Free Seed Library is Back Again in Roseau River

By Janet Kroeker

The seed catalogues have been arriving in my post box for a while already. As the winter wears on, some of us have begun making plans for vegetable gardening 2023.

Last year, local gardeners and seed savers began sharing their favourite seeds by bringing them to the free Community Seed Library located in Artisan Hall at Reimer Concrete and Building Supplies, in Roseau River. After a short winter break, the Library is back, beginning January 14.

For those of you who didn’t know about this last year, this seed exchange works just like our Little Free Libraries – take some seeds, share some seeds – with one difference.

To make it easier to search for certain seeds, sharers are asked to clearly label their seeds, including the year they were harvested, and file them alphabetically by type, rather than variety. For example, “Scarlet Runner Bean, 2022” would be placed under “B” for beans. If you are open to fielding questions about your seeds, consider including your contact information as well. One improvement suggestion over last year would be to package your seeds in a small paper envelope or insert a piece of stiff paper/cardboard if using a plastic bag (no wider than 3 inches), as they will stand up and be more easily noticed in our seed display box.

Laura Reeves, local botanist, proprietor of Prairie Shore Botanicals, enthusiast and participant of the Seed Library gives us some compelling reasons for seed saving and sharing.

“For seasoned gardeners, seed saving is par for the course – a simple way of ensuring that our favourite or most successful foods and flowers can be planted again next year. Selecting seeds from fruits with favoured qualities, like sweetness or resistance to environmental conditions, such as disease or drought, will result in those qualities becoming dominant over time,” said Reeves. “Saving and sharing our seeds offers a safeguard against crop failure when we can turn to our successful neighbours to help us recover from the loss. Moreover, sharing seed from our favourite plants is undeniably fun and a great way to cultivate relationships with other community members.”

The Reimer family has been very generous in allowing us space for this library in their store. One concession they have asked of us is that the seeds we offer not be available in their store seed stand. When you bring your seeds in, we would appreciate you checking the seeds for sale to make sure we’re not in competition with the store.

The more people participating in the Community Seed Library, the more fun it will be! Some contributions from 2022 that were grown in 2021 and stay viable over a number of years have started our seed offerings for 2023. They are flat green beans, Hubbard, Guatemalan Blue and Sunshine Squash, okra, Parsnips, chilli peppers, yellow bell peppers, pie pumpkins, sesame seeds, heirloom tomatoes and more. Come on down and add and/or take from our collection.

The Woodmore Women’s Institute is planning an inperson seed exchange later in the year. Stay tuned for more details.

Brought to you by the Stuartburn Emerson-Franklin Local Food Initiative, initiativelocalfood@gmail.com or find them on Facebook.

Free Seed Library.