Public Libraries Are Giving Out Seeds In The Name Of Sustainability

“ 'It’s great if we have all this sustainability, but unless we have access to seeds, all the other aspects of sustainable agriculture really don’t mean anything,” Newburn told Atlas Obscura.

Bellingen Seed Savers at the 2018 Autumn Plant Fair in Bellingen

Gillian coordinated an excellent stall at the Bellingen Autumn Plant Fair. Members turned up in droves to help our customers choose appropriate seeds and plants and to offer gardening advice. Many of our customers are new to our climatic conditions and welcome tips for gardening in a subtropical/warm temperate climate.

David and Michelle with Sweet Leaf cuttings,.

Seeds packed by our Seed savers, potted plants and cuttings were on sale for a tiny price because our main aim is to spread the cultivation of useful plants within our local area, not to make a profit.

Cuttings and plants of Surinam Spinach, Okinawa Spinach and Longevity Spinach were available.

Longevity Spinach is new to our area and is proving a popular choice as a leafy green vegetable... and of course it is claimed to promote health and longevity.

Our raffle of local produce is always popular.

Locally grown seeds of edible plants

We are happy when gardeners succeed in raising plants from our locally collected seeds and cuttings. We are very satisfied when families can raise their own food. We recognise that healthy, fresh food is often too expensive for many, despite the claims of the larger chain stores.

We aim to educate folk of the the benefits these subtropical and tropical vegetables have for our local gardeners

We had a huge array of locally sourced seeds.

Seedsavers Talks at the Centre for Ecological Learning Open Day in Bellingen

Seedsavers Erik and John were happy to support this event. The Centre for Ecological Learning is the Incorporated 'mother ship' for Bellingen Seedsavers.

Erik presented on Gathering and Saving Seeds and John presented on Edible Perennials to small but appreciative groups.

Learn more about the Centre for Ecological Learning

Jude & Michel Fanton, founders of Seedsavers Network present at Bellingen's Northbank Community Garden

The excellent organisation by Irene and David and the very knowledgeable Fantons was much appreciated by the forty people from Bellingen Seedsavers, who attended the workshop.

Many thanks to Steve Smith and his team at Northbank Community Garden who hosted the workshop and worked hard to set up the workshop area.

Photographs below and many more at
http://tbeventspics.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/bellingen-seedsavers-fantons-workshop.html

Plenty of seed savers attended

Jude talks of plant families.

Artist Fiona Morgan - artist, gardener and seed saver - exhibition at Nexus Gallery all this month.

Hi Seed Savers

Artist Fiona Morgan - artist, gardener and seed saver - exhibition at Nexus Gallery  all this month.  Here are the details.

Best wishes

Irene, Bellingen Seed Savers

March against Monsanto in Bellingen

Some seedsavers attended this march which was organised by Bellingen locals.

Check out what happened around the world.
http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/

Here is the FaceBook page link
 https://www.facebook.com/events/140066149513652/?fref=ts


Jude and Michel Fanton, founders of Seedsavers, were unable to attend. They sent an apology which was read out to the audience.

"We are unable to attend as we are in Albania. We had the huge privilege of hearing Vandana Shiva in person at a free seed festival in Greece 10th to 13th of May. Let's continue to exchange freely and abundantly." Jude Fanton

Here are some pics from the day. Marguerite and Annabelle, with supporters, organised an inspiring event.

Carol Vernon read an apology from Jude and Michel Fanton

Marching to the park.

Bellingen Memorial Hall was the wet weather venue

Around 400 attended the event.

NEWS: Monsanto Protection Act, in the USA, May Soon be Repealed Thanks to Activism

 

 

Bellingen Seed Savers at Autumn Plant Fair 2013

Bellingen Seed Savers

at the Autumn Plant Fair

Saturday 9 March 2013

We provided a wide variety of interesting, resilient fruit, herb and vegetable seeds and plant material raised by our members and suitable for our climate.

Our new seed display and labels. Click to enlarge and read.

Bellingen Seed Savers at Spring Plant Fair 8 September 2012

 The Spring Plant Fair 2012 was a great success.




For more photographs - click on plant fair

A small group of our 'seedsavers' has been preparing a display of 'resilient plants' that are well suited to our climatic conditions.

Jodie and Michael staff the raffle counter.

The near perfect weather allowed Irene to mount helpful displays. The plant material was in demand and is exchanged for a small donation. We thus encourage the use of plant material that contributes to self sufficiency.

The Bellingen Seedsavers stall is always busy. Experienced gardeners provide information as well as seeds and plants.

Thank you to everyone involved with our stall:  the very enthusiastic and interested customers;  our dedicated and hard-working volunteers;  the energetic Lesley Green, who organises the plant fairs on behalf of Bellingen Environment Centre and special thanks for the perfect weather.

The Plant Fairs give us the opportunity to spread the word and share our seeds with our community.
We will look forward to doing it again in the Autumn.

Irene's November Newsletter

Hi Seed Savers

It's almost Summer and we are galloping towards the end of the year but we can still look forward to our  December Gathering at Bec's home in Bonville from 1pm on Thursday 1st.  This will be our first time in that direction and this should please those of you who have to travel along the Highway from the north or the south.  I'm sure we will have a great time at Bec's and hope you can come.

The weather was kind to us for our last Gathering  in Fernmount and everyone was in awe of what John and Carol have achieved and there are some photos on the blog.  Many thanks to John and Carol for their lovely hospitality and for sharing their beautiful garden with us.

  

We had a particularly interesting mix of seeds* and plant material to share with one another we welcomed lots of new people attending their first Gathering. It was lovely to welcome Dean and Teal, from the Bellingen High School garden and, on behalf of BSS,  I presented them with a copy of The Seedsavers' Handbook.  This book is invaluable and I still have a few copies available for $22 for BSS people.

How we have grown in the three years since five people attended the very first Gathering - from 5 to 208 on our mailing list!  There are a couple of points that I would like to highlight - the first is that we had no idea that we would experience this sort of growth.  The level of interest that we receive from people at plant fairs and other events has risen with each one - it was overwhelming at the Spring Plant Fair this year.  Our main aim is to ensure future food  security in our community and we do this by saving the seeds from our best plants and sharing them around. We have a wide variety of micro-climates in our individual gardens and if someone experiences a failure of a valued crop in their garden, we need to be in a position to provide replacement seeds.   The more varieties of resilient seeds we have available, the better.  Many of the old heritage varieties have disappeared.  We notice that seed suppliers' lists of offerings develop gaps.

In addition to our gatherings, we distribute large quantities of seeds and plant materials at our stalls.  The higher the level of interest from the public, the greater the quantity and varieties we need to be able to offer and this is where we rely on our members to play their part.  We have founding members, who have been saving and sharing seeds for the last three years (some for many more), and we also have new people constantly  joining us, who have enormously varied backgrounds and experience in gardening and seed saving.  We are delighted to welcome everyone.  It takes a little while to get into the swing of seed saving but it is so rewarding.

We are all volunteers and we all enjoy our garden visits, where we can learn from one another.  For the first time this year we were very happy to have Jude and Michel Fanton, the Founders of The Seedsavers' Network, spend a week-end with us, sharing their expertise.  This was very successful and this event and future presenters are funded by our activities at plant fairs and other events.  We work very hard to ensure that we have an attractive, informative stall laden with packets of seeds, plant materials and all sorts of goodies from our gardens.   We are totally self-funded.  Obviously, the more people who contribute, the more it spreads the load - and the joy.

*Labelling of seeds and plant materials.

The bigger our 'membership' becomes, the more important it is that the seeds and plant materials we share at Gatherings are labelled (see attachment).   If you do this before setting out to a Gathering, it saves confusion as the share table is often very crowded.  It is so easy to arrive home and find yourself with anonymous packages - so frustrating!  If you include details of your name as well as the seeds, their origin, plus any specific information needed to raise them successfully, we can all keep track.  I am attaching the label that you can complete (as far as you are able). You will see that one of the questions asks whether you are willing to 'adopt a seed'.  This means you are willing to ensure that you grow sufficient numbers of the variety and can ensure that they are protected from cross fertilisation, so that when we label the package we can be reasonably sure that it contains what it says.

2012 Gatherings

I would love to hear from anyone who would like to offer their garden for a Gathering next year.  We enjoy all sorts of gardens - and they don't have to be immaculate.  We all live in different settings and no two are the same -  and there is so much to learn from experiencing them all.  We can bring everything we need (cups, food, chairs, etc.) and some of us are happy to offer to help with some gardening while we are there.

I am just re-reading a favourite book by Margaret Simons called 'Resurrection in a Bucket - the Rich and Fertile Story of Compost".  I love this quote she uses by Simon Schama:  'The sum of our pasts, generation laid over generation, like the slow mould of the seasons, forms the compost of our future'.  Ah, compost - to be treasured.

Please ensure that you let me know if you are coming to the next Gathering in Bonville on Thursday 1st December - by Monday 28 November, so that I can send you all the directions in good time (I received 14 enquiries in the last day or so before the last gathering.  I think it is only fair to let the host know how many people to expect in good time.

Looking forward to seeing you at our end-of-year Gathering.

Cheers

Irene

bellingenseedsaversunderground.blogspot.com/ 

Jude and Michel Fanton visit Bellingen Seedsavers

Once again we visited David's large garden which he most generously allowed as the venue for a Jude and Michel Fanton Seedsavers Workshop. Jude and Michel founded the international seedsavers movement which is headquartered in Byron Bay, NSW.

One activity involved finding the most perfect pea pod to save for seed.

Under the shade of the trees, on an unusually hot spring day, Jude and Michel explained many of the mysteries of seedsaving.

The workshop finished with the group learning how to clean seeds using various sieves.

We all brought along seeds and plants for a 'show and tell' session. As usual, Nell was a fount of knowledge. Here she is describing the excellent properties of a Fijian Taro that she has grown for many years. We also learned that the shoots from Arrowroot (Canna edulis) can be eaten when prepared like asparagus.

Nell mixes the cooked Taro with coconut milk to make a tasty dip or spread.

Much of the food brought along to share was grown by members of our Bellingen Seedsavers Club. Lemons, peanuts, mandarins, paw paw, grated green paw paw and bean shoots were just some of the home grown edibles used in cakes, salads and dips.

Peter brought along his pickled walnuts and they were indeed exceptional. Here they are served with crackers and cheese. His large tree is around ten metres high.

The chilacayote (Cucurbita ficifolia) the melon-like fruit, was new to many of us. Like a pie melon, this fruit is probably best used as a zucchini when small, according to our experienced members. The flesh was white and slightly sweet. You need never starve with 'killer chayotes' in the trees. Just watch your head if you allow them to grow high into the trees.

Colourful nasturtium flowers decorated this salad.

Nell  made this salad with grated green paw paw and sprouts with a lemon-juice and honey dressing.