Permaculture in New Zealand

Instructions for a seed exchange, by Aleena La'ulu

IDEAS ON HOW THE SEED EXCHANGE COULD POSSIBLY WORK.

The set of drawers are kept in the ______________along with the support materials.

• Seed Exchange Instructions(for customer information)
• Seed Exchange Instructions(for staff use)
• Introduction to Seed Saving Booklet (for sale)
• Seed Exchange purchasing cards (given when a customer makes a deposit)

Staff of the Education Centre, take money from the sales of seeds or cross out one stamp for every packet the customer withdraws.

Staff of the Education Centre, stamp the customers card once for every two packets of seed the customer deposits.

My Responsibilities
• To Promote the Seed Exchange
• Monitor the Seed Exchanges use
• Monitor changes in the seed varieties
• Provide support and answer any questions the Education Centre staff may have
• Financial costs of running the Seed Exchange and its promotional materials

LETTER TO PROMOTE
Dear friend,

A new Community Seed Exchange will be starting up soon. This letter is an introduction to how the Community Seed Exchange works and what its purpose is. Included in the following information you will find: who is eligible and how to purchase.
The Seed Exchange is a new concept soon to be available for use by:
* Non-profit organisations
* Permaculture groups
* Organic community garden initiatives
* Gardening clubs
* Schools
* You

You may purchase seed for as little as 80cents per packet. If you save your own seed you can exchange 2 packets for every 1 packet you may take out at any time. When you deposit seed you will receive a card that enables you to withdraw.
Saving your own seed is simple and it costs nothing. There are many good books in the local library on gardening which include seed saving. But for your convenience you can purchase a booklet from the Seed Exchange specifically for beginners at a cost of $2.00.
The purpose of this Seed Exchange is to provide a service that encourages people to start their own organic edible gardens and plant native species with as little cost as possible. The Seed Exchange will proudly be starting with a variety of seed which include Purple Broccoli, Cape Gooseberries, Strawberry Spinach, Sunflowers, Cherry Tomatoes, Green Salad Bowl lettuce, Flat Leaf Lettuce, Oak Leaf Lettuce, Kale, Indian Mustard and Florence Fennel to name a few.
The seed we grow in our home system becomes (when we carefully select the best specimens) ideal for our climate and soil type. Most importantly they become resistant to pests and diseases. The seed you buy from large outlets will most likely be accustomed to another climate or micro climate and soil type, making it more vulnerable to pest and disease in your area. Creating and swap strains of seeds proven suitable to each regions own specific microclimate decreases the need for sprays.
Most home gardeners are likely to want a steady stream of food throughout the harvest season and will probably want a variety of tastes, shapes and textures. Most commercial varieties have been bred for uniformity in size, shape and harvest time.
• Many heritage plants have resistances that suit your situation, e.g. tomatoes for winter that escape fruit fly infestation, frost hardy species etc.
• Heritage plants can be educational, providing interest in the food you nurture and cook.
The Seed Exchange is also a way of helping to promote biodiversity. There are fewer and fewer varieties of edible plants eaten by people today. We are eating only a few kinds of fruit, vegetables and cereal. At the same time, farmers need to apply more fertilizer and pesticides to control the pest and disease that mono-crops nurture. Seed Saving encourages diversity by preserving heritage varieties and saving more 'normal' commercial varieties from obscurity, when they are dropped by seed companies. Saving and planting seed from year to year is also likely to select plants better suited to local conditions, so over time, new and stronger varieties evolve.
Help slow down the alarming rate of loss of plant species by sharing seed of endangered species. Provide more variety in your diet by creating more interesting meals, gourmet cooking becomes less expensive. Even a 1 metre by 1 metre garden can provide you with an abundance of food using Permaculture Principles.
To help make this programme a success we need regular seed savers, your input, thoughts and ideas will be much appreciated. Please feel free to contact me for more information.

Kind Regards

Blah blah blah

(please note that these are only instructions that you can use, this is not a set up project)

Community
Seed Exchange

Supporting community garden initiatives

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE COMMUNITY SEED EXCHANGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Who is eligible to use the Seed Exchange.

2 Deposit, withdrawal and purchasing limits.

3 Seeds not accepted.

4 Why has this Seed Exchange been set up.

5 List of books you might like to read. Websites to visit.

6 Are you interested in starting a plant swappers meet?

1 Who is eligible to use the Seed Exchange

* Non-profit organisations
* Organic community gardens
* Community service card holders
* Gardening clubs
* Schools
* You

2 Deposit, withdrawal and purchasing limits

DEPOSIT
Voucher
For every 2 packets of seeds you deposit you will be given 1 stamp on a card to withdraw 1 packet of seed of your choice. You may use this card at any time.

WITHDRAWAL
Cash purchase
You may purchase up to three packets of seed at 80cents per packet. Every packet over this amount will cost $3.00 per packet.
(As the seed exchange is a new idea that has not been trialled, this rule has been put in place for the time being)
Card purchase/swap
When you first deposit a packet of seed you will be given a card that will be stamped to indicate how many packets of seed you are entitled to. To reduce the possibility of the Seed Exchange running out of stock there is a withdrawal limit of 10 packets per visit for card holders.

3 Seeds not accepted

Chemically sprayed seeds
Packets not correctly labelled with the date, variety and area they have come from
Untidy or dirty looking packets
Left over seed in commercial packets, especially Yates Seeds
To deposit corn seed you will need to contact the co-ordinator of the seed bank, contact details are on the last page of this document.

4 Why has this seed exchange been set up

* To encourage people to start their own gardens

Most non-profit organisations, community gardens and community service card holders have gardens as the last of their priorities. Many can't afford to go out and purchase everything that is needed to start up a garden. This project aims to ease that cost by having the option of no money exchanging hands. Seed, in many cases is very simple to collect from your own garden, however, many people do not realise this. Most good gardening books usually dedicate a section specifically to seed saving so it is not a difficult subject to find information on. I have provided a list of some books you may like to look at in section 5.

* To encourage people to save their own seed and save money
Saving your own seed is simple and it costs nothing. Only in these recent times of technological growth and mechanisation have People tried to extract themselves from these natural cycles, depending instead on increasingly large companies for their food and seed. The result is a population dependent on commercial seed, bought yearly from a rapidly decreasing number of varieties that are generally doused with chemicals.
Saving your own seed versus varieties developed for mass harvest
• Uniformity in time: harvesting can only happen once, so everything has to ripen simultaneously.
• Uniformity in shape and size: sorting and packaging machinery can't cope with diversity very well, nor can large supermarkets and fast food outlets who need to maintain consistent products.
• More weight: many crops are bred to have higher water content so they weigh more and are therefore more profitable, unfortunately this is often at the expense of taste.
• Thick/durable skins: other plants, such as tomatoes, are bred to have more fibre and less flavoursome juice for easy transportation.
Most gardeners picking by hand are likely to want a steady stream of food throughout the harvest season and will probably want a variety of tastes, shapes and textures. Most commercial varieties have been bred with the exact opposite in mind.

* To create and swap strains of seeds proven suitable to each regions own specific microclimate
The seed we grow in our home system becomes (when we carefully select the best specimens) ideal for our climate and soil type. Most importantly they become resistant to pests and diseases. The seed you buy from large outlets will most likely be accustomed to another climate or micro climate and soil type, making it more vulnerable to pest and disease in your area.

* To promote biodiversity
There are fewer and fewer varieties of edible plants eaten by people today. We are eating only a few kinds of a few vegetables, fruit and cereal. At the same time, farmers need to apply more fertilizer and pesticides to control the increase of pest and disease mono-cropping causes.
Seed saving encourages diversity by preserving heritage varieties and saving more 'normal' commercial varieties from obscurity, when they are dropped by seed companies. Saving and planting seed from year to year is also likely to select plants better suited to local conditions, so over time, new varieties will evolve.

* Help slow down the alarming rate of loss of plant species by sharing seed of endangered species
• Heritage and organically grown seed is free of toxic fertiliser coating.
• Many heritage plants have resistances that suit your situation, e.g. tomatoes for winter that escape fruit fly infestation, frost hardy species etc.
• Heritage plants can be educational, providing interest in the food you grow and cook.
• They provide more interesting meals and gourmet cooking becomes less expensive.

* Variety in our diets

The last reason is perhaps the most exciting; saving seed is the first step in purposely selecting for new varieties yourself. Reasons to do this could be pure interest and enjoyment value, choosing for a particular flavour or shape you've never seen, actively adapting varieties to your local conditions. I never use to eat many vegetables until I became a keen gardener. I don’t like purchasing tomatoes from the supermarket these days. There are usually (if your lucky) 3 varieties of tomatoes on the shelf. In my garden I have little yellow cherry tomatoes, Orange cherry tomatoes, Red cherry tomatoes, Big round yellow ones, Yellow egg shaped ones, Red with green stripes and a few others, each one tastes so different and so much better when you grow it yourself.

5 List of books you might like to read

There are many good books to be found at the local library on seed saving and gardening. Most good gardening books usually have a section dedicated to seed saving. You will be surprised at just how easy it is.
Saving Seeds
Marc Rogers, 1990
Growing To Seed
Peter Donelan, 1999
Seed To Seed
Suzanne Ashworth, 2nd edition 2001
The seed savers handbook
Michel and Jude Fanton

The New Zealand Organic gardening handbook
Brenda Little, 2000

Organic gardening for the 21st century
John Fedor, 2001

Earth users guide to Permaculture
Rosemary Morrow, 2000

Websites to visit

www.primalseeds.org/seedsaving.htm
www.primalseeds.org/whysaveseed.htm
www.forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/seedsave/msg0409012419362.html
www.seedsavers.net

6 Are you interested in starting a plant swappers meet?

Would you be interested in meeting two or three times a year to swap plants and seeds with individuals and groups within our community? If so, please record your details below.
NAME ADDRESS PHONE E-MAIL GROUP

7 Friends of the SeedBank

This project has been set up for you to support your community and gardening projects. To ensure that it works we need people to help regularly save seed. You can still become a regular seed saver if you do not wish to put your name down. If you are or have been involved in seed saving projects or exchanges your help and knowledge would be most appreciated.
NAME ADDRESS PHONE E-MAIL GROUP

Entered by Aleena La'ulu