February 2016
Seedy Saturdays and Sundays are here!
It's Seedy Saturday/Sunday season! There are over 125 events across the country this year, so there's almost certainly one somewhere near you! Find out where and when you can connect with other seed savers, attend workshops, and and buy or exchange seeds.
Have you renewed your membership for 2016?
Check the box on the right to confirm when your membership expires. Renew today to make sure you don't miss the next issue of Seeds of Diversity magazine, or the annual member seed directory. Thank you members!
Thanks for Your Response to the Membership Survey
In October we invited our members and e-bulletin subscribers to participate in a survey to help guide Seeds of Diversity's plans for the future. Many thanks to everyone who responded. We learned a lot, and I'd like to share the highlights with you.
Farmer-Led Breeding: The beauty of partnership and local seed development
There are many wonderful small-scale seed companies across the country producing high-quality seed for backyard gardeners. But despite the growing interest in local seed, it is still difficult for commercial growers in North America to access sufficient amounts of high-quality vegetable seed that is adapted to local conditions, tasty, productive, resilient, nutritious, ecologically grown, and affordable.
Selecting and Rogueing to Improve Crop Genetic Integrity
Sometimes you plant 50 seeds and end up with 50 great plants that produce uniform fruit. Sometimes you plant 50 seeds and end up with 30 great plants and 20 strange looking ones that produce oblong tomatoes or strange coloured lettuce leaves. If you save seeds, there’s a good chance you don’t harvest seeds from every single fruit on every single plant in your garden. Instead, you pick the best fruit from your favorites plants and save those seeds. That’s selection. And, while you are gardening, maybe you pull out and remove the plants that exhibit off-colour leaves or bolt early. That’s rogueing.
The Edible Necklace: Hopniss tubers at the Pollinator Fedge
A pollinator Fedge is a living fence-hedge that provides habitat for native pollinating and other beneficial insects. Pollinator fedges increase the garden’s productivity without chemicals, by increasing biodiversity. The plants grown in our fedge are predominantly native perennials, and have been carefully chosen to offer a continuous nutritious bloom of pollen and nectar, from early spring to late autumn.
In this issue
Thanks for Your Response to the Membership Survey
Farmer-Led Breeding: The beauty of partnership and local seed development
Selecting and Rogueing to Improve Crop Genetic Integrity
The Edible Necklace: Hopniss tubers at the Pollinator Fedge
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 WORKSHOPS
Ecological Seed Production Intensive
Ottawa: March 4, 2016
9:30 am - 3:00 pm
Location TBD
Register through seeds@justfood.ca
SEEDY SATURDAYS AND SEEDY SUNDAYS
Saturday February 27, 2016
Sooke, BC
Saskatoon, SK
Vancouver, BC
Truro, NS
Picton, ON
Milton, ON
Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie, QC
Lasqueti island, BC
Thunder Bay, ON
Indian Head, SK
Sherbrooke, QC
Sunday February 28, 2016
Oliver, BC
Humboldt, SK
Summerside, PE
Saturday March 5, 2016
Gilles, ON
London, ON
Regina, SK
Ottawa, ON
Sault Ste Marie, ON
Brockville, ON
Maynooth, ON
Utopia, ON
Castlegar, BC
Montague, PE
Abbotsford, BC
Neubergthal, MB
Sunday March 6, 2016
Sudbury, ON
Québec, QC
Pembroke, ON
St. Catherines, ON
Perth, ON
Nanaimo, BC
Moose Jaw, SK
Creston, BC
Monday March 7, 2016
Ponteix, SK
Saturday March 12, 2016
Red Deer, AB
Robert's Creek, BC
Kingston, ON
Yorkton, SK
Cobble Hill, BC
Vernon, BC
North Shore Vancouver, BC
Amherst, NS
Powell River, BC
Trail, BC
Chilliwack, BC
Mission, BC
Sunday March 13, 2016
Alma, QC
Cornwall, ON
Peterborough, ON
Sherwood Park, AB
Estevan, SK
Wednesday March 16, 2016
Gatineau, QC
Saturday March 19, 2016
Kamloops, BC
Calgary, AB
Frelighsburg, QC
Lillooet, BC
Cobourg, ON
Brampton, ON
Kelowna, BC
Guelph, ON
Terrace, BC
Saint John, NB
Sunday March 20, 2016
Edmonton, AB
Duncan, BC
Saskatoon, SK
Saskatoon, SK
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