As the ground beneath feet our slowly becomes visible again after a hard winter, gardeners’ thoughts are turning to digging in it.
At Evergreen’s fourth annual
Seedy Sunday, horticultural experts and neophytes alike will have the opportunity to buy, sell and trade local heritage and heirloom seeds—as well as the stories that accompany the seeds.
“There’s always been a seed catalogue you can order your seeds from, but the beauty of this event is meeting the folks who have grown out the seeds and having a one-on-one relationship with them,” says Ryan Johnston, project manager of urban agriculture at Evergreen. “The conversations are usually centred around what worked really well in the garden last year, and what are you planning for this year.” By sharing experiences and strategies as well as seeds, participants are more likely to get the best results.
To kickstart these conversations, this year Seedy Sunday is introducing platonic “seed dating” where participants get to talk to other growers for three minutes before a bell rings and they move on to talk to the next grower. Attendees will also be able to chat with food producers who participate in community-supplied agriculture, where consumers sign up for pre-paid plans with farmers.
While large-scale agriculture relies on fewer and fewer varieties of fruit, vegetables and flowers—usually the hardiest, not the tastiest—there’s been a renewed interest in sharing heirloom seeds in order to maintain seed diversity. Attendees who check out seed from the
Toronto Seed Library, which is hosting the event with Evergreen and
Seeds of Diversity, are expected to return the seed after their harvest.
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Ryan Johnston