The DFI Resilient Seed Stewardship Program (RSSP) aims to:
- Increase accessibility of seed for crops that thrive when dry-farmed
- Continue to adapt crop varieties to dry farming in the Maritime Pacific Northwest
- Provide an online directory of crop varieties that thrive when dry farmed, and where to get them
- Partner with local seed companies to improve resilient seed availability
We are launching this new program by producing and distributing seed of two crops that have been dry-farm adapted with support from the Oregon State University Dry Farming project. Both varieties are Open Source Seed Initative (OSSI) pledged, which means they or their derivatives can’t be claimed as intellectual property.
Dry-Farmed Open Oak Party Mix dent corn. This diverse variety has flinty-dent type kernels good for cornbread and nixtamalized into tortillas. It was created by Adaptive Seeds (Brownsville, OR) as a diverse breeding population of New England flint and northern-adpated dent corn varieties. Its population has been selected by Oregon State University researcher Lucas Nebert for orange dent-type kernels produced from plants that thrive in dry-farmed setting.
Dry-Farmed Beefy Resilient bush dry bean. This is a brown bean selection from a diverse grex of bush dry beans bred by Carol Deppe from a cross between Argentinian Gaucho and Black Mitla beans, called Beefy Resilient Grex. Amy Garrett has selected it in dry-farmed conditions over 3 years for dry-farmed productivity and flavor, and excels in dy-farmed variety trials.