Join us at Far North Seed Savers.
Further to my last post, some interest was generated regarding starting a seed circle/seed saving group. We have now formed a group, “Far North Seed Savers” & there is information below about the group & how you can join in & participate.
Why is seed saving important?
Whilst Scotland is well known for its seed potato exports & potato breeding, there has not been any large scale commercial vegetable seed company operating here for some 30 years. I know myself that about 90% of my purchased seed comes from Wales. Whilst the seed I currently buy is high quality, open pollinated seed, it is grown 600 miles south of me in a climate much warmer with a longer growing season & different growing conditions than my own.
Because seeds adapt to their local growing conditions/climate it isn't actually ideal to be growing seed that was produced in very different growing conditions to my own. Nor is it ideal to have to rely on a seed supply so far away.
It was normal practice even just 2 generations ago for growers to share & freely exchange home saved seeds of their best vegetable varieties amongst their community that were perhaps inherited from parents or grandparents or a neighbour up the road. This culture of seed saving promoted very robust & resilient local food security & locally adapted seed that needed less input to grow. The vegetables they grew were often from more genetically diverse seed which also made the vegetables themselves more nutrient dense.
We have already lost many heirloom vegetable varieties just in the past 50 years. Firstly, not well known is the practice of seed companies claiming heirloom varieties as their own & patenting them thereby restricting their sale & availability. Secondly, the advent of modern hybrid seed sales meant gardeners & farmers were now all growing the exact same seed with no adaptability which they had to purchase every year from the seed company & this also meant the culture of seed saving was all but, lost. The shift in reliance on hybrid seed has also dramatically increased the need for pesticides & fertilisers & produced less nutrient dense food.
Thirdly, is down to bureaucracy. I think I'm correct in stating that Real Seeds down in Wales has done more than anyone anywhere in the country to keep heirloom varieties available to small scale growers & to also encourage home growers to save their own seed. Initially, as most of their old heirloom varieties were unlisted with DEFRA, which prohibits marketing & sales of those varieties by seed companies to the public, Real Seeds offered them via a seed club to get around this. Every order from them charged a token amount which was a membership to their seed club. However, the laws around this have tightened in recent years & Real Seeds have now been forced to go down the route of registering some of their varieties with DEFRA but, the high cost & burdensome admin of doing this has been prohibitively expensive for them & they have had to stop offering some varieties they used to sell. Its easy to see how this could place even greater distance between seed & grower but, luckily, its fairly easy to completely change that with a bit of community effort.
Growing & saving your own seed is an enjoyable experience & very easy to do. Thousands of seeds can be produced in a small area of the garden with more than enough to go around to friends & neighbours which means not only do we a save money but, we secure our seed source locally just where it should be.
What is a seed circle/seed saving group?
In its simplest form, its a group of growers who get together & each offer to grow & save seed of at least one variety of vegetable & then swap with each other. No money or sales are involved; its just community bartering & swapping.
Seed circle groups can also collaborate on trialling multiple varieties of vegetables to find which ones are best for our region & we can even work together to breed new varieties of vegetables that are adapted to our regional growing area.
The seed circle's activities don’t need to be limited to vegetable seeds either. We can also collect & swap native tree seed, wildflower seed, vegetative propagation material & scion wood of fruit bearing trees to graft.
Seed saving circles also offer the opportunity for learning more about plants & biodiversity & foster community connections both between people and people & the land.
How does the seed circle operate?
Each growing season, members commit to growing & saving at least one type of seed. They simply submit a rota return to let the group know which variety they plan to grow & collect seed from that season. At the end of the season, each member can add an entry to the group's seed library to offer the seeds they collected that season. An annual seed swap will be organised in the first quarter of every year where members can swap home saved seed & other seeds they have available.
There are no membership fees or dues for joining. The group operates just by contribution & participation & free exchange of seed they collect. Ultimately, it is hoped that as the group grows, seeds will be plentiful enough they can be made available to the wider community via either a local public seed library or swap.
Join the seed savers group.
As a member of the seed saving circle you are only expected to grow and/or collect one type of seed each season to take part. If you can do more than one, then by all means, offer as many as you wish. These can be vegetable or flower seeds or even local wildflower & tree seeds. Therefore, even if you don't currently have a garden, you can participate!
This group's membership is largely based in Caithness & Sutherland. As the group's focus is on regionally adapted seed & local seed supply, members can be growing & collecting anywhere in the Far North of Scotland (roughly anywhere between 58°N & 59°N).
Even if you don't live in the Far North but, have an interest in seed saving & local seed security; join us as a collaborator!
All members will have access to our Substack which serves as the group's organisational space & is where the group's seed saving rota is listed as well as access to view the group's own seed library of home collected seed for exchange. We also have plenty of resources on seed saving & gardening compiled there. The Substack also allows you to have discussions with other members of the seed saving group & collaborate on other projects within the group.
We will be having an annual seed swap in the 1st quarter of every year where members can swap seeds. Our 1st annual meeting & seed swap will be on Friday, February 3rd, 2023 at 18:00 at Lybster Day Centre at 9 Jeffrey Street. All you need to do is bring yourself & any seeds you might have available to swap whether its home saved seed or left over, surplus seed packets you have.
You can join now using the link to the form below or you can also show up on the night & join then.
Our public website is at: