Crop Swaps
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There is nothing like food (except for maybe music) to bring a community together. Now that folks are growing some food from seed, you may want to consider hosting a weekly crop swap. It's a great way to bring people together. Basically people bring extra produce or starts to the exchange and go home with some produce or plants from other community members.
Resources
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Crop Swap - Richmond, Calif.
Hosted by the Richmond Rivets, Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library and Richmond Food Policy Council
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Suggestions
1. Set a regular time each week and promote.
2. Have a sign in sheet where you can collect names and emails of newcomers to add to your mailing list.
3. Have brochures about your seed library and seed saving.
4. Depending on the size of your group and the feel, sometimes you can even get some of your seed cleaning done during swaps since some folks may come as much for the community as for the produce.
5. Have a procedure in place if you have bad weather.
6. Offer a class, orientation to the seed library or other event, such as a Tomato Festival, right after the swap or as part of the swap.
7. Invite in Master Gardeners to have a table at one of your swaps to answer questions and provide resources.
Organize a Plant Exchange
You can have a plant exchange as part of your weekly crop swap or you can go all out like this community group in Oakland that holds an amazing plant exchange twice a year with hundreds of folks showing up and thousands of plants exchanged. Here's a bit about the Lakeshore Plant Exchange and there are some resources to support other communities start an exchange.
1. Set a regular time each week and promote.
2. Have a sign in sheet where you can collect names and emails of newcomers to add to your mailing list.
3. Have brochures about your seed library and seed saving.
4. Depending on the size of your group and the feel, sometimes you can even get some of your seed cleaning done during swaps since some folks may come as much for the community as for the produce.
5. Have a procedure in place if you have bad weather.
6. Offer a class, orientation to the seed library or other event, such as a Tomato Festival, right after the swap or as part of the swap.
7. Invite in Master Gardeners to have a table at one of your swaps to answer questions and provide resources.
Organize a Plant Exchange
You can have a plant exchange as part of your weekly crop swap or you can go all out like this community group in Oakland that holds an amazing plant exchange twice a year with hundreds of folks showing up and thousands of plants exchanged. Here's a bit about the Lakeshore Plant Exchange and there are some resources to support other communities start an exchange.