The Salish Seed Guild, composed of local farmers and gardeners, held its annual seed swap at the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship Saturday.
The event — the guild’s first in-person seed swap since 2020 — allows community members to nab local seeds for their gardens. Visitors were also able to purchase plants and books and talk with organizers about gardening techniques.
All around the room, gardeners discussed growing their own plants, from large-scale farmers who sell their crops around the country to everyday people interested in expanding their small gardens.
“Our main goal is to create a more sustainable community by diversifying the food sources,” said Virginia Malmquist, who’s been a member of the Salish Seed Guild for five years.
Malmquist sees the importance of the community having a food connection with one another, especially in times of crisis when the people may need to rely on each other.
“Diversifying food sources create better food security and a better community,” said Malmquist, who is in charge of seed packing and distribution for the guild.
Friends of the Trees offered seeds at the Salish Seed Guild’s annual seed swap. (Kelton Burns/Cascadia Daily News)
The guild offers classes on a variety of gardening aspects and is looking for new members; those who are willing to grow one to two types of seeds to contribute to the community.
Brian Kerkvliet, a glass artist who runs Inspiration Farm with his wife, Alexandra King, in Laurel, is the unofficial head of the Salish Seed Guild.
Kerkvliet and a group of friends created the group 18 years ago when they gathered to swap seeds and share their knowledge. Over time, the group kept growing but the number of people bringing seeds stayed relatively small. They ended up relying heavily on big-seed-company donations, which were unable to provide seeds during the pandemic.
This shined a light on the importance of seed savers; people who collect seeds from the plants they grow and save them for future planting. Suddenly, the main source of seeds for local community gardeners was each other.
But not many people know how to save their own seeds, Kerkvliet said. He is hoping to change that by expanding the guild to a larger community-based organization with educational aspects.
This sort of wake-up call on the importance of local food sources during the pandemic was shared among many visitors on Saturday.
Lindsey Gard and Katarina Gombocz were some of the many people who came to the swap looking for new seeds. They started a garden during the pandemic and were interested in learning how to save their own seeds.
“The world might fall apart; let’s grow our own food,” Gard said.
More information about seeds and gardening can be found at Salish Seed Guild’s website, salishseed.org.
