ERIN – Seedy Saturday will be making its return to the town next month, bringing all things a gardener needs to begin their journey into growing.
The event will take place on March 8 from 10am to 3pm at Erin United Church. Many garden enthusiasts will be in attendance, sharing their wisdom plus tips and tricks to obtain a thriving space for vegetables, fruits and flowers.
Organizer and founder Jen Edwards started Erin Seedy Saturday in 2018 and hasn’t missed a year yet. She even found a way to deliver to guests during the pandemic.
Her story began in 2017 when she first came across a seed library. The idea of the library is to take, grow, harvest then return.
At first Edwards was concerned she wouldn’t get any seeds back, but now she has more than she can handle.
Seeds for everyone – A box filled with a variety of seeds ready for the guests to collect and grow. Submitted photo
“I’m just trying to get rid of seeds so people will grow things for themselves,” she told the Advertiser. “Whether that be flowers for you to beautify everything … or for food.”
After gaining a large amount of seeds from the library, Edwards decided to create Erin Seedy Saturday.
“More seeds in the community, more opportunity for everyone to grow,” she said.
Event details
Vendors will fill the basement of the church with seeds and gardening needs. The event will be free admission with cash donations accepted at the seed exchange table.
Vendors include:
– Arthur Greenhouse Seeds;
– Cedar Valley Honey;
– Little Deer Drive Farm;
– Forêt Mushrooms;
– Pollinator Gardens;
– Hillsburgh and Erin Garden Clubs;
– Chawin’s Workshop Signs;
– used gardening book exchange; and
– free seeds from the Erin Seed Library.
Gardening advice will also be available at the “Ask Me Table,” added Edwards.
“Erin Garden Club and Hillsburgh Garden Club with both be there and one of them is doing a craft and the other a bake sale,” she said.
A presentation about all things seeds is scheduled for 11:30am by Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario staff seed program manager Rebecca Ivanoff. A feature length movie title In My Back Yard by Waterloo-based seed supplier Seeds of Diversity will follow the presentation at 1pm.
The documentary film follows filmmaker Jamie Day Fleck as she converts her backyard into a vegetable garden, and meets other Torontonians developing innovative solutions that utilize city spaces for hyperlocal food production.
For more information visit erinseedlendinglibrary.weebly.com or email jenedwardss@sympatico.ca.
