re CSA for seeds

Cory, this is amazing. Are small household gardeners able to participate in/support this venture at all? I think this is a huge step towards sustainablitiy and needs all the gumption it can get! If any volunteer effort is required, please consider moi as interested. Also, are your seeds available next year for the general public? Thanks for launching such an essential service that will dramatically enhance our ability to take care of ourselves. You're walking the Transition Town talk...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cory Eichman on November 11, 2010 at 5:01

Hi Monica,
It is funny you should ask right at this time... I have been getting the feeling it should be openned up to include home gardeners. Other farmers seem to be too busy to do much it seems! Not many people who tried to do it this year were very successful. Seeds are tricky if you are already swamped with so much other growing. If we did make this a broader project, I think we could do a general information session sometime this winter, and I would be willing to do some workshops early spring to get people geared up for producing high quality seed, another workshop in the fall for cleaning might also be good. Ron Schweitzer and I talked about this breifly a bit ago. And yes, I will have seeds for sale again this year. We are doing germination testing now. I definitey want to include the folks over by Neustadt (if any of you are listening!) so lets get a discussion going....

Permalink Reply by Nathan Carey on November 11, 2010 at 8:24

Corey & Monica,

At our last Transition meeting here in Neustadt the idea of a small seed saving project was brought up. I think it's a great early project to cement the community together and create a real project with tangible results. Your notion of a farm scale seed-saving bank is really great but from your message I get the sense that the execution was less than stellar. I can see the benefit to starting on a smaller scale with gardeners. If you found that farmers were too busy to take on the new project of seed saving (which always seems exciting and 'easy' in the winter and spring months) I think you're wise to pass the knowledge needed onto the community at large and engage enthusiastic gardeners in growing the seeds that could be for their future dinners.

Initially I had thought that the Transition Neutstadt group could start a seed saving project mainly as a way to gel the group into a true community that was now engaged is supporting each other, at least in as small a way as exchanging vegetable seed for our small family gardens. I had thought that the farm scale seed CSA would be kept separate and distinct from the small scale gardener one because of issues like quantity but mostly quality. Since seed is as basic to farming as soil we must be assured of the best quality seed possible. I think that local high quality seed is completely possible but for agricultural use I think we should realistically not expect it to happen for a few years. Though we have to start that journey and better to do it now rather than later (insert ominous music here).

Since most people who live up here have access to land of some sort, most have knowledge of gardening and there are at least three CSA farms growing vegetables we have the beginnings of what we need to get started. I think the way to proceed with the Transition Seed Bank (TSB?) is to have a meeting with rabidly keen gardeners and a handful of equally excited farmers - or husbands of farmers :). I think to start there's no sense in being too scientific about it. I think the main thing is to get people up to speed on how to grow seed, what needs to be grown and to creature support structures supplied by the farmers to the gardeners. It makes sense that we should meet in Durham or Neustadt where we have at least three full-time veggie farms all close-ish to each other.

I've been thinking a lot about what happens after farming, since to me farming seems like the bedrock activity of any Transition Movement - I'm totally uneducated on official Transition Town information so that's just my assumption. But I know there's so much more that needs to happen after that is laid out. I feel like the Transition groups are looking for ways to become cohesive communities with real ties. I think the only way to do that is through a group project with tangible results. I like this seed saving idea because it's understandable, important and within our means.

Permalink Reply by Monica Graf on November 11, 2010 at 17:03

Hi Cory and Nathan,

Great! I suspect there is plenty of latent momentum in our communities for this project. In our Transition group in Durham we are looking for some tangible projects. This is a fantastic start and yes, Cory, I like your ideas for starting out with the educational aspects this winter. So, sign me up for assisting in any way I can, including my garden if I 'qualify' as a household gardener...don't really know what my identity is as gardener yet!...plus consider me a customer for next season. Glad to hear Nathan, that Neustadt would participate in this too.

Permalink Reply by Cory Eichman on November 12, 2010 at 6:34

Hi Monica and Nathan,

Should we have a planning meeting in Neustadt at Lipiski's (is that the right spelling) I keep hearing good things about it. Should we open it up to a larger group of people first or start with just a few of us? Should we invite some specific people? Any thoughts about a day and time for a meeting? How about next week sometime, say Thursday? Daytime is better for me than evenings.

Permalink Reply by Nathan Carey on November 12, 2010 at 7:14

Next Thursday is fine for me. Anytime is ok and meeting at the Lipinski's would be great, I love it there. And I do think that meeting is a good idea. I'll see if I can get Jeff and or Leslie to come as well but probably a smaller group is better while we work out details. I think the devil is in the details on a project like this so it would be good to go over some of those before we present it to a larger group. I like to have answers to questions ready and some structure available for people to start in on while their enthusiasm is high. I think the points to talk about are:

-Are there people doing this locally already? (http://www.hawthornfarm.ca/ http://www.seeds.ca/)
-Who are the possible mentors? Who are the possible growers?
-What is a minimum of feet worth of seed that we should grow?
-Where will the seed be stored?
-What will be our timeline for the project to mature?
-What crops should we focus on for the first couple of years?
-Who has the required equipment? Can it be loaned? Or should it be centralized?

I guess it would be good to just think about a season from start to finish to imagine what the challenges might be and how we can address them.

Permalink Reply by Leslie Moskovits on November 12, 2010 at 10:29

Hey Everyone, I would love to come to a meeting about this - but we have CSA pickup on Thursday. Not to jump in and then try and change everything but any way you could have the meeting the next day - Friday?

Nathan Carey said:

Next Thursday is fine for me. Anytime is ok and meeting at the Lipinski's would be great, I love it there. And I do think that meeting is a good idea. I'll see if I can get Jeff and or Leslie to come as well but probably a smaller group is better while we work out details. I think the devil is in the details on a project like this so it would be good to go over some of those before we present it to a larger group. I like to have answers to questions ready and some structure available for people to start in on while their enthusiasm is high. I think the points to talk about are:

-Are there people doing this locally already? (http://www.hawthornfarm.ca/ http://www.seeds.ca/)
-Who are the possible mentors? Who are the possible growers?
-What is a minimum of feet worth of seed that we should grow?
-Where will the seed be stored?
-What will be our timeline for the project to mature?
-What crops should we focus on for the first couple of years?
-Who has the required equipment? Can it be loaned? Or should it be centralized?

I guess it would be good to just think about a season from start to finish to imagine what the challenges might be and how we can address them.

Permalink Reply by Monica Graf on November 12, 2010 at 17:37

I'm good for Thursday or Friday day, the evenings not. I'm also interested in knowing more about who is already saving seed in the area, like you mentioned Nathan, and whether it actually meets 'demand' or projected demand....I like the idea of Lipsinsky's, Lipinsky's, Lipsky's...whatever...Lippy's for short....been there once and loved it.

Permalink Reply by Cory Eichman on November 13, 2010 at 4:47

Hi everyone,

Let's go for Friday then. Does 10am sound good? You ask some good questions Nathan. I don't know if Tarrah shared with you all the documents I have put together for this Seed CSA already, but I will bring them along. I have been in touch with Kim from Hawthorne Farm, and will talk about that. I am also on the sidelines of the ECOSGN (Eastern Canada Organic Seed Growers Network) and am in regular contact with some of those folks. I have been talking up this CSA idea since last winter and have chewed over some of the ideas with a number of seed growers in the US and Canada. A friend, Patrick Steiner (do you remember him Monica?) runs Stellar Seeds in BC and he has been a great help. Monica, should we carpool?

Permalink Reply by Nathan Carey on November 13, 2010 at 7:42

Hmmm....I'm busy untill 11:00am on Friday can we push it back one hour from 10 to 11?

Sounds like you have a lot of questions sewn up Corey! That's amazing. Since you've already laid the ground work I think we should bring a few more people to increase the level of excitement and momentum. I'll send a message to the Transition Neustadt folks. Is that ok? Or should we keep this initial meeting smaller?

Permalink Reply by Monica Graf on November 13, 2010 at 9:00

I'm ok anytime of day for Friday and yes Cory, carpooling sounds great. We could either meet at my place since I'm mainly on the way, or for ease, we could meet at Chicory. In terms of the size of the group, my suggestion is that small (but not necessarily 'tiny'!) is good, a handful, of up to 5 or 6 heads, is probably the most effective and allows for focus, but later, when things have coalesced and there's a definite solid direction established, others should be welcomed to the process...having said that, if there's tons of interest, maybe the door should just be wide open..whaddayathink Cory? I may not be the best person to be part of this initial group since I know a big fat zero about seed saving but I'm definitely interested in supporting it where ever and when ever I can...

Permalink Reply by Leslie Moskovits on November 13, 2010 at 17:37

Friday at 11 sounds great. I also opt for a smaller group.

Monica Graf said:

I'm ok anytime of day for Friday and yes Cory, carpooling sounds great. We could either meet at my place since I'm mainly on the way, or for ease, we could meet at Chicory. In terms of the size of the group, my suggestion is that small (but not necessarily 'tiny'!) is good, a handful, of up to 5 or 6 heads, is probably the most effective and allows for focus, but later, when things have coalesced and there's a definite solid direction established, others should be welcomed to the process...having said that, if there's tons of interest, maybe the door should just be wide open..whaddayathink Cory? I may not be the best person to be part of this initial group since I know a big fat zero about seed saving but I'm definitely interested in supporting it where ever and when ever I can...

Permalink Reply by Cory Eichman on November 14, 2010 at 6:44

Okay, let's just have the four of us at 11am at Lipinsky's. Yes Monica, I could pick you up around 10:45 (you're still at Naiomi's?). And I think you would be great to be part of this initial meeting as a non farmer (or farmer's husband) gardener. That is likely who will mostly be part of this. Not to mention your community building skills!!

I have given this alot of thought, but I am also very open to it going in a different direction. What interests me most is growing seeds, and growing them for people I know instead of taking little packets to trade shows and setting them up in stores to hope someone comes along and buys them... It is the personal connection I like, just as in the food CSA. We'll see what happens...