I suggested to our small rural library that we begin a Seed Story Library. A wee bit different from a seed bank of local seeds, it includes the story of the seeds. I shared with them the story of old grandmother pecan trees that grow near the century old farmhouse.

To help the library share the Seed Story concept with other library locations in the county and gauge support from residents, I collected pecans and filled a couple jars of seeds to bring them along with a printed copy of the Pecan Seed Story .
 
Space is at a premium at small rural libraries and i distributing them to the community out of planting season could lead to the seeds ending up in a drawer somewhere and be forgotten when planting season rolls around. I suggested that it may work better if the seeds are only available during the best time to plant them. For pecans that time is fall, when the squirrels are planting them. This will limit the amount of space the library needs for to display the seeds if they're only sharing a few seed stories at one time. the stories are also more likely to be read. These are Seed Stories after all, not a seed saving program.
 
Once the seeds have all been taken into the community the story remains. I gave the library an old binder  to store old seed stories. Perhaps one day it will be a collection of Randolph County Seed Stories if they decide to do this in the long term.
 
You'll find the story, planting instructions and a recipe for Pecan Pesto below. Whether you have the Grandmother Seeds to plant or not, please carry this story with you to keep the Grandmother trees alive.

The journey to naming Ozark Akerz got one step closer in late 2006 with a mugshot and fingerprints at the Welwyn Garden City Constabulary. I was applying for a green card to the United States. Part of the requirement was checking for criminal records in every country I had lived in since the age of 16. This included 3 countries, Canada, Denmark and my residence at the time, United Kingdom.

My mugshot and fingerprints were sent to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), MI5 and MI6 (yes, James Bond’s MI6) and Interpol. Once they had been submitted, there was nothing to do but sit back and wait for criminal records to arrive in the mail, which took 9.5 months, the same as a Pineywoods Cattle gestation period. The US Embassy in London contacted me and said I had been cleared for the next stage: more paperwork and a medical exam followed an interview with Embassy staff.

The day of interview at the US Embassy, my wife Sue and I were nervous. Let me explain why.

This year marks our 10th Anniversary at Ozark Akerz Regenerative Farm. Before Sue and I moved here, we spent 2 months fixing leaks, mending all manner of things and cleaning the farmhouse to make it livable. It had been abandoned for over 10 years. Little did we know what we had gotten ourselves into!

The following are excerpts from emails we sent to Sue’s mom, Lou, during the first couple months on the farm. It has been amazing to relive the beginning of our journey in detail, much of what we had forgotten. We both remembered the day we moved in as Feb 1, in fact it was Jan 27. All the joys and challenges came back to life when reading the emails. Lou suffered from dementia and would forget what we told her over the phone. Daily emails were a good way to stay close to her even though she was 2100 miles away. She kept the printed emails and photos we sent her in a binder. She would re-read the emails over time. She eventually filled 3 binders with our emails.