Ask Joseph Lofthouse Anything and New Farmer Support Program Cohort

Ask Joseph Lofthouse Anything

Joseph will be hosting a live Zoom Q&A on Tuesday, April 29th at 5 PM Pacific Time to answer questions about Adaptation Agriculture. You can access the Zoom link here. This Q&A will be like the old Q&As Going to Seed hosted with the community a few years ago. It is also a social time to connect with others and share mutual interests. You can write Joseph questions in advance by posting on this thread here. We hope to see you there. 

New Farmer Support Project 2025 Cohort

Thanks to your continued support and the Clif Family Foundation, we are excited to add seven new farmers to the Farmer Support Project. I want to share some of the projects they will be working on this year.

Culturally Relevant Pepo Squash 

Wojapi Twobulls of Skohden Farm, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, will adapt culturally relevant crops to the cool, coastal climate in Mendocino County, California. She will be growing several USDA GRIN accessions of Pepo squash that are connected to her tribe’s heritage. The squash will be grown using indigenous planting methods and a "three sisters" polyculture. She also hopes to use traditional preservation and cooking methods for this vegetable. Selection criteria will include not only cold tolerance but also suitability for freeze-drying so that shelf-stable products can be distributed to tribal members. 

Wojapi harvesting quinoa at Skohden Farm

Vigorous and Tasty Red Storage Onions 

Lindsay Klaunig of Trouvaille Farm has experienced difficulty growing onions in Athens, Ohio, due to unpredictable spring weather, and has noted that the available varieties that grow in her conditions lack taste and storability. To solve these problems, she will be breeding red onions for flavor, productivity, and storability. 

Butternut and Maxima Squash in Short Season Scotland 

Holly Silvester will be adding varieties to a butternut grex she has been growing and will be growing out a special mix of Maxima squash donated to her by a farmer in England and bred for short seasons. Holly will be growing these crops in coordination with East Neuk Market Garden in Fife, Scotland, where the maritime climate poses challenges for successfully growing Moschata and Maxima squash. 

More information about the rest of the farmer’s projects will be updated on the website next week. If you would like to read about the 2024 cohort, click here. 

Community Posts 

New Starter Kits Offshoot from the Seed Train in Europe

The Seed Train has had immense success in Europe as a way to share diverse seeds with adaptation gardeners. However, the increase in people new to Adaptation Agriculture who want to join the Seed Train has put extra pressure on the train.  To solve this problem, Seed Train members are pooling seeds and creating seed starter kits to help supply diverse genetics to new growers. People who want to participate will send a pre-paid return envelope to a central location where it will be filled and returned to them. This project is still in the development phase, and much has yet to be decided and set up to make it work, but it is an exciting update for encouraging new people who want to grow adaptively in Europe! You can read more about it here. 

DOGE Cuts Workers at the USDA National Plant Germplasm System

The Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk, has cut workers from the USDA National Plant Germplasm, which maintains over 600,000 genetically distinct lines of over 200 crop species. It is unclear to what extent this will be detrimental to the department. However, it is an attack on the security of our entire food system in the US and affects all farmers and consumers. Some of Going to Seed’s programs rely upon access to these genetics and the personnel who grow and curate collections containing accessions from around the world, which are, in many cases, no longer kept by the farmers they came from. To read more and participate in the discussion, click here. 

What does fair compensation for seed work look like?

Many small farmers selling vegetable crops find it challenging to earn a living wage. The same can be said for farmers growing and selling seeds. Do you have experience or thoughts about what fair compensation means for seed work or growing food? Let us know here.

Blossoming bladderworts thinly dot a pond's surface in North Florida with small, yellow flowers, one of the ephemeral sights of spring.