Across Canada, 57% of households grow fruits, herbs, vegetables or flowers for personal use, according to Statistics Canada. A new book advocates that each of these home gardens has the potential to preserve vital biodiversity, if only we would let plants go to seed, harvest and preserve them. Saving Seeds, covers the essentials of seed saving, including seed selection criteria, harvest and storage tips, the role of seed-saving communities and seed companies.
For much of human history, farmers saved their own seed stocks to ensure a good harvest from year to year. In the past 50 years, governments became involved in seed saving, creating massive seed libraries, cataloguing thousands of varieties. There is a concern that plant biodiversity has been compromised in recent decades, as corporations have replaced heirloom varieties with genetic engineering.
The book’s author, Dan Jason, lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, where he founded the mail-order seed company Salt Spring Seeds.
Order the book online
Saving Seeds: A Home Gardener’s Guide to Preserving Plant Bioversity by Dan Jason is published by Harbour Publishing; 96 pages; $14.95 list price.
Order Saving Seeds book from ChaptersIndigo.ca
Order Saving Seeds book via Amazon (Kindle edition only)
Order via Bookshop (supports independent book sellers; only available in U.S. at this time)
Draw to win a copy of the book
Congratulations to Barbara P. of St. Catharines, Ontario, whose entry was randomly selected from 371 entries in our April 2020 draw. Here’s a history of our prizes and an explantation of how we make a random selection.
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