Garden Panel: Seedy Saturday 2012

Another Great Seedy Saturday is behind us!

Comox Valley Seedy Saturday: March 3, 2012: “Gardening is Everyone’s Business”

13th Annual Community Seed Swap & Show

Featuring: Vegetable, Herb & Flower Seeds;
Bulbs, Plants, Trees;
Garden Tools, Accessories & Products;
Information Displays and Workshops
  • Saturday March 3rd, 2012
  • 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
  • Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Ave, Downtown Courtenay, BC
  • $5

Comox Valley Growers & Seed Savers Society
PO Box 3783, Courtenay, BC V9N 7P2
Email: admin@comoxvalleygrowersandseedsavers.ca or cvseedsavers@gmail.com

Schedule
Soroptomist Lounge
10:10 am Transition Towns Panel – offering hands-on projects to the community
Elaine Codling Introduction to Transition Towns Comox Valley
Vivien Adams Comox Valley Seed Bank Proposal
The idea of having a Seed Bank here has been around for quite a while. Members of CVGSS (Comox Valley Growers and Seed Savers) have been actively saving heritage seeds for over 10 years. Most of these are exchanged, or sold at Seedy Saturday, and grown out in the next year or so. There have been records kept at different times of the seeds saved, quantity of packages, and other details, and there have been many workshops demonstrating how to save seeds, as well as ongoing attempt to encourage more people to do so. Like most of you, I have never been involved in starting a Seed Bank, but I would like to be part of team that gets one going and keeps it going
Cynthia Fitton LUSH Valley Food Action Society Community Garden Network
LUSH Valley Food Action Society is a platform for your food related projects. They provide resources and knowledge to help you get up and running. For example, there are no fully functioning community gardens in Comox Valley and people kept on approaching LUSH Valley about this issue. In response LUSH Valley has offered a resource of knowledge and volunteers through a network to help develop community gardens projects. Interested in accessing land through community gardens or LUSH Lands come learn how we can help
Elizabeth Rudolph Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections Engaging Youth in Gardening
This session will emphasize the vital importance of connecting children with their food and the earth, arming them with shovels and the knowledge to participate in a sustainable future in our community. When kids are connected to the environment around them through active involvement, they know their place in the environment and this encourages stewardship of the land. Liz and Chantel will show you how they have encouraged youth at their schools to be engaged and involved in their school gardens. Importantly, Elizabeth and Chantel have witnessed that building school gardens create feelings of belonging and a sense of community. School gardens communicate to kids that we care about them!
11:10 am Backyard Permaculture Design and Edible Perennials
Jonathan Schut Jonathan Schut has gardened from coast to coast, and studied Ecological Gardening and Permaculture at Linnaea Farm on Cortes Island. At his home and through his business Budding Landscapes, his dream is creating gardens that are integrated, edible, gorgeous and sustainable. He lives with his partner and two boys in Dove Creek. Together they find great pleasure in feeding hand-picked slugs to their ducks.
Peter Janes

Peter Janes is an orchardist and plant propagator from Denman Island. His brief 20 minute presentation will highlight some of the best practices and biggest hurdles in the cultivation of fruit and nut trees. His personal experiences and images are applicable to home yards, traditional orchards, and permaculturally-oriented food forests. He will also review some of the most successful and least appropriate edible perennials he’s observed in our bioregion in hopes of increasing the successes of local growers.
12:10 pm Engaging Youth in Gardening
Chantal Parsons Lake Trail School
Chantal Parsons, self proclaimed gardening nerd, tomato propagator extrordinaire, compost queen and friend to worms. Pottager is her style in the tangled garden. “Food not lawn” is her mantra as she tears up lawns in favor of blueberries, pears, pumpkins, corn, squash and beans. I’m learning to embrace, with love, the buttercup invasion, slugs and the pooping neighborhood cats. Her day job includes educating high school students in all things History, Geography and English, while trying to sneak in some gardening too.
Rotory Hall (downstairs)
 
1:00 pm Garden Panel
Megan Halstead  Megan was raised on her parents’ farm in Merville, and currently operates Halstead with her husband. She raises organic food animals, and sells vegetable bedding plants at the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market. In addition to her agricultural upbringing, she completed a Bachelor of Science in Agro-ecology from UBC, focused on soils, grains, animal science, greenhouses and organic certification. Her main areas of expertise are composting, organic soil amendment and nutrient cycling.
Connie Kuramato

Connie Kuramoto has been part of the Horticultural Industry in one way or another for over 30 years. She studied Botany at the University of Massachusetts, than later received a Diploma in Horticulture Technology from Malaspina College (now VIU) and a Certificate in Floral Design from Kwantlen College. She was a technician and instructor for Malaspina College’s Horticulture Department for over twenty years. Connie retired about 5 years ago, and is happy to bring her knowledge and Horticultural experience to the community. Connie has run small market gardens, done interior and exterior landscape plant maintenance, presented numerous garden workshops, writes for local publications and often does consulting work. She is currently teaching part time for Gaia College in the Organic Land Care Diploma Program. Her favorite saying is “Housework whenever, gardening forever
Simon Toole

My wife and I share a passion for quality, natural, local food. A few of our favourites are strawberries and garlic. We also do a variety of delicious veggies in season as well as selling Garden Seeds. We have operated our farm for 9 years and have been active members of the Comox Valley Farmers Market for 12 years. In the future we look forward to opening a farm stand, setting up a box delivery program and finding ways to engage with the community..
Jennifer Waller Jennifer Waller has been an avid amateur gardener since she could walk and also has some background in ethno-botany. Her favourite job ever was working as the “seeder” for two years at a local commercial nursery where she learned a great deal about starting a wide variety of plants. She particularly enjoys the challenge of plant propagation so she starts form seed or roots cuttings for everything she grows. Jen is actively learning to grow all of her own foods and materials including many useful plants not commonly grown here in the Comox Valley. She has her Bachelor of Science in Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems from Vancouver Island University and is currently working on her Master of Science in Ecology focusing on entomology and population dynamics from the University of Alberta.
2:00 pm Organic Gardening and Small Scale farmers’ distribution cooperatives
Robin Tunnicliffe

Robin Tunnicliffe (Saanich Organics) has been farming certified organic vegetables near Victoria, BC for the past 12 years. She leases a total of 1.5 acres in two parcels, and makes her living selling vegetables to restaurants, grocery stores, farmer’s markets and through a vegetable home delivery program. Together with two other farmers she runs Saanich Organics, a local produce distributor. Robin holds an MA in Food Policy from the University of Victoria. She serves on several boards of directors, including USC Canada, UBC Farm and The Islands Organic Producers’ Association. She has recently co-authored a book about her work with Saanich Organics called “All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming”. FMI: www.saanichorganics.com
Exhibitors and Vendors
Contact Business Address Phone
Joan Gage Anderton Therapeutic Gardens Society 2047A Willemar Courtenay V9N3M7             250-334-3089
Brian Bloomfield Bloomfield Flats Custom Cedar Furniture 4238 Buddington Rd Courtenay V9N-9P2             250-338-1074
Coral & Gordon Brinck Brother Nature Organic Seeds 1159 Wychdury Ave Victoria V9A5L1             250-298-6317
Jonathan Schut Budding Landscapes 5259 Stapley Road Courtenay V9J1P5             250-703-4538
Amy Crook & Carmen Wakeling Certified Organic Assn of BC – CV Chapter             250-338-4860
Leslie Cox Comox Valley Horticultural Society 7896 Fairview Road Black Creek V9J1G5             250-337-8051
Doug Mole Doug’s Bees 7726 Vivian Way Fanny Bay V0R1W0             250-335-1031
Sheldon Rempel Earth Club Factory Cumberland V0R 1S0
Carmen Wakeling Eatmore Sprouts Courtenay
Gary & Ellen De Casmaker Eternal Seed 2309 Zilinsky Road Powell River V8A0N8604-487-1304
Ellen Rainwalker PO Box 83 Cumberland V0R1SO             250-336-7944
Joyce McMenamon Fresh Earth Products PO Box 197 Merville V0R2M0             250-337-8228
Mary Alice Johnson & Marika Dagasaka Full Circle Seeds PO Box 807 Sooke V9Z1H8             250-642-3671
Joan Wyndam Garden Lore 55 Rod & Gun Road Courtenay V9N3N1             250-703-0349
Thierry Vrain Gardens Without Borders 3636 Trent Courtenay V9N9R4             250-336-8768
Linda Cheu GE Watch 111 20th Street #34 Courtenay V9N8B1             250-331-0681
Simon Toole Good Earth Farms 7636 Island Highway Black Creek V9J1G6             250-337-2261
Judy Khemlhand Green Space Designs PO Box 122 Mansons Landing V0P1K0             250-935-0135
Joy Story Grow Food Network Magazine 545 Voutrait Road Mill Bay V0R2P3             250-743-1352
Peter Janes & David Hicks Hicks & Janes Nurseries 2961 Yule Road Denman Island V0R1T0             250-335-0498
Thierry Vrain Innisfree Farm 3636 Trent Courtenay V9N9R4             250-336-8768
Janice Stevenson Janice Stevenson Garden Design 146 Stafford Avenue Courtenay V9N6Z3             250-338-0811
Larry Church La Carent Enterprises             250-898-8408
Angela Konkin Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections 805 Willemar Ave Courtenay V9N3L7             250-334-3168
Jean Dugal LUSH Valley 1126 Piercy Avenue Courtenay V9N3R6             250-331-0152
Fiona Hamersley Chambers Metchosin Farms
Geoff Ball Milner Gardens & Woodland 2179 W Island Hwy Qualicum Beach V9K1G1             250-752-8573
Gail Meade Mission Hill Farm 4775 Island Hwy N Courtenay V9N 5Y5             250-338-4077
Verna Mumby Mumby Tree Services             250-218-6951
Linda & Neil Patterson Nature Scape Fencing 1869 Stewart Road Nanoose Bay V9P9E7             250-468-1863
Devmurti Khalsa Nature Spirit Permaculture 7650B Marcus Rd Denman Island V0R1T0             250-335-1143
Diane & Bertrand Sharp Oceanside Edibles 546 Nootka Road Qualicum Beach V9K 1A3             250-752-4427
Dawn Osborne Omega Blue Farms 1075 Spider Lake Road Qualicum Beach V9K2L7             250-757-2006
Michelle Willems Outback Nursery 6016 Headquarters Road Courtenay V9J 1M7             250-703-0723
Rose Rogan Perennial Ridge Farms 5605 Jordans Lane Duncan V9L6J1             250-748-0098
Dan Jason Salt Spring Seeds PO Box 444 Ganges Salt Spring Island V8K2W1             250-537-5269
Jamey Lauinger Valley Succulents 2210 Anderton Road Comox V9M4B1             250-339-2650
Jeff Wright Old Country Seeds #8- 106 – 4480 West Saanich Road Victoria V8Z 3E9             778-678-2255
Joy Smith Seeds of Diversity PO Box 36 Stn. Q Toronto M4T 2L7             866-509-7333
Larry Church Lacar Enterprises 2623 Arden Rd. Courtenay V9N9J9             250-898-8408
Mary Alice Johnson SOIL Apprenticeship PO Box 807 Sooke V9Z 1H8             250-642-3671
Elaine Codling Transition Town Comox Valley             250-898-9045
Joan Wyndam Vancouver Island Master Gardeners 55 Rod & Gun Road Courtenay V9N3N1             250-703-0349
Dusty Western Biologicals             250-335-0285
World Community Box 3192 Courtenay V9N5N4             250-331-9391
Paul Carr & Bonnie Borbridge Y Grip Garden Tool Ltd. 355 Douglas Street Comox V9M2C6             250-702-6293
Marguerite Horn Yes You Can Adaptive Gardening 610 5th Street Courtenay V9N             250-897-3920

 

Seedy Saturday Coordinator

The Coordinator for the 2012 event is Sue Moen. Contact her for more information at: ph. 250-337-5948 or sue_moen@telus.net.

Coordinator Bio:

Sue Moen currently resides in Black Creek on Vancouver Island and is active in the Arts, Food Security and Local Economic Development communities. She is the Coordinator for the Cumberland Chamber of Commerce – working with the Board of Directors to provide services and information to the community that support a living, local historic Cumberland where residents, businesses and visitors can work, play and enjoy life in a vibrant, sustaining and resilient place. Moen’s previous experience includes working with local businesses and non profits in strategic planning and implementation, social marketing and social enterprise development. She acted as the consulting Administrator for the Comox Valley Community Arts Council shortly after moving to the Valley. She was the Chief Executive Officer responsible to the Board of Directors for all aspects of planning, development, implementation and evaluation of LUSH Valley Food Action Society programs and operations. The priorities during her tenure included the renovation and opening of a community food centre encompassing a kitchen and processing area, food rescue, collection and distribution to individuals and agencies and skills building and training in local food security initiatives. Before moving to the Comox Valley, Moen joined A Loving Spoonful in 1997 to develop an alternate meal delivery program to address the specific needs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside IDU population. She succeeded to the Executive Director position at A Loving Spoonful in December 2001 and served in that position until September 2006. She came from seven years as a care-team volunteer in the AIDS community and two years managing an HIV Drop In for street-involved transgender clients. Moen was a leader in the Food Provider community in Vancouver with a particular passion for capacity mapping and development and was member of the regional Health Board’s Food Advisory Committee. Moen also sat on the Board of Directors of the Association of Nutrition Services Agencies and was chair of the Program Evaluation & Outcomes Committee for this international association. She was a founding council member on the Vancouver Food Policy Council.

She looks forward to coordinating Seedy Saturday and all the community involvement that it will bring.

————————

The CVGSS is looking ahead to Seedy Saturday as its main event and fundraiser of the year. The focus is on food security, brought about through the annual saving and growing of local, open-pollinated and heirloom fruits and vegetables. If you love backyard gardening as we do, you will want to check out the range of quality seeds and garden-related products available. This is more than just another gardening event—it’s the future of food.

If you are a vendor or non-profit exhibitor wanting to take part in this event, you can download the full information and application form in the vendor information section. We recommend you book early to reserve the best location. Sponsors are most welcome and Sue will work with you to create a personalized sponsor benefit package.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *