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Our Businesses
 We have two major income areas that provide the community with money.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
This is our beloved seed business, which specializes in heirloom and open-pollinated varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. SESE came to Acorn in the fall of 1999 with an established seed inventory and customer base. The mission of SESE is to help preserve and distribute rare and endangered plant species and to teach our customers the value of saving seed and our seed heritage. We were recently listed as one of the top 20 seed companies in the US by Mother Earth News, and last year we "sold out" of our catalogs for the very first time! Running the seed business is a year-round task. From January to April we experience the busy selling season when customers from around the world order seeds for their gardens. From March to August we spend much of our time in the gardens, tending seed and food crops. From August through October we harvest, clean, and test the seeds we grow throughout the season. Come September, it's time to ship garlic and onion bulbs, as well as ginseng and goldenseal. We print a new catalog in November. By the time the catalogs are mailed out it is time again for the busy selling season. We believe that SESE is a wonderful example of "right livelihood." Check out our website at www.southernexposure.com
This year, we are sponsoring the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello! Check out the website: www.heritageharvestfestival.com
Southern Exposure is involved in a series of workshops as part of the Saving Our Seeds project. The latest was hosted at Twin Oaks Community and focused on germination, vigor, and pathology seed testing. Tom Stearns from High Mowing (a seed company similar to ours) came down from Vermont to lead the workshop. He was an informative and energetic teacher. We had 40 people attend from four states. After the two-day workshop Tom came to Acorn and spent an evening and a day talking with us about Southern Exposure and High Mowing. Having him here was such a blessing and we began right away to apply the things we learned. If you're interested in learning more about the Saving Our Seeds project check out www.carolinafarmstewards.org
Tinnery Craft
Ira brought tinnery to Acorn about three years after the community was founded. We make candleholders, lanterns, nightlights, and planters that we recycle from tin cans. This craft is called tinnery. We do the production here and then sell them at craft fairs and festivals along the Northeast. We use an oxygen/ acetylene torch to cut designs in the cans. They are polished and given a protective urethane finish. We work in cooperation with a friend of the community, Seth, who lives in Florida and sells his tinnery craft in the Southern states. Local public school cafeterias save cans for us to recycle into our tinnery. Customers at craft festivals seem to go wild over our tinnery and love that they are made out of recycled materials. The craft show season is between June and December. You can buy our tinnery as well as other products made in intentional communities from www.communitymade.com, an online store operated by a community friend, Velma Kahn (a member of Abundant Dawn Community).
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