Seed Saving and Growing Your Own Food in the Byron Shire

By Amanda Brinkman

If, like me, you’ve dreamed of having a thriving self-sufficient garden and have tried growing European staple foods from seedlings, you’ll know that sometimes the process can be expensive and disheartening. Once I’ve paid for the plants, amended my heavy clay soil (in Ocean Shores) with compost, worm juice and mulch, the end-product tomato plant is quite a costly prize, not to mention plagued with difficulties in this humid climate. 

For some, the outlay doesn’t matter so much, it’s worth it for the fulfillment of being in the garden and eating a few fruits of your labour. But what if, like me, you’re on a tight budget and can’t really afford endless gardening failures?

Maybe a seed saving community or seed library can help you in more ways than one!

The Brunswick Heads Seed Library recently opened at the Brunswick Heads branch of Richmond-Tweed Regional Library. Some months in the making, the initiative is being coordinated by Mark Seiffert, the Brunswick Heads Library Manager.

The aim of the project is to create a ‘circular’ community seed saving system: the original seeds were bought from a reputable seed supplier and have been ‘loaned’ to library members (2 bags per visit maximum). The expectation is that members will return seeds after the plants’ life cycle, ensuring a continual seed supply. Seeds are also being donated from members’ established gardens.

What is the point of seed libraries?

On a local level we can simply see it as organic recycling. Instead of the seeds going into your compost (and perhaps growing plants in unwanted places) or into the green bin, you are allowing countless plants to be grown by others locally. Furthermore, saving seeds, especially from native plants, ensures a region’s biodiversity is maintained, especially with the threats of invasive species, habitat loss, land clearing and a changing climate. And here’s the kicker, growing more native and locally grown plants will probably be more fun and fulfilling as they are adapted to the soil and climate and may have a higher success rate than seeds from plants grown elsewhere. 

Mark Seiffert feels that:

“The Brunswick Heads Seed Library is important to encourage the community to grow their own produce and share the process. Additionally, it’s a pathway to better health and can help combat increasing food prices. This is a growing trend as the cost-of-living increases. People connecting to their land is important.”

On a larger scale, seed saving projects exist to secure the global food supply. The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard (a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole) has duplicates of 1,301,397 seed samples from almost every country globally, to help ensure the safety of the worldwide food supply. 

Shara Community Gardens

Brunswick Heads Seed Library

Other Byron Shire Seed Saving Groups

The Seed Library is a new initiative for Brunswick Heads, but saving seeds is not new in the Byron Shire. 

I attended an informative talk at Brunswick Heads Library recently, where members of the Byron Hinterland Seed Savers explained their take on the importance of seed saving. 

The Byron Hinterland Seed Savers was established in 2011 under the umbrella of The Seed Savers’ Network, which was started in 1985 by Michel and Jude Fanton, a dynamic duo passionate about conserving traditional varieties of food plants. Michel and Jude not only brought the importance of the seed saving message to over 37 countries but have also written an invaluable seed saving book for Australia ‘The Seedsavers’ Handbook’ and they have penned a book specifically for schools as well. 

One of the seed guardians from the Byron Hinterland Seed Savers, Jia Hoelzl, told me: 

“The most important thing about local seed saving initiatives is that they encourage the community to grow food at home and save seed. Growing food and saving seeds locally and as a community is empowering. We become more sufficient as a community. We connect to the practices of our ancestors, gain skills and knowledge. Connect to the source of our food, the land, the seasons and cycles of nature. Plus, it makes us more resilient, and food secure for the unpredictable times ahead.” 

The Byron Hinterland Seed Savers are a wealth of knowledge and offer regular seed swap meetings, stalls at events, and workshops on how to save and process seeds. They also maintain a seed library and bank at the Mullumbimby Community Gardens.

The Shara Community Gardens, in North Ocean Shores, have also shown their support for the Brunswick Heads Seed Library, by providing seeds from the Gardens. Their President, Paula Brown, was thrilled to discover the library was setting up a Seed Library as she had enjoyed using the Murwillumbah Seed Library for many years:

“Seed libraries are especially helpful for renters - it’s a little heartbreak to grow and nurture a garden and then leave it behind and have to start again, and the Murbah seed library helped me grow new gardens across three new homes.”

With all of these options, I’m going to obtain some seeds from these local libraries and groups, meet some avid gardeners, get some tips…maybe I’ll see you there!

Jia Hoelzl from the Byron Hinterland Seed Savers at a talk held at Brunswick Heads Library speaking about the founders of The Seed Savers Network, Michel and Jude Fanton, who are on the image on the screen.