Blogs

"Our Seeds" at Festival in Giessen, Germany

Submitted by Michel Fanton on Tue, 29/11/2011 - 23:13

"Our Seeds" was shown at the film festival "Globale Mittelhessen" held in Giessen from 18th-27th November. Organiser, Monika Scarf reports:

The reactions are all positive of course. In your film we especially liked the community between the people and their respect for nature. It leaves a feeling of harmony. And the awareness that we can change something, we just have to get started.

We combined "Our Seeds" with a film about alternative ways of living together in communities and small villages ("Ein neues Wir"), so I think the people left quite assured and with a confident feeling this evening.

Seed Savers Tour: North Portugal, Andalucia in Spain and Aragon

Submitted by Jude Fanton on Thu, 17/11/2011 - 08:41

 The Seed Savers screening and courses continues.

Thursday 10: Leave for Coimbra in the north to one of the oldest botanic gardens in Europe, where a kitchen garden has been created recently.
15 - 17h workshop on seeds and seed saving.
17 - 19h workshop on seed savouring with Annelieke - a culinary workshop and afterwards participants will eat the results of their work in an informal dinner.

Friday 10, 20.30h: Screening of "Our Seeds" at a theatre near the Coimbra Botanical Garden - public session with a discussion afterwards, with panelists.

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13: In Coimbra, Introduction to Permaculture course created as  a Seed Savers Tour fund raiser, with an emphasis on seed issues.

Michel and Jude relax in a fishing town on the coast north of Porto. They upload clips above and eat grill sardines. 

Saturday 26th Nov - Screening of "Our Seeds" in Geres in northern Portugal

Sunday 27th - participation at Geres Jornada de Agricultura BioLógica e Soberania Alimentar

Seed Savers Tour of Spain, December 2011

Friday 2nd Dec - visit and presentations at the Andalucia Red de Semillas "Resembrando e Intercambiando" (Seed Savers) in Seville, Andalucia, Spain.

Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th - visit and presentations at the Andalucia Red de Semillas "Resembrando e Intercambiando" (Seed Savers) in Marbella, Andalucia.

Friday 9th Dec - visit and presentations at the Aragon Red de Semillas "Resembrando e Intercambiando" (Seed Savers) in Zaragoza, Aragon.

Beyond Portugal and Spain December to February 2012
We shall be in south-west France from mid-December until February 2012. Let us know if you have contacts in these, or nearby, countries.
... and more than 400 clips we have produced on youtube.com/seedsavers and uploaded in the Youtube player north of here.

Seed Savers Tour of Portugal in November

Submitted by Michel Fanton on Mon, 26/09/2011 - 06:13
Michel and Jude Fanton are on a speaking tour of Portugal from 4th to 13th November. They are attending and speaking the national seed savers' gathering, showing their film, "Our Seeds", giving workshops and teaching on an Introduction to Permaculture workshop. Please see the programme below. 
 

Supermarket Food vs the Seed You Know

Submitted by Michel Fanton on Mon, 12/09/2011 - 20:01

If you have ever tasted home grown food grow from your own seeds supermarket vegetable lack taste (read they are nutrition-poor). The solution is to grow your own food with tasty varieties you or friends have bred or conserved from local seeds. Peasants very much do just that. 

    

Social Media Wizard Wanted!

Submitted by Michel Fanton on Sun, 11/09/2011 - 14:19

 Assistance with social media and SEO

If are responding to the advert  published in the Austraiian media the last few weeks then what follows is for you. We offer  short term accommodation to a person that is well versed in multimedia, you maybe an app. developper, have some knowledge of Drupal, is good with video, or can help us with social media strategies or even improve with our workflow.

Perhaps you can help with footage to put online.  Foreign traveller now in the Byron Bay region are welcome.  Or maybe you come reguarly to Byron Bay for a surf ? 

Bellingen Seed Savers for Fun: Sept 17+18th

Submitted by Jude Fanton on Sat, 27/08/2011 - 16:30

 All the pleasure is ours when we visit Local Seed Networks. We love it!

This time Irene and David Wallin have been beating the drum;  by the way the couple  coordinating the local seed networks for a while now and this time around they are organising a one day course and have invited us  on Sunday 18th this month of September to teach a course and give a talk and screen one of our films the previous evening that is Saturday night 17th then if i am not mistaken. It will be an exciting weekend for Jude and I to be in beautiful Bellingen, New South Wales Australian Pacific Coast if you dont know well the southern hemisphere that is so close to ancient rainforests...

Jude and I are fired up by the prospect of having participants who really know they onions. It wont be a matter of turning gardeners into seed saves but more like getting into the fine points of producing seeds and strategies to extend the diversity of  food garden and therefore diet. Everyone will learn something. That is the point of the exercise. We certainly like to hear from people who mix their ornemantals and their food plants going to seed. We do ourselves because we cant help loving colours. In any case when you let your gardens go to seed you got flowers for the pleasure of the eyes, you have insects  and butterfiles flowers to garnish daily salads.

At the moment gardeners- seed savers of Bellingen my little finger told me that you certainly have many plants flowering: purple flowered radish and daikons, many kinds of asian brassicas that love to get crossed but all the same  as as crossed as they might be keep on giving us delish bok choys, marigolds, rockets, and the luminous flowers of chicories start to pop up. There are many more but i need to get back to the gardens if you dont mind.

See you soon  in Bellingen!

 

 

Give Peas A Chance

Submitted by Jude Fanton on Thu, 18/08/2011 - 08:54

This design was painted on a large bed sheet by Kathlyn  Brown a fabulous volunteer here at Seed Savers HQ in Byron Bay.

Love is the Seed!

Submitted by Jude Fanton on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:39

At the December 2010 Woodford Folk Festival in Australia Dominique Finney coordinator of the Folk Medicine Programme interviews Jude and Michel Fanton. Spontaneous tattooing at DVD signing.

  

Rare Cabbage Setting Seeds in the Sub-tropics

Submitted by Jude Fanton on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 11:29

Brassica carinata produces seeds at 28° south in Byron Bay, Australia. It is a different species to the common cabbage, Brassica oleracea and grows to two metres, producing enough leaves to warrant the varietal name of "Women Meet and Gossip". See more below on saving seeds of common cabbage extracted from The Seed Savers' Handbook.

Seeds and Pesticides Connection

Submitted by Jude Fanton on Fri, 05/08/2011 - 17:07

The highlands of Borneo few degrees from the Equator, there are a very fertile soils, cool nights and warm days to grow temperate vegetables that would not grow in the lowlands. They are exported to mega cities consumers: Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur etc. Growers typically have small hothouses to protect from monsoon and quite small. Here in Ranau small administrative town at 1200 metres altitude unsuspecting, small time market gardeners buy seeds and pesticides in shop like this.

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