Hundreds of gardeners from Sudbury and other parts of the north were packed into the third floor cafeteria at Collège Boréal Sunday to get the lowdown on planting seeds and other important gardening information.
The event was the popular Sudbury's Seedy Sunday, where people are able to buy locally produced fruit and vegetable seeds. Organizer Rachelle Rocha said she was thrilled with the turnout especially since the venue was in an entirely new location. She said the annual event was put on hold a few years back because of COVID, and then it was held online, and then it moved into the Vale Cavern at Science North.
Rocha said it was a beautiful venue but people had difficulty hearing the speakers.
She said the new venue at Collège Boréal worked out because speakers were placed in a more intimate setting in a separate speakers room and there was also a cafeteria that could feed the visitors and exhibitors.
Rocha said the one thing in common for the visitors is understanding the importance of growing their own fresh food and the importance of having seeds that will thrive and survive in the Sudbury climate.
Sudbury is known as growing zone three-four, according to the Canadian plant hardiness map. There is a also a more specific growing zone map for Ontario.
She said the importance of buying seeds specific to a local growing area is that there is a much greater chance of success as opposed to buying seeds from a large national company from some other part of Canada.
Rocha also said being concerned about food security is valid, but many people are just happy to be avid gardeners.
"You know, everybody's worried about food security for lots of obvious reasons and crazy reasons, but a lot of us are just gardeners and we just want to eat well," said Rocha.
"So if you want to eat well, which is me, I'm a gourmand, I love to eat well. And I realized a long time ago, if I grow it myself and I eat it fresh from the garden, that's the best thing."
She said the annual Seedy Sudbury event was born from an idea perpetuated several decades ago by Seeds of Dirversity, which encouraged the idea of preserving seeds and swapping seeds with other gardeners.
Rocha said it is important to recognize and remember that hundreds of local foods, local vegetables and fruits, can indeed to be grown in this part of Northern Ontario and that preserving the seeds is part of that.