Seed Saving Field Day
Wednesday, September 18 // 1P-5P
Join the Appleton Seed Library and special guest Ben Cohen of Small House Farm for a day of seed saving education, hands on learning, and storytelling. Reclaiming this lost art of seed saving builds a more resilient community and we need your caring hands to join our efforts.
Ben Cohen is an author, herbalist, gardener, seed saver and community builder. Ben is the founder of MI Seed Library, a community seed sharing initiative that has helped to establish nearly seventy seed library programs across his home state and beyond. He spends his time outside of his gardens offering workshops and lectures across the country on the benefits of living closer to the land through seeds, herbs and locally grown food. Ben finds himself at home wherever his hands are in the soil, sowing the seeds of yesterday to reap the bountiful harvest of tomorrow.
Wednesday's workshop will start with a brief walk around the property, a sharing circle where we can get to know each other a bit and share our experiences and what brings us to seed and perhaps even a brief story time. Throughout the day we'll discuss flower structure, pollination (including hand pollination), isolation requirements for seed production and beyond.
Dry and wet processing of seed will come next. We can thresh and winnow beans together using a number of different techniques. Together we can harvest and clean seeds from fruits like squash, melons, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes. Since fermentation is part of the process for tomato seeds (and it takes a few days), we may treat this portion a bit like a demo. We will close the day with a discussion on packaging and storage of seeds, a seed swap and time for Q&A.
- Water station and light snack provided
- Please bring a water bottle, sun hat, bug spray, notebook and any other supplies that you'd like for an event like this
- Event will happen rain or shine and be mostly outdoors so plan accordingly
- Please bring seeds to swap if you have them
