Seed History! Seed Banking! Seed Saving!
For Immediate Release: September 6th, 2011
The Cowichan Valley was once one of Canada’s largest seed growing and exporting regions for vegetable and sweet pea seeds. Led by historic families like the James’ and the Crosland Brothers, seed saving was once an active and celebrated industry in the Valley. At one point, the sweet pea was even honoured with an annual festival in downtown Duncan.
In homage to our community’s seed-rich past, the Cowichan Green Community’s (CGC) Seed Literacy team is excited to announce a free public event dedicated to seeds. Drawing from the experience and skills of CGC staff and regional experts, this event is the perfect environment to share and build our skills as seed savers, and to learn of regional seed saving efforts that the public can participate in.
The goal of this free event, according to CGC Seed Literacy Coordinator Emily Doyle-Yamaguchi, “will be to highlight the history of seed saving in the Cowichan Valley and to provide a welcoming introduction to saving seeds.” She hopes attendees will walk away feeling both “excited and better equipped to grow food from their own seeds.”
Joining us will be long-time local farmer Auke Elzinga, who will share stories about our community’s agricultural past, and Jen Cody and Craig Evans of Growing Opportunities Community Co-op Farm, who will walk participants through the basics of saving seeds.
This event is free and will be hosted at the Vancouver Island Regional Library (Cowichan Branch), located at 2687 James Street, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm on Thursday September 22nd, 2011. For further information, please contact Vanessa with the Cowichan Green Community at 250-748-8506 or vanessa [at] cowichangreencommunity [dot] org
Funded in whole or in part by the Canada – British Columbia Labour Market Development Agreement.
