14.9°C Not observed 
In March of last year, Lillooet had its first annual Seedy Saturday, organized by Lillooet Food Matters.
The event was more successful than the organizers could ever have imagined: the friendship centre was packed, abuzz all day with excited seed savers and gardeners, beginners and experts alike. It brought people from all walks of life together to share their love for growing plants.
This year, the second annual Seedy Saturday will be held on Feb. 13 at the Lillooet Friendship Centre, in time to start seeds of all kinds.
We are fortunate this year to host a speaker on the topic of seed saving and growing food - Patrick Steiner, the founder and co-owner of Stellar Seeds of Sorrento.
Steiner’s seeds will be available for sale once again, though this time we are lucky to have him and his partner Colleen at their sale table fielding your questions.
Steiner's talk is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and go to noon, when the sale and swap begin. Admission for all is by donation to the Lillooet Friendship Centre food bank, and there will be donation jars to cover the day’s costs.
We also hope to raise funds for future Lillooet Food Matters events. Look out for posters around town!
Seedy Saturdays are held all over the world in late winter and early spring. They are community gatherings where people come together to share, trade, or buy open-pollinated, heritage seeds to grow, as well as share information on gardening and seed saving.
Many of the seeds you will find at a Seedy Saturday aren’t readily available from seed companies. You might find Grandpa Jack’s favourite tomato variety passed on through generations, or Granny Betsy’s beautiful dianthus.
If you have some seeds to spare, even just a pinch, bring them along to share with others.
We ask that you put individual seed varieties into small envelopes clearly marked with the name of the plant, the year it was collected, where and how the plant likes to grow, and if possible, the story of where it came from.
If you don’t have any seeds to spare, that’s fine too! There will be lots of seeds available to take home, free or by donation.
You will also be able to purchase them from our local Askom Valley Farm (West Coast Seeds and Seeds of Change), Stellar Seeds, and Salt Spring Seeds (some of their seeds are grown by Lillooet’s own Sue Senger).
You will also find books for sale on the topic, a question and answer corner with local seed grower Sue Senger and a display on bees and pollination.
At the first Seedy Saturday, we unveiled a new project: the Seeds of Friendship. This is a seed bank that is part of the friendship centre’s food bank, whereby seeds are donated for anyone in need to have access to free seed to grow into food and medicine.
The hope is that these seeds will then be grown into food, and produce more seeds to go back into the Seeds of Friendship bank, and so on.
Lillooet Food Matters hopes to offer help to those that need it, in the form of information, personal expertise, tools and materials such as pots and composted manure.
If you feel that you have some experience with starting seeds or growing food and would like to help another person learn to do the same, or if you have any tools or materials that you aren’t using, please let us know!
Since humans have been growing plants, farmers and gardeners alike have saved seeds from their favourite varieties of vegetables, fruits, grains, herbs, etc. and traded them with others.
Today, many of these varieties still exist, thanks to the seed savers and seed “swappers”.
Recent times have seen a huge loss of seed diversity. Some say 75 per cent of all traditional crop varieties are now extinct.
Big corporate seed companies are selling fewer varieties of food plants. More and more of these varieties are no longer “fertile”, meaning that science has found a way to genetically alter a seed so that the plant will grow but its seed will not germinate, making it necessary for us to buy seed from them every year.
The seed companies we have invited proudly sell open-pollinated, mostly heritage and organically grown, fertile seeds.
Better still, these seed companies actively encourage their customers to save seed for next year, to trade and share with others - they support an ancient human tradition.
In these times of diminishing oil and skyrocketing production, transport and packaging costs, we are facing an urgent need to grow more of our food and medicines locally.
Most of all, planting and growing our own seed gives us not only local, fresh food that nourishes both body and soul, but it invites us outdoors and into a healthier lifestyle.
A seed is where it all begins, and the seeds we save are a living inheritance for future generations. In growing and saving seeds, we “reconnect to an ancient tradition of stewardship, nurturing our diverse genetic and cultural heritage” (from Seeds of Diversity’s Mission Statement, 2006).
Everyone's welcome - no green thumb required! See you on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the friendship centre: 10 a.m. for the talk, noon to 5 p.m. for the sale and swap.
Call Sarah Barrett at 250-256-7553 if you have any questions.
