Seedy Sunday (and Saturday)

A whole lot of seedy stuff happening at Perth this Sunday.

Seedy weekend or as I'm calling it the seed enthusiasts annual reunion started in Ottawa. Lots of friends, lots of seeds, and little parking but I'd like to focus on Seedy Sunday in Perth. Though Ottawa had more vendors and tendors, Perth had a more charitable flavour. Local companies had respectable selections including Yuko's Open Pollianted Seed*, Mountain Grove Seed, Heritage Seeds and Produce and others with seed packages in the 2-3 dollar range rather than closer to 4 as it was in the 'big city.'

In fact, the zero dollar price tag really set apart two booths. Robert and Carol Mouck maintain a large selection of rare, heritage varieties. They had their table set up with bottles filled with beautiful seed to give away. All they asked for in return was the promise that you would keep the seed. As Carol explained to me heirloom seeds are "treasured," "a gift," and "have a right to be grown." They started on a farm 30 years ago with Dorset Horn sheep and crops. Wanting to create a more self sustaining system, they started to save their own seed and from this a passion to preserve rare varieties was born.


The beautiful gift of seed from Robert and Carol Mouck.

Though now they focus on disseminating seed and knowledge to local backyard growers and farmers, the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary they founded lives on.

Also, bringing the love of sharing and seed to the community is the Perth & District Union Public Library with a seed lending library. Yes, they just managed to combine two of my favourite things in the world: seeds and libraries. I'd heard rumours of something like this happening in Toronto too. Simply borrow seeds, set some aside for yourself and return the surplus to the library. Are your eyes popping out of your head now? Are you dancing in the streets? Don't you love this idea as much as me??

I love it so much that if Ottawa isn't cooking this up, then my hand is bouncing up and down in the air to help set this up. If it is already underway on the hush-hush (or I just missed it), then let me know what I can do to help.

***

Seed Libraries
A list of Seed Libraries
* Yuko's Open Pollinated Seed's Annual Plant Sale will be on the weekends of May 11/12 and 18/19 between 8am and 2pm at 202 Arklan Road, Carleton Place.

Seedy SaturdayA City of Food

The most exciting thing about Seedy Saturday was not...

Before Picture: This is what setup looks like. Scroll down to end if you want to see the After Picture. Notice Greta (organizer in the orange shirt) of Greta's Organic Garden tirelessly working. She's been the coordinator for this Seeds of Diversity event for many years.

Trading and Buying Seeds

I know what you mean random guy, "It is hard to say no to all those great varieties and as an enabler told me, it's a cheap habit."

Chatting with Friends

Here are my partners in crime (wo)manning the Canadian Organic Growers- Ottawa Chapter booth: Connie and Lloyd. These guys are workhorses! You may recognize them from such places as Seedy Sunday at Perth, various organic events like Feast of Fields and EcoFarm Day, farmer's markets and more.

Meeting New People

Like this lady from The Garlic News and Beaver Pond Estates who suggested I try a soft neck variety that's hardy and a good keeper. I'm on the waiting list, looking forward to making some garlic braids.

Eating the Goodies or any of the other Activities...

Yeah, it was busy though perhaps a few less elbows to rub as you crane your neck at the seeds than last year.

... It was Finally Tracking Down these People!

Twigs were growing around the building asking you to pick a website: www.HiddenHarvestOttawa.ca

Who are they? Not the Sasquatch or the Loch Ness monster. No, they are the until now elusive urban orchard people like Not Far From the Tree in Toronto. It's a way of making use of all that beautiful and often unharvested fruit within city limits. Want to know more about Hidden Harvest Ottawa? I'm hoping to post an interview with the organizers very soon.

In the meantime, here are some other initiatives to get us growing in the city:

Community Orchard brought to you by the Heron Park Community Association - You are in the pre-know so look for info on this project after March 20th at the above site.

Just Food does a lot more than just food: Check out their community building website. Here is the link to a list of Community Gardens in Ottawa.

Veggie Patch: New to me, this is an urban Ottawa based CSA that uses rented garden plots (my understanding is its land for veggies) to run a patch work farm. It looks like it works on the principal of SPIN farming.

My Review of Seedy Saturday

The trade table was hopping and bopping with lots of donations from regular folk and seed vendors (Nice to see you here Mountain Grove Seeds), but was it my imagination or were there less seed vendors and more sundries this year?

Overall, the sketchy weather seemed to keep the hordes at bay so there was breathing room to manoeuvre between booths. I have to assume you all have enough seeds from last year. Now that was a crowd!

I really enjoyed meeting up with plant buddies such as the twin themed I Wet My Plants and I Soil Myself who came out of blogger hiding to dash off a few posts (keep them coming) as well as some more folk for a few private seed exchanges. It's a party folks - if by party you mean hanging out with a lot of chlorophyll drunk people giddy over pre-baby plants.

Next up on the calendar of plant fun, I'll be giving a talk on Starting Up Your Organic Vegetable Garden in North Grenville at the Branch Restaurant. Come out and say hi.

***

P.S. I'm still on the lookout for something substantial on:

Urban Foraging - *Your Group Meetings Here*

Ottawa Guerilla Gardening - *Your Clandestine Drops Here*

Any other Projects? Let me know.

Ottawa Seedy Saturday But can you have too many seeds?

I do it for the kids. Look how happy my youngest is with our plant loot.

After a hectic drive in slushy ice, I (just) made it but I was not there to get seeds. No, I was there to give seeds away. I had a bag full of them! Unfortunately, my busy week had prevented me from organizing them into neat baggies so once again they were hastily filled and labelled behind the trade table. Did I mention I was late?

Thankfully, I Wet My Plants came to the rescue and helped. She's my bestest plant sale buddy as I see her at all the horticultural hot spots. This year I hope to hit her tomato seedling sale in the spring. I did a trade with her of course. How could I resist sweet potato tubers - Georgia Jet - for slip production?


Trade Table contributor and Fellow Garden Blogger: I Wet My Plants

I also met fellow Ottawa gardener and blog reader Steve. Wave! Speaking of old and new faces. Lots of my favourites like Tourne-Sol and Cottage Gardener were there. Waves! New to me was Wildsome Gardens, Wild & Historic Plants & Seeds. She had a nice selection of vegetables along with some wild edibles like Highbush Cranberry and Poppy Mallow. In between all the 'hey how are yas?' and shoulder rubbing in the thick crowd, I did not buy seeds. Sure I looked. Oh yeah, I asked about some varieties. Just cause I'm not touching, doesn't mean I can't look right?


There were people, plants, seeds and soap. More people, chocolate, honey and talks. More and more people... it was well attended.

While I was carousing with plants and people, the NGS (non-gardening spouse)** was with the children in the craft room. As I was standing in the doorway watching their darling heads bent in furious colouring concentration, I looked to the left and then to the right. Before leaving this morning, I had, had a little talk with myself about how I did not need anymore seeds. As I parked, I felt good about lightening my seed load. I had resisted until now but... You know what happened.


Okay, so I did get some seeds, but most of them were from the trade table. Left: bought seeds from Heritage Seed and Produce and tubers from Tourne-Sol. Right: trade table bonanza. Blue ribbon winner for labelling is a tie between 'pole beans' and 'Rumex, perennial.' I can't wait to find out what exactly they are, especially the second one. I am so guilty of this sort of labelling. Also came home with a Canna lily, True Potato Seed (T.P.S.)*** from Russian Blue, and more. Thank you so much fellow gardeners!

P.S. I still have some extras. Take them from me. Take them! If you live in the area, send me your address (email on right) and I'll send you a surprise package of edible plant seeds. I'm not promising you don't have them or even want them but heck they'll be free! Please?

* Tourne-Sol Co-operative Ferme is a seed company, and CSA if you are nearby. They have developed a very neat seed selection called Winter Green which is "a mix of brassicas we've selected for quick regrowth in cold temperatures..." It is also a source for bulk cover crops, Jeruselam Artichokes, chuffa nuts, some modern OP crops such as Banana Legs sauce tomato bred by Tom Wagner and Rainbow Lacinato Kale from Frank Morton, among other interesting plants. I've got a good feeling about these guys.

** Non Gardening Spouse is drifting over to the green and growing side. He even manned a seed booth while the owner stepped out for a moment. I don't know, we might be an all-gardening couple soon.

*** For those curious about True Potato Seed, Extreme Gardener's TPS: Who's Yer Daddy? is an enlightening article.

Spring in your step Seedy Saturday 2010

People chatting seeds and plants.

It was a gorgeous day for Seedy Saturday in Ottawa which put extra sunshine into everyone's smiles. I look forward to this event every year, not only as an opportunity to get some seeds (that's always great) but also to meet up with friends.

Some old friends...
and by that I mean well worn in the memory files

The first thing you see as you walk in is the trade table. My seeds are in little plastic baggies with indelible ink written across the front. We'll call this minimalist compared to the cute designs of I Wet My Plants. Here she is laying her loot for others to collect. We did some tomato seed trading but I only had one variety that she was interested in OSU blue - I think she's seen it all.


Garden Blogger and Tomato Plant seller from I Wet My Plants

Another lovely lady dropped off some very well labelled alpine plant seeds to which I nearly shouted "score" as I picked up Allium karataviense. She was also my source of Kinnikinnick though this is a slow, finnicky plant so I'm not getting my hopes up BUT gardeners are nothing if not optimistic.

Beside them was aptly Seeds of Diversity, "a Canadian volunteer organization that conserves the biodiversity and traditional knowledge of food crops and garden plants." These gals were having a good time. Then I bumped into the gentleman at the Canadian Organic Growers, we'd had a chat at Eco Farm Day too so it seems that we're moving in the same circles. Also, there were USC Seeds of Survival, and Just Foods, to name a few.


All smiles at the Seeds of Diversity booth.

After the tendors*, we get to the vendors where I bumped into Val, the head administrator of Ottawa Plantcycle, hanging out near the honey. She spoke to me about the possiblilty of more trading and giving opportunties in the form of a plant event in the spring. If you haven't been to this 'freecycle' for plants, it's a fun community.


Mmmm... yummy country style eats.

...some newer friends...

Among the books, food, other eco-products and of course seeds, I saw Cottage Gardener and hopefully took a slightly less stunned picture of her than a few years ago. There were no shortage of seed vendors including Tourne-Sol who was had some unusual seed/plant such as red broomcorn, chufa nuts and two kinds of Jeruselum Artichokes.


Cottage Gardener overlooking her busy stand.

After all this frenzied filing through seed packets, I decided to go outside for a bit more of that glorious Vitamen D when someone came up to me and asked, "Are you Hortiphilia? We've been on your new blog." I have to admit to being surprised so I asked how he had unmasked my identity to which he replied that I had been covering the event for a couple years now - true - and that he figured the snap happy picture taker must be yours truly. Was there really no press there or am I just that obvious? Anyhow, for recognizing me, let's recognize one of the many value added vendors Honey Pie Hives and Herbals - "Make Pie, not War."


That has nothing to do with honey. You're right. It's some pitcher plants from Connaught Nursery: Ottawa Valley Native Plants & Wildlflowers.

...and some that were brand new

The crowd was crowdful and among them were many green thumbs not in my memory bank, including this representative from Steward Bags. Not only is she providing a useful product but she has given me the opportunity to mention what I consider the hypocrisy of grocery stores discouraging the plastic bag for their alternative, usually sold at the cash, the slightly longer lasting plastic bag. We have a bunch of old cloth conference bags picked up from years at second hand stores but they aren't so easy to find now.



This year, my impression was that there were lots of talks, but less stuff for kids though I didn't have my darlings with me so I might have missed something. Most importantly, there were no shortage of seeds and the trade table was hopping.

Speaking of new - Perth joins the party


Event was held at the Perth Legion, which I understand is also the farmer's market.

On another undeniably beautiful day, I stopped by the first annual Perth Seedy Sunday. There was breathing room here but still a good turnout. The talks were given on the stage creating an interesting (unobtrusive) live performance. While I was there, the subject was seed starting.


My daughter checks out some potatoes. There were also eggs and farm produced goodies.

Among the locals was a new seed company Mountain Grove Seed Co. She had a nice selection of vegetables, herbs and flowers. We had a chat about kids playing with seeds and even made a few seed exchanges! She doesn't yet have a website but if you live in the area, look her up.


Here is Dawn from Mountain Grove Seed Co. showing me her products, seeds and smile.

The last thing I saw was their trade table where I dropped off a few more packets of my minimalist labelled seed packets before picking up some citron and naked pumpkin seed.

And now I go home to stuff my seed tower with but more planting promise.


*Tendors: Unselling volunteers tending their stand

***

Seedy Saturday near your place

Update on seed trades and giveaways ANDreminder Seedy Saturday

The last mailout of seeds ready to stuff into envelopes.

I'm happy to report that at the end our fiscal year, the completely FREE seed giveaway was a great success. I had people requesting seed from all over Canada and the US. As part of larger seed trading / giveaway networks, including the International Seed Network hosted by Bifucated Carrot, I had the priveledge of sending seeds cross the Atlantic as well.

Most of my extra seed is gone but I did keep a bit aside for the last event that is this weekend.

REMINDER

Seedy Saturday Ottawa
March 6, 2010
Fun, food, seed traders, vendors and more!

SEE YOU THERE!

Also, I hear Perth is having their first annual Seedy Sunday on March 7 so you could make a weekend out of it.

Seedy Saturday 2009 - good luck finding parking

Have you noticed the increasing interest in vegetable gardening? Perhaps you thought it was all in your mind - a product of your own obsession. Maybe you figured your garden groaning full of plants or your shirt that says 'let's talk dirt' just made people gravitate toward the subject of plants.

Let me give you some evidence that you are not crazy and that people have become more interested in vegetable gardening:


Light flooded stands filled with people. You had to elbow your way to the seed displays or at least politely squirm your way through. That blank space near the front of the picture was a fluke as it quickly disappeared. The two people 'answering questions' - bearded guy, and the lady with grey hair on the far right - are from Greta's Organic Garden. You guessed it, the lady is Greta.

What is Seedy Saturday 2009?

This is a seed fair organized by Seeds of Diversity Canada to bring together local organic, open pollinated, heritage seed vendors, other eco-vendors, and interested organizations. It is held in many locations across Canada and is a great way of getting seeds from many different companies while avoiding the mailing costs.


Sorry for profiling you mystery picture people. It was a fun day, wasn't it? (If that's you, let me know. I'm always curious who I accidentally photograph.)

Of course, you can always bring your own seed for trading at the Swap Table. While chatting with the man supervising the mayhem of seed exchanges, he mentioned that he was going to bring a lot more seed next year. Same here, I told him and I do not mean that as an idle threat. As I am about waist deep in seeds, I only picked up two packages of seeds from the Swap Table: Tiger's Eye brown mutation beans, and Leaf Celery.

The Girls on How to Pick the Right Seeds

When it comes to exchanging money for seed, I promised my girls one seed package each. Their choices will give you insight into how kids see the mysterious promise of a seed.

Eldest: "I want something about dragons."
Me: "Like those snapdragon seeds you saw, you mean?"
Eldest: "Yeah, I want dragon seeds, but no dragon vegetables. I like flowers better."

We saunter over to La Vie En Rose Gardens that specialize in flower seeds and bearded iris rhizomes.


My little ones getting ready for the puppet show - they liked the organic chocolate.

Me: "Do you have any snapdragon?"
Lady: "Sorry, we only have one kind, frosted flames, I think."
Eldest: "Yeah, flaming dragon seed. That's what I want to grow."
Me: "Perfect. And what would you like," I ask my youngest.
Youngest: "Sunflowers!"
Me: "Do you have sunflowers?"
Lady: "Yes, we do. A whole page in fact. You might like..." names ensue.
Youngest: "Teddy Bear!"
Me: "They are Teddy Bear sunflowers, okay?"
Youngest: "Yup, Teddy Bears."
Oldest: "And dragons!"

So there you go, in our garden, we are sowing magic seeds and out of these will appear flowers but they are really dragons and teddy bears.

Bring Your Kids and Leave 'em with the NGP (non gardening partner) in the Craft Room



The kids also got to exercise that imagination again at the puppet show. In previous years, there has always been a supervised craft room where they glue seeds to a piece of paper. This year, they went all out and had the Paddling Puppeteer do an eco/history show on the river. It was fun.

Funny I Should See You Here...



Like usual I met many friends there including two plancycle members. Carmel from Cosmoz Design was selling her mytholical sculptures which included dragons but I managed to convince the kids that what our garden really needed was a green gargole.


Yuko selling seeds, supplies and seedlings. She had some wolf berry there which I was tempted by.

I also saw fellow garden blogger from I Wet My Plants. (I got what I thought was a great picture of her and her nephew but it was out of focus so I'll have to wait and take a better one to do her justice another time.) She was listing all the vendors so hopefully she'll post us on her Seedy Saturday experience soon. It would be useful to know exactly who was there. I did see many of the regulars including The Cottage Gardener, and Yuko's Open Pollinated Seeds.

So What Did You Find?



But my mission was to find a new seed vendor. Selling useful herbs was Amelie and Karine from Hortilege. She also had herbal preparations for those that wanted to skip the growing phase or who shy away from growing nettle in their garden (my hand is up).

And there were organizations such as The Canadian Organic Growers, The Green Party, talks, food, fun and more.

Did I also mention that it was busy? By busy I mean hold your breath, tuck in your arms and shimmy to the next stand, wait in line like you needed a loan to talk with the seed seller, and burst out of the crowd to get some fresh air kind of busy.

Busy. I am imagining all those new or newly expanded gardens popping up like dandelions and I love it!


Of course with all that hard work staring at the fine print on seed packs, you'll need refreshments and there was no shortage of that as well.

What should I grow? A primer of classic vegetables

If you are a fellow urban 'farmer,' then this time of year is filled with intricate 4 dimensional planting charts, and painful decisions about what not to plant. Then again, perhaps you just embrace the seeds but then wonder when the time comes where you are going to cram all those plants? Or maybe you are new to vegetable gardening and are trying to decide what best to plant? Well, friends, I am here to try to help because it is my trial too so let us think of some criteria:


a. Will my family eat it?
b. Will it grow with minimum fuss here?
c. Is it a space hog or will it provide me with maximum food output with minimum space?
d. Does it taste better fresh fresh, not normally available or is very expensive?
e. Is the store bought / non organic version normally high in pesticides?



Don't feel like playing my Q&A game then let me give you some common, mostly annual veggies that meet many of the above criteria.


1. Beans: easy to grow, you can plant 2-4 inches apart. Fresh beans are available abundantly during the summer and pole beans can be trellised. Also, it's one of the easiest plants from which to save seed.


Sideways picture 'Hunter' bean with broad pods and a ladybug.

2. Peas: See above and add that freshly shelled peas are an exquisite taste that you have to experience to believe. I experience it seldomly as my kids eat most of them.


Glowing peas

3. Roots: carrots, turnips and beets. They don't take up much space and their growing requirements are meagre - a bit of sun, a bit (not too much) fertility and adequate watering. Carrot*, turnip and beet tops are also edible so eat your thinnings. You can often get two crops in a year too. Carrots are one of the dirty dozen food that has a high pesticide residue to boot.


Turnip 'orange jelly' I think it's called and a golden beet by the looks of it beside dandelion?

4.Greens: lettuce, kale, spinach and the like are easy to grow tucked in between plants as they appreciate a little coolness in the summer months. They are not high in calories but superstars when it comes to providing you green vitamen vitality! Also on the dirty dozen list.


Self sown sugarloaf chicory

5. Peppers, especially bell peppers, tomatoes and potatoes are all sprayed within an inch of their life. Thankfully they'll all grow in containers. Just choose shorter varieties unless you have really big containers as indeterminate tomatoes are impressively large by the end of the season and bit tops usually mean big bottoms, ie the roots. If you have the space, potatoes are quite fun to grow. Kids enjoy helping plant the tubers and then dig up the treasures at harvest. Growing your own will also allow you to experience a diversity of varieties that is just not available at the grocery store.


Baby potatoes, the early crop.


Have a bit more space, then consider:


6. Strawberries and other soft fruit like grapes whose thin skins easily absorb pesticide residues.


Plums and cosmos happy together.

7. Cucumbers and squash whose rampant vines can be trellised for cleaner harvest, better air circulation that cuts down on diseases, and of course to save on room. Many kinds grow well in containers too.


Pontimarron squash I believe.



Even more space? Here are some high calorie crops to add to the mix:


8. Onions and leeks are both recommended by Jeavons, author of 'How to grow more vegetables,' the biointensive method.


Yummy onions... pictures of leeks lacking due to leek moth. I hope they enjoyed them.

9. Other roots like parsnip and sweet potato. Short season sweet potatoes will grow very well here with clear plastic mulched beds. Some have success in containers too.


Super delicious sweety 'Georgia Jet'

10. Grains and more pulses like lentils, chickpeas and dried beans. Combined with wheat, hulless barley, amaranth, and corn, you will get a very healthful meal.


Various dried legumes: peas, chickpeas, and beans

And my recommendation.

11. Cabbage fun to grow and surprisingly delicious fresh. It also keeps well in the winter in the back of my fridge. I've put it last as it is a space hog though I commonly space cabbage and broccoli only 12 inches apart and they grow smaller but sizeable heads in fertile soil.


Yes, I really love this picture. (It's been posted before...)

12. Lots of other veggies of course.

Enjoy and remember, Seedy Saturday with its seed trading table is coming up soon.