Joining NC State's Collard Microbiome Project

Black Trumpet was proud to be one of several Western North Carolina farms participating in the Heirloom Collard Microbiome Project, led by Dr. Mallory Choudoir at NC State, in partnership with the Utopian Seed Project.

The project set out to answer a simple but important question: do different collard varieties recruit different communities of soil microbes, and does that change from farm to farm? We grew two varieties side by side, Champion, a widely used commercial standard, and Moses Smith, a heirloom variety stewarded for generations, and sent soil and root samples off for DNA sequencing.

The early results are fascinating. While broad types of microbes were similar across all the farms, the specific communities living in each farm's soil were distinctly different, and cultivating collards seemed to draw in more rare, unique microbes than bare soil alone. It's a small but meaningful reminder that every farm's soil has its own microbial fingerprint, and that the crops we grow help protect that hidden biodiversity. We're glad to have played a part in this research and look forward to seeing what it uncovers about the connection between heirloom seed-saving and the invisible life underground that makes it all possible.