Revitalizing Ozark and Ouachita Seed Traditions

ROOST (Revitalizing Ozark-Ouachita Seed Traditions) is a project dedicated to protecting and improving the diversity of open-pollinated seed varieties, agricultural folkways, knowledge, and practices throughout the Ozark-Ouachita bioregion.

Agricultural knowledge, culinary traditions, and heirloom varieties are maintained and spread as farmers and gardeners save seeds and share them with each other. ROOST provides a central seed bank, works with local growers, and participates in seed exchanges in local communities to facilitate this process and ensure that seeds and the stories and meaning that have become a part of their essence are preserved.

ROOST has been in existence under the direction of environmental anthropologist, Dr. Joshua Lockyer since 2013. In that year, his colleague Dr. Brain Campbell left the state of Arkansas for new opportunities in Georgia and needed to leave behind the seed collection and infrastructure he had been building since 2007 under the banner of CAAH! (Conserving Arkansas’s Agricultural Heritage).

Dr. Lockyer with Seed Saver

Both ROOST and CAAH! were inspired by the efforts of Dr. Campbell’s and Dr. Lockyer’s anthropology professors at the University of Georgia where they started the Southern Seed Legacy, an organization that is currently being stewarded by another University of Georgia anthropology alum, Dr. James R. Veteto. We are grateful to everyone who shared their seeds, knowledge, experience, and expertise with us over the years.

ROOST may be contacted via email at: roost_seedsaving@hotmail.com.

You can learn more about the origins of ROOST and CAAH! by watching the documentary Seed Swap in the Ozarks.