Cyber Seed Crawl Continues with the Urban Edible Edition

Seed swapping between neighbors has been happening in the Midway this winter and 1 more date remains ahead. Hamline Midway residents Anna McLafferty (of Hothouse Horticulture) and Stephanie Hankerson along with the Como Community Seed Library’s organizer Dawn Lamm, came together last fall with a shared disappointment on how covid has restricted regular gatherings for seed saving, cleaning and swapping. For the past 2 seasons, local community growers would look forward to off-season gatherings to handle and share seeds. Out of this, three Cyber Seed Crawls were born, one last fall and 2 in winter of 2021. These distanced and virtual seed swapping events happen online as a Facebook event. Ahead of swapping day, participants submit a list of seeds they have available. On event day, the combined list of all submissions  is released and traders use the event discussion and private messaging to connect with others. 

So far, 74 folks have participated in 2 Cyber Seed Crawl swap dates and have selected seed from 300 plant species being shared by fellow traders. Many of these seeds were from the Hamline Midway Coalition’s seed saving events held last fall where community members helped harvest 66 types of native plant seeds for neighborhood use. The swap days are fun diversions, and a great way to get seeds at no cost (or the cost of postage stamps if mailing). 

The next MSP Cyber Seed Crawl is the Urban Edibles Edition on February 20, 2021. For this swap, the focus is  on Produce, Herbs, & Medicinal seeds. Connect to the event and its pre-event to-dos here: https://www.facebook.com/events/975245849550248  Anyone can participate, even if you do not have seeds to share. For those not on Facebook, connect to someone who is and they can make your trades for you.