Resources

Support our local seed providers:

• Resilient seeds
• Uprising seeds
• Osborne seeds

New Local Geo Garden Club local garden app that builds community garden power

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Free Seed Saving Guide

Check out this free printable pdf seed saving booklet, from the Seed Ambassador’s – the original project of Sarah Kleeger and Andrew Still, who now run Adaptive Seeds in Oregon. This is an excellent booklet to make for handouts for seed-saving workshops.

Celt’s Blogs from Transition Whatcom

Celt wrote a series of blog posts for Transition Whatcom featuring gardening, homesteading, localization, and snarky advice. They can all be found at Blogs – Transition Whatcom (ning.com) This one is about what happened when she grew most of what she ate one year.

Celt’s Garden – Food From Around Here – Transition Whatcom (ning.com)

Updates: Krista Rome is working as a plant guru and has mothballed her seed company Resilient Seeds, formerly Backyard Beans and Grains. Local seed company Uprising is still going strong, along with Territorial and Fedco. Fedco has particularly suitable beans and other short season crops because they are right across the 49th parallel in the other maritime climate. Whatcom Folk School has folded, but the Whatcom Library System has picked up their mission and is offering gardening classes. Check out the classes at Inspiration Farm.

Dry Legume & Grain Growing Guides

Local seed company Resilient Seeds has free one-page growing guides for 13 dry legume and grain crops, taking you step-by-step from planting through harvest, seed cleaning, and cooking.

Seed Planting Guide

Seed Saving Books

• The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving, edited by Lee Buttala, et al. ​Seed Saver’s Exchange, 2015.
• Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, by Suzanne Ashworth. Seed Savers Exchange, 2002.
• Seed Sowing and Seed Saving by Carole B. Turner, Published by Story
• The Organic Seed Grower: A Farmer’s Guide to Vegetable Seed Production by John Navazio. Published by Chelsea Green, 2012. 
• Saving Seeds: A Home Gardener’s Guide to Preserving Plant Diversity by Dan Jason. Salt Spring Seeds, 2020
• The Whole Organic Food Book: Safe Healthy Harvest From Your Garden To Your Plate, by Dan Jason. Raincoast Books, 2001.
• The Resilient Gardener: Food Production And Self-Reliance In Uncertain Times. by Carol Deppe.  Chelsea Green, 2010. (Carol’s other books “Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties” and “The Tao of Vegetable Gardening” are also excellent)
• Beautiful Corn: America’s Original Grain from Seed to Plate, by Anthony Boutard.  New Society Publishers, 2012.
• Homegrown Whole Grains: Grow, Harvest, and Cook Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, Corn, and More, by Sara Pitzer.  Storey Publishing, 2009.

Websites

• How-to-save-seeds
• Seed Saving:
• A Guide to Seed Saving, Seed Stewardship, and Seed Sovereignty (4 MB PDF download) by The Seed Ambassadors Project
• Vegetable Seed Saving Handbook
• Organizations:
• Organic Seed Alliance
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Starting a Seed Library and Hosting Seed Swaps:
• Start a Seed Library (Rocky Mountain Seeds)
• Starting a Seed Library (Mother Earth News)
• Why So Many Public Libraries Are Now Giving Out Seeds (Atlas Obscura)
• The Seed Library Movement From Roots to Bloom (Hudson Valley Seed Co.)
• How to Organize a Community Seed Bank (pdf) (Community Seed Network)
• How to Organize a Seed Swap (Seed Savers Exchange)
• Resources and Information for Seed Saving, Sharing and Networking (Community Seed Network)
• Publications:
• The Seed Garden
• Seed to Seed
• The Vegetable Seed Saving Handbook
• The Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Programme is sowing a biodiverse, ecologically sustainable and resilient seed system here in the UK and Ireland. We support organically produced and open pollinated seeds, grown locally to reflect and adapt to our diverse growing conditions.

Organizations and Projects

• Seed Ambassadors Oregon-based seed stewards with the principal goal to increase the diversity of locally adapted varieties & disseminate this resource to further local food system durability. Click the link to
• KING COUNTY SEED LENDING LIBRARY is a community of seed savers and sharers located in the Seattle area. Supports bioregional seed companies, educates gardeners about seed-saving, and hosts community seed events.
• Seed Swappers online a new hub for swapping seeds. Receive credits for making your surplus seeds available to other gardeners, then spend those credits to get seeds from other gardeners in the network.
• Farm Folk CityFolk Research & Education Seed Farm. The Research & Education Seed Farm is a first-of-its-kind model that trains current and future seed growers and advances vegetable seed research while demonstrating the economic potential of seed production in BC.
• Finny Farm Seed Distro Last year we distributed over 7000 packages of seed in less than two weeks through our little self serve roadside stand and by offering a shipping option.

Informational Videos

Krista shares some seed saving basics and fields a Q & A session.

Brian has restored and made modifications to equipment needed for the small to medium scale seed saving projects.

Peak Moment video featuring our newly refurbished clipper seed cleaner. Read more about the Clipper and the journey to restore it in Celt’s blog post.