Written by Melissa DeSa
It’s been a whirlwind since the last seed dispersal in February when shortly after, COVID struck and sent all our energies frantically re-aligning to keep both our doors and hearts open to this community during the crisis. Although it has been a rough ride to say the least, it presented an opportunity for us to separate the wheat from the chaff in thinking about all of our efforts here at Working Food.
We also reached a milestone this year- a decade- of seed stewardship! Yep! 10 years ago we started our very first community seed exchange. Before we were Working Food, before we were Forage and just a bunch of die-hard local food and gardening lovers. You can read about our earlier efforts in this 2011 Gainesville Sun article. So our 10 year anniversary coupled with a pandemic gave us a lot of reasons to reflect, renew, and re-organize.
If you tried to find seeds in the past several months from anywhere in the world, you probably experienced delays, or messages from seed companies about being temporarily closed for business, sold out, or only shipping bulk seeds to farmers. Times of crisis drive us time and time again to the most important act: procuring our own food. And that starts with seed. Preferably from nearby. Preferably from a grower you know.
We’ve been thinking about this for many years, and realized we needed to change things up a little bit in how we disperse our treasured seeds! We are trying to better sustain ourselves during these difficult times, and that means having to charge a little bit more for what we offer. We loved the Seed CSA for so many reasons, but ultimately it was not sustainable for us.
Extra greens from the seed gardens for Mr. Vernon’s dinner at Grow Hub!
So we have adjusted some things about how we operate
This will allow us to better serve you, better sustain ourselves and our integrity in doing this important work, and stay safe during this ongoing pandemic.
We will no longer have a Seed CSA model. Instead, you can purchase seed packets anytime online through our Seed Shop! We launched it this spring in response to the pandemic, and we absolutely love it and think you will too, if you haven’t used it yet. You can find the link through our website- look for the Seed Shop button.
Once your order is placed we will schedule a time to gather your pre-ordered and paid for seeds at Working Food.
At this time we are really limited in shipping abilities and will accommodate only those folks who we know really need it right now. We’re also a very small seed collective, so it’s not like we can ship worldwide. We’d run out of seeds!
The new packet pricing reflects the labor and local love involved in sustaining this work. It is a lot of work to do it right and we are trying to be sustainable here, while also working alongside our friends at Grow Hub who we support. These adults living with disabilities help with all of our seed work from the gardens to the seed packing. We love them so, and wish to keep doing this. We are also looking to re-invest in our community members that are helping us grow some of the varieties, so they are better compensated.
Angie has been a long time seed steward on her own homestead, and has helped us over the years replenish some of the crops in our collection.
Existing Seed CSA Members- We Love You!
To our existing “seed stewards”, you know who you are- those that have been supporting us previously before the new changes, we want to honor you for your support over the years. For the first year of this new roll-out you get 30% off all your seed and merchandise orders, whether you choose to renew your existing monthly or annual donation or not. PLUS, when we have some rare and interesting seeds or plants to share that are in limited supply, we’ll offer them to you first.
If you are able to bump up your support this year by choosing the monthly supporting option of $20 or more a month, we’ll also kick in a $20 gift card to be spend on anything in our store!
New Seed Supporters
If you are a new supporter of Working Food- welcome, and thank you!! You can also save some cash and help sustain our efforts to do this critical work, by making a donation. Donate $50 or more a year and save 20% off all seeds and merchandise in our store for a year!
Better yet, become a monthly sustainer at $20 per month or more, and you can spend $20 worth of seeds and merchandise on us, and get 20% off everything in our store for a year.
All the seeds are being cleaned, inventoried and packaged right now! We will have everything available by August 31st! Hopefully earlier, so stay tuned!
