Heritage Farm keeps a historical record of each variety it maintains. It has its own underground seed vault held at below-freezing temperatures. At Heritage Farm, more than 25,000 rare fruit, vegetable, and plant varieties are regenerated, refrigerated and preserved in a central collection. A certified organic farm, Heritage is called the "most diverse farm in the world" by ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan. Heritage Farm was originally purchased in 1986. It is headquartered at the 890-acre (3.6 km 2) Heritage Farm, located six miles from Decorah, Iowa. The SSE publishes a list of members' seeds annually in the Seed Savers Yearbook, complete with a description of the crop and its known history. Today, it has more than 13,000 members worldwide, passing on more than one million seed samples and distributing over 20,000 varieties of endangered seeds. SSE began a commercial seed catalog in 2000. Well-known seed saver Will Bonsall also helped found the organization. The organization hosted its first seed swap the same year of its founding among thirty gardeners on a six-paged list of seeds. The SSE was founded by Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy in 1975, inspired to protect and preserve heirloom varieties after Diane was bequeathed the seeds of two heirloom plants (a German tomato and a morning glory vine) that her great-grandfather had brought to the U.S. The nonprofit has sold seeds to about 600 retail stores in the United States and Canada. SSE also publishes Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners. Since 1975, Seed Savers has produced an annual yearbook of members’ seed offerings, as well as multiple editions of The Garden Seed Inventory, and The Fruit, Nut and Berry Inventory. 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. It is one of the largest nongovernmental seedbanks in the United States. Seed Savers Exchange, or SSE, is a non-profit organization based near Decorah, Iowa, that preserves heirloom plant varieties through regeneration, distribution and seed exchange.
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