Rossland REAL Foods is holding its Seedy Saturday event at the Miners’ Hall on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 1 to 4 p.m.
The seed swap and sale will feature seeds from vendors such as Cherry Meadows from South Slocan, Stellar Seeds from Johnson’s Landing, and Earthy Organics from Fruitvale.
The advantage of picking up seeds at the event, instead of the store, is that the seeds are locally adapted.
“A lot of the seeds that we buy in the store are grown down in the states where there’s good conditions for growing seeds, so they’re not really adapted to our climate and growing season,” explains Sarah Flood, event organizer. “So we’ve got some locally adapted seeds, plus there’s a lot of heirloom seeds. One of the people coming up from Earthly Organics will have pepper seeds, and those are actually from peppers his dad brought from Italy.”
There will also be seeds for interesting plants not necessarily found in a typical store.
“Like blue tomatoes,” says Flood.
Seed swappers are asked to package their seeds in small envelopes that are clearly labeled with the type of seed and date of collection. Each envelope should have enough seeds to plant a five-foot row, or start three to five individual plants. Details on seed swapping and on Rossland’s Seedy Saturday can be found on the Rossland Real Foods website at www.rosslandfood.com/contact-us/local-seeds.