
I could be wrong. She may actually order eggs and hatch them. I don't know. But either way, I consider them to be their chickens until they're our chickens. Absolutely. I get that. It's been so fabulous having our own eggs again from our chickens. Oh my gosh. So I understand why you want chickens again. Oh, I'm so excited. Number one. That's so cute. Yeah, it's really fun.
26:23
To know that you're getting your eggs from your chickens, but it's also nice that they're not grocery store eggs. Oh, so many things, right? Exactly. agree. Colorado, so Colorado passed a law that all chickens have to be cage free. You can't sell all chickens, that you can't, that's it in the grocery stores, or all cage free eggs now, as of January. But are they really, are they really cage free?
26:53
Right. No, and they still have no room. Like they're still just crowded in a big, yeah, they're not in cages, but they're still enclosed. Yeah. So yeah, no, I agree. It's not the same as definitely not the same, but I do think it's a step in the right direction, you know, of just like not allowing, you know, I've always, I felt that way since I was a kid, you know, growing up.
27:16
My best friend had a ranch. my parents didn't, were, my dad was an engineer, but my best friend had a ranch and farm and ranch. And so I grew up wrangling cattle and all the things. I've just always said there has to be a limit. It's meat. I'm not a vegetarian. I eat vegetarian sometimes, but meat production has to be humane. We need a humane way to produce meat.
27:43
That's, know, so I feel like it's a step in the right direction. But yeah, you're totally right. But not everybody can have their own chicken. So. Yeah. And I was kind of being a smart ass because I talk to people all the time for the podcast about these things. And cage free to me is a really weird term because if you're going to have chickens, you have to be able to keep them with you somehow.
28:13
And our chickens have a coop. have a run off the coop so they can go outside and they're outside in the sun, in the grass, eating bugs and stuff. we have some, we have some escapees cause we haven't clipped their wing yet. And every time I see the one that gets out first, I'm like, a scupey, she a scupey. My son laughs at me. But, what I would like is that chickens aren't like
28:41
40 chickens stuck in a box. know, that's the hard part for me because I've said this before and I'm going say it again. I have a really soft heart when it comes to living beings. I mean, I even sometimes get just a little bit of a, when I trim herbs to go in my salad because plants are living too.
29:08
They just don't make any noise so you don't know how they feel about what you do to them. I agree. I agree with that. So whatever we can do to make it better, and I can't define better for you because I don't know what it is, but to make it better. And it's hard because some people have pushed back at me and been like, well, what do you want to do? And I'm like, I don't know. I just want it to be better.
29:35
And one of the people I was talking with said, until you can define your version of better, that doesn't help. And I'm like, I get it. I know. So it's fine. I'm just thrilled you have a farm. mean, I think everybody should have a farm and not everyone does and not everybody wants one. But for those who do want a farm or a homestead, I hope with all my heart that you eventually get it because it is so worth it. It is.
30:03
It is. And I think that's, you know, I guess that's why what I want to publish is about, you know, exactly that, right? Like we want it to be better. I mean, I agree with you. I hear where you're coming from. And I don't know that I agree that we all have to define exactly what that is. It's really sometimes just in the heart, right? It's our heart. It's not necessarily something that has to be defined in your head.
30:33
I think everything has to be that way. And I think it's okay to just say, well, this is in my heart and I feel like we can do better. And I think that's what we're doing. I think those of us who are producers and those of us who live this lifestyle and understand this lifestyle,
31:04
you know, are trying to do it better and are trying to help others to do it better, you know? Exactly. I have, you know, I, it's, there are, you know, whether it's chickens or, or whatever, the meat, the mass produced, you know, my daughter works for Kroger. She's a cheesemonger, which makes, which makes me happy, of course.
31:30
Yeah, so she's the manager of the Murray's Cheese at the Kroger nearest. And she talks a lot about like, you know, a food waste, because it's just, it really bothers her. And the people around her are just kind of like, yeah, whatever. And she's got her whole store composting, like she's, it's a big store. And she's like, they compost now, because she's like, makes it happen. Because, you know, it's important. It's important. You have that awareness. And like, she, she'll say to like,
31:59
The people that she works with are like, well, they'll do it. Like corporate's going to do it. She's like, you are corporate. That's who you are. Like you are representative of this grocery store. And that means that, you know, we are, we are that that's us. So she makes them. love that. That's awesome. I'm so proud of her. And I'm so, I'm so glad you brought up cheese because I heard on the news yesterday that a lot of cheeses are imported.
32:27
And the tariffs are going to affect that. So I talked to my son yesterday. He's a grown up. He's an adult and he still lives with us. And I said, you want to learn how to make cheese? And he said, I said, yeah. Said I will get ahold of the guy that sells raw milk over in Montgomery, Minnesota and we'll try making some of our own mozzarella. And he was like, I am. It's really easy and you'll love it. It's so much fun.
32:51
Yeah, he said, I am all in. said, and then we can figure out how to make ricotta, because you can make that pretty easy too. And then I said, we have to look into how to make cheddar, because we eat a lot of cheddar cheese around here when we have cheese. And that's a whole different thing. So we're going to learn. And you can get good cheddar. it from the US? There's, Telemuk is a great cheddar. You're in cheese country, almost. I'm adjacent. I'm cheese country adjacent, yes.
33:21
There you go. Yeah, she said that. So the the when we had our launch party for the book, we had it at a cidery, local cidery, Holly Daly, who I'll shout out for because they're amazing. Our local brewery. I'm sorry. Not cidery. They're a brewery. They brew real they brew gluten free beer. Nice. So we heard our Yeah, they're amazing. They're wonderful. They just went public, I think. And they
33:51
We did, my daughter did a tray for us, right? So we bought this charcuterie from King Super's and she did the, I probably shouldn't say this, right? She upgraded it. But the blue cheese was called Rogue River blue cheese. If you like blue cheese, okay, this is important. Rogue River blue cheese, that's what she did. I've never had anything like it.
34:19
It is the number one cheese in the world. So not the number one blue cheese, but the number one cheese in the world. And she told me yesterday or this weekend, they came out for, did a crab boil and they came out and, she said that Rogue River just announced that they had extra, they have like surplus because normally she can only get it at Christmas. She's never gotten it in the middle of the year before. And she's like, I'm ordering some. So Rogue River.
34:50
is the blue cheese if you're a blue cheese fan and it is in surplus right now. I never know what surprises I'm going to get on the podcast and I do not love blue cheese but I bet people who are listening do so. Good to know. Thank you Annie. Appreciate that. All right we are at almost 35 minutes and I know you another thing to get to so I'm going to let you go.
35:16
Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Absolutely. I appreciated it. And my website is highpraripress.org or seedstosaver.org.com. And I will put those in the notes. Perfect. All right. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank It was so much fun. It was. Thanks.
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