By Tabitha Evans Moore
Editor & Publisher

SEWANEE, Tenn. — Most things you borrow from a library, you’re expected to return in the same condition. The Sewanee Seed Library operates on a different philosophy: take something, grow it, and bring back more than you started with.

Tucked into the front lobby of the Jessie Ball duPont Library at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, the Seed Library is exactly what it sounds like — a collection of seed packets, free for the taking, available to anyone who walks through the door during regular library hours. No library card required for this particular transaction. The only ask is that you take what you’ll use, and that later in the season, if your plants go to seed, you consider returning some to keep the collection growing.

The library sits on the Cumberland Plateau, about an hour north of Lynchburg on the mountain, in a setting that makes the whole enterprise feel inevitable. Sewanee’s 13,000-acre domain — forest, farms, ravines, the occasional waterfall — has always had a relationship with the land that most universities only aspire to. A seed library in the main lobby feels less like a trend and more like the natural extension of a place that still calls its campus “the Domain.”

What’s in the collection

The seeds lean heavily heirloom and organic, which means each packet carries a story alongside the planting instructions.

The Dragon Tongue bush bean originated in the Netherlands in the 18th century — flat yellow pods streaked with bright purple, stringless and sweet, ready to harvest in 57 days. It has been in continuous cultivation for more than 300 years, which is either a testament to its flavor or to the stubbornness of gardeners, possibly both.

The Bertie Best Greasy Pole Bean carries the name of the aunt of Bill Best, a legendary Appalachian seed saver and former Berea College professor who has spent decades collecting and preserving heirloom bean varieties from mountain families across the region. Originating from Haywood County, North Carolina, the Bertie Best is a short, round-podded greasy type pole bean that, according to Bill, has existed in its present form for at least 130 years. It’s a cooking bean and a drying bean both — excellent for shuck beans, also known as shucky beans or leather britches, the kind that get strung and hung to dry in Southern kitchens the way they have for generations. Best is distinguished not only for his collection of seeds, but for his keen interest in the stories that accompany them and his ability to weave those stories into the history of a people and a region, the Appalachian South.

There’s a Big Mama tomato with an unusual provenance: the seed was obtained from the annual Appalachian Seed Swap in Pikeville, Kentucky. Large enough for slicing, meaty enough for sauce, and carrying the kind of origin story that makes it taste better. There are Tennessee Spinning Top gourds — small, bottle-shaped, green-striped — which children used to dry and spin like tops. Early Wonder beets, prized since 1911. An Italian heirloom eggplant with lavender fruits and creamy texture, beloved by chefs. A wildflower mix designed to draw butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees.

The collection also includes instructions for what comes after the harvest: how to save seeds from your own plants, dry them properly, clean them by wet or dry processing depending on the variety, and store them with silica gel to preserve germination rates. The library isn’t just lending seeds — it’s quietly teaching a practice that was once common knowledge and is now something people have to seek out.

The idea behind a seed library

Seed libraries have proliferated across the country over the past decade, showing up in public libraries, community centers, and university collections from Vermont to California. The concept taps something older than libraries themselves — the understanding that seeds are not a commodity to be purchased new each season but a living inheritance to be tended and passed along.

The Sewanee Seed Library frames its mission in terms both practical and philosophical: to cultivate a more sustainable and connected community, strengthen access to healthy food, foster environmental stewardship, and support what it calls “a greener lifestyle for all of our campus community.” The collection focuses on organic, regionally grown varieties — seeds suited to the climate and soil of the Upper South, not engineered for industrial agriculture or long-distance shipping.

That last distinction matters. The twentieth century witnessed a grand takeover of seed production by multinational companies aiming to select varieties ideal for mechanical harvest, long-distance transportation, and long shelf life — characteristics that don’t always overlap with flavor, regional adaptability, or the ability to reproduce true from seed. Heirloom varieties represent a different set of priorities, one passed down through families and communities rather than optimized for a supply chain.

A seed from the Bertie Best Greasy Pole Bean is, in that sense, a small act of cultural continuity — Haywood County, North Carolina, 130 years of mountain farming, arriving in a packet in a library lobby on the Cumberland Plateau, waiting for whoever wants to carry it forward.

The Sewanee Seed Library is located in the front lobby of the Jessie Ball duPont Library at 178 Georgia Avenue in Sewanee. It is accessible any time the library is open and free to all visitors. More information, including planting guides and seed saving instructions, is available at library.sewanee.edu/seedlibrary. •

About The Lynchburg Times: In addition to local news, The Lynchburg Times covers Southern culture, community life, and the stories of the New South — as part of its commitment to journalism that is local by choice and independent by design. This work is supported by readers, small business partners, and corporate underwriters.