116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Decorah’s Seed Savers Exchange is more than seeds
Located in the Driftless area in Winneshiek County, the nonprofit and its Heritage Farm sits on 890 scenic acres
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About 20 minutes into a walk, we rounded the corner on a narrow dirt road to discover we were being watched. We’re used to seeing cattle, but these were different. Their white fur contrasted with black noses and ears. Some had sharp curved horns. What were they?
After leaving the curious animals we followed a stream cluttered with beaver chews, climbed a steep hillside, and sat in a peaceful meadow. We sensed what Heritage Farm/Seed Savers Exchange founder Diane Ott Whealy said, “When I walk down this valley I feel a peace, knowing it’s always going to be here.” She’s right. Most of the land is in a conservation easement held by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.
Eventually our walk brought us to an office building where we asked about the cattle.
Seed Savers Executive Director Mike Bollinger told us they are Ancient White Park Cattle that are a part of Heritage Farm.
“The farm isn’t just where we save seeds. It’s a living lab for conservation and stewardship of all sorts. Visitors can enjoy orchards, gardens and natural landscapes that showcase biodiversity in action. It’s where history, ecology, and food security interact,” Bollinger said.
Many Iowans are aware of Seed Savers Exchange, located a few miles north of Decorah, but few realize the importance of its work or enjoy the outdoor activities welcomed on its 890 acres, called Heritage Farm. It’s nestled in the rugged Driftless Area and is an easy two-hour drive from Cedar Rapids.
Heritage Farm includes seed processing facilities, offices, a barn complex, orchards and garden plots. The Lillian Goldman Visitors Center is open during the warm months. It houses a gift shop that sells quality gardening tools and books.
Heritage Farms is open for free use year-round. Hiking trails wind through or near pastures, meadows, forests, orchards and garden plots. Trout anglers are invited to wet a line in the stream that nurtures Iowa native brook trout.
A nonprofit, Seed Savers stewards America’s diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy and connects people by collecting, regenerating and sharing heirloom seeds, plants and stories. On its Winneshiek County site many of its non-GMO, open pollinated and nonhybrid organic seeds are propagated. Hundreds of varieties are listed for sale in its online and paper catalog. About 20,000 other varieties are maintained in temperature-controlled storage.
Like gardeners everywhere, we enjoy the delicious taste and hardiness of heritage vegetable varieties that range from tomatoes to carrots. But there’s more to Seed Savers’ mission than good tasting vegetables. Many modern crops are genetically similar. They’re productive but vulnerable to new diseases and blights that seem to arise from nowhere. In contrast, the vast inventory of viable seeds maintained at Seed Savers are genetically diverse. Some likely have disease resistance that offers long-term food security.
Many years ago, the Cedar Rapids Master Gardener Carl Franks said to a group at the Indian Creek Nature Center, “Seeds are miracles. They may look dead but give them soil, water, space and time and a giant tree or delicious tomato will result.”
Seed Savers includes a seed exchange, giving people who have nurtured grandma’s treasured vegetables a chance to swap them for other heritage varieties. We attended the annual National Seed Swap Day at the Decorah Commons, part of Vesterheim, in late January. Seed Savers Exchange gave seeds to hundreds of enthusiastic gardeners. Several independent gardeners staffed tables and gave away their treasured seeds. One woman enthused, “I love seeds!”
The organization was founded in 1975 by Kent Whealy and Dianne Ott Whealy. From its modest beginning it has emerged as an expanding and respected nonprofit organization that connects people and maintains critically important genetic material. It offers a fascinating and peaceful place to visit and is financially supported through seed sales, memberships, grants and contributions.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Seed Savers is sponsoring live and virtual workshops and celebrations. “The next is a Start with a Seed“ workshop on March 22. A 50th anniversary celebration is planned for Aug. 8 and 9. Its website at seedsavers.org/ and catalog show the full list of events.
Seed Savers Exchange is only one reason to visit the Decorah area. While on a hike in the town's Van Peenen Park we chatted with two people who said, “We moved here almost 40 years ago for a job. The area’s outdoor recreation and the culture of Luther College that radiates into the community kept us here.” Their reasons for living in Decorah are why it’s a great place to visit.
Decorah is an outdoor recreation gem. Parks, including some large ones, host miles of trails scattered around town. An 11-mile paved trail circles town, and others are maintained for hiking, bicycling, and cross-country skiing. Within town there are parks with amazing springs. Here clear water gushes from the ground flowing over watercress. An ice cave and hilly vistas unusual in Iowa are among other outdoor draws.
Downtown Decorah houses the Vesterheim Museum that traces the history of Norwegian people who settled in the area. The Vesterheim is a convenient place to start a downtown walk and visit mostly small locally owned diverse stores. It’s almost like going back to the days before big box stores gutted many downtowns.
We overnighted at the Historic Hotel Winneshiek in downtown. Manager Breanna Carson said, “It’s a boutique hotel oozing with history and comfort that’s just a short walk to downtown stores, cafes and Vesterheim.”
The gorgeous opera house, attached to the hotel, hosts special events. We enjoyed lunch at the new Lefse Lodge Kafe, which specializes in Norwegian dishes. Other non-chain restaurants are close by. We especially like the Rubaiyat, Magpie, LaRana, and the Landing. We’ll try others on our next visits.
While in town we noticed a commonly used word “Impact” and graphics of an odd-looking creature. Alyssa Ritter at Visit Decorah explained. “Decorah is located where a huge meteor impacted about 460 million years ago. There’s no sign of it today, but core drillings confirmed that the town is in its crater,” she stated. “Some companies, like Impact Coffee, take their name from the event. Before the impact, Decorah was under an ocean where a huge sea scorpion lived. Graphics of the prehistoric creature are scattered around town,” she added. And, we learned of a model of the scorpion housed on Luther College’s campus. Take it in!
Ritter told us a medallion was placed to mark the precise impact site. It’s along a trail in Van Peenen Park. Later that day we parked at the trailhead and followed a looping route in search of it. Eventually we found the medallion and brushed off a half inch of snow. It would have been a scary site millions of years ago to watch a hunk of space rock hurdling to that very spot.
The Decorah area features several hotels, Airbnbs and campgrounds.
For more information contact visitdecorah.com. It is close to Niagara and Crystal Caves in nearby Southern Minnesota and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in Bur Oak. The Driftless Area offers outstanding clear water trout fishing.
Our personal travel plan is to visit as many Iowa towns as we can, so we’ve been to many places just once. Decorah’s different. It is so pleasant, interesting and diverse that we find ourselves there often.
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