Seed Farm Wrap Up: Volunteers, Seed to Food, Trials, and Selling Seeds

Posted on Wednesday, 8 December 2021 under Stories

Looking back on the season, our seed farm fared well despite the challenges of extreme climatic conditions. In the summer, our soil was able to hold and wick water well keeping most of our plants alive through the heat dome. With recent rains our seed farm is muddy and there are a few extra streams but since most of our crops have already been harvested, it has not been a cause for concern.

This season our Research and Education Seed Farm became a hub for local seed development as we were able to welcome more visitors to the farm. We had two fun staff days where we spent time connecting with each other while pulling weeds. We also had a few bigger groups of volunteers join us, including folks from Patagonia Vancouver who are big supporters of our work. This past month we’ve been lucky enough to have recurring help from our friend and volunteer Namju who has been helping with harvesting and preparing our beds for winter. We are always happy to have people at our Seed Farm and look forward to hopefully having more in-person events next year.

Our Seed to Food program continues to be a success. We harvested over 850 kg of produce from our fields this year. Nearly 500 kg went to our partners at Food Stash Foundation, approximately 100 kg went to supporting our Metro Vancouver Feast of Fields, and over 150 kg went to chef TJ Conwi at Ono Vancouver who processed loads of Homestead Sweet Meat Squash into free soup for those in need. In addition to the incredible bounty of produce, we saved over 15 varieties of seeds and will be selling a select few through BC Eco Seed Co-op.