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The SSL regularly gives out an award to a distinguished seedsaver from the southern United States. The award reconizes the contribution of seedsavers in preserving southern heirlooms plant varieties and their cultural knowledge.

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Ernest Keheley (1999 Award Winner)

Eighty-one year old Ernest Keheley has many stories to tell about the way things used to be. He lives in Marietta in a large old farm house with a wrap-around porch. His parents were share croppers in Cobb County when it was still the country, and he maintained a big beautiful garden there until 2 years ago when he had a stroke. Ernest contacted the Southern Seed Legacy Project, SSLP, in 1995 after he saw an add we placed in the Farmers Market Bulletin. Since then he has shared his farming stories with SSLP researchers and most recently he donated his collection of seeds to the project. He kept his seeds in an old freezer in a workshop where he used to fix tractors. In the past year, he has been clearing out the workshop in order to sell it, and he called the Southern Seed Legacy Project because he didn’t want to throw his seeds away.

On October 18, 1997 Ernest visited Athens, GA to see the heirloom display garden at the State Botanical Garden and tour the Ethnoecology/Biodiversity Laboratory in the Anthropology Department at the University of Georgia. He brought with him heirloom varieties of seeds that he saved over the years and he described to us the history and uses for each of these varieties. Sitting at a table with the bags and jars of seeds laid out in front of him, Ernest told the story behind each variety; where they came from, who used to grow them, how he planted them, and how they taste. In an old Taster's Choice Freeze Dried Coffee Jar, Ernest had a mixture of Hickory King Corn, Hastings' Field Corn, and 3 or 4 varieties of beans. He said that this mix made planting more efficient, because while you were planting your corn you also planted the pole beans that climbed up the cornstalk and used it for support. Other varieties that he donated to SSLP include, Big Boy Bean, Blue Goose Bean, Hastings Cornfield Bean, Hercules Pea, Pink Eye Pea, Purple Hull Bean, Rattlesnake Beans, and Red Ripper Pea.

Towards the end of the day, Ernest pulled out his pocket knife and carved a hole into the side of a martin gourd that he brought with him. The gourd had been drying at Ernest's house for awhile and the seeds were rattling around inside. He described how to clean the gourd and hang it so that a purple martin will use it as a home. Purple Martins are popular birds because they eat insects and you often see a string of martin gourd bird houses hanging above fields. Ernest passed the martin gourd seeds onto us along with stories about gourds he has grown in the past. It is useful for us to have a record of these heirloom seeds and the stories that go with them. They can be used to remind other people of varieties from their past and stories that they can also share with us. We are fortunate that Ernest recognized how important it is to pass on information about heirloom varieties to younger generations.

Lee Barnes

Lee was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina where his parents owned a seed company. He operates a seed exchange that he takes all over the state of North Carolina and beyond to farming and gardening conferences and symposiums. He is also an avid permaculturalist and naturalist, and has a Ph.D. in Plant Ecology.

John Coykendall

John was born in 1943, and still live in a house that his grandfather built in 1927. He has been interested in gardening and farming since he was a young child. His first garden was in 1954. That was when his dad took him out to the backyard and showed him how to plant corn and potatoes, and that was the first garden he has ever had. That was since then he has always had a garden every year.

In 1978, He bought his farm in Cocke County , TN , and for the last 25 years, he has been growing heirloom vegetables, preserving heirloom varieties of seeds and plants of that nature. He has been a listed member of Seed Savers Exchange since 1990, and he has 81 listings with them.

He is also a collector of old time folklores. he has been going down to Louisiana since 1973, and he has collected a lot of stories from old timers, who are in their 70s, 80s, or older. Over those years, a lot of them have the unique stories of that region when they were children and things that were passed down by their fathers or people that they didn't even know. He is working on a book of those tales in Washington Parish, Louisiana . He also collects a lot here in the Smokey Mountains from old timers that live near his farm.

"I try to get the history of the area and the way they farm in connection with these seeds and seed saving because it's also important to reserve the oral history and the way they farmed, types of crops they grew, what they were used for, how they preserved them, the history of them, where they got them, and anything related to that."

Glenn Roberts

Glenn Roberts is the President/CEO of Carolina Golden Rice Foundation. The mission of The Carolina Gold Rice Foundation is to advance the sustainable restoration and preservation of Carolina Gold Rice and other heirloom grains and raise public awareness of the importance of historic ricelands and heirloom agriculture. The Foundation encourages, supports and promotes educational and research activities focused on heirloom grains and serves as an information resource center to provide authentic documentation on heirloom grain culture and heritage.

Glenn has also established Anson Mills, which has been the has been the driving force in bringing old and nearly extinct species of heirloom corn back to health.

To read more about Glenn Roberts, please visit these websites:
A Grits Revival With the Flavor of the Old South (The New York Times)
Carolina Golden Rice Foundation: http://carolinagoldricefoundation.org/
Anson Mills: http://www.ansonmills.com/