Seed Bank for the Boundary is off to a great start!.

Come one come all!!!
A Seed Bank for the Boundary is in the forming stages.
We want to gather - and collect the energies ( and seed!) to make this project happen.

The inaugural meeting on Feb. 3rd at 7:00 Pm - at Selkirk College, Grand Forks was very well attended.

The intention is to strengthen our local Food System and help us
become more sustainable, independent and biodiverse with our foods. As
you may know, Grand Forks was once the major seed producer for Canada.
We have the soil, the water, and the know how to have a flourishing
food production system, and to grow all the produce we need for our
region and beyond. To do this we need a good stock of seeds that we
can save, regrow, and save again.

The goal is to grow and save organic and heritage varieties. There are
many Dukhobour varieties here,  if you have any of these varieties or
know people who do, we are requesting donations of small quantities of
these seeds to get us started.

There have already been discussions initiated with the Boundary Museum
which is at the old Fructova school here, who have offered to be the
storage depot for the seeds. We'd like to offer some workshops to the
community on proper seed saving, cleaning and storage techniques, and
then expand into the seed bank.

So... once we have a group, the process begins with choosing the seed
varieties...Dan Jason of Salt Spring Seed Sanctuary
www.seedsanctuary.com has been leading a seed saving project for years
now, and has offered to assist us by sharing his knowledge and
donating some organic seeds to get us started.

 

 So what are the steps we need to take?

1) Gather people who are interested in being part of the project

2) Set an initial meeting date in late Jan or early Feb to develop
concrete strategies for moving forward.

3) Link up with the BOPA Seed Exchange, we need someone who would be
willing to offer a talk either the night before the seed exchange or
on the day itself, on WHY it would be a good idea to have a Seed Bank.
Then we would have a sign up sheet for interested folks to become part
of the project.

4) Dan Jason will then come out to give a talk on HOW to effectively
save seeds, and talk about his experiences.

5) Then the group will choose a few seed varieties each, grow them out
over the summer,, and select the healthiest plants to collect seed
from in the fall,  while noting the growing conditions/soil quality,
and amendments used. The seeds would be grown organically.

6) Once harvested, some of the seeds would be stored in the "Bank" and
some could be sold at the farmer's market etc to raise funds for Sedd
Bank or Ag. Society projects...this to be explored further.

7) The group would meet once or twice a year and exchange information
about the seeds.

 

8) The seed bank would grow from year to year, we would add new
varieties as we find them, and hopefully more people would join the
project.

So this is a loose outline of what has been discussed so far. Please
contact me (Anisah) if you are interested in being part of this
project! anahata.sky@gmail.com Anisah at 250- 443- 4989 or Sheila at 250-442-8583.

Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who you think may be interested and join our new Community Web Forum.. we see this being a multi-generational project - focusing on heritage varieties. So talk to all those wise, senior gardeners and farmers out there- we need their expertise.

Thank You!

Anisah

Friday March 13, 6:00pm – 9:00pm in Grand Forks at the Selkirk College.

INTERNATIONAL FOOD SCHOLAR TO PRESENT AT SEED EXHANGE EVENT

For a look at what may the most important Seed Bank project in the world click here The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or the Doomsday Vault as the media have nicknamed it, will be the ultimate safety net for the world’s most important natural resource.