Tell Us About Your Local Seed Swaps

Are you hosting or attending a local seed swap? Tell us about it ahead of time. Perhaps we can meet you there.

Did you recently attend a seed swap? What did you like about it? What would you like to do differently next year?

Hosting a seed swap can be as easy as setting up a meeting time/location, and then advertising the heck out of it. Some tables and chairs help a lot, and it's nice to be out of the rain.

I'm expecting to attend two seed swaps this spring. I attended both of these swaps last year. They were great swaps. I'm bringing seeds for gifting, for swap, for sale, and for food.

Congratulate me on being at my lowest weight in decades, and I'll feel so content that I'll give you a free packet of seeds. And I'm single now, so don't feel shy about introducing yourself.

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The first is hosted by the People's Market in Salt Lake City. The swap runs from 4 pm to 7 pm, Saturday, February 6th, 2016, in the auditorium at the Sorenson Center at 855 California Ave, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Workshops will be held in the classrooms.

4:15 to 5 Fred Montague "3x6 Beds and Why We Should Garden" Rm #1
5:15 to 6 pm Jen Colby "Slow Food Sark of Taste" Preserving seeds to preserve biodiversity - Rm #1
4 to 4:45 Felecia Maxfield-Barrett "Starting Seeds Indoors" Rm #2
5:00 to 5:45 Patricia Messer "Preserving Peppers to Rose Petals" Rm #2
6 pm to 6:45 pm TBD No Wasted Space

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The second is hosted by The Ogden Seed Exchange. 10 AM to Noon, February 20th, 2016 at the Ogden Preparatory School, 1415 Lincoln Avenue, Ogden, Utah.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
The first is hosted by the People's Market in Salt Lake City. The swap runs from 4 pm to 7 pm, Saturday, February 6th, 2016, in the auditorium at the Sorenson Center at 855 California Ave, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Really? There's a 1 in a 1000 chance I will be in SLC during that time. If I can make it work, I will drop by, with husband in tow and dog in the car.

I'm not hosting, but I'll be attending Seedy Saturday in Victoria BC.

No poster picture, but I don't want to feel left out, so I found this "Inspiring poster of seeds designed by Taarini Chopra" that the Seedy Saturday organizers tweeted.




I love seedy saturday. I spent a good chunk of time, enjoying listening to the hum of people in the room. It was also overwhelming to have that many people pressing against each other when I spend most of my day on the farm with the growy things. For a gentler sole like me, I missed out on a lot because I couldn't push my way through the mass of people in front of each stall. My favourite seed seller had no less than six rows of people packed around his booth... so I gave up and ordered by mail. But, it was delightful to see how enthusiastic the crowd was about seeds.


Last year they had a seed exchange table. It was... challenging for me.

I was so excited, it was my first Seedy Saturday, so I carefully measured and labeled my seeds with everything from when harvested, to germination rate, to number of seeds... only to discover that many people people wrote "beans", "tomatoes", "yummy green thing".... or nothing at all, with just some seeds in a clear plastic bag (with a bit of condensation on the inside). This disappointed me. The majority of the seeds were better, they had things like "white runner beans", "beefsteak tomato", "Kale".

When we arrived with the seeds, we were directed to fill out a very intense form with planting data, harvesting location, germination tests... blablabla, it's two sided! Even I don't have that kind of information. I bet it put a lot of people off. The form goes in the file, and the number that corresponds to that form gets written on the seed packet before you take it to the exchange table. In theory, if you want to look up the details of the "squash" you can go to the file and seek it... only it's not that easy, and the volunteers were overwhelmed, so no one did. I don't know what the point of it was.

We then take our seeds to the table and put them in the corresponding section. At that point, we have an opportunity to select from the seeds that are already there. In theory we should swap one to one, but they gave that up the first half hour into the show. People just took what they wanted.

I got some white runner beans (which were really old seed and one out of the packet germinated), and a paste tomato... which had a disease, which spread to the rest of my tomatoes and because the disease came from the seed, I didn't save any seeds from my crop this year, which delayed my breeding project.

Oh dear, I didn't mean to turn that into a real downer... maybe it could be used as inspiration by others to make their seed exchange run smoother?


More positive things about our seedy saturday:

local seed sellers

talks by local growers about everything from saving seeds, to how to cook pulses

local food artisans also selling at the event

Meeting other people who are passionate about seeds

Finding seeds I've been looking for but the internet seems to draw a blank

We have another 16 days until seedy saturday, and I've already have my lunch planned and which skirt I want to wear, provided I can loose a bit of this winter girth between now and then. I'm so excited!

I am intending to attend 4 seed swaps this year. It'd be great to see you at one of them.

Salt Lake City, Utah: 9th West Farmer's Market Seed Swap/Sale, Saturday, February 4th, 2017, 3 PM to 7 PM, Sorenson Unity Center, 1383 S 900 W, Salt Lake City, Utah

Ogden, Utah: Ogden Seed Exchange, Saturday, February 25th, 2017, 10 AM to Noon, Ogden Preparatory Academy, 1415 Lincoln Ave, Ogden, Utah

Santa Fe, New Mexico: Mountain West Seed Summit, Friday, Saturday March 3rd to 4th, Hotel Santa Fe. I don't currently have details about swap times.

Hyrum, Utah: Cache Valley Seed Swap, Saturday, March 18th, 10 AM to 1 PM, Hyrum Civic Center Pavilion, 100 W Main St, Hyrum, Utah

As much as I loved my time in Utah, it's unlikely that I'll be going to any seed swaps there, or be able to meet up with you, Joseph, as much as I would think both would be cool.  I have attended several seedy saturday events in different localities.  My first was in my home town of Terrace, B.C.  There was a keynote speaker who was a guy named Dan, I think, who owns and operates Saltspring Seeds on Saltspring Island.  I fondly remember getting my first locally grown purple potatoes to plant at this seed swap, and having a great discussion at Dan's table about permaculture and Masanobu Fukuoka.

Since then I have been a part of the local Robson Valley Seedy Saturday, which happens in my hamlet of Dunster in February.  Sadly I will be away for work training at this time this year, so I will be attending vicariously through my parents and friends.  At this seedy saturday we generally have at least 4 speakers, as well as seed exchange tables, and people come from a surrounding area of up to 300km radius to come and exchange.  Not only is the seed exchange fantastic, but the exchange of information and the gathering of like minded people is another aspect of open pollination that is greatly enhanced by the process.    

I hope to go to two seed swaps the first on this Saturday January 28 in Missoula MT at the Missoula Public Library which hosts the Five Valleys Seed library. This will be neat because I was able to go years ago to their first annual seed swap and this is their fourth.

Then on the fourth of March I will go to the second annual seed swap in Kalispell Montana.

I thought about going to the mountain west seed summit that same day but know now I will be doing some traveling so baby can meet his aunts, grandma, and great grandma right before so will almost certainly go to Kalispell unless I run Out of spare seed in Missoula!

I have a couple big bags of seed I grew I've mentally earmarked for trade including some sweet corn seed- I sorted out all the deep blue kernels to keep and am trading away the yellow, orange, and light blue kernels from a breeding project for blue short season sweet corn. Then I have lots of maxima squash seed (though part of me wants to plant all the squash seed in a gigantic garden expansion), some saved tomato seed of 60 to 80 DTM from transplant varieties- turns out it is easy to save too much tomato seed. Also I have a surplus of lettuce seed- also easy to save too much of.

Today's seed swap was good but low key. Most of the activity seemed centered around donating seed to the seed library and taking what you wanted. I missed some of the folks who came to the first one four years ago. Not much individual swapping happening. So eventually I just took what I wanted and donated some of what I brought to swap. I donated more than I took but I took more varieties than I donated so that evens out. I found a packet of packed for 2016 Silvery Fir Tree Tomato grown by the lady at good egg farm just down the road from me for Triple Divide Seed Co-op. Tomatoes were scarce I found only the one kind I wanted. I donated some tomatoes including Yellow Pear and Amethyst Jewel. After I sorted out some seed to donate I say at the envelope filling table and put Amethyst Jewel into envelopes for awhile. I only got about five envelopes made. There was a free bowl of the new version of Michael Pilarski's Friends of the Trees scatterseed mix My wife was so excited about at the first annual five valleys seed library seed swap in ~2014 so I dutifully scooped some into an envelope!

Many thanks to Joseph Lofthouse for posting this, I went to the Ogden seed swap yesterday (my first time at a seed swap!). It was wonderful to see other seed enthusiasts. And I got to meet Mr. Lofthouse himself!)
I am most excited to try his landrace muskmelon and winter squash!

And there was a table with donations from attendees that was great. Bags full of seeds! Not too many unusual varieties, but exciting nonetheless!


Laurie Dyer

I've hosted a plant AND seed exchange for years, until this last year when we moved...  https://permies.com/t/16133/host-local-plant-exchange-source

There is a great local SEED exchange coming up in our area March 4 9TH Annual Ozark Seed Swap
It has always been well attended and fun...lot's of seed variety and a great way to see old friends who don't come out of the woods much

The swap is co-sponsored by the Ozark Folk Center and ROOST (Revitalizing Ozark-Ouachita Seed Traditions)...

"ROOST is dedicated to protecting and improving the diversity of heirloom seed varieties, knowledge and practices throughout the Ozark-Ouachita bioregion. Students from Arkansas Tech document the seeds, grow them out in ROOST gardens to distribute the next season, and catalogue them in a database of local varieties. Arkansas farmers and gardeners have a legacy of heirloom seeds that are in danger of being lost. Sharing seeds will encourage production of diverse varieties for posterity. "

I'm gonna squeeze a couple local plant sales into this thread. Next weekend (March 4, 9 am to 2 pm) Sunshine community gardens (and organic community garden) will be having their annual plant sale. http://www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org/index.php?p=plantsale/index If you look at the side bar here you can click on a list of many of the plants available. To give you an idea of the variety, there are 130 kinds of tomatoes.

On the same day, for the same hours, the Austin Organic Gardeners Club will be holding their plant sale at the Zilker Botanical Gardens.

The MOFGA seed swap/scion exchange in Unity, Maine, is one of the highlights of my gardening year. All kinds of seeds, both common and unusual, lots of apple, pear, and other scion and usually cuttings for things like elderberry, grapes, and willow, and lately even fermentation starters like yogurt and kombucha. There are also free workshops on grafting and other relevant topics. Fedco is there with grafting supplies and rootstocks for sale. http://www.mofga.org/Events/SeedSwapScionExchange/tabid/301/Default.aspx

We got one here in Torrance County, New Mexico, specifically in Edgewood, NM  Here's the text. also check out the attachment

~ 2017 Seed Swap and Fruit Tree Workshop ~
SEED SWAP
 You're invited to bring seeds, bulbs, tubers and other potted or bare root plants to swap or share – please label as to type of seed i.e. “Grandma's Zucchini Squash”
 List the variety and describe the plant and its fruit or flowers as thoroughly as you can!
 Tables and chairs are available if you need room to set up and lay out your garden items, seed envelopes, or plants you bring to swap.
 Seeds from our seed bank will be available!
 Co-op membership forms will be available
WORKSHOP TOPICS:
Fruit tree selection
Fruit Tree care
Garden Soil Preparation
Growing Techniques
Additional Resources
Guest Speaker: Dwight Luna, an authority on growing fruit trees in NM
Date: Saturday – March 4, 2017
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
Location: Edgewood Soil and Water Conservation District Office
2506 Route 66, west of Moriarty, NM
Sponsored by:
♦ East Mountain Seed & Garden Co-Op (a division of EMCC Helps, Inc. a non-profit 501c3 corporation)
♦ Edgewood Soil and Water Conservation District
Donations will be accepted
For More information, event updates, visit our website or email us!
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22
Website: http://eastmountainseed.org
Email: info@eastmountainseed.org

I went to my first Seedy Saturday Seed Swap! So much fun. It was just a small one, held at Linnaea Farm. I wish I could have stayed longer, as more people were coming and bringing seeds, but the man was pacing . . . no fun at all.

I got a few little packets of this and that, but my big score was some Black Coco beans. West Coast Seeds doesn't sell them, and Salt Spring Seeds was out, so I was really happy to find some there. I also got some other very beautiful deep red beans with black and tan speckles, and some leek seed, both grown on Linnaea.

The only seeds I had enough of to swap were my Breadseed Poppy seeds - and I have a LOT. But that didn't seem to matter, and people were quite happy to have them. Next year I hope to have many more seeds to share.

I hope to make it up to the Wolfville Nova Scotia's Seedy Saturday on Earth Day, April 22nd. It is a beautiful university town, with a bountiful farmer's market that is hosting the event. I miss living in that town sometimes. I haven't been to the seed swap, but to the market many times.

+++cut and pasted from the Wolfville Farmers Market events page event posting +++
Celebrate the Seed

The Wolfville Farmers Market is Celebrating the Seed at their 10th annual Seedy Saturday event on April 22, 2017, 8:30am-1pm. There is a good reason to celebrate seeds as they give us so many daily gifts. Our abundant local harvests began with a simple seed planted in the rich valley soil.

Join us for a fun-filled Market day full of Seeds, Plants, Art, and more. Kid’s of all ages are invited to an interactive seed game. There is something for everyone, whether you have a green thumb, are just learning or are a seasoned veteran and you have a chance to win a basket of seed goodies! Be sure to bring your seeds to swap at the Community Seed Exchange Table. Everything starts with a seed!

I'm sad to learn that there won't be a Seedy Saturday/Sunday event in my town this year. (I volunteered at last year's!) However the lady who organizes them locally-ish is already doing two, so really if I'm greatly upset by this turn in events I should just step up and do it myself.

Instead I'm planning to attend the Penticton, British Columbia, being held at the Okanagan College between 10 and 4 on Feb. 26th.  Thats next weekend. I have my list of seeds to look for all ready.

I am intending to take seeds to the following swaps this spring:

Northeast Organic Farmers Association's seed swap in January in Saratoga Springs, New York

Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance's seed swap in February in Santa Fe, New Mexico

I'm teaching at both conferences, so I'd love to meet you if you are attending either conference, or live in the area.

I'm also taking seeds to the Ogden Seed Exchange in February in Ogden, Utah. It is the largest, most well attended seed swap in Utah. My favorite, year after year.

I'll be attending this seed swap. I am especially looking for collaborators in areas where blights vigorously attack tomatoes.

I love both the Arcata Seed Exchange (https://humboldtpermaculture.com/) as well as my local Crescent City Seed exchange (thanks LaVonna and Ocean Air Farms!). I'll post the dates when I see them. I also look forward to my first Humboldt tree and scion exchange (https://humboldtpermaculture.com/annual-fruit-tree-and-scion-exchange/).

I'll be attending this seed swap. I am especially looking for collaborators in areas where blights vigorously attack tomatoes.

I'm attending that conference and seed swap! My work is paying for me to attend the whole conference as professional development as long as I help my boss with her talk on Saturday.

I'm excited as this will be my first in person seed swap!

I'd be willing to grow out some tomatoes, I grow in Northeastern PA at my parents farm. Every couple of years, a bad strain of late blight comes through and wipes out everyone's tomatoes so it's probably present in the better years. They might be neglected a bit as I get down there every other weekend or so to work on my field. I also haven't done a ton of selection breeding other than selecting the earliest/largest fruit/beans/crop/etc for seed saving.

Here in Cleveland,  OH

Hoping to meet you at the swap Natasha.

Natasha Flue wrote:I also haven't done a ton of selection breeding other than selecting the earliest/largest fruit/beans/crop/etc for seed saving.

That seems to me to be the most important type of plant breeding: Growing your own seed, and saving seed from plants that survive your local growing conditions.