Cyber Seed Crawls: seed swaps in the time of pandemic

Responding to the pandemic- the creation of the Cyber Seed Crawl

Seed swapping between Twin City gardeners has been happening during the pandemic in covid-safe fashion via the Cyber Seed Crawl series. Hamline Midway (St. Paul) residents Anna McLafferty (of Hothouse Horticulture), Courtney Tchida (of the Minnesota State Horticulture Society) and Stephanie Hankerson along with the Como Community Seed Library’s organizer Dawn Lamm, came together in the shared disappointment of how Covid halted our regular gatherings for seed saving, cleaning and swapping. Out of this, the Cyber Seed Crawl was born: a series of distanced and contactless seed swaps that offers gardener’s a chance to connect to fellow growers and their abundant and unique seed stocks.

Swapping milestones

To date, 126 folks have logged trades in 4 Cyber Seed Crawl swap dates. Swappers have selected seed from over 300 plant species being shared by their fellow traders including herbs, vegetables, flowers and native plant seed. Notable are the species collected from MnSEED seed saving events which contributed 65 different pollinator plants to the offer lists. The swap days have been fun off-season diversions, and a great way to get seeds at no cost (or perhaps the cost of postage stamps). 

The latest opportunity to swap!

The next MSP Cyber Seed Crawl is the National Seed Swap Day Edition on Saturday, January 29, 2022. Connect to the event and its pre-event tasks here: https://fb.me/e/1yN1Cq5P7 . Participants list their available seed ahead of the event & on the swap day, a full index of all seed varieties is published for use to find seed to trade. Anyone can participate, even if you do not have seeds to share. For those not on Facebook, consider connecting to someone who is and they can make your trades for you.