Learn how to be a seed-saver! Grow and harvest your own locally-adapted seeds! Join local seed-saving projects and meet new seedy friends!
Let’s gather together and remember and relearn the time-honored practice of seed saving. Prior to 1800, all farmers and gardeners worldwide swapped or saved their own seeds. There were no seed companies as seeds were considered part of the public commons, a precious collective inheritance, so our community has something to eat.
We will discuss why we save seeds, basic botany, cross-pollination versus self-pollination, OP versus hybrids, and best practices in seed saving. We will set achievable goals for our own seed saving this year. We will share some seed-saving projects stewarded by the Baltimore Free Farm including: Grow a Row where gardeners reserve a small amount of their crop for seed harvest and donation to the Baltimore Seed Commons, and One Seed One Community project where neighbors grow and save seed from their small patch of ‘Ultracross’ okra, our vegetable variety for 2025 and 2026.