Agrarian Sharing Network Propagation Fair

hello garden-friends, on March 15th, Chris and I participated in the Agrarian Sharing Network's Propagation Fair (LINK to their Facebook page). This group, run entirely through volunteers and donations, shares seeds, live plants and fruit tree cuttings/scion with the community. Their philosophy aligns deeply with the Sharing Gardens so we were happy to lend support through our volunteer time as well as seeds we'd grown and saved ourselves and veggie starts.

Chris sat at the table with our starts, our tri-fold poster and info about our project. We gave away about 200 plants, all started back in January in our greenhouses to be ready in time. (That's me smiling next to him).

 

 

Happy seed recipients! Over 80% of the seeds shared that day had been grown and saved by local farmers (including us!) which makes them uniquely adapted to our climate and conditions.

Some of the other plant donations. Volunteer, Hayley, is on the left. Friend, Wendy, is on the right in the foreground and happy recipients are in the background. Wendy made pumpkin squares to feed the volunteers from a squash she grew herself!

 

Steve Northway has been growing and saving seeds from pure American Chestnuts for over 20 years. He's trying to generate healthy groves of these trees safe from the blight that wiped out literally billions of these mighty keystone species on the east coast in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When Giants Roamed Appalachia: The Story of the Chestnut

I (Llyn) have successfully grown three young saplings which were planted on my neighbor's land and Steve gave me five more seeds to propagate this year which I hope to plant on our land and share.

In another room, volunteer grafters joined fruit tree cuttings/scion with root stock and taught people how to keep their young trees healthy. There were literally hundreds of these new baby trees created that day!

A beautiful sentiment posted on the wall of the Willamette Community Grange where the event was hosted.