The Knoxville Mercury
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15th April 2015
John Coykendall, Knoxville's Seed Savior to the World
John Coykendall seeks heirloom seeds to preserve from many different sources: childhood friends and seed-saving pen pals, visitors to the Walland, Tenn. Blackberry Farm luxury hotel and restaurant where he works as master gardener, and gardeners from his travels to Austria and Hungary and Romania.
But this time the colorful mix of dried heirloom beans came to him in a paper sack. In his dog’s mouth.
“We were at the farm I own in Bybee, Tenn., about 200 acres near Newport, and I was planting po