KINGSTON SEEDY SATURDAY 2024

KASSI and Ratinenhayénthos are hosting Seedy Saturday in Kingston on Saturday, March 9, at a new location — Cooke’s-Portsmouth United Church. The church, at 200 Norman Rogers Drive, Kingston (in the Calvin Park neighbourhood), is accessible, and has more space and more parking than last year.

From 10-10:30 there will be words of welcome to honour our community and the seeds in our care. We will celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the Seed Rematriation. ALL ARE WELCOME!

From 10:30-2:00 seeds will be available from the Seed Swap Table and vendors. 

The event will feature the popular seed swap table — so bring your packages of saved seeds, labelled with variety, year harvested, number of seeds in the packet and any other information that could be helpful to other gardeners. We have been asked how many seeds to put in each packet. It might be helpful for you to make that decision based on how many seeds you would like to receive if you wanted to grow them out. Or just go with 20-30? Or more if it’s lettuce 🙂

 Other features include:

  • seeds, information and displays by Ratinenhayénthos and the Kenhteke Seed Sanctuary and Learning Centre from Tyendinaga  and KASSI.  Seeds from both organizations will be available by donation
  • local seed vendors (Bear Root Gardens and Kitchen Table Seed House and others) will have their seeds available for purchase
  • gardening Information and advice from Rideau Thousand Island Master Gardeners and Gardening Kingston
  • informal teaching and learning circles throughout the day-see the KASSI website seedsgrowfood.org for the final agenda after March 1, 2024.

As we return to hosting Seedy Saturday for the second time since 2019, we are organizing a smaller event than the recent Seedy Saturdays that is focused on connecting people with the magic and beauty of growing and saving locally adapted seeds and creating sustainable climate resilient seed and food systems.  We look forward to experiencing the same community energy and excitement as in past years. And we look forward to seeing you there. 

Kingston Seedy Saturday 2023

KASSI and Ratinenhayénthos are hosting Seedy Saturday in Kingston on Saturday, March 11, 2023, at a new location — upstairs at St.Luke’s Church, 236 Nelson Street, near the intersection of Nelson and Princess Street, and around the corner from the Memorial Centre grounds.

From 10-10:30 there will be words of welcome to honour and celebrate our community and the seeds in our care. We will celebrate the 4th Anniversary of the Seed Rematriation. ALL ARE WELCOME!

From 10:30-2:00 seeds will be available from the Seed Swap Table and vendors. 

The event will feature the popular seed swap table — so bring your packages of saved seeds, labelled with variety, year harvested, number of seeds in the packet and any other information that could be helpful to other gardeners. We have been asked how many seeds to put in each packet. It might be helpful for you to make that decision based on how many seeds you would like to receive if you wanted to grow them out. Or just go with 20-30? Or more if it’s lettuce 🙂

 Other features include:

  • seeds, information and displays by Ratinenhayénthos and the Kenhteke Seed Sanctuary and Learning Centre from Tyendinaga  and KASSI.  Seeds from both organizations will be available by donation
  • local seed vendors (Bear Root Gardens and Kitchen Table Seed House) will have their seeds available for purchase
  • gardening Information and advice from Rideau Thousand Island Master Gardeners and Gardening Kingston
  • informal teaching and learning circles throughout the day-see the KASSI website seedsgrowfood.org for the final agenda after March 4, 2023

As we return to hosting Seedy Saturday for the first time since 2019, we are organizing a smaller event than the recent Seedy Saturdays that is focused on connecting people with the magic and beauty of growing and saving locally adapted seeds and creating sustainable climate resilient seed and food systems.  We look forward to experiencing the same community energy and excitement as in past years. And we look forward to seeing you there. 

Saturday June 18, 2022

Climate resilient, locally adapted open-pollinated seeds from the KASSI Living Seed Commons can be legally saved and shared 🙂

Happy Saturday friends. There are so many things to do today! KASSI volunteers will be with Gardening Kingston at Roden Park, Norman Rogers Drive today from 10-12. We will be sharing seeds, knowledge ad ideas and premiering Gardening KIngston’s lovely Little Seed Library at that site!

Our friends at the Kenhte:ke Seed Sanctuary & and Learning Centre will be gathering today for a work bee at their beautiful seed garden in Tyendinaga from 10-12 today. They already had plenty of things for everyone to do but now could use some help to clean up debris from the huge windstorm that swept through our area.

And finally Rideau Thousand Islands Master Gardeners will be at the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club today until noon. They will have information on Planting for Pollinators, as well as our first “Bring One-Take One Perennial Trade. This wonderful way to expand our biodiversity collection and connect with local gardeners.Nothing to Trade? Perennials will be available for sale at $5, with revenue going to the Cataraqui Tree Fund.

We hope that you have a wonderful day!

Please join us for this very special event.

In 2019, the Sisters of Providence closed their Heirloom Seed Sanctuary in Kingston, and gifted the seeds to KASSI (Kingston Area Seed System Initiative) and Ratinenhayėnthos, an Indigenous seed stewardship organization at Tyendinaga.

A Rematriation Ceremony was held at the time, with the two recipient organizations committing to caring for the seeds and sharing them.

Saturday, April 23, the three organizations will renew their commitment to the seeds, in an online anniversary celebration.

“The Sisters of Providence are very pleased to have been part of the important work of the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary,” said Sr. Diane Brennen, “and we are happy to continue to connect with the two community groups that received our seed collection,” .

“Members and friends of our seed stewardship work are invited to join us, to recognize the central position of seeds in our culture and our food system,” said Janice Brant, with Ratinenhayėnthos.

“We are excited to to reaffirm our commitment to keeping the seed collections, and the knowledge of how to save seeds, vibrant and distributed in the community,” said Cathy Christie, with KASSI (Kingston Area Seed System Initiative ). “We want every household to have a cupboard with a few jars of open-pollinated seeds saved from the year before — locally- adapted seeds that will make our regional food system more self-reliant and resilient to climate change.”

REGISTER HERE ON EVENTBRITE

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US

Seed Packing Work Bee

KASSI Seed Packet for Melfort tomato that was grown out by our friends at Edible Forest Farm, Inverary in 2021. It is one of the varieties that we will be packing at the work bee on Monday April 11!

Calling all KASSI Seed Guardians. We need your help to package Seeds for Sharing that were kindly grown out in 2021 by KASSI Seed Guardians. Join us on Monday April 11 from 2-4 pm at St Luke’s Church (236 Nelson St.). Take home seeds from the KASSI Living Seed Commons and other seeds that that friends kindly shared during the earlier seed swaps!

Seed Swap- Saturday April 2 from 1-3 pm at St. Luke’s Church

Thanks to everyone who braved the inclement weather last Saturday to share their seeds at Lakeside Community Garden, We had so much fun that we want to do it again this Saturday because there is still time to start your tomatoes!  And we can be inside!

  • Saturday April 2, 2022, 1 to 3 pm
  • St. Luke’s Church, 236 Nelson Street (just off Princess Street, near the Memorial Centre)

Remember those legendary tomato tasting events at the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary (HSS)? We have two dozen heirloom tomato varieties from the HSS Collection to share with you.  You can get to know them here: http://seedsgrowfood.org/meet-the-seeds/tomatoes/
Bring your saved seeds to swap with other seed savers, and find locally-adapted seeds from the KASSI Living Seed Commons (by donation).

We look forward to seeing you there!

In Person Seed Swap: Saturday March 26 1-2 pm at Lakeside Community Garden (at the corner of Days and Front Road)

You can always find KASSI seeds and other local products at Old Farm Fine Food 204 Barrie St. We are grateful for the role they play in our local seed and food system 🙂

We had hoped to host an in-person seed swap tomorrow (Sat March 19) but the forecast does not look promising.

We invite you to join us at Lakeside Community Garden (at the corner of Front and Days Road) on Saturday March 26 from 1-2 pm instead. Rain date Sunday March 27 from 1-2 pm. at the same location!

KASSI seeds will be available! You can also pick them up at Old Farm Fine Foods 204 Barrie St.

We look forward to seeing you then!