Organize a Virtual Seed Swaps During a Pandemic
Presentation by Mike Riesterer and Abbey Palmer; Co-founders, Queen City Seed Library, Marquette, MI, USA at the 10th Annual Seed. Library Summit, April 17, 2021. Slide presentation
Seed Swaps
Seed exchanges or swaps are a great way to bring the community together.
Seed swaps help us share seeds that have cultural significance to our community and that do well in our area. Sebastopol, California
The Community Seed Network has a helpful resource on How to Organize a Seed Swap. Below are the resources created by Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library about hosting a seed swap. We co-hosted a swap with BASIL in Berkeley that has over 150 people attend, a potluck, and live music. Take what's useful. Tweak it. Make it your own. If you have any great ideas or pictures, please email [email protected] and we'll add it to this site.
Organizing a Swap
1. Promote event
2. Create table signs
3. Create educational posters
4. Get your volunteers for set up
5. Day of the event - to dos
6. Clean up - organize volunteers
Here's our To Do list for organizing a seed swap. Make sure you have lots of envelopes for folks to write info on. We have a stamp for Richmond Grows that we use and pre-stamp hundreds of envelopes before the event to encourage people to write quality information on the seeds they take with them. We use business envelopes and seal them and cut them in half. (Sometimes you can get these donated from companies who are going out of business or changing addresses or from printer errors.) If you have a web presence or email folks about the event, you may also want to have them be able download labels so they can bring in well labeled seeds to share or they can have pre-printed blank envelopes to take seeds.
Swap Signage
We organized our tables, as well as our library, by plant families. Here are the signs that we use at our swaps. Everything is color coordinated to match with the organization of our library. For example, super easy seeds have green labels, easy is blue and difficult is yellow. "Borrower Beware" signs are orange. You can look at all of our resources in our Seed Swap Google Drive folder. It includes the following swap signs:
Seed swaps can be a feeding frenzy if the tone isn't set. Before starting, explain the purpose of the swap. Give thanks and gratitude for the seeds, the ancestors who saved them, the folks who are sharing them tonight, and whatever else feels appropriate. Set some expectations about how much folks should talk (see sign above "Take what you need") and a reminder that the information they write on the packet is important. It's worthwhile having a large poster showing an envelope that has good information.
Promote Seed Saving
Make sure folks understand that this is not just a taking event and that the intention of the swap includes creating local resilience around food and seeds. Thing you can do to promote this:
1. Start the swap by explaining that seeds are labeled by seed saving level and that you are encouraging everyone to start with the "super easy" plants.
2. Have plenty of "super easy" seed saving brochures available. Have people pass them out as folks enter the event or have them on the table. Here are the English and Spanish (in process of being edited) super easy brochures. Feel free to put your own contact info on the brochures, but please leave the piece about "Create a library" and our URL.
3. Have people who are seed savers wear a badge that says "Ask me about seed saving" or some type of identifier. Let folks know in the beginning of the event that there are folks who can answer questions about seed saving. If you have a seed lending library, have folks who volunteer at the library have badges too so folks can learn about the library.
4. Let folks know that if they are bring cucurbits they need to write "hand pollinate" on the package if they did hand pollinate. In the beginning, and also volunteers, can check in with folks putting on the table and asking them to identify "hand pollinated" or "may have crossed."
5. Have a class at or before the swap about seed saving.
6. Every 20-30 minutes remind folks about the super easy plants and encourage them to ask someone with a badge about seed saving.
If you have a library and it's in the same building give tours at regular intervals throughout your swap.
7. It's also helpful to have volunteers remove any sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) from the pea and bean family area and put them with flowers instead.
Have fun!
Organizing a Swap
1. Promote event
2. Create table signs
3. Create educational posters
4. Get your volunteers for set up
5. Day of the event - to dos
6. Clean up - organize volunteers
Here's our To Do list for organizing a seed swap. Make sure you have lots of envelopes for folks to write info on. We have a stamp for Richmond Grows that we use and pre-stamp hundreds of envelopes before the event to encourage people to write quality information on the seeds they take with them. We use business envelopes and seal them and cut them in half. (Sometimes you can get these donated from companies who are going out of business or changing addresses or from printer errors.) If you have a web presence or email folks about the event, you may also want to have them be able download labels so they can bring in well labeled seeds to share or they can have pre-printed blank envelopes to take seeds.
Swap Signage
We organized our tables, as well as our library, by plant families. Here are the signs that we use at our swaps. Everything is color coordinated to match with the organization of our library. For example, super easy seeds have green labels, easy is blue and difficult is yellow. "Borrower Beware" signs are orange. You can look at all of our resources in our Seed Swap Google Drive folder. It includes the following swap signs:
- Super Easy Table Sign
- Borrower Beware Sign - Squash
- Take what you need signs
- Beginning Seed Savers Poster
- Table Labels - list of plant families and members in Spanish & English
- Table Labels - list of plant families and members in English only
- Hybrid - Spanish (not sure what happened to our English version)
Seed swaps can be a feeding frenzy if the tone isn't set. Before starting, explain the purpose of the swap. Give thanks and gratitude for the seeds, the ancestors who saved them, the folks who are sharing them tonight, and whatever else feels appropriate. Set some expectations about how much folks should talk (see sign above "Take what you need") and a reminder that the information they write on the packet is important. It's worthwhile having a large poster showing an envelope that has good information.
Promote Seed Saving
Make sure folks understand that this is not just a taking event and that the intention of the swap includes creating local resilience around food and seeds. Thing you can do to promote this:
1. Start the swap by explaining that seeds are labeled by seed saving level and that you are encouraging everyone to start with the "super easy" plants.
2. Have plenty of "super easy" seed saving brochures available. Have people pass them out as folks enter the event or have them on the table. Here are the English and Spanish (in process of being edited) super easy brochures. Feel free to put your own contact info on the brochures, but please leave the piece about "Create a library" and our URL.
3. Have people who are seed savers wear a badge that says "Ask me about seed saving" or some type of identifier. Let folks know in the beginning of the event that there are folks who can answer questions about seed saving. If you have a seed lending library, have folks who volunteer at the library have badges too so folks can learn about the library.
4. Let folks know that if they are bring cucurbits they need to write "hand pollinate" on the package if they did hand pollinate. In the beginning, and also volunteers, can check in with folks putting on the table and asking them to identify "hand pollinated" or "may have crossed."
5. Have a class at or before the swap about seed saving.
6. Every 20-30 minutes remind folks about the super easy plants and encourage them to ask someone with a badge about seed saving.
If you have a library and it's in the same building give tours at regular intervals throughout your swap.
7. It's also helpful to have volunteers remove any sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) from the pea and bean family area and put them with flowers instead.
Have fun!
Reading a poem or taking time to give gratitude for the seeds and the people who saved them is a great way to start a swap. Sebastopol, California
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