Choose, grow, save and store | The desire for self-reliance and desire for local food sparks interest in seed saving
REGINA — Chris Strachan’s great-grandmother gave him seeds from an old pole bean variety last spring whose heritage can be traced to seeds she brought with her from Poland during the Second World War.
He immediately realized how precious a gift it was.
“These are the seeds she had from when she was little, so I assume she got them from her mother. It’s an old family seed,” Strachan said. “It’s a beautiful purple colour, great yielding, good for canning and fermenting.”
Strachan grew the seeds to maturity and harvested seeds to save for the following year.
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He also wants to harvest more seeds this year from other kinds of plants in his garden, which prompted him to attend a workshop in Regina called Seed Seed Revolution: a Sustainable Gardener’s Guide to Growing the Right Seeds.
The Feb. 23 workshop was the first of four pre-spring workshops organized by Regina based Root & Branch, which offers sustainable food and garden support to promote the quality and sustainability of Regina’s local food supply.
Nikko Snyder, who has provided garden workshops for Root & Branch for more than a year, said this was the first time she had presented a seed saving workshop.
“I think it’s important for home gardeners to consider all the different elements in their gardens. Whether it is seeds or fertilizer, there are all sorts of different impacts beyond our backyards,” she said.
“From the perspective of being more self-reliant and independent communities, it is important to understand how our food supply sustains itself from year to year. It is important to understand how at risk our food supply is because we have gotten away from the practice of saving our own seeds.”
The workshop focused on the practical and philosophical issues involved in choosing, growing, saving and storing the seeds.
Special attention was given to understanding pollination, as well as the plant classifications where cross-pollination may cause problems.
Snyder said ideal seeds for the sustainable gardener are those that are open-pollinated, grown in their region, untreated, grown sustainably, grown by the gardener, fairly traded and chosen for taste.
The workshop also discussed the benefits of gardeners starting their own seeds, when to do so for different garden plants and methods to isolate flowering plants.
Time isolation requires a good understanding of a plant’s days to maturity so that varieties of the same species flower and set seed at different times. Mechanical isolation includes bagging, caging and hand pollination.
Snyder said a variety of characteristics are desired when selecting plants from which to take seeds: germination vigour, disease resistance, insect resistance, drought resistance, stockiness, productivity, storage ability, flavour, bolt resistance and colour and shape of fruit.
Gardeners can avoid inbreeding depression by saving seeds from a large number of plants to help increase genetic diversity. Some plants, such as corn, need a relatively large population size for best seed saving results.
Ross Heintz, who attended the workshop from Moose Jaw, Sask., said more people are becoming aware of the importance of locally grown food.
He plans to use information garnered from the workshop to hold sessions at his community garden.
“It’s important to come to things like this to share with other people who also have similar interests. There are so many resources in this room. We all have knowledge to share with other gardeners. That’s what community is about,” Heintz said.
Strachan attended a preserving workshop provided by Root & Branch last year and he said it helped take his urban farming to the next level.
“The knowledge and the networking have helped me considerably. The people here at these workshops are great sources,” Strachan said.
For more information, visit rootbranch.ca or call 306 209-8552.
