Well the weather was abysmal and record rain was falling while flooding and road closures were abundant – so it was a small gathering for this winter meeting – just those crazy enough to come out in bad weather…

The agenda for this meeting was focussed on a few issues.

After the usual wide discussion about the crazy weather this last few months and VERY unusual dry period from Feb till May – we moved on to our individual intro rounds – where people talk about the seed they have with them.

Planning for a Seed Saving workshop planned for early September.

We have been planning a full day workshop for a while and have now settled on a basic running plan for the day and a lineup of people to talk about various selected plant groups or families. The idea is to provide a good introduction to saving seeds and growing edible plants with enough detail for those with some experience but not too challenging for those that are new to the process. We will have some more information available shortly on when and where this will be happening.

Restocking the seed packets for sale at various venues.

Our selected seed packets stocks have been selling so fast from some places that we are having problems keeping them stocked on a regular basis. We are a volunteer org and members are based all over the mountains so it can  be a little complex to arrange for deliveries. The process of checking seed packets in and out of our ‘seed bank’ was discussed and we are hopefully (slowly) moving towards a more efficient system.

Our usual seed saving and packing.

We had plenty of seeds to pack and enter into the seed bank and some of the highlights this meeting were various parsley seeds and leafy greens including the under appreciated Lovage. There was also some nice garlic bulbs of about 7 varieties including creole, rocambole, turban and some ‘selephant’ garlic (actually a leek) ready to swap for planting out right now.

Much packing and sorting was done and we worked furiously right up till our usual leaving time of around 1pm.

Thanks to all who came and also to those who sent through their apologies.

See you all next meeting on September 4 – which will be our big Spring meeting. We will have more details on whether this will be the workshop date on this website, facebook and by email to those who get our usual invites.