Yesterday, the temperature dipped to minus 15, a real shocker after Thursdays two degrees above zero and Friday’s minus five. So imagine our surprise when tons of people began streaming into the Verdun municipal greenhouses for the borough’s first ever Seedy Saturday.
In the end, we counted 357 visitors to Seedy Saturday, though probably more came given that busy volunteers used the click counter.
What a great day! The sun and conversations with amazing people kept us toasty and comfortable all day.
Tons of conversations took place throughout the day. Typical topics revolved around practical tips to grow healthy food, ensuring food security and entrepreneurship and jobs.
Seedy Saturday asks: can you grow healthy food in the city?
Many of the tips emphasized how to take advantage of small spaces and combating wildlife. How can you keep the squirrels from damaging and eating all your crops? Use small and large caging to keep them out.
Which seeds provide the best-tasting fruits and vegetables? Heritage seeds for sure, although getting people to give up nicer-looking fruit and vegetables for better taste can be a challenge.
How do you plant them to make sure they produce? Choose the right time and the right medium for each variety.
Proper planting time
Lots of workshops took place at Seedy Saturday, but one-on-one conversations contained the best tips.
Which seeds should I plant now? Tomatoes, cucumbers and basil.Which ones go direct in the garden? Beans, carrots and peas. When? Peas go in as soon as the ground can be worked, while beans get planted after last frost at the end of May. Kale and carrots benefit from either treatment, although they should be staggered over the summer.
There were some diverging opinions on all points, and since I had the worst growing summer ever last year, I tried to listen more than I spoke. Not sure that worked though. I talked a lot.
Food Security
Food security and using local entrepreneurship to build abundance formed the backbone of many conversations. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that yesterday’s Seedy Saturday was organized by Grand Potager. Grand Potager is a nonprofit organization that includes many of the Verdun-based organizations who are trying to use urban agriculture to ensure that no one in Verdun goes hungry.
Verdun Farmers’ Markets
Our urban agriculture solidarity coop CAUS is a member of Grand Potager, and our main focus remains building a local economy via markets. We now have spring markets, our farmers’ markets from July until October, and our winter markets.
Our next market takes place Saturday, April 8 at the Church of the Epiphany, 4322 Rue Wellington, Verdun from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Hope to see you there!
