Burgerville's Seedlings inspires garden planting

Burgerville has unveiled Seedlings, a program in partnership with the Culinary Breeding Network, to make Northwest-grown and bred seeds available to customers, teach kids and adults about growing plants, and inspire gardeners to grow seeds at home, according to a company press release.

The Seedlings program includes envelopes for the seeds, bags for the kids' meals, the Seed Wizard to excite kids about seeds and gardening, and stories from the Northwest farmers who grow the seeds.

"Burgerville has always been proud of offering seeds in our kids' meals. We love sharing with children and their families the joys of gardening and showing how to care for the land," Michelle Battista, Burgerville SVP of brand and marketing and co-founder of Seedlings, said in the release. "The Seedlings program is going to take us to the next step because it's supporting Northwest seed growers and breeders, who are really the unsung heroes of local agriculture."

The current seed lineup includes:

• "Outredgeous' Lettuce," bred by Frank Morton at Wild Garden Seed in Philomath, Oregon. This lettuce was grown in outer space and was planted in the White House Garden by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
• "Cascadia" Snap Pea, a variety bred at Oregon State University by Jim Baggett.
• "Purple Karma" barley, which was brought to the U.S. in 1924 from Tibet but spent decades in the USDA seed repository until OSU researcher Brigid Meints began breeding new organic barley with it.

"The Pacific Northwest is one of the best areas in the world to grow seed. There is an unknown community of individuals here growing seeds and breeding new varieties of the food we eat. It is the mission of the Culinary Breeding Network to raise awareness of the importance of seed and the impact it has on our food system. Burgerville will be an excellent partner in educating kids and adults on the power of the tiny seed and sharing stories of our regional seed heroes," Lane Selman, director of the Culinary Breeding Network and assistant professor at OSU, said in the release.

Established in 1961 with headquarters in Vancouver, Washington, Burgerville has 40 locations throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.