It was a year ago to the day while consuming a couple tasty Steam Works IPAs in a Richmond Irish Pub en route to a family vacation in Mexico that I took the plunge and joined the Traced Elements family. Maybe it was liquid courage that egged me on because at the time I was scared to dive into a world I knew nothing about: writing. The only constant I had to offer was my deep love for gardening. As luck would have it I learned I also loved to write – or maybe this whole endeavor came into my life when I needed a new outlet more then I realized at the time.
Regardless: it’s one of my favourite decisions to date.
The winter’s sun, as of late, has been flooding my living space with a warming heat reminiscent of sandy beaches and margaritas while the arctic air swirls around outside. My cheeks are constantly blushed in colour having been kissed by the cold. Overall, I welcome this false warmth; it’s a perfect excuse to devour a bowl of spicy miso ramen, everyday.
As the days get longer I look forward to my garden springing to life, even if they are currently blanketed in more snow then I can recall in the valley in years, my thoughts are hopeful, green and full of blooms. Many days I get lost and overwhelmed by the potential of things to grow as I browse numerous websites. Basically, my urge to propagate as many cool things as possible usually wins. You already know if you’ve read my other blogs that I’m a firm believer in the, “there is no harm in trying” experimental method.
Seeds; they fuel everything. (A little bit of love doesn’t hurt either.)
Plant anything and something good is bound to come from it. Sometimes there is growth and sometimes there are failures; either way you’ll learn something.
I have been carrying the following quote with me for years but it is only now that I finally feel like I am acting on it (after all spring ushers in rebirth). So, in the words of Byron Pulsifer I leave you with this,
“Passion creates the desire for more and action fuelled by passion creates a future.”
…get ready to see some really cool things from me.
The countdown is officially on to the day jolly ol’ Saint Nick gobbles up treats left by excited little people, adds a splash of rum to a glass of eggnog and leaves gifts for all. I thought it a perfect time to share a few thing that graze my wish list/need list throughout the year, in hopes it may inspire some of you stuck on stocking stuffers.
Promise me this — you will source locally as much as possible. For the love of sustainability and supporting our community, we need to tighten up our game.
So, here we go (in no particular order): fun ideas for the chef, gardener and wanna-be green thumb in your life.
GLOVES – I’m the first to admit I use them sparingly but I’m sure happy to have a set around and nothing beats a new pair; like the feeling of a fresh pair of socks.
NAIL BRUSH – Many of us are proud of the dirt under our nails and our calluses but sometimes life calls for clean hands. Small Potatoes Bazaar has you covered.
FELCO PRUNERS – My personal favourite are the #2; an essential component to any gardener’s kit and the holster is a mandatory accessory. Available at Pemberton Valley Nursery and their Whistler location along with a great selection of gloves and number 12 on this list!
GARDNER’S DREAM CREAM – Treat your hands – they do so much hard work. Stay Wild keeps their shelves stocked with the goods.
SCANDINAVE SPA PASS w/ MASSAGE – The heavy lifting and bending is over; this gift is a no brainer.
BOOKS! – There are so many options out there but here are my current top three picks: Floret Flowers (Erin Benzakein, Julia Chai), Seed to Seed (Susan Ashworth) and Putting Food By (Ruth Hertzberg). The folks at Armchair Books are great. They don’t always have what you’re looking for in stock but they are amazing at getting you what you need as fast as the other guys.
WEST COAST SEEDS GC – Their seed selection is top notch and their website is like a bible for home and pro-gardeners alike. Grow and eat your way to happiness.
GROWOYA – A self-watering terracotta pot that you sink into your garden… AKA: a pretty nifty idea that a girlfriend introduced to me as a way to deal with the summer watering restrictions. It doesn’t work for all vegetables but their website is full of information on how to get the most out of this efficient irrigation style.
CRINKLE VEGGIE CUTTER – We live in Spud valley and are ruled by potatoes so why not have a cool device on hand to make some funky fries from time to time!
VANDUESEN GARDEN PASS – This place is the Willy Wonka factory for plant lovers: so easy to lose track of time, so easy to get “lost”. (Insert the words to ‘Pure Imagination’ from said mentioned movie and you’ll find they’re quite fitting). Plus, you’ll forget you’re even in the city. Every season boasts new blooms and something to discover making it, easily, one of my favourite places to go and geek out.
A JOURNAL – note taking and random reminders are a great aid from year to year. They are also a great place to doodle, write down new recipes along with your hopes and greens.
PRETTY POTS – There is always a use for a beautiful ceramic pot… be it to house an indoor plant or something outside. But since you’re at the plant store you mind as well plop a plant in there too!
From my sleeping garden to yours… happy semi-hibernation and snow days!
As Master Gardeners in Training, we are committed to volunteering our time in our local community to educate and answer gardening questions. We use science-based facts and we only share organic garden solutions. Our backgrounds and experience vary, but we all have something in common: the love for plants and gardening. Our title indicates that we are all-knowing… well, some of us are, and the rest of us continue to unearth the facts about all things botanical.
In early June, I was asked by Sarah Jones from Stewardship Pemberton Society if I would speak about collecting vegetable seeds and pollination at one of their free garden seminars at the Pemberton Public Library, the library is home to the Seed Library for Pemberton. Immediately said “Yes!!!” The only caveat was my experience in seed collecting was pretty much, well, non-existent. However, that did not stop my enthusiasm to dig deeper into a topic that I am sure would come up one day at one of our Master Gardener Clinics.
After much research and discovery, my confidence in the subject was better, but what impressed me more, was the significance of collecting seeds. I had no idea the socio-economic impact that seed collection had on creating healthy food systems and people.
Did you know collecting seeds helps to maintain seed health & resilience, better genetic diversity in our gardens, farms & kitchens, and can save you money? It’s no wonder as a child, my grandmother was mortified when she found us playing with her seeds; destroying hours of painstaking work, not to mention affecting her ability to grow the lovely veggies we enjoyed throughout the year.
Photo by Burcu Asvar
Many of us buy seeds from seed catalogues or at our local garden centres. Most seed companies nowadays sell F1 or Hybrid seeds that may produce seeds that are sterile or no seed at all. If they do produce seed they may not produce true to type.
If you can, choose to buy seeds that are open sourced; these are seeds that are not restricted by patents or other intellectual property rights. This keeps our food supply secure for future generations (this is where the socio-economic impact comes into play). Or better yet, take advantage of seed libraries in your community (i.e. Pemberton Seed Library).
Open pollinated seeds are non-hybrid plants which are more genetically diverse, have a greater amount of variation within the plant population, and they allow plants to slowly adapt to local growing conditions & climate year to year.
Collecting seeds requires some good planning as well as understanding the fertilization process. Pollination is key for fertilization, and it’s different depending on the type of plant. Some plants can self-pollinate (i.e. beans), while others depend on insects (honeybees being the most efficient) or by wind (i.e. corn).
Before you start to collect seeds, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
When it comes to Pollination…
Will these plants cross with any others? Is this good or bad? (usually bad)
How does this happen? (wind or insect)
What can I do to control this? Do I need anything?
Do I need a minimum of healthy seed? (do they breed as a group?)
Do they pollinate on their own and self-pollinate (need one only?)
Have I chosen the right plant for the seed?
When it comes to seed extraction and drying….
Do I need to do anything special to the seed?
Is my seed well dried and labelled?
The answers to these questions are different for each vegetable, and my recommendation is to get a good reference book on seed collection that will answer all these questions in greater detail. I have listed a few websites, and a couple of books at the end, that the Pemberton Library has ordered for its book collection.
The process of collecting seeds is easily summed up in the diagram below:
To maintain purity of seeds, they may require isolation through distance to prevent insect or wind contamination, time (being planted in stages so that the first crop sets its seeds and stops shedding pollen), mechanical isolation (i.e. using physical barriers to prevent unwanted pollen, like cloth bagging or caging), and/or hand pollination, which is the most commonly used method to produce pure seed.
Choosing seed comes down to observing the whole plant and not just the fruit, checking for disease & insect resistance, drought resistance, trueness to type, colour & shape of fruit, flavour, etc. Other factors include vigor and population size (saved from the greatest possible number of plants).
The process of removing and cleaning seeds can include washing, drying; and some plants require fermentation first.
Washing seeds (tomatoes) requires placing the collected seeds in a bucket of water, stirred with vigor to help separate viable seeds, strained, and dried on a non-stick surface (glass or ceramic dish, cookie sheet, or screen – not paper towel).
Plants that produce seeds in pods (peas) or husks (corn) are usually harvested dry, threshed to break the seed from the covering, and any chaff or debris is removed by a process called winnowing (wind).
Storing seeds is the final stage of the process. Glass or metal jars, zip lock bags, paper envelopes provide air tight homes, and make sure to keep the seeds away from heat or moisture. Ensure they are clearly labelled and stored in a cool, dark place where there is minimal temperature fluctuation.
I want to thank Sarah Jones (Stewardship Pemberton Society) and Lisa Richardson (Traced Elements) for asking me to share my new-found appreciation and knowledge about seed collection. I have an utmost respect for those gardeners and farmers who have been collecting seeds and who are able to pass down their seed from generation to generation. According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, we have lost 75% of our diversity in our agricultural crops since the beginning of the last century. Having a seed library and sharing our seeds within our community plays such a significant role in the health of our food systems, and is good for our mind, body and soul.
“Tell me more about seeds,” asked my three year old, way back when. It was spring. We’d been mucking about in the dirt all morning, depositing tiny treasures in the warming earth.
Now 5, even more helpful on the seed front.
A seed is an inkling, I wanted to say. It is its own ambition and instruction book, all bundled into one. It is a packet of information. It is your heritage and your birthright, little man, even though you are inheriting a world in which the control of more than half of the world’s seed stock has fallen into the hands of a few mega-chemical companies. Some people call that bio-piracy. But I don’t want you to know about this yet. Because thinking too hard about these things makes me want to crawl into bed, pull the duvet over my head, and refuse to get up again.
But you, Small, you make me want to sit on my haunches in the warming earth, with some trowels and forks and little packets full of seed. You make me want to cajole a beautiful harvest out of the little square of world I find myself inhabiting, and so, every spring, we start at it, with just a handful of seeds and a fistful of hope.
And by this time of year, I look at the Life Force asserting itself in my garden, and feel it coursing through me, as I pick strawberries, admire the calendula, tug up a radish, measure the height of the sunflowers just by standing next to it and gazing up… Hope. Hope. Hope.
(And weeds. Of course. Let’s not get too precious.)
“Every young person should recognize that working with their hands is not a degradation. It’s the highest evolution of our species. Start a garden. Create a playground in the way you grow food. Save seeds. Cook. Create community. We are not atomized producers and consumers. We are part of the Earth family. We are part of the human family. We are part of a food community. Food connects us. Everything is food.” ~ Vandana Shiva
Thank you to Evelyn Coggins for sharing this video with me.
Traced Elements 