2nd Annual Seed Exchange, Santa Fe, New Mexico

One of the many seed tables.

There were people of all ages arriving with their special blue corn, chile, and squash seeds way before the official opening time of the 2nd Annual Seed Exchange. The seeds carefully stored in small envelopes, plastic bags, unusual tins, old envelops and paper bags. Some containers marked with the name of the seed and the history of its origin, some remained mysterious, all as individually unique as the seeds held within.  There were many different varieties of vegetable and flower seeds, from the tiny pink strawberry popcorn to Northern New Mexico calabazas, rouge de grenoble lettuce and Indian Woman dry bean. Everyone excited to see what new seeds they might find.

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Strawberry Popocorn seeds.

The Santa Fe Seed Exchange was held at Frenchy's Barn in Frenchy's park near the community gardens and was hosted by Home Grown New Mexico http://homegrownnewmexico.org/  and the City of Santa Fe Parks and Division http://www.santafenm.gov/index.aspx?NID=240.  Home Grown New Mexico is dedicated to producing events that educate and promote the awareness of nutritious, home grown food. They have many classes and activities during the year and often have seeds to exchange at these events.
SeedBroadcast was delighted to participate in this wonderful community event and even more delighted to find some seed enthusiasts who were willing to spare some of their valuable time to share their seed stories with us.
Check out these stories below:
Amy Hetager from Home Grown New Mexico shares the inspiration behind the seed exchange that was sparked from the memories of her grandmother gifting seeds.
Jannine Cabossel talks about her passion for cooking, seed saving and the growing of giant veggies. She was the state champion in 2011 for her giant pumpkin, " Mad Max" at 448 pounds and her giant  green winter squash at 340 pounds! http://giantveggiegardener.com/
Lynn Hathaway a Santa Fe master gardener http://sfmga.org/ shares her love of collecting different colored hollyhock seeds from around town and her memories of making hollyhock dolls as a child.
Seed exchanges are wonderful community events and what could be better than sharing your seeds with your neighbors.  If you have not been to one yet we recommend that you find one in your community and, if there is not one to find, perhaps bring some fellow seeders together to imagine initiating one!

SeedBroadcast table with corn from Fodder Farm.