During this time of cold and dark the thing that brings the most excitement is planning for the the next growing season to come. And what better way to fuel the excitement than swapping a bunch of seeds with fellow gardening enthusiasts in the area. Seed saving holds it's place as one of the most resilient acts of food production, and consequently of communal sovereignty. Growing our own food allows us to to not only lead much healthier and observant lives, it enables us to be honorably interdependent upon our local community and not subject to the whims of the conventional food system. And where do all of our delicious annual veggies spring from? Seeds naturally. Seed saving is the basis of food production. A small scale swap such as the Food Not Lawns event promotes the exchange of open pollinated varieties from plants that have been deemed particularly effective within the local climate by the grower, further promoting the health and vitality of the local food system. Several righteous seed saving pioneers attended the swap, including the incredibly talented
Adaptive Seeds folks, exchanging free seeds amongst area gardeners. We brought a tables worth (literally) of seed from our household, but made off with some particularly exciting goodies that we cannot wait to get in the ground next year.
A few notables:
-Golden Days Garbanzo Beans from Harry McCormack
-historic family heirloom Whipple Beans
-Marfax Cow Peas from Dan Armstrong
-Johnny Gunter potatoes (ooooh)
