 The Appalachian heirloom seed swap was held at Pike Central High School for their ninth annual seed swap on Saturday, April 2nd. The swap was started to preserve heirloom seeds or a seed that is safe from year to year to preserve the type of vegetable grown. We've had over a thousand people on several occasions come to the seed swap. I know we have exhibitors from seven states here today as far away as Florida and on the other end as far away as New York. So there's a lot of people around the country that are into the seed saving and this is a chance to diversify your seeds. You can get seeds from all over the country here. Now most farmers today use the hybrids which won't come back through to form. You don't know what you're going to get when you put them on the ground if you get anything. The whole thing was trying to expand people's notions of the old-time seeds. At Pikeville Medical Center, we believe that together we can make a difference in the fight against cancer. We are proud to have patients who have experienced successful outcomes over many years. As always, we believe in the power of faith. Pikeville Medical Center, where cancer can be defeated. The seed swap is all about preserving heirloom seeds and is deeply rooted in tradition. The swap acts as a bank for preserving seeds that could be kept within a family for generations. By trading seeds, you can diversify where they're grown and keep them alive. The more people that have them in their hands, the more chance of saving those seeds long-term. Because if you've got one person that has it and something happens that they die and their grandchildren or their children didn't know the importance of that seed, then it's gone forever. But if you've got 100 people that have that same seed, then it lives on for years and years and years. So that's kind of the thing about seed swaps. The seed swap was started in the Pike County Extension Office and has since been expanded to Pike Central High School. With vendors coming from more than 10 states, there is some wonder what might happen if the event were to grow any larger. You know, Pike Central so far has been big enough, but we're, I'm thinking that we're here, we're here for a few more years because it's a pretty good size building. You know, I don't know what our next step would be on where to go. We may have to end up going to the arena. You know, we had to go to Appalachian Wireless Arena if he got much bigger than this because I forgot how many we have now, but there's a lot, as you can see, there's a lot of vendors here from different parts of the country. The seed swap is an annual event that takes place on the first Saturday of April. For Mountain Top News, I'm Kelsey Dean.