Canberra Seed Savers Cooperative.

Growing, sharing, cooperating to build a living seed bank for our community.

Get in touch

Who We Are

We are a network of urban food growers and local farmers working cooperatively to protect our abundant, common heritage of open-pollinated food seeds.

We swap and share seeds, learn and teach about seed growing and saving, and together build a resilient community seed sharing network – a ‘living seed bank’.

We welcome you to join us and be part of the local network of seed savers, growers and guardians. Seeds are life. Seed saving is for everyone.

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Be part of the Seedy fun!

Get involved in a project or team

Click here to find out more about volunteering for a Seedy Team or Project

Here are some of our current teams and projects. We’re all volunteers and we love working together to build our seedy community and spread the love of seeds. Use the button above to tell us what you’d like to know more about and we’ll be in touch with some information about what’s involved and to find out more about what you would like to do.

Native Seed Saving Team (Native seed education, collection and propagation activities. Help out by organising and coordinating events, leading seed collecting excursions, organising and recording collected seed)

Dwarf Tomato Project (Growing dwarf tomato varieties at home, saving some of the seeds for the communal seed bank. Help with coordinating growers, organising events and providing advice and support to newer growers)

Workshops and Education Team (Deliver workshops ranging from seed bombs to Intro to Seed Saving. Run or assist at a workshop or training; help with producing educational materials and tools. Training and ongoing support provided.)

The Living Seed Bank Team (Organise, catalogue and maintain the Living Seed Bank). Weekly working bees on Tuesday mornings at The Canberra City Farm.

Seed Packing at Home (We supply the seeds, envelopes and labels, you pack seeds at home at your preferred time!)

Seedy Saturday Team (Help to run one or more of our monthly Seedy Saturdays – setting up, packing down, making pots of tea, supervising seedy activities)

Stalls and Markets Team (Help to run stalls at markets, festivals and open days. Join a team of 2-4 people setting up, running and packing down a stall; shifts are usually 2 hours. It’s fun, social and easy to do!)

“Seed is the source of life and the
first link in the food chain.
Control over seed means control over
our lives, our food and our freedom.”

Dr Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya International

Sharing

Grow, save and share heirloom, open pollinated, organically grown food seeds. Get in touch to find out more about how to access seeds and how to contribute your own home grown seeds to the living seed bank. Or just come along to a Seedy Session or a seasonal Seed Swap.

Learning

Our education and outreach activities are a great way to connect with the local community, and how we build knowledge, skills and love of seeds and seed saving. From market stalls to workshops, little kids to experienced gardeners, we can all learn from each other and share the wonder of seed saving and growing from seed.

Throughout the year we run workshops on seed saving including Introduction to Seed Saving and Saving Seeds from Summer Vegetables.

Community

Seedy Sessions are fun and relaxed drop-in sessions open to everyone. Meet other local growers, help process and save seeds, learn and share your knowledge, have a cuppa and a chat. No experience required. You don’t need to bring seeds but can if you want to.

All events are family friendly and everyone is welcome. Unless otherwise specified, no RSVP is required. Sometimes plans change so subscribe to our newsletter (below) or join our Facebook group to stay up to date!

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News from Canberra Seed Savers

  • Alert: Tomato Brown Rugose Virus
    You might have seen in the news in late August that a particularly transmissible and destructive virus affecting tomato, chilli and capsicum plants has just been detected in Australia for the first time. The virus is called the tomato brown… Read more: Alert: Tomato Brown Rugose Virus
  • Meeting a seed saving legend
    Seeds are the very living embodiment of heritage. They are the source of everything we eat (yes, even the carnivore’s meat is from animals that graze on flowering, seeding grasses/grains). Knowledge of saving seed has been foundational to human culture… Read more: Meeting a seed saving legend
  • Seed Passport
    Would you like to donate seeds to the Canberra Seed Savers Living Seed Bank? Whether you’re donating or swapping, the information in this seed passport helps Canberra Seed Savers to keep important records for the Seed Bank, to make sure… Read more: Seed Passport

Canberra Seed Savers Co-operative Ltd. is a not-for-profit, non-distributing co-operative registered in the ACT. Cooperative No: CO – 0212. Join us and become a co-op member. Canberra Seed Savers is based at the Canberra City Farm, 2 Dairy Road Fyshwick.

You can email us at “hello at canberraseedsavers.org.au”.

The Canberra Seed Savers Living Seed Bank is based at the
Canberra City Farm, 2 Dairy Road, Fyshwick.
Come and check out the seeds at one of our events or workshops.