Dear Supporters,
We are very busy completing our Winter Newsletter and Supporter Seed Catalogue and our current supporters will receive these in the post in the coming weeks, just in time for the holidays. Of course it’s not too late to join/renew if you wish to receive our catalogue and newsletter. When you join Irish Seed Savers you will receive:
- A comprehensive seed catalogue with exclusive ‘Supporters Only’ varieties not available to the general public. Choose seven FREE varieties of vegetable seeds (subject to availability).
- 10% discount on apple trees – our orchards have over 180 varieties of Irish Heritage apple trees.
- 10% discount on all workshops.
- FREE access to our heritage gardens and orchards year round.
- FREE entry to our special events days
- Receive printed newsletters (Summer & Winter)
Help us sow the seeds of conservation and become a supporter of Irish Seed Savers.
We are hoping to launch our brand new website in time for Christmas so please stay tuned to our social media platforms for announcements and we will be sending out a very special Christmas eZine to you all shortly, so remember to check your inboxes for some festive cheer.
Merry Christmas & Best Wishes
from the Irish Seed Savers team.
Life on the farm
Hundreds of bare-root apple trees waiting to be posted to customers in December.
In the gardens we’ve mulched around our perennial crops, are turning our compost heaps and checking all the irrigation lines in the polytunnels. Now that the weather has turned we are spending a lot of time in the Seed Bank packing and stocking our seed varieties as well as foil packing our conservation seeds.
We are delighted to have been nominated for the Ecclesiastical Insurance Christmas giving campaign. They are giving £120,000 to good initiatives as part of its annual 12 days of giving.The specialist heritage, faith, education and charity insurer will be giving 120 different charities an early Christmas gift of a £1,000 donation, with 10 winners announced each weekday from 7 – 22 December. To find out more click here
Community Seed Guardian Programme
The need for food seed has grown significantly in recent years. Several threats to our food supply are now upon us – a growing awareness of climate change and its impact on food accessibility; the increased demand for food seed during the Covid-19 crisis; and the threat from Brexit’s limitations on imports of food and food seed coming from and through the United Kingdom. As more people want to control their food supply there is a greater interest to grow and access food locally, rather than continual reliance on imported food and food seed.
Bringing 30 years of conservation experience with food seed and fruit trees, Irish Seed Savers Association have created the Community Seed Guardian Programme – a training programme for communities across Ireland to grow and save their own seed to create greater community engagement with the full food supply, from seed to plate. Funded through Rethink Ireland’s Innovate Together programme, which was established in response to Covid-19 to build resilience in communities, the goal of this training initiative is to engage community gardens with the value of growing and saving seed to become a natural part of each community gardens’ growing season and reduce reliance on imported food seed and food supply.
About This Programme
The Community Seed Guardians training programme is open to established community gardens based all around Ireland. Ten community gardens will be selected and provided with free seed saving training by Irish Seed Savers experienced facilitators, learning the steps to saving seeds successfully in their community garden. This community programme is open to community gardening groups, who have experience growing food and have access to land. This is a 2-year programme and will require commitment of 6 days training for up to 3 members of each community group, and an additional 2 days for the full group.
The representatives will receive six full days of free training in total throughout 2021. These days are a combination of workshops specifically for the representatives that will take place at the Irish Seed Savers farm and the advisory workshops will take place at each community garden – these advisory workshops are open to attend by all members of each community gardening group and includes a seed saving workshop for the full group.
The total value of this training to each group will be over €1,000 as well as mentoring, seeds, and ongoing support.
This is a 2-year programme and will require commitment from two experienced representative gardeners from each community garden. The representatives will receive six full days of free training in total throughout 2021. These days are a combination of workshops specifically for the representatives that will take place at the Irish Seed Savers farm and the advisory workshops will take place at each community garden – these advisory workshops are open to attend by all members of each community gardening group and includes a seed saving workshop for the full group.
How to Apply
Please complete the Application Form at the link below:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Deadline for applications is 18th January 2021.
This will be a Facebook Live event by Clare Garden Festival Online with Klaus Laitenberger on a Give-What-You-Can basis. For further details join our Facebook page and email info@
Visit our website www.ecoland.com
