Our Activities

It's hard to know where to start! Our current activities are connected with our past ... our Australian work has led us around the globe ... our friends are woven together by NGOs, projects, former interns, initiatives, and themes ... See how you go and don't hesitate to use the Search button to look for your particular interests! 

Below see a collection of our pamphlets over the years.

Our Film "Our Seeds"

We have taken 250 hours of footage in fifteen countries and have produced several clips for the internet, see www.youtube.com/seedsavers and a one hour documentary, "Our Seeds" and a series on wild harvesting foods like mushrooms, fruits, nuts and berries; seed saving practices around the world; seed guardians' lives; child gardeners; seed saving step by step and interviews on the international seed situation.

 

And writing this....If you have serious skills to edit and upload on Youtube please contact us. We also need translators.

 

Improving Seed Saving in Australia

In response to the financial crisis, we are keen to elevate the level of seed saving skills of the Australian public through promoting The Seed Savers' Handbook and encouraging the formation of more Local Seed Networks. Over the next few weeks we are sending bulk seeds from our seed bank to our eighty Local Seed Networks.

Promoting Food Gardens in Schools

We have a strong programme of encouraging more food gardens in schools through the distribution of our book, Seed to Seed Food Gardens in Schools that gives practical steps for planning, establishing, maintaining and utilising food gardens in schools.

Preparing Slide Shows

We have taken over 10 000 images and eight Powerpoint Presentations. We plan to prepare them for uploading onto the website.

130 varieties of tomatoes in one season

We grew them out in our gardens, in 1988 growing 130 varieties of tomatoes and passed them around to our network of gardening friends. But it all grew too big and we had then to find many more people to look after all these living seed samples. We started the The Seed Savers' Network in 1986.

8500 seed samples sent in

By 2006, we had received 8500 seed samples of every size either at our post office box or dropped at Seed Savers office. We recorded each in a FileMaker Pro database, allocated them an accession number, tested them for viability with our volunteers and multiplied them. One third were multiplied in our Seed Gardens and the rest by our supporters and a team of expert seed savers, that we call regenerators. Now that activity is undertaken by our Local Seed Networks around Australia.

Many friends make it happen

Volunteers and retired helpers on and near the Gold Coast in Queensland packed the seeds into little packets recording sowing cultivation and usage details. We then sent out each packet to a gardener in what we thought would be a suitable location for that variety. In total we sent out excess of 500 000 seed packets. Hot potatoes!

Local varieties created in thousands of gardens

The rare seed stocks had to be shared around the country to be saved from oblivion. By saving seed several times over in a different climate, altitude or soil, new varieties are created; the genetic dice was thrown once again. Some died in the process, some made it very well: local adaptions began to emerge providing the seed saver was crafty and observant of changes at each generation. This is why we wrote a guideline for seed production that became the best selling Seed Savers' Handbook. 
 

Monsanto sues seed savers

From the horse's mouth you can find out what happens to farmers who re-use Monsanto seeds a second time. This is not a joke.

http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto_today/for_the_record/monsanto_saved_seed_lawsuits.asp

 

Our archives: pamphlets 

Our first ever pamphlet, 1986

Pamphlet 1999