Seedy Sunday

Volunteering has been high on our To Do list this year, and when Matt’s Dad and Step-mom suggested that, in lieu of a Christmas gift to them, we volunteer and share the story instead, we were happy to take them up on it. Finding a place to volunteer, however, proved to be a bit more difficult. We have been thinking of Habitat for Humanity, which we are still looking into, but this frozen Canadian landscape is not ideal for building. In the meantime, we started looking for other opportunities. We found a local website online that sorted the current volunteer spots by the theme of the organization, and since we are big foodies, we searched in the food section to find a good fit for us. Matt found one that was tied into the Wychwood Barns (a local farmer’s market we were familiar with) called The Stop (www.thestop.org; their mission is to implement anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs). He e-mailed them to see if there were any upcoming events that we could participate in and, sure enough, they were helping with volunteers for an event called Seedy Sunday.  

So, this past weekend, Matt and I got up early (relatively speaking for a Sunday), had a quick breakfast bagel, got dressed, and then headed out to catch the first subway of the day (it’s amazing how quiet the streets are at 9am on Sunday!). Our destination: the Hart House at the University of Toronto, where the annual event was held (although we joined through the Stop, the event is actually hosted by Seeds of Diversity, a “Canadian volunteer organization that conserves the biodiversity and traditional knowledge of food crops and garden plants”). The event originally started as a way for local gardeners and farmers to meet and exchange seeds within the community. It has since grown to now include an area for vendors to come and sell their own products.

We had a few different tasks as volunteers. Matt began his day helping with set-up; assisting the vendors to bring in tables and stands and other necessary equipment for their booths. I spent the morning with another volunteer standing outside one of the entrances telling people they couldn’t park there. Luckily it wasn’t bitter cold out, and the other volunteer was friendly to chat with. After a while, we moved inside to see if we could be of more use there.

Our next task for the remainder of the day was to assist with the Seed Exchange table. Boxes were already organized with seeds that had been pre-packaged and were set out on the tables by category (fruits & vegetables, herbs, and flowers) for easy finding. The concept is that you can either bring seeds and take some new ones in exchange, or take seeds for a suggested donation of $2/packet (it was a pay what you can, so we weren’t too forceful in the $2 payments). Matt and I took the vegetable table, an ambitious move by two very non-gardeners (at home we have had 3 out of our 4 cacti die…). But we have hopes of one day having a little garden and growing some of our own vegetables, so we looked at this as an opportunity to learn. And learn we did. By mid-morning, the event was buzzing with people and our table had plenty of visitors. We did our best to answer questions where we could, but when we were stumped, Matt had the great idea to pull out our Blackberries to Google the answers (secretly, I think that made him the hit of the table!).

When we had a bit of a lull in the crowds, we would take turns popping into the room next to us where the vendors were set up. There were a lot of interesting booths, from ones providing info on urban gardening (we signed up for a mailing list or two), edibles for sale (fair trade coffee, local honey, etc.) and one highlighting all the summer farmers markets in the city (we’ve scouted a new one for next summer).

While it was a long day standing, we met a lot of very interesting people and learned quite a bit about some of the different vegetables out there. It has sparked an interest for both Matt and I to learn more about gardening and vegetables, and, to start, I picked up a few different varieties of seeds for our future garden. And next year, if we volunteer again, we’ll come better prepared with more knowledge on growing vegetables.