Seeding the world
Brady, her charismatic grandson, has given away more than 6,000 packets of vegetable seeds to families around the world.
By Alvarez, R. (2020).
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.
Excerpt:
“To pay for seeds and shipping, Brady recycles aluminum cans and has some litter pick-up jobs. He also has made a little extra money selling the book Ursula wrote about his Sowing Seeds of Love project. People always ask if there are prob-lems with sending seeds through the mail, and as of now, there haven’t been any.
“Soon, people started contributing to Brady’s work and made contacts with state agricultural agents in some counties near us, and they distributed seeds for him too. It’s nice to have that kind of help, but Brady doesn’t seem to care if anybody helps or not. He’ll just do it himself. This March and April [2020] he’s sent out 4,350 packets to counties all over West Virginia.
“It’s common knowledge in our area through newspaper articles and TV that Brady collects garden seeds. Many people in Oakvale and the rest of Mercer County donate seeds. It sounds unbelievable, but folks in our neck of the woods have followed Brady and donated to his cause for four years now. This planting season, he will meet his goal of sowing seeds in all 55 West Virginia counties.
“So far, his grand total of seed packets sent out, including this planting season, is 6,650. When he sent seeds to a woman in Bedford, Pennsylvania, she took some of them and sent them to other parts of Pennsylvania, Detroit, and Maryland where people needed them. “Even people in Canada have found out and donated. The brands are too numerous to name, and people send what they wish. The last shipment of donated seeds [were purchased from] High Mowing Organic Seeds in Wolcott, Vermont.
