Our Owner and Founder, Stephen Smith, is also our curator for Sacred Eagle's/SOPI's Seedbank. The C.L. Smith Seedbank honors Stephen's grandmother, Carol Louise Smith. An avid gardener, his grandmother loved  plants and flowers and also was the caretaker of the family's corn-Hurst Reid Yellow Dent dating back to 1893. Her Cherokee roots further instilled a drive within Stephen to preserve as many seeds as possible.

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In total, the C.L. Smith Seedbank contains:

-1200 landrace/heirloom corn varieties from around the world

-700 of these are from South/Central America

-150 are Native American origin

-350 are U.S. Landraces

-400 Bean varieties from around the world

-200 common and Lima bean varieties, mostly South American

-A few tomatoes, including wild species

-A few peppers

-100 Cowpeas, mostly from Botswana

-Around 100 Squash and melon varieties from around the world

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New varieties donated or acquired are grown out the following year at our home location in Kentucky/Tennessee on the Seedhouse Site and seeds are alternated each year afterwards for renewal. Each can be grown out-whether by the Seedhouse itself or a carefully selected grower.  Some special or tribal seed are exceptions, being grown out only by the Seedhouse, not for sale, and each year.

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Currently, the seeds are transitioning from paper packages to glass mason jars and plastic baggies. Seeds are stored near 10 degrees F and are kept in the freezer to preserve viability and keep out any insects.

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DONATIONS

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How do Donations work? It's easy! Just provide your name and contact information along with the seed variety name and history plus uses to our President-Stephen Smith or Vice President-Pam Kimsey and to pre-organize the addition. Once the info is submitted, the seeds will be assigned a special C.L.Smith Seedbank Identification code and will be entered into our inventory and pre-database. The donator can request seed if they happen to lose it or ever need it. In general, this seed will be banked for almost anyone to have access to but special permissions can be filed. Seeds will be grow out the following year by either the Seedhouse/SOPI itself or approved growers. Most first donations will have SOPI only or selected special seeds.

 

Once inventory is raised, we may request the donor's approval to offer the variety for sale to help us raise funds for SOPI and to get the variety out to more hands to ensure it is kept going and is not further lost. Our Seedbank is cold storage-below 20 degrees F, and is meant for decent long term. However, our mission is to also educate and get the seed into other hands because that is the best way to keep a variety going.

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NO GM or GMO seed is permitted or will be provided to any sort affiliates or individuals and companies. Your seed is often your life and labor and money. We respect this and the seed is for seed banking and ensuring we do indeed have a better and more secure global food future after GMOs fail.

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Sacred Eagle and SOPI are happy to recieve donations for our seedbank! We encourage anyone who believes or has any unqiue, rare, even common seeds to contact us and ensure they are preserved for future generations.

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