McMurray Memorial Seed Bank

In the Fall 2014 issue of the Seeds of Diversity member magazine I wrote an article about my friends Dan & Val McMurray, who from their home in Wynndel, BC were the stewards of thousands of varieties of vegetable seeds. Not only did their love of open pollinated varieties probably manage to save and revive dozens of seeds that would have surely gone extinct, but their dedication to spreading them to other growers around the world far and wide became well known in the seed saving world.

Val McMurray passed away in 2010, and Dan passed away in 2012. Their amazing seed collection was then passed on to The College of the Rockies in Creston, BC where it is now being cared for, catalogued, and grown out (you may have noticed a few mentions around the site of myself helping with the grow outs). I wanted to share the article here now with readers of this site, as I and many others found the McMurray’s a true inspiration, and the legacy of their seeds living on is a testament to what one or two seed savers can do.

A Legacy Of Seeds

—————

If you like those kind of articles, please consider joining Seeds of Diversity – members get access to the member seed catalogue once a year, and four magazines to their mailbox a year. Plus the warm fuzzies knowing that you’re helping a whole bunch of ecological research, projects, and preservation.

Thanks to Tatiana as well for supplying photographs.