In person Seedy Saturday is back at the Denman Community Hall on January 28th, 2023!
Come join us for interesting talks, local seed vendors and the annual seed exchange.
This Year's Workshops
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Lisa Pierce: The Fruits of Our Labour
How we eliminated fruit from our grocery list. Lessons learned and tips for producing and processing your own berries.
Ed Hoeppner: Greywater Irrigation in Mulch Basins
Ed Hoeppner, retired Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioner will present on using light greywater (bath, shower, and laundry) for irrigation and fertigation of trees. Fertigation involves the blending of diluted urine with greywater.
Serendipity Uprising: Welcoming Biodiversity into Your Garden
AKA "The Birds and the Bees!" Learn why and how to increase the biodiversity of your garden.
Practices and plantings that are critter friendly.
Noah Ross: Growing Grain on Denman Island
Come learn about the grain growing trials that have been happening on Denman Island, the creation of the Denman Island Grain Growers Collective and plans to scale up staple crop production on Denman with new GPA Tool Library equipment.
The Denman Island Growers and Producers Alliance is proud to be hosting this year's Seedy Saturday with Danni Crenna. To support the GPA's work you can DONATE HERE or get a GPA MEMBERSHIP HERE.
Seedy Saturday will take place on January 28th, 2023 at the Denman Community Hall from 10 am - 2 pm. Entrance is by donation.
Seedy Saturdays began in Vancouver in 1989 at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens with a committee headed by Sharon Rempel. Sharon also gave the event its name. The event began as a response to the difficulty, at that time, to find heritage varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers and grains. There are now over 100 Seedy Saturdays throughout Canada and they are spreading throughout the world.
In the fall of 2002, Joy Smith, along with a few like-minded friends and gardeners, was busy organizing the first Seedy Saturday for Qualicum Beach. They based their event on the principles learned from Seeds of Diversity, a non-profit group devoted to preserving non-hybrid seeds and plants for public use and on the objectives of the Vancouver Island Master Gardeners Association which included:
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Encouraging the use of public domain non-hybrid plants of Canadian significance
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Enabling the local trading of heritage and open-pollinated seeds
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Educating the public about environmentally responsible gardening practices.
Dan Jason, who has attended our Seedy Saturday every year, and who has mentored our Seed Saving Group, was the original founder of the Canadian Seed Sanctuary. He is unfortunately not able to attend this year as his wife is very ill, but he will have a presence on our website – the Denman Growers’ and Producers’ site which has a subheading for Seedy Saturday.
This year we plan to have speakers in person in the Back Hall, instead of Zoom talks, and several seed vendors will attend in person as well, including Omega Blue Farms from Spider Lake and Sal Dominelli’s Sweet Rock Farm Seeds.
If you represent a Denman non-profit group or have your own business related to gardening/ sustainability/ etc, please feel free to contact me at dannicrenna07@gmail.com or phone 250-335-0198 to arrange a booth for the Seedy Saturday Event in the Front Hall. Booth fees are a sliding scale amount depending on for-profit or non-profit ventures.
I am also looking for speakers on topics related to permaculture/ seed-saving/sustainability so please suggest ideas or speakers you know of or volunteer. I am hoping for up to four half-hour talks and stipends are available for speakers.
The Seed Trade Table is one of the focal points of our event and is managed by the Seed Savers Group. You are welcome to bring your own seeds that you have saved. Please label them with your name, the variety of plant and its specific name if you know it. The trade system applies – bring a package, take a package – but you can also get seeds by making a donation to the event. Many seed-savers bring many, many packages of each of their seed varietals.
Lunch will be available for sale at the kitchen window, catered by Bee. She promises hearty stew, focaccia, and various baked goodies. All organic and many v/gf options .
Please consider a donation at the door to help with expenses, but this is a free event.
The Denman Island Seed Library, which is housed at the Portable at the school (aka. The Food Bank), will be present at the seed exchange and will happily accept any seeds that are left over after the seed exchange. The Seed Library offers free seeds year round in the CAP Site next to the pre-school. It is open 4-7 pm on Thursdays.