After Leah Wagner and Nick Schlosstein moved to Haines in 2015, they lived in a tent for five months.

The couple had bought a quarter-acre of land off of Sawmill Road the previous year, but the parcel had no structures and no utilities. “We had a (bear) mom and cubs that would come by pretty regularly,” Wagner said. “It was concerning.”

Wagner and Schlosstein spent the summer working on the land. In addition to jobs in town, the two said they put in around 40 to 50 hours a week on the property.

Now, two years later, the lot seems almost domesticated. The property boasts a 24-foot diameter yurt on stilts, complete with a woodstove and a bathroom. Next to it, garden rows stretch neatly.

This garden represents the culmination of Wagner and Schlosstein’s work. The pair, as founders of the commercial seed company Foundroot, hopes to sell their Alaska-grown seeds commercially for the first time this winter.

“If that’s going to be possible, we’ll be really excited about it,” Wagner said. “We’re not holding out for it.”

Wagner and Schlosstein founded Foundroot two years ago, with a mission to expand sustainable food security by selling seeds tailored to the Southeast Alaskan conditions. “We don’t want to be the people that are providing for everyone,” Schlosstein said. “We want to help people provide for themselves.”

The pair plans to introduce new seed varieties one by one, expanding their catalog slowly. In the future, the pair hopes to add herbs and flowers to their wares, but they’re currently working with vegetables. This summer, they grew cucumber, zucchini, tomato, pea, basil, and winter squash. It’s unclear, at this point, which—if any—of these crops will be able to be sold for seeds.

“We’re not sure what we’re going to be able to offer,” Wagner said.

So far, Foundroot has only sold seeds from Canada and the continental United States. The process of getting enough seeds to grow commercially is a long one—seeds must go through two consecutive growing seasons before Schlosstein and Wagner will consider selling them.

“We grow it [one] year, collect the seed, plant it out the year after, collect the seed, and then that next January we’d be able to sell it,” Schlosstein said.

Foundroot also adheres to “beyond organic” principles. That means no herbicides and no pesticides, even organic ones. The couple said they use some organic fertilizers, like fishmeal, but hope to phase them out.

These processes ensure that the seeds can thrive, with minimal help, in Southeast Alaska.

“It’s sort of a passive breeding process, because we have challenging conditions,” said Wagner. “We’re already breeding for long days, we’re already breeding for cool nights, wetter conditions.”

Local gardener Melissa Aronson applauds Foundroot’s efforts. “Most successful gardeners are always looking for seeds and plants that are adapted to the area and our micro-climates,” she said.

“Once [Foundroot has] had a chance to test the varieties that they’ve got, then we’ll know they have something that works here,” she said.

Wagner and Schlosstein admit they have a long way to go. The pair estimates that it will take between six and 10 years to have a full catalog of Alaska-grown seeds.

“It’s been a long and tiring process,” she said. “But exciting.”

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