SOUND OFF: A seed of hope for spring
IT’S THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY when I’m sitting down to write this. We’re in the middle of a cold snap — our first real cold spell of the winter. It’s a little late coming this year, but here it is anyway. It feels like the warm days of spring are a distant speck on the horizon. It feels like nothing will ever grow out of the cold hard windswept soil in my backyard. But things will grow. Because I’ve got seeds, and it can’t stay winter forever.
Growing up on the prairies, February was always the month when my parents would put out the seed catalogues and invite us children to leaf through them. They would encourage us to circle any fun varieties of carrots or colourful flower blends that caught our eye. I would always find the sugar peas. Those were my favourites. It was exciting when the box of seeds arrived. Those little packages held such promise. Oh, what yummy treats awaited us in summer!
Many years later as an adult, my partner and I found ourselves with a garden of our own. These days we go to the store to pick out seeds, or we faithfully collect the seeds from our fall harvests. Our personal collection has grown over the years but we’re always finding new varieties that we just can’t resist. Every time I find an exciting new seed to collect, it takes me back to my childhood looking at the colourful pictures in the catalogue, imagining what plants they could become.
One of our favourite events for picking out seeds for the year is the aptly named Seedy Saturday. It’s an annual event put on by the Kamloops Farmers’ Market, and this year it’s happening on March 8 at the Mount Paul Community Food Centre. There will be farmers who’ve harvested seeds for sale and non-profits like the Kamloops Food Policy Council and the Thompson Nicola Master Gardeners who are there to share their seed libraries and their gardening knowledge. It’s always a busy affair, full of passionate gardeners and friends I haven’t seen in a while.
