Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Seed Saving Exchange: Save money with local winners!

The wonderful folks over at the Tompkins County Cornell Cooperative Exchange host an annual "Seedy Saturday Seed Swap" for local gardeners to come and exchange seeds they saved from last year's crop.




Cost of admission is either a $5 donation OR seeds to swap with others.





In addition to swapping seeds, the day featured hands-on workshops on indoor seed starting, and beginner seed saving and seed cleaning.

My favorite aspect of this event was the ability to speak with the folks providing the seeds to get detailed information about how to grow a certain variety in our climate. This is different than the blurbs on the back of seed packets and often much more specific because the info is coming from experienced gardeners working with similar conditions as us.

Look at the detailed information supplied for the popcorn.

And because the seeds were free we were able to pick up seeds that maybe we wouldn't pay for this year, particularly flowers and herbs.



All told we brought home 25 vegetables, 2 beans, 5 herbs and 7 flowers. Not bad for $5.

Averaged at $2.50 a packet, which is definitely on the low end, we figure we would have spent $97.50. And we got invaluable information from local gardeners.





This year we plan to save seeds and I'm sure I'll write about our experiences doing so.


Until then, here are some resources we'll be using:

http://howtosaveseeds.com
http://www.sprg.info/seedsave101.pdf

Check out your local exchange for similar workshops and resources.

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