Seed Saving with Chris Smith from Utopian Seed Project

Join us for TWO special sessions on seed saving, lead by Chris Smith of Utopian Seed Project! One session is geared more towards home growers while the other is geared towards farmers and producers growing on a more commercial scale, but both will consist of valuable and practical information! Both sessions will take place in the basement classroom at the Jonesborough Farm Bureau.

Session 1. Saving Seeds for Home Gardeners: How and Why to Save Seeds. 12:30pm-2:30pm.

The art and practice of saving seeds is essential to a community level sustainable seed system. Learn the basic botany and techniques of seed saving, and how you can adapt crops to your locale with deeper relational seed keeping. This session aims to give you the skills to begin your own seed saving journey.

Session 2. Seeds that know the South: Regional Seeds for Regional Production. 3:00pm-5:00pm.

Adapting seeds to our local environments and markets is a low tech sustainable tool for growing food in a changing climate. This session aims to give farmers the basic skills, and a deeper understanding, about saving seeds for regional production. We'll cover variety trialing and seed selection methods; diversity and crop improvement; community seed strategies; seed grower economics; and some farmer case studies. Chris will also bring along his mobile seed processing demo for show and tell!

Parking: Park around the back of the building and enter the classroom through the basement level double doors.