Thank you all for coming to the Winter Seed exchange. The rain forecast certainly impacted turnout but it was great to see some familiar faces. I was too busy swapping seeds or otherwise talking and having fun to take many photos, so here are just a few.
See you next time around!
Our next event will be selling tomato seedlings at the Cupertino Earth Day Event on the 22nd of April 2017 at the City Hall Plaza. Hope to see you there!
It’s that time of the year to meet at the tiny Cannery Park for our bi-annual Seed Exchange. We will be meeting on Saturday, March 4th, 2 – 4 pm at: W California Ave and Pajaro Ave, Sunnyvale, CA, 94086. Look for people at a table with seed packets – it’s a very small park, you can’t miss us. Bring any seeds, scions, or starts you cherish and want to share, or just a good attitude and a desire to garden talk. It’s always good to meet and learn from fellow gardeners, so come along and join us! I will provide the usual: coin envelopes for seed sharing, pencils, snacks and drinks.
If anyone has 6 pack seedling containers, please consider bringing them along – we will use them for our annual plant sale at the city of Cupertino’s Earth Day event, that’s scheduled for April 22nd this year.
Lastly, for all the new gardeners: since this is the season of purchasing seeds for planting, if you are concerned about supporting or not supporting GMO related companies, read this article about Territorial, Johnny’s and others: http://www.nwedible.com/2012/12/a-brief-history-of-monsanto-and-seed-houses-who-got-screwed.html. I found it interesting to learn that as of June 2012, Johnny’s is an employee owned company! Some of the GMO free seed companies are at http://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/the-10-best-seed-companies-for-heirloom-seeds
Hope to see you at the exchange!
Thank you all for coming to our semi annual Seed Exchange. We had ample tomatoes to taste, with some varieties repeated from different growers – interesting to see how location makes a difference. It’s all in your soil! (And I need to work on improving mine. 😉 Here are a few of the tomato varieties we sampled:
And more varieties:
The Indigo Apple had actually an interesting flavour. I would not choose it if I had a limited space, but it’s certainly interesting enough to grow as a display and curiosity item. You can see hints of blueberry blue on its skin in the photo above.
While most of us carefully save seeds in separate containers, label them and let them ferment a little, others like to be surprised with what they grow. It makes for an interesting art piece. 😉
We swapped some seeds and I’ll be curious to try new variety of carrots. If you like what you see, come and join us next time around – in February 2017!
It may be a little late for starting your Winter garden at the end of August but the climate here is so forgiving, we should be still all right. We are going to have our semi annual Seed Exchange on the 27th of August, from 2 till 4pm at the usual Cannery Park in Sunnyvale. Please come along and share your seeds or starts, or edible weeds, as may be! I’m eating a lot of Purslane this year, as it is popping everywhere in my backyard. Let’s see what other people grew this Summer and what they are planting for winter; let’s learn from each other.
This year has proven to be pretty good for tomatoes so far and hopefully it will hold true till the end of August. We should have a nice heirloom tomato sampling at the exchange, so please bring a few of your favourite varieties for tasting or anything that did well in your garden. Sharing is the theme! I will have the usual lemonade and simple munchies.
Our semi annual seed exchange brought together some veteran gardeners and newbies alike. You can swap seeds for heirloom or simply open pollinated plants – those that will stay true to its type, once you save seeds. Almost all of the yummy tomato varieties we grow and swap are open pollinated.
We all had fun swapping seeds and gardening advice, and stories.
We provide coin envelopes for seed sharing and light snacks. Everyone brings seeds, or at least appetite to learn and try growing some tasty food in their gardens. Hope you join us next time!
We got an opportunity to visit a cutting edge of sustainabilitty – Singing Frogs Farm! It took some persistence but it was soooo well worth it. I would recommend it to anyone on a small scale farm or to backyard gardeners serious about growing their own food.
Getting to know new farm animals… This is Charlie, an aged llama, surprised to see us. 😉
Now for the real matter: dense planting, no sprays of any kind, 4 to 7 harvests a year!!!
How is this possible?
Very rich soil that’s teaming with life! Currently about 1/4 inch of compost is applied before each planting. At the outset it was about 2 inches.
Soil is always covered – planting within hours of harvest. If not possible cover the soil with a breathable blanket. Also, the hedge of perennials was planted first on the farm – to keep the pests at bay.
Almost everything is started in flats, one seed per cell – creates strong plants that can outcompete weeds. Nothing is thinned – waste of time (even when in case of beets or allium they plant 3 seeds to a cell).
The potting mix is 1:2 potting soil to compost. This approach to planting creates strong, long roots.
Compost pile on site – nothing is chopped! Blanket over compost for keeping rats close to food source – this way you can easily find and trap them! Learn more about blankets they use from the horse’s mouth.
This blog is a short, short version – information was flowing constantly for the two hours we were there. We hope to be back some day to deepen our understanding.
For now, way good bye to Charlie and his master, Paul. We have learned a lot, thank you!
It by now our tradition to be part of the Cupertino’s Earth Day event every year. We were selling a variety of heirloom tomato plants and offering starts for swap with fellow gardeners.
Our booth.
Cupertino City Council member, Savita Vaidhyanathan, paid us a visit!
We like to see kids at our booth. They are always so curious…
And happy to learn. She is proudly holding a sheet on how to plant tomatoes!
What to choose, what to choose… Perhaps we have too many choices! 😉
Welcome young gardeners! See you again next year!
Despite the inclement weather forecast for the day, many hard core gardeners came to our Seed Exchange, some from as far as Gilroy (!) and stayed long pass the usual 2 hours, still talking about gardening and swapping seeds. We invite you all next time!
It is wonderful to see both the familiar faces and the new alike!
Hmmm… what do you recommend?
Yet again we welcome the youngest gardeners – just a few months old baby!
Yes, I think I’ll try that!
This time we also had a fair amount of plants for the swapping.
Come and join us next time!
We were promoting biochar at the 2015 Eco-Farm Conference held in Asilomar, Monterey, CA. Thank you all for stopping at our booth and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions. See below for a few photos from the event.
Our booth at the Eco-Farm Conference.
Frankie enthusiastic about biochar!
This was by far the largest seed exchange I have ever attended. And scion exchange was happening in another room at the same time.
With lots of seeds, both common and exotic…
and crowds of attendees.
I mean, crowds of enthusiastic attendees. 😉
There was also fun: beer and cheese tasting.
Needless to say, this was a very popular event.
Come and join us next year!
It was a small but very jolly and informative gathering.
Having fun meeting new gardeners and learning about their amazing plants (tropical!).
Swappimg seeds while tasting garden fresh heirloom tomatoes!
Hope you will join us next time around!
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