2017 Vendor bios.
Get to know our vendors and visit them at Seedy Saturday.
1. Coastal Invasive Species
Rachelle McElroy
http://www.coastalisc.com/
rachelle@coastalisc.com
Be PlantWise! Coastal ISC will be featuring alternatives to common invasive plants for your garden and how to be PlantWise!
Commit to not buying invasive species and be a PlantWise ambassador. Learn about full subsidies* available for controlling Knotweed spp. and Giant Hogweed on your property in the Comox Valley.
Bring your burning invasive species questions for one of our staffto answer.
2. Full Circle Seeds.
http://www.fullcircleseeds.com/
Certified organic Vegetable, herb, flower and grain seeds grown on Vancouver Island and certified organic seed potatoes from Across the Creek
3. Ravensong Seeds / Fireweed Farm
jessy delleman
orders@ravensongseeds.com
http://www.ravensongseeds.com/
“Ravensong Seeds is a small seed business located on the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria BC Canada. We grow all of our seeds organically without the use of pesticides, chemicals, or GMOs. We specialize in medicinal herbs, with a selection of culinary herbs, veggies, garlic native plants, flowers, and enthnobotanicals. All of our varieties are also open-pollinated, which means they are true species from which you can save your own seeds in your home gardens.
Ravensong seeds are grown in our home farm location at Fireweed Farm & School (fireweedschool.com) in the village of Brentwood Bay. At Fireweed Farm you will find our main seed-saving and demonstration garden with a collection of over 200 different herb varieties, a small farm shop, and seasonal workshops on herbal medicine. We also produce a line of high quality herbal products with the herbs we grow under the name Miss Mullein’s Herbals.
4. Perennial Ridge Farms
Rose Rogan
perennialridgefarms@gmail.com
I started up a wholesale farm and nursery over 20 years ago, in the Cowichan Valley.
I employ local high school students in the spring and summer.
It is usually their first job, and they love working here. Once they graduate, they move onto new things in their life, and about 98% keep in touch.
The farm has goats, chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys, ducks and geese. And 3 dogs and 4 cats!
For Seedy Saturday I will have nursery stock grown on Vancouver Island.
Perennials, Rhododendrons, Berry bushes ( blueberry, raspberry, currents, boysenberry, logan berry, tayberrry ), ornamental trees, and hardy succulents.
Lily bulbs will be available, as well as occupied Mason Bee blocks.
5. Bugs with Benefits
Debbie Foster
http://www.bugswithbenefits.ca/
bugswithbenefits@gmail.com
Bugs with Benefits is a beneficial predatory insect provider located in Coombs. I grow and distribute insects to be used in greenhouses as well as outdoor garden applications. Common bugs I offer are: Ladybugs for aphids, Podisus for caterpillars, hypoaspis for fungus gnat, cucumeris for thrips, californicus for spider mites and nematodes for beetle and weevil larva. I will have products available at SeedySaturday that focus primarily on indoor growing, and will be taking orders for outdoor products for later in the spring.
6. Innesfree Farm and Botanic Garden
Dr Thierry Vrain and Chanchal Cabrera,
Cancelled.
7. J & R Farm
Rose and Jim Mcculley
mccus@shaw.ca
Mason Bee kits, cocoons, tubes, houses, jams, jellies and mustard pickles
8. World Community Development Education Society.
World Community is a leading promoter of Fair/Direct Trade in the Comox Valley, selling organic fair trade products such as coffee, chocolate, tea, and olive oil since 1996. Fair trade sales provide fair wages for farmers and support important health and community projects. Our film festival and film series have featured many films about food security, seeds, and growing organically. FMI:
9. Brother Nature Organic Seeds.
Gordon and Coral Brinck
Brother Nature Organic Seeds has been growing and selling Certified Organic, Openly Pollinated Vegetable, Herb, Annual & Perennial seed for 14 years now.
Our Certified Organic seed is grown is West Saanich, on Vancouver Island where we are blessed with abundant summer sunshine, pure clean water and excellent growing conditions.
Our mission is simple. To provide you the buyer, with seeds for a complete bio diverse garden, grown from an inexpensive, reliable eco-friendly seed source. Feedback has been excellent over the years and we will continue to strive to meet the ever growing public desire, to grow healthy chemical free plants.
We also germination test all our seed. We adjust our quantities in proportion to germination ratios, so that provided proper conditions, you should realize as many plants as the seed quantities states on the package or more.
Our selection is heavy on plants that provide food, beauty, interest, diversity and color.
10. Good Earth Farms
Heather Mills and Simon Toole
http://www.goodearthfarms.ca/
We are Simon Toole and Heather Mills and we have a passion for saving seed and growing delicious food. All of our seeds are grown by us, open pollinated, untreated and many are heirlooms. We started our business in 2002 and got our own farm in 2004. We grow all naturally and are deeply committed to sustainable local growing. We are thankful to have the opportunity to grow in such a beautiful valley and for the undying support of our customers.
11. Salt Spring Seeds.
Dan Jason.
https://www.saltspringseeds.com
Since 1988 we’ve been supplying seeds to farmers and gardeners,
All our seeds are untreated, open-pollinated and non-GMO. We grow all our own seeds and sell only our most recent harvest.
Dan Jason.
12. Backyard Botanicals.
Cathy Moulton
seaem@live.ca
I started a small nursery in Merville a few years ago with the goal of providing locally grown herbs, vegetables and flowers. I began sales at local farmers’ markets last year and I am very proud of our farming community and the people who support it by shopping local.
My goal is to grow plants that will encourage people to grow their own food, herbs and flowers.
13. DDC Dahlias
Karen Bull
https://www.facebook.com/ddc.dahlias
14. TreeEater Farm and Nursery
Peter Janes
http://www.treeeaternursery.com/
treeeaterfarmandnursery@gmail.com
15. Mason Bees Metchosin.
Gary Fletcher.
http://www.gfletcher.ca/?cat=2
I raise Mason bees on our farm and sell cleaned and packaged in a two dozen cocoon package selling for $16.00. I also sell dried natural Phragmites reed grass stem tubes which I harvest from our wetland are used to culture them. I find that these tubes are the most efficient for attracting mason bees and reducing parasite infection. Also inexpensive re-purposed material houses are available.
16. Anderton therapeutic Gardens Society
Joan Gage
phoenixlanding@shaw.ca
We are a non-profit society and will be displaying information about the Gardens on Anderton.
17. Sweet Rock Farm
Sal Dominelli
saldominelli@gmail.com
Seeds.
18. Y Grip Garden Tool Ltd.
Paul Carr
http://www.ygrip.ca/garden_tool_trowel.html
info@ygrip.ca
Paul is a Registered Massage Therapist with a previous background as a mechanic. These two disciplines, the understanding of anatomy and ergonomics and the understanding of hand tools, came together in the moment the y grip was invented. What started as a solution to digging in hard soil for his own purposes is now a patented tool that he can share with other gardeners.19. Speedbin Composters
Joyce McMenamon
compost@speedibin.com
This Comox Valley business started 25 years ago and is now being rekindled by Joyce McMenamon, daughter of the original inventor. Several design changes in 2015 make it stronger, easier to assemble and good-looking in a dark green colour.
Speedibin is all about backyard composting. The metal Speedibin composter is designed to keep out pests and be easy to use. Because it is made of metal, with a metal bottom screen and a locking lid, rats and pests can’t get in. The lid and front door slide off for easy access. At 405 litres, it is big enough to make hot compost and small enough to fit discreetly in the yard.
They are fabricated in BC.
Check our website, Speedibin.com, and then visit our Seedy Saturday display, chat about composting issues and play the composting skills game.
Joyce and the Speedbin
20. Omega Blue Farms.
Wayne Osborne
http://www.omegabluefarms.ca/\
Seeds, plants starts, possibility of plants
21. Seeds of Diversity.
Judy Newman
Administrator, Seeds of Diversity
http://www.seeds.ca
Seeds of Diversity is a Canadian charitable organization whose members and volunteers work to preserve the
biodiversity in our food. We believe that when people save seeds, they are helping build a self-reliant food system,
and creating a new relationship with the plants, pollinators and seeds that keep people fed.
Our work includes maintaining an extensive seed library, supporting “Seedy Saturday” events across the country, running a Canada-wide seed savers exchange network, and more.
We say: Join us! Become part of a growing movement of seed savers, gardeners, eaters and anyone interested in building a strong and vibrant seed system.
22. Figs For Life/ Emerald Voices
Devmurti Khalsa
23. Salt Spring Sprouts and Mushrooms.
Jacob Cooper
http://www.sssproutsandmushrooms.com/
We sell a range of certified organic sprouted seeds and mushrooms substrate for home cultivation. We also sell fresh organic mushrooms and organic sprout rolls. Our booth is both a vending and educational space with information conveyed about live food and the many wonders of the fungal queendom.
We exhibit fruiting substrate of both shiitake and oyster mushrooms to facilitate education and excitement in growing your own.
24. Garden Lore
Joan Wynden
Joan Wynden, a Master Gardener and Permaculture Designer, can’t seem to stop producing new plants, and now calls herself a plant midwife. Featuring deer resistant and drought tolerant perennials, her home-based nursery, Garden Lore, celebrates the wonders of nature with a selection of the unique and unusual, the beautiful and the bizarre.
Additionally she offers organically grown early veggie starts and herbs.
25. Gardeners Green.
Summer and Jim.
Gardeners Green is home to Summer and Jim. They moved to this rural property in Merville from England in 2010 bringing with them some of their rare and unusual plant collection. They are both creative people with thousands of artistic ideas for plants, materials and structures. Jim is a metalworker by trade, and they both work in wood.
They are continuously in the process of creating an English cottage style garden with west coast overtones and lots 
The Green Man represents the verdant energy of fertility and the element of nature that sparks and energises things to grow. “Our concrete Green Man wall hangers come in small and large sizes, and are guaranteed to bless your garden with abundant fertility!”
26. Comox Valley Bee Club.
Jenn Differ – President
http://www.comoxvalleybeeclub.com/
27. West Coast Seeds.
28. Larry Church.
Mason Bee houses.
29. Growing island Growers.
David Wicklund
david@growingislandgrowers.com
http://www.growingislandgrowers.com/
David Wicklund established Growing Island Growers to address the need for small scale garden tillage equipment in the Comox Valley. We can prepare gardens from a hundred square feet to several acres. Building raised beds in various widths and lengths is easy with this equipment. We also offer rental packages of the BCS walk behind tractor and specialized tillage implements. David is the field manager at Pattison Farms where this equipment is utilized in an intensive vegetable production system. Come see the equipment and book your spring tillage or equipment rental needs.
30. Island Greenhouses
Gerry Giesbrecht
http://www.madeyalook.ca/
31. Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.
Dedicated to promoting health and wellness through natural nutrition, we
the healing and preventive properties of food, science, the body-mind-spirit
connection, and the environment. Our approach is holistic, blending
practical knowledge with hands-on experience in a supportive,
student-centered learning environment.
32.The Blueberry Man
Daxton Bennet.
daxtonobennett@hotmail.com
http://www.theblueberryman.ca/
3 year old blueberry plants bluecrop, duke and Elliot
Thornless blackberry plants
Strawberry plants “honoeye”
Raspberry “chemainus”
Blueberry plants
33. GE Free Comox Valley.
Linda Cheu.
GE Free Comox Valley is a local non-profit group dedicated to inform and update consumers of developments in
34. Vancouver Island Mushroom Adventures.
Michael Vossen
https://www.facebook.com/VancouverIslandMushroomAdventures/?ref=bookmarks
Shiitake and oyster mushrooms.
Gourmet mushrooms and mushroom farming supplies.
Michael and Giant Redbelt Polypore
35. Connie Kuramoto
36. Master Gardeners.
Mark Flemming.
http://www.mgabc.org/
Do you have a Planting or Gardening Question? Vancouver Island Master Gardeners – your community gardening resource – are eager to help you get your seeds and plants off to a successful start and a satisfied harvest. The Master Gardeners are pleased to offer information and answers to home gardeners of all ages and experience regarding plants, veggies, berries, shrubs, trees, planting, soils, composting, plant ID, pruning, propagation, weeds, pest/disease and their controls while emphasizing environmentally responsible gardening practices. Ask us about the Master Gardener’s Program offered this fall at Vancouver Island University or visitwww.mgabc.org
37. Bloomfield Flats Custom Cedar FurnitureBrian and Judy Bloomfield We are a home-based business in Courtenay serving folks for over 30 years. We produce high quality, value-added ergonomic chairs in 2 styles and sizes to fit any body. Western Red Cedar is locally sourced and hand selected. Loveseats, tables, barstools, benches, garden trugs, footstools, boxes and more can all be made to suit your needs and desires. Our products offer handcrafted functional elegance for your home, garden, deck, patio or cottage. Create your oasis and love your space! |
38. Organized Kindling
Barbara Toombs
barbt@shaw.ca
Vendor, garden products made of local wood, recycled, re-purposed or rescued from the burn pile. Made by gardeners for gardeners.
Fir Obelisks, wooden product boxes, dibblers, some wooden jewelry such as bracelets, rings, napkin rings, Trugs, pussy willow and Forsythia flowering branches
CV Seed Bank.
40 Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections LTNC
Elaine Codling