Explaining the living art of seeds

NEWBURGH - A local seed expert is scheduled to lead a class explaining the living legacy of planting at SUNY Orange Newburgh, according to a press release from the school.
“Seeds are living histories,” according to Ken Greene, co-founder and creative director of the Hudson Valley Seed Company, an artisan seed company and heirloom seed farm in Accord.
On Monday, Oct. 29, Greene will present a program entitled The Art of Seed: Urban Heirlooms.
This event is presented by Cultural Affairs in collaboration with the Newburgh Urban Fair and Food Initiative, and will start at 7 p.m. in the OBTC Great Room 101, in Kapan Hall.
In addition to the talk, a display of the Hudson Valley Seed Company’s seed packets will be featured.
Each packet is a work of art that is created by an artist.
“If every seed is a story, then every plant is a work of art bringing seed stories to life,” Green said in the release.
During the presentation, Greene will showcase a timeline of seed heritage up to the modern seed industry through elegant, humorous, and telling images from the Hudson Valley Seed Company’s collection of antique seed catalogs and contemporary seed pack art, the release said.
According to the release, he will share seed stories that connect food, butterflies, history, and good soil, to the past and present, as through ancestors and up to the present day.
Greene will also lead attendees on a discovery of the “history of seed diversity and the modern importance of ethical seed stewardship along with beautiful and tasty varieties which can be grown in community gardens, urban farms, and at home.”
According to the release, Greene’s educational background includes a BS in Environmental Studies from Wesleyan University. In addition, his MA in Special Education from SUNY New Paltz makes him a patient, natural teacher, the release said.
He has given presentations, workshops, and interviews for All Things Considered, National Heirloom Exposition, Culinary Institute of America, Horticultural Society of New York, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Stone Barns, Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners, previously at SUNY Orange, and at special occasion days at the farm of Hudson Valley Seed Company, according to the release.
Kaplan Hall is located at the corner of Grand and First Streets, Newburgh.
Free and secure parking is available in the Kaplan Hall garage accessible at 73 First Street. For information, please call 845-341-4891/9386 or email cultural@sunyorange.edu.