Seed Saving For Urban Gardener's

Saving seeds from a plant that you grew for you and your community can be a very empowering process. Increasingly, and especially for large and medium-scale farmers, saving seeds is under threat from large companies that patent seed varieties and create genetically modified seeds. We'll touch on the history and socio/political implications of saving seeds as well as the benefits of seed saving, including how participating in this process keeps varieties more adaptable to local disease and bioregional stressors including climate change.
Figuring out how to effectively save seed and keep the plant true to the characteristics you want can be a complicated and daunting task if you aren't familiar with how different plant families reproduce. We will go into detail about parts of plants, how different families of plants reproduce, and also break down planning your garden for saving seeds. We'll send you away with a list and explanation of the easiest plants to save seed from as well as ethical seed companies to buy from.

This workshop will be taught by Mike Escol a volunteer collective member at Baltimore Free Farm (a collective farm and community garden in Hampden). Mike has been farming there since 2016. His interest in community farming began in 2010 when he began volunteering one day a week at farms throughout Baltimore City and County. He has done some amount of market farming and seed saving for sale, but his passion lies with community and collective food cultivation. Seeds are one way communities can take back the power of community-level self-sufficiency and interdependence with our ecosystem. He is enthralled at the prospect of community saving seed and creating varieties adapted to the changing climate and our local bioregion. Which you can do too! Just by selecting and saving seed! In learning about farming Mike also took interest in seed saving and its importance in creating sustainable foodways. That path that lead him to learn how about seed saving at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a worker owned seed company in a Virginia. In the last few years Julia, another collective member, created The Baltimore Seed Commons, a library of seeds that are open for the community to take and contribute. Baltimore Free Farm and The Seed Commons have events like seed swaps and workshops focused on seed saving and gardening. Apart from Mike's volunteering with Baltimore Free Farm and The Seed Commons, he is an outdoor educator who specializes in nature crafting and nature-based games and activities for kids and adults. He loves being outside and spending his free time exploring the forests, fields, rivers, and creeks of the mid-Atlantic and Appalachia regions!

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