By Dilara Kurtaran
Seedy Saturday and the Green Fair joined forces for the first time at Blessed Cardinal Newman High School on Saturday.
Many people showed up for the event to exchange and buy seeds and to learn more about going green options.
“It’s about all of us growing and keeping heirloom seeds and organic seeds and we want to keep this for the future generation, you never know what seeds are going to be needed especially with climate change,” said organizer Katie Fullerton.
Began as a “seed swap”
Seedy Saturday started in Canada in 1990 as a simple seed swap. It spread across the country and launched in Scarborough in 2010.
“It’d be great opportunity bring people together to learn about seeds and everything else,” said Fullerton. “This is about making our world more sustainable.”
“Also one of the most thing important thing about seedy Saturday is the seed exchange,” she said.
People can bring their own seeds and exchange with another. If they don’t have seeds they can buy seeds with donations.
“The word has gotten around,” Fullerton said. This is why Gene Johnson, a resident who just recently moved to Scarborough came to the event.
“I just heard about it from a neighbour last night,” said Johnson. He attended the event so see what kind of products were being offered and to see the seeds. He couldn’t buy anything, “I made the mistake by coming here and leaving my money at home,” he said and laughed.
Many exhibitors
Toronto Public Library was also on hand, displaying books about nature, animals and how to be greener .
“We would like to let people know that we have a community branch of the library, this is another way of us to reach people and let them know where we are,” said Bonnie Waters, Toronto Public Library representative.
“We used all of our resources and what we found and invited everybody to come and share their wealth of knowledge and we had over 400 people visit us first year,” said Liza Tilander, organizer of the Green Fair.
“What we do is make people aware of how we can honour the earth”
“So we are trying to teach our children become more aware of their surrounding a lot of kids wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between different worms and kind of a tree is out there,” said Anne Marie McCowan, organizer of the Green Fair. “They wouldn’t know where food comes from, they think it just comes from the grocery store,” added Tilander.
Many people brought their children to the event. While adults were getting a few gardening tips, the kids were learning more about the environment and having fun by planting seeds.
