Elizabeth Malayter was originally a customer who had met Southern Exposure staff at Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group events. When she and her partner began transitioning into full-time farming, they figured that seed saving would be a great source of additional earnings, especially in the winter months. “We’ve discovered that we need to have several different streams of income to make this lifestyle work,” Elizabeth says. “We have a mortgage–we didn’t inherit our land. We have a 7-year-old in elementary school. We are not trying to live on the fringes. We want our agricultural activities to help pay our expenses. We do everything!” In addition to seeds, the Malayters sell produce, meat and eggs from their Rogersville, Tennessee land.

Seed saving offers other perks for the Malayters as well. “Because of the way land is arranged around here, everyone–even friends 15 miles across the county–is in a different environment,” Elizabeth explains. “Having seeds really well adapted to our microclimate is an incentive.” Plus, as a certified organic operation, it makes sense financially for the Malayter farm to produce its own seeds as certified organic seed can be pricey.

Elizabeth is a believer in the hardiness of old cultivars. The Malayters don’t use pest control–they say they cannot afford it nor have the time to constantly re-apply it. They want to work with varieties that can “fend for themselves” to a certain extent. That’s why Elizabeth always looks for “southern” or “Appalachian” in product descriptions before she purchases a new seed variety.

Thanks to one of the unusual heirloom tomato varieties that Southern Exposure contracts the Malayters to grow, Elizabeth says that they have created a regional market for yellow cherry tomatoes. For the past two years, the Malayters have been bringing their excess Dr. Carolyn tomatoes to the farmers market, where shoppers have fallen in love with them. “We have customers who request them adamantly,” Elizabeth told us. A town grocer, who was at first skeptical of the little yellow oddities, now purchases Dr. Carolyn’s from Elizabeth because local demand for them has skyrocketed. We appreciate that the Malayters are helping to spread the word about the wonders of heirlooms!