Seed Saving Workshop Series
A six-part workshop series hosted by the Strafford County Conservation District and Tuckaway Farm + Food Commons
Instructors: Bill Braun and Hannah Traggis, Freed Seed Federation
Seed saving can become a source of income, make farms more independent and resilient, and improve genetic biodiversity. It’s not just for farms; backyard growers, gardeners, and conservationists can utilize seed saving techniques to preserve local native species, heirloom crops, and more.
Learn the process of saving seeds from start to finish. Topics include how to plan your crops, genetics and pollination considerations, processing, techniques, tools and equipment.
SCCD has a new suite of seed saving equipment available to borrow, and this is the best way to learn how to use it!
Participants can attend the entire series for in-depth workshops on the entire seed saving process, or just attend the introduction session for an overview of seed saving and why we need to do it.
Register here: https://forms.gle/2zrpFiA6pVYpGQ4r5
Schedule
Monday, May 11th, 12:00pm to 1:00pm, Online.
Introduction: Why save seed? An overview of the state of seeds and the need for more growers, from bioregional adaptation to intellectual property restrictions.
Monday, June 15th, 12:00pm to 1:00pm, Online.
Getting started: Considerations, conducting variety trials, making observations, and doing selection work for seed saving on the farm or in the garden.
Monday, July 13th, 12:00pm to 1:00pm, Online.
Dry-seeded crops: Using the life cycles of several crops as examples of timing, techniques, and processing/handling for numerous dry-seeded crops. Included in the discussion will be overviews of population sizes for seed saving, isolation requirements, and outcrossing vs self-pollinating crops.
Monday, August 10th, 12:00pm to 1:00pm, Online.
Wet-seeded crops: Similar in format to the dry-seeded crops discussion, but focusing the timing, techniques, and processing/handling of wet seed.
September and October: Two hands-on technical field days at Tuckaway Farm, dates and times TBD.
About the instructors:
Hannah Traggis is a plant physiologist and plant breeder and serves as Senior Scientist for Freed Seed Federation. She is also a professional horticulturist and founder of Aurelia’s Garden, a nonprofit farming organization that grows food specifically for donation to emergency hunger relief efforts. There she serves as president and director of agricultural operations for two farming sites. Hannah has conducted vegetable variety trials and plant breeding research for the past thirteen years, including during the five years she was Senior Horticulturist and ran the Food Systems Program at Massachusetts Horticultural Society where that research informed national vegetable variety trialing programs. She frequently lectures at farming conferences about variety trialing, Agro-ecology, plant biology and seed breeding and saving. Most recently, Hannah has added a new role as the Marion Institute's (MI) Frogfoot Farm Program Manager. There, she will combine the food equity and seed sovereignty work of Aurelia's Garden and Freed Seed Federation with the MI's mission to increase food and nutrition equity throughout communities across Massachusetts.
Bill Braun is a farmer at Ivory Silo Farm in Westport, MA, where he and his partner Deanna Levanti grow vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruit, and seeds. Bill is also the co-founder and Executive Director of Freed Seed Federation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to the preservation, adaptation, and diversification of place-based seed.
