Seed Library
The Kamloops Food Policy Council’s Community Seed Library encourages gardeners to grow and share local seeds, offers workshops and demonstrations on seed cleaning and seed saving, and promotes the importance of plant biodiversity.
Why save seeds?
There is a growing movement to revitalize the practice of seed saving, both to save old varieties from extinction and to develop new locally-adapted plant varieties. For hundreds of years, gardeners and farmers routinely saved seed from their crops and built up a rich gene pool with thousands of heirloom varieties. Gradually, people began to leave seed saving to commercial seed companies instead of saving their own, and today many wonderful heirlooms have been lost. According to Seeds of Diversity, 75% of our global food plant varieties have become extinct in the past 100 years.
KFPC Seed Library at The Stir
Our Community Seed Library can be found in the Stirfront Community Space at The Stir (185 Royal Ave). Interested in what we have? Peruse our catalogue of seeds.
How Can I Join the Library or Donate Seed?
We’d love your help and there are many different ways to contribute:
- Help us solicit donations from seed companies
- Help organize the collection
- Join the library and donate seed
Watch for our displays at public libraries, the Kamloops Farmer’s Market, and other community events, or contact us at seeds@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com for more information or to make arrangements to drop off seed at our office. Or find us on Facebook or Instagram.
Seed Library Drop-in Hours:
Our drop in hours will return in the spring. If you’re interested in visiting the Seed Library, please contact us:
How does a Community Seed Library Work?
During planting season, members take out seeds from the library and grow them. They save seeds from the plants they grow and hopefully at the end of the season, return more to the library than they initially took, thereby helping to build the collection.
Borrowing Seed
Once you are a member, you are welcome to take up to five packages of seed at a time. If you successfully grow the plants and harvest seed from them, we ask that you return some of the cleaned, dried seed to our collection. If you have never saved seed before, Seeds of Diversity has simple instructions for saving tomatoes, peas, beans, and lettuce. We encourage beginners to try saving seed from these easy vegetables first.
Donating Seed
Anyone can donate seed to our collection. Perhaps you have some seeds that have been saved in your family for generations and want to ensure they don’t die out. We’d love to help! We accept any open-pollinated varieties, but try to focus on vegetables that are easy to grow and save. We do not collect genetically modified seed or seed from hybrid plants.
Seed Cleaning Equipment
Thanks to the generous support of Urban Systems, we are the proud owners of some fascinating and functional seed-cleaning equipment. Our winnower and thresher allow us to clean large amounts of seed in a short period of time (and have fun doing it!)
Growers with a large amount of seed to clean can have us do it for them. We conduct demonstrations of our winnower and thresher at Seedy Saturday, the Farmer’s Market, and at local schools, and often need seed to put through the equipment. We’ll be happy to clean your seed for you in return for a donation to our seed library.
As well, we lend our equipment out to growers who have completed an orientation on how to use the winnower and thresher.
Contact info@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com to make arrangements or get more information.
https://kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/seedy-saturday.jpg228221Carolehttps://kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/KFP_logo_print_full_flat-300x180.pngCarole2013-02-04 18:35:192019-04-01 10:18:16Kamloops Seedy Saturday(s)
https://kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/2012-seedy-saturday.jpg194259Timely Support Teamhttps://kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/KFP_logo_print_full_flat-300x180.pngTimely Support Team2012-02-29 20:43:262021-04-19 15:27:27Seedy Saturday 2012: A Grand Success!