Renfrew Collingwood Food Security Institute

Dutch pea strain Blue Capujiner, also known as Blauwschokkers. Seed grown and saved at the RCFSI Rooftop Garden. Happy faces etched by January Wolodarsky, Director of Community Development.


The importance of seed-saving.

This month's Renfrew Collingwood Garden Club topic is seed-saving skills. Shannon Rees, our RCFSI Practicum Student and former UBC Farm volunteer, will be leading a workshop on the process and importance of seed-saving.

Ever since humans began growing food, we have been passing on seed-saving skills from generation to generation. Long before there were seed catalogs, garden centres, or hardware store, families saved seeds from favourite edible plants to pass on to friends or family members.

These days, many home gardeners choose to purchase seeds each year rather than save seeds at the end of each growing season. Since there are many convenient options for finding seeds, seed-saving skills are disappearing--but saving your own seed eliminates the cost of buying seeds each year. It also allows you to save seeds from plants that do particularly well in your specific yard's soil, or in the light conditions on your balcony. Careful seed selection can save you money, reduce gardening disappointments, and lead to more bountiful harvests down the road.


Heirloom varieties.

The unusual blue-podded pea pictured above is one example of an heirloom vegetable variety. It is a Dutch variety that was developed in the 1500s, and it produces lots and lots of peas and big delicious pea leaves.

There is a lot of discussion on how to define "Heirloom Variety"--some say the strain must be at least 100 years old, others say 50 years is old enough. The important difference between heirloom varieties and an increasing number of fruits and vegetables at the grocery store is that certain kinds of plants have been genetically modified. This means scientists have made changes to the genetic makeup of plant seeds to produce desired qualities--large fruits, bright colours, disease resistance.

In the old days, people would carefully select and save seeds over many years to produce desired qualities, which is why we have heirloom varieties. The difference between the old heirloom varieties and the new genetically modified versions is that the genetically-modified (GMO) versions are copyrighted.

Some plants are genetically modified so that they will not produce fruit at all if the seeds are planted, or they will produce infertile seeds. Saving seeds from some of these GMO foods is technically a crime, which can be very confusing since they are not labeled as genetically modified.

Today, the increasing number of GMO plants threatens the independence of farmers around the world. Would you like to learn how and why?

For a discussion on these important topics, and for hands-on demonstrations on seed-saving and storage, please come down to the Garden Club on Thursday July 9! We look forward to seeing you.


The Renfrew Collingwood Garden Club meets on the second Thursday of the month to share, socialize, and celebrate topics in urban growing. Staff Lounge, 7-8:45pm.