Seed to Food Program Update

Posted on Monday, 5 October 2020 under Seed to Food

Harvest season is in full swing at our Seed Farm. Food is overflowing from crop rows and ripe for donation. Since the launch of the Seed to Food program, we have made four deliveries to our food-saving partner Food Stash. In total, we’ve donated approximately 500 lbs of produce! We have had an incredibly diverse bounty including interesting crops such as lemon cucumbers, rutabaga, radicchio, and watermelon radish. We hope the recipients are enjoying the variety.

jars of seed saved

FarmFolk CityFolk seed saving in action.

The crops that the Seed to Food program has donated the most are both from the Citizen Seed Trial kales; Winter Rainbow and Dazzling blue, at 86 lbs and 74 lbs respectively. We also donated 110 lbs of lemon cucumbers. The fasciated lemon cucumbers produce nearly double that of their non-fasciated counterparts. Check out our story on lemon cucumber fasciation if you’re interested in learning more about this phenomenon.

boxes of produce on the ground

Harvest from FarmFolk CityFolk's Research and Education Seed Farm.

Some of the donated crops have been by-products of the CANOVI trials. At the farm, we have finished our evaluations of rutabaga and carrots. Our process is as follows; first, we lay out the harvest, making sure we are able to easily compare varieties. Second, we go through a series of evaluations such as disease resistance, marketability, and uniformity. We upload our evaluations to SeedLinked so we can compare our results to other farms. Finally, we prepare the food for donation. To do so, we remove the leafy tops, cut off excess roots, and give them a good wash.

bunch of kale held up at a farm

Kale harvested from FarmFolk CityFolk's Research and Education Seed Farm.

In the kitchen, we have been busy fermenting tomato seeds and using the by-products to make sauce. We are carefully recording every step of this process to determine if this could be a profitable endeavour for seed farmers. Stay tuned to find out our results.

The Seed to Food program is funded by the Government of Canada through the United Way Emergency Community Support program.