Until recently, every gardener in the world saved their own seed. And every gardener was, therefore, a plant breeder.
They simply saved the seed of the plants that did best for them, and which they liked most. Although simple, this was efficient.
If things changed so that your cabbages didn’t do well, someone down the road had a slightly different one that would cope. This has worked very well for the past 11,000 years.
Follow
There's this project to make free (as in not patented) seeds available:
