Happy New Year, Gardeners!
With January brings our annual seed swap, Seedy Saturday, and every year my husband gets a giggle out of the name and has to say something to me about it. Seems he’s not the only one to wonder about the name and chuckle at it. This year, I discovered the answer to his question, well part of it anyway.
Everything You Want to Know About Seedy Saturdays
Turns out, we get our name from a movement that started in Canada in 1990!
Seedy Saturdays (& their sister event, Seedy Sundays) is a concept that started in British Columbia, Canada in the 1990s and these seed exchanges quickly spread across Canada and beyond. They remain a vibrant and essential part of the community gardening culture, offering a way to celebrate biodiversity, support local food systems, and promote sustainable, organic gardening practices. - Seed Library Network
So why do we always hold it on the 4th Saturday in January? In 2006, the editor and publisher of Washington Garden Magazine, Kathy Jentz, applied to have that day known as National Seed Swap Day. As the enthusiasm to participate on this declared day grew, folks from all over the world decided they would ignore the “national” in the name and just call it Seed Swap Day.
If you would like to learn more about seed swaps and organizing them, check out these links:
How to Organize a Seed Swap - SeedSavers
