Adaptive Seeds is an organic seed farm located in Sweet Home, Oregon. Andrew Still and Sarah Kleeger own and operate the farm with their small crew.

Farmers Anthony and Carol Boutard invited 150 chefs to visit Ayers Creek Farm to learn about grain brines (aka bors) and sample some dishes made with the brine. They also provided a tour of the farm including a look at their treviso breeding project called Arch Cape.

For the last 40 years, Alice Doyle and Greg Lee, co-founders of the wholesale nursery Log House Plants, have grown and distributed new and heritage ornamentals and edibles to premier independent nurseries throughout the PNW. www.loghouseplants.com

Mr. Yamane, a retired professor from Hyogo University in Himeji, has been saving seed and their stories for decades. He gave the Seed to Plate crew a tour of his test garden and lunch with local farmers.

Seed Savers Exchange, or SSE, is a non-profit organization based in Decorah, Iowa, that preserves heirloom plant varieties through regeneration, distribution and seed exchange. It is one of the largest nongovernmental seedbanks in the United States. The mission of SSE is to preserve the world’s diverse but endangered garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving, and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, and educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity. Since 1975, Seed Savers has produced an annual yearbook of members’ seed offerings.

The Bread Lab is a grains research center and economic revival hub directed by Dr. Stephen Jones of Washington State University in the Skagit Valley just 70 miles north of Seattle. Recognized nationally and internationally, the research from the Bread Lab has helped to facilitate connections between farmers, millers, malters, bakers, and brewers to work together to keep dough - literally and figuratively - in the Skagit Valley. This is unprecedented in today’s global economy where most farmers across the nation sell grain for the lowest common price to companies that ship their product all over the world. When grains are grown for a local market the public benefits are many: it allows farmers to grow unusual and long forgotten grains that are nutrient-rich and make for delicious, nutritious and more exciting food and beverages; it encourages rebuilding infrastructure and distribution networks to mill and malt those grains; and it supports local, small business owners, keeping the money in the region. Dr. Jones also works with grain farmers to develop varieties best adapted to the region. For example, the Bread Lab has released a wheat variety named Skagit 1109 which is the first ever to be released specifically for western Washington and the first variety bred specifically to be used as a whole wheat in over 100 years.