Seedy Saturday is a day for people to share, sell and swap their heritage seeds and stories. Sault Ste. Marie’s 3rd Annual Seedy Saturday will be held in the Cafeteria—B Wing West—of Sault College from 10 am to 3 pm.
Last year’s event was organized by Clean North with the help of the Sault Ste. Marie Horticultural Society and Seeds of Diversity Canada and was a great success. People came to swap their open pollinated seeds, attend gardening talks and visit the numerous vendors who offered local and area food and craft items.
“It was quite exhilarating to see so many attend last year’s second annual Seedy Saturday event,” says Suzanne Hanna, co-organizer. “We were so gratified to have received so much positive feedback and interest from participants that we can’t wait for this year’s event to unfold. Our aim is to bring together gardeners, farmers, and citizens passionate about the environment and access to safe, healthy food. By doing so, we hope to encourage individuals to become more involved in growing veggies, sharing seeds with their neighbours and friends and helping to protect biological diversity in their own backyards.”
This year Clean North is pleased to announce that Sault College has once again come on board as one of Seedy Saturday’s sponsors and is offering their cafeteria as the new location for this year’s expanded event.
Little did Sharon Rempel imagine when she designed and organized the first Seedy Saturday in Vancouver in February 1989 that her “seedy” idea would germinate into over 70 separate annual events across Canada. With the help of Seeds of Diversity, formerly known as Canada’s Heritage Seed Program, volunteer gardeners and farmers work together to grow, propagate and distribute over 1900 varieties of vegetables, fruit, grains, flowers and herbs, many of them treasured family favourites that are not widely offered by commercial seed companies.
The highlight of each and every Seedy Saturday is the community seed exchange that will take place between 11:15 am -12:15 pm. If you would like to swap your saved seeds, be sure to bring your labelled envelopes containing open pollinated varieties of seed in for sorting between 10 and 11 am. There will be seed for sale as well.
Guest speakers will provide information from 10:30 am- to 3 pm on a variety of topics such as seed saving, the Eat Local food movement, organic gardening strategies and growing heirloom tomatoes. There will be local and area environmental, food security and gardening displays with plenty of free handouts, childrens’ activities and tasty refreshments for sale as well. The Farmer’s Market and other vendors will also be on hand with products for sale. Our venue is wheelchair accessible and parking is free.
For more information, contact Suzanne Hanna at (705) 759-2893 wildgardener@shaw.ca
Algoma Food Network 