- Let's head east to Bertie County, where a new storefront is helping preserve something deeply rooted in culture and history, seeds.

Let's find out how Bertie County Seeds is helping to connect growers of all kinds.

- In the riverside town of Colerain, something extraordinary is taking root.

It looks like a seed store, and it is, but it's also a living seed depository intent on promoting food security.

- So of course, we have a lot of different gardening necessities, but also have a lot of pantry items, dry good items, where most items are from different small businesses in North Carolina.

- Gold rice.

- The gold rice, that's a big one out from Oriental.

- The variety and value here is staggering.

Bertie County Seeds has nearly 1,000 varieties, which have been lovingly cultivated to thrive.

You can buy a little or a lot.

It gives people the opportunity to come in and see the seed that they're buying, price by the ounce, but we'll sell them a half ounce, quarter ounce, whatever they want.

- I'm really enjoying seeing all of the different medicinal herbs that are in the seed packets, and I really like getting a bunch of the Jerusalem artichoke tubers, so that I can have some perennial vegetables in my garden.

- Native chefs like Adassa Patterson host cooking demonstrations to share culinary technique and to celebrate delicious indigenous foods.

Beth and Frank have preserved ancestral seeds for nearly two decades.

- I've been working with the seeds since the 2010s as part of a program to reconnect people to our seed work, and we're talking about ancestral seeds that's been passed down for thousands of years from different people, not even just our tribal community.

Some of these things were given to us, you know, with writing on the package, last known sample, so no pressure at all to keep these things going.

And when COVID happened, all the major seed companies across the United States shut down, so after the toilet paper ran out, the seeds were the thing.

Overnight, we had over 30,000 people just come to all of our social media, reach out, we're making orders nonstop.

That's kind of like where we get the world's biggest little seed store, 'cause even from our start, and operating out of a cardboard box, people treated us like we were this massive seed store.

- Incredibly, this little seed store sells nearly 9,000 packets of seed a week.

Their mission focuses on ensuring food security and environmental sustainability for indigenous people and their community.

- We're still passing on these ancestral seed techniques and traditions, but we're doing so in a modern cultural context, so we're doing it together.

- Colerain used to be the largest freshwater fishery in the world.

They used to fish and can a lot of herring out of the Chowan River, which is just about a mile and a half down the road from us.

- The residents have great hope that the seed store will help Colerain blossom.

- A lot of people just have pride in and around Colerain and that history and the economy that once was.

And there's still plenty of people that are hopeful this economy can kind of revitalize itself here.

They're starting to adopt our vision and see what can come from the work that we are bringing to this town.

- Yeah, it's just been so fun to have what we are calling that third space for folks to come in and talk seeds and talk story.

And so often, they have just the most amazing things to tell us, and there are so many indigenous folks out there that are hungry for this, and are just ready to take on this charge.

And so we are looking to work more closely with indigenous growers, but also open that up to folks who are willing to grow with us while creating really great, healthy seed and supporting different communities all over the country.

- I can't wait to plant these seeds.

I don't know about you, but I've never seen orange okra before, and I now know where to get more beautiful varieties, right here at Bertie County Seeds in Colerain.

- Bertie County Seeds is located in Colerain at 124 South Main Street.

For a detailed listing of their hours, visit them online at allianceofnativeseedkeepers.com.