January 2013

January - what a classic month for poring through seed catalogues, garden planning, and dreaming of the growing season to come. This month we're giving you some resources and ideas for acquiring rare, heirloom, open-pollinated or locally saved seed. One great way? Our 2013 Member Seed Directory just arrived in members' inboxes TODAY! If you're not a member, join now to gain access to 3,456 seed varieties saved by our members acrss the country. Other ideas? Attend a seed swap...purchase seed from a small, local seed-saver...access a seed library... There are plenty of ways to be part of an extraordinary living gene bank!

A Living Gene Bank: Swapping Seeds

Connecting seed savers and gardeners across the country, Seedy Saturday seed exchanges, our Member Seed Directory, and the ever-expanding Canadian Seed Library are 3 very tangible ways that you can be part of the extraordinary and strengthen the limbs of our Canadian food gene bank. These sorts of exchanges not only facilitate the survival, growth and continued evolution of uncommon seed varieties. They also invigorate gardeners - connecting new and experienced growers while facilitating the sharing of experiences and favourite crops.

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Sourcing Canadian, Heritage and Organic Seeds

It’s January….which means that, for many of us, it is seed ordering month. In addition to the good, old-fashioned paper catalogues that likely jam up many of your mailboxes this time of year, we've complied a list of resources to help you source Canadian, heritage, organic or other hard-to-find seed for your gardens!

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Pollinator Patch - Plant Milkweed for Monarchs

There’s a big conflict in Canada between people that want to see this butterfly protected and people that are trying to eliminate milkweed. You can’t do both, you have to protect milkweed to protect the butterfly. What’s going on of course is our kind of insane desire to make everything look like our front lawn and to mow and use herbicides along all our roadsides – that has eliminated a lot of monarch habitat. The biggest impact has been development.

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Farmer's Seed Survey

USC Canada invites Canadian farmers and seed producers to participate in a brief survey to help identify demand and supply trends in the ecological seed sector. Questions relate to which vegetable and field crop seeds are most commonly used, the sources of those seeds, and which seeds are most commonly sold by Canadian seed companies. Survey results will provide very helpful information about both demand and supply, and help identify opportunities for ecological seed production in Canada.

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