March 2015
Calling all Seed Savers!
It's time to start planting seeds, folks! If you haven't used it already, our Canadian Seed Catalogue Index is a great resource at this time of year. Seed savers and gardeners can search a huge list of vegetable, fruit and flower seeds sold in Canada, and find out which Canadian seed companies they are offered by. The database includes almost 6400 varieties offered by 95 companies. Read more about the index and the Canadian seed market, or find what you are looking for now. Thanks to all the great Canadian seed companies who make these varieties available to us!
There are still a few Seedy Saturdays and Sundays left! Find out if one of them is in your community.
Happy Seeding!
Staff Picks: The 2015 Seed Directory
Seeds of Diversity's 2015 Member Seed Directory lists 3059 varieties of seeds that our seed saver members have harvested from their own garden plants, and are now offering to all members. That's 91 people offering 189 different plant species, including 534 varieties of beans, 216 peppers, 71 varieties of squash, and 2357 different kinds of tomatoes!
Over the past few weeks, the staff at Seeds of Diversity have been browsing the directory as we plan our gardens as well. Here are our favourite varieties from this year's amazing listings.
The Vegetable Seed Producers Network
Seeds of Diversity is excited to introduce its new Vegetable Seed Producers Network, aimed at producing bulk quantities of high-quality vegetable seed for Canadian farms and gardens. You probably already think of Seeds of Diversity as a network of seed growers, but this is something different. Of course, we already have a network of seed-saving members who collect and preserve small samples of over 3000 varieties of rare heritage seeds. We already have a Seed Library, which stores small back-up samples of many of our members’ seeds. The Vegetable Seed Producers Network will involve many of the same people who save rare heritage seeds, but it will focus on the other end of the seed-saving spectrum: commercial production of tried-and-true Canadian seeds, at farm and wholesale scale.
A Growing Need for Seed Growers
Community seed projects are happening everywhere this year! They're growing fast, and they need local seed savers to help.
If you have experience saving seeds, there are many ways you can get involved in a seed collection project – in your community, or with Seeds of Diversity's national Seed Library. When it comes to seeds, quality is more important than quantity, so it doesn't matter whether your garden is big or small. Any local seed project can only be as good as the seeds that go into it, so what really matters is that your seeds are true-to-type and vigorous.
Body Shop Foundation Sponsors Seed Adoptions
In 2013, the Body Shop Foundation chose Pollination Canada as one of three charities that would receive a portion of the proceeds from sales of Dragon Fruit Lip Butter. Some of you supported this by voting for us on the Body Shop’s website, and buying the lip butter.
Pollination Canada, a program of Seeds of Diversity, decided to put the funds we received towards adopting seeds into the Canadian Seed Library.
Seed adoptions preserve a seed in perpetuity in our seed bank, at a cost of $250 per seed variety. By the conclusion of the campaign, we had gratefully received $9120, which allowed us to make 25 full, new seed adoptions, and complete adoptions of another 23 seed varieties that had previously been partially adopted.
In this issue
Staff Picks: The 2015 Seed Directory
The Vegetable Seed Producers Network
A Growing Need for Seed Growers
Body Shop Foundation Sponsors Seed Adoptions
Not yet a member?
An annual membership to Seeds of Diversity gives you access to our seed exchange, seed grow-out programs, and our online news.
UPCOMING SEEDY SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS
March 21:
Kamloops, Calgary, Grand Forks, Red Deer, Pictou, Knowlesville, Vernon, Bathurst.
March 22:
Toronto (central), South Etobicoke, Edmonton.
March 28:
March 29:
April 11:
Surrey, Bruce County, Wolfville, Clearwater, Quinte West.
April 18:
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