School of Sustainability

1,834 trials of rare seed, run from back gardens

Karen Lacy had never given amaranth a thought before the 2025 season. Then a packet of 'Hartman's Giant' arrived from the seed bank, and by autumn she was noting its strong colour and upright flower spikes, saying she would grow it again and wanted to try cooking with it. What she values most is growing varieties she has never seen before, then passing what she learns to her daughter and sharing the seed with her son.

Karen is one of hundreds of growers in ADAPT, a community science programme run by Seed Savers Exchange from Heritage Farm. The idea is plain: rare varieties sitting in a collection are only half alive until someone grows them, so the organisation posts out packets that are not commercially available and asks ordinary gardeners to watch closely. Growers record what matters in a real garden - how a plant stands up to wind, whether it sulks in drought, the colour of its stems.

For the amaranth trials alone, participants uploaded more than 260 photographs, left 715 comments and logged 1,300 trait ratings on SeedLinked, an open-source platform where the results are visible to growers anywhere. Across the whole 2025 season, ADAPT sent out 5,502 packets covering 111 varieties across nine crop types, with 1,834 trials run nationally, some in collaboration with the USDA's own seed bank.

Amaranth was a deliberate choice: it barely exists in the market, so several participants grew it for the first time. In the autumn the organisation ran a cooking demonstration so members could learn what to do with the tiny seeds, which can be popped like corn and, in Mexico, are bound with honey into a sweet called alegria. Amaranth fed the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas, is naturally gluten-free and runs to about 14 per cent protein. Molly, a participant in Philadelphia, plans to grow 'Hartman's Giant' again next season.

Seed Savers Exchange · Read the source