Seedy Saturday - Powell River

The first Seedy Saturday happened in Vancouver, BC in Feb 1989. Initiated by Sharon Rempel, a director of Canada's Heritage Seed Program (now Seeds of Diversity), that first Seedy Saturday brought hundreds of people together to share and swap their seeds and the stories behind them, to rescue and rejuvenate open-pollinated varieties which, then as now, were disappearing from the commercial seed catalogs along with their unique and irreplaceable genes.

Since then, the importance and urgency of saving old and non-commercial varieties has, if anything, increased. The seed industry has continued to concentrate in the hands of a few large companies, as they buy up smaller competitors, and the usual consequence of that is that local, regional and specialized varieties disappear from the purchased company's catalog.

This can happen suddenly and without warning, especially if there is only one source for a variety. One year your favorite variety is in multiple catalogs: the next year, because the company that grew it has been taken over or closed down, it's vanished.

The seed exchange at most Seedy Saturdays works in a similar way.

First, you need to package your seeds. Our community holds a "packing party" a month or so before Seedy Saturday to pre-pack donated seed, but individual gardeners also pack their seed before they come. All you need is a sealable envelope of some kind (some events like a clear plastic baggie, others prefer paper) and to identify the variety, year collected, and any history you know, on the envelope. Recycled envelopes are great as long as they can be sealed. Envelopes which lose their seeds make a big mess! We also provide a table, envelopes etc to pack your seeds right at the event.

Next, you bring your packaged seeds to the checkin table. At our event you get a paper slip with a number of "credits" according to the number of envelopes of seed you brought, but other events may use different systems.

Now you get to the fun part - choosing your seeds! There are usually dozens or even hundreds of varieties of flower, herb and vegetable seeds on display for you to pick from. Usually, you get to take away up to the same number of envelopes as you came with.

Because people arrive with more seeds all through the day, it's a good idea to keep coming back to the seed tables to see if there's anything else you want.

If you don't have seeds to trade, many seed exchanges will allow you to buy seeds. We limit buying to only 10 packages, otherwise we would be sold out within the first hour and have nothing left for trading, but your event may differ, or not allow buying at all.

The seed exchange is the heart and soul of Seedy Saturday and the reason for being, but you will usually find other things going on at these events too. These are the things I've seen at our Powell River event (300-400 visitors) and Courtenay/Comox (thousands of visitors):

• Commercial seed vendors - usually small local companies, but some larger regional ones too. many are organic, but not all. Some are more professional than others too, with better seed quality. Try a few packets from a company that's new to you before you buy up their whole seed list :)


• Information tables for local gardening, agricultural, seed, food and environmental groups. These are often fascinating.


• Workshops on gardening-related subjects, often included with your admission (but sometimes extra cost).


• Food to buy and eat on the spot. No need to leave - stay for the whole day and have lunch and snacks there!


• Kids table with activities and interesting stuff


• Book and magazine swap that works like the seed swap, but for gardening books and magazines.


• Silent auction - featuring everything from seeds, to manure, to books, to anything else garden and food related. Mmmm, local honey!


• Commercial garden-related vendors - some events are a "Garden Fair" as well as a seed exchange, and can have a lot of vendors.