Sow a Seed: Grow a Gardener – the theme for this year’s Seedy Saturday at the Filberg Centre in Courtenay – is meant to demonstrate CVGSS’ commitment to supporting families and communities to grow our own food. The event, which is the primary fundraising activity for the Comox Valley Growers & Seed Savers Society, will once again offer our Community Seed Swap and the Horticultural Trade Show with over 50 vendors and exhibitors. There’s everything for every level of gardening expertise. We are especially excited to be able to offer children’s and family activities and qualified child care this year. Parents can leave their children (over 5 years) to enjoy The Multimedia Earth Art Program– where they’ll participate in garden-themed activities with Michelle Peters and her crew.
There is a stellar line up of expert speakers. Carolyn Herriot is a food security consultant and author of ‘The Zero Mile Diet’ and a companion book ‘The Zero-Mile Diet Cookbook’ (Harbour). She grows ‘Seeds of Victoria’ at The Garden Path Centre. www.seedsofvictoria.com. Her presentation Zero Mile Living: Living the Good Life shares an inspiring vision for The Islands Diet exploring bringing our food back home to increase food security, create employment (new ‘gastro- economy’), improve our diet and health, and cool down the planet deliciously!
Using ecological engineering gardening principles, Dr. Royann Petrell has produced edible bean pods and dried seeds for nearly 20 years. How, and what surprising and exciting results have surfaced will be discussed in Growing and Saving Bean Seeds Successfully On Vancouver Island Dr. Petrell is professor emerita in Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia specializing in finding ways to protect and improve the natural environment. The beans harvest is very important to them because dried beans are the major protein sources in their vegetarian diet.
With a small garden, or even a patio or sunny balcony you can grow a wide variety of herbal medicines. Join medical herbalist and master gardener, Chanchal Cabrera In Grow Your Own First Aid Kit, to explore growing, making medicinal teas and using herbs for health and healing. Chanchal has been a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK) since 1987 and obtained her MSc in herbal medicine at the University of Wales in 2003. Chanchal lives on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where she and her husband farm 7 acres. They grow food for 10 households, culinary herbs for restaurants and medicinal herbs for her clinic. They also run therapy gardens for people with disabilities and host internships in organic farming and herbal medicine.
Jonathan Schut has gardened from coast to coast, and studied Ecological Gardening and Permaculture at Linnaea Farm on Cortes Island. At his home and through his business Budding Landscapes, his dream is creating gardens that are integrated, edible, gorgeous and sustainable. He lives with his partner and two boys in Dove Creek. Together they find great pleasure in feeding hand-picked slugs to their ducks. Jonathan will share the stage with Peter Janes and speak about Permaculture Design. Peter Janes is an orchardist and plant propagator from Denman Island. His brief 20 minute presentation will highlight some of the best practices and biggest hurdles in the cultivation of fruit and nut trees. His personal experiences and images are applicable to home yards, traditional orchards, and permaculturally-oriented food forests. He will also review some of the most successful and least appropriate edible perennials he’s observed in our bioregion in hopes of increasing the successes of local growers.
The Comox Valley Seed Bank is in its second year and wants to increase the quantity of seeds available. Find out how you can participate in this venture and help to increase local food security
Visit our new web site www.cvgss.org to plan your day – from shopping, to learning, to socializing in the Seedy Cafe. Join and share the event on Facebook.
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