Saving and Swapping Seed for Diversity and Resilience
The practice of swapping and saving seed links to several of the 13 principles of Agroecology. Whether you’re a hobby gardener, someone who grows their own veg or a commercial grower, seeds are a precious resource. Many traditional seed varieties are being lost, whilst seed patenting and seed production is increasingly concentrated into the hands of a few global companies. In the words of Vandana Shiva ““When you control seed you control food.”
Barleybird teamed up with Kate Ayre, an experienced grower and seed saver, to offer two Seed Saving Workshops, funded by East Suffolk Council’s Enabling Communities Fund. The first focused on annual food crops such as tomatoes, lettuce and peas, and the second included biennials such as carrots, beetroot and onions. Participants learned which plants you can and can’t save seed from, plus related facts about plant botany and pollination. The various stages of seed saving were also explained through fun, practical activities, including plant selection and seed cleaning.
The second workshop also coincided with our 2025 Seed Swap, kindly hosted again by Hodmedod’s at their warehouse in Suffolk. Despite the cold, word is clearly spreading as the numbers were up from 2024, with an estimated 200 people coming through the door. There was a lovely sense of community and shared interests as people browsed the seed packets, looking for free treasures, whilst sharing their seed stories and experiences. Trees were also given away by the Suffolk Tree Warden Network and delicious bread and snacks were devoured thanks to Henrietta Inman and her new hheart bakery.
Seed Saving and Swapping links to Agroecology
Fairness - protect traditional knowledge and fair intellectual property rights e.g. open source seeds
Input reduction - increase self-sufficiency, reduce reliance of purchased seed, creating community seed saving networks
Economic diversification - create income from selling seeds, develop greater financial independence
Co-creation of knowledge - farmer-to-farmer exchange, transfer of knowledge and good practice
