On Saturday, March 23rd, Golden’s Seventh Annual Seed Swap will be held at the Civic Centre in conjunction with the Golden Farmer’s Market. It is a free event, and you are most welcome to come out even if you don’t have seeds to share or swap. Drop by and pick out some seeds and learn from other seed savers; you can drop some change in the donation jars at the tables.
Golden’s Seed Swap is one of thousands of similar events now being held across Canada and, in fact, around the world.
The story of Canadian Seedy Saturdays began forty years ago when a small group of organic vegetable growers realized that their favourite seed varieties were disappearing from seed catalogues. They formed a seed-saving group to make sure they could keep growing those tried-and-true vegetables and fruit, and over the years thousands of gardeners followed their lead and became seed savers too.
The initial effort grew as inspired volunteers across the country kept in touch by mail, phone, and sometimes fax. They had no Seedy Saturdays or seed libraries to engage new seed savers, and there were very few resources for gardeners to learn the simplest of techniques for growing good seeds.
This intrepid group named itself Seeds of Diversity and is based on the principle that regular gardeners can take control of their own food production by keeping control of seed diversity and heritage.
One of the first things the founders of Seeds of Diversity’s did was to create a national seed exchange so gardeners could easily share their saved seeds through a catalogue. The first edition only had about 100 seed offers but it made a big impact connecting seed savers from coast to coast. There are now over 3000 seed offerings of more than 300 species.
Golden’s own Seed Swap is powered by volunteers who arrange for the event as well as cleaning, packaging and labelling seeds that are donated. And while this is the seventh annual event, Golden has had a long relationship with the national Seeds of Diversity organization.
Thirty or so years ago, upon hearing a conversation on CBC radio with Peter Gzowski and the organizer of Seeds of Diversity Canada, local seed savers Jean and Gordon Dakin, began working to collect and list seeds from their own varieties as well as any others they could garner from local folks already invested in growing good heritage varieties.
Because of the shortage of frost-free days, saving mature seed in the Columbia Valley is problematic, but six viable seeds are still residing in the Seeds of Diversity seed bank in Waterloo. Only one is now listed in the Seed Directory – the Provenzano tomato seed Jean received from Mr. Emelio Provenzano from plants grown by Maria Mastroianni. In the Seeds of Diversity Directory the Provenzano tomato is described as “indeterminate, 1-1 1/2 lb., meaty, heart-shaped fruit has excellent sweet flavour. Very productive. Got seeds […] via Italy to Columbia Valley B.C.”
At the local Seed Swap on March 23rd you’ll be able to find seeds grown by people in this part of the valley which are adapted to our conditions. Learn from your neighbours who are at the event. Grow local food from local seeds!
If you’re interested in more stories like this, check out our local community stories here.
