The Stewardship Pemberton Society (SPS) is marking the start of the growing season with a seed swap at the Pemberton Downtown Community Barn on March 16, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“It's really just this big kick-off event for the spring,” said SPS feasting for change director Nikki Lax.
“Everything revolves around this seed swap, where gardeners and local seed growers have donated seed to us to distribute, and then other gardeners in their community can show up with seeds that they've saved and they give them out to people... it's just a bunch of great sharing and trading.”
Attendees will also be able to ask their gardening and seed-saving questions directly to regional food security organizations and local garden and food vendors. The event will feature all-ages free activities, snacks and live music.
In addition to a mug for hot drinks, SPS asks attendees to bring seeds they’d like to share with others.
“Ideally, people show up with seeds that they want to share," Lax told Pique.
"And if they don't, that's OK, too. People who show up to Seedy Sunday can learn some of the tools and the skills to be able to grow out those seeds in their garden, save the seeds and bring them back for next year.”
In addition to smaller batches of seeds brought in by attendees, there will be plenty of seeds donated by groups like West Coast Seeds, Salt Spring Seeds and Sunshine Farm Seeds, as well as from local gardeners and farmers who have contributed to the Pemberton Seed Library.
To sort through that mountain of seeds, SPS is holding a Seedy Social from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27 at the Pemberton Legion.
“We're going to be taking those seeds and repackaging them into smaller sizes,” said Lax. “That takes a lot of labour and people power, because to properly package up these seeds, we want to have all the information of the seed grower, the variety, the growing information [and] where it came from... kind of the story of that seed."
“So the seed-packing social is a really helpful volunteer activity to make light work of the pretty big task of turning these large seed donations and kind of bulk seeds that we've saved in our gardens into small packages that can be grabbed at our seed swap.”
Lax said one of the overarching themes the SPS is trying to promote through Seedy Sunday is the idea of seed security—a subsection of food security. Seed security means having access to enough good-quality seeds to grow crops and feed a family.
“We're trying to kind of demonstrate that [even in] these small actions of borrowing a seed from the seed library that a farmer down the road grew that you grow in your garden, save the seeds and bring it back to the seed library... If someone shows up next year and they get to grow out those seeds and kind of continue that cycle ... that is seed security, that is food security, that is positive climate action.”
SPS needs volunteers for the Seedy Social and Seedy Sunday. Those interested can reach out to Nikki Lax at [email protected].
