Free the Seeds event this weekend at FVCC
Gardeners can learn to make an indoor worm-composting bin from the composting queen herself, Alissa LaChance of Dirt Rich Composting, at the fifth annual Free the Seeds event this Saturday, March 7 at the Flathead Valley Community College Arts and Technology Building. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will feature a multitude of events to teach, answer questions and even provide materials for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture, from beginners to experts.
The event, hosted by Farm Hands: Nourish the Flathead, is centered around a massive seed swap that, since its inception, has provided the valley with over 75,000 packets of regionally sourced, non-GMO, open-pollinated seed varieties. Half of that quantity was collected within the Flathead Valley, meaning gardeners will be getting seeds that have already passed the test of being well-adapted to the valley’s climate.
Participants can browse over 40 booths throughout the day featuring local organizations showcasing sustainable wares, including samples of locally grown food and how to set up a personalized square-foot garden box.
The event also hosts 24 educational workshops to choose from, teaching everything from cleaning and saving your own seeds, to cultivating your own mushrooms, to building your own compost tumbler. Dirt Rich Composting is hosting two of the workshops, one by Dirt Rich employee Sandy Burch on brewing compost tea and its benefits, and the other on small-scale vermiculture by owner LaChance.
“Vermicompost is an impeccable soil amendment,” LaChance said in a recent interview. “You need less of it to do what a thermal compost could do for your soil, and it makes a fantastic base for compost tea because it’s so microbially dense.”
“And you can put your paper scraps in there too, so it’s like a double recycling whammy,” said Burch.
Four of the workshops will be panel discussions designed to facilitate community conversations on our food systems and will invite audience participation. The topics include reducing single use plastics, year-round growing, closing the food waste gap and successful food waste programs in schools. All workshops can be used towards six Office of Public Instruction credits for participating teachers.
Glacier Children’s Museum will be hosting a suite of kid-friendly hands-on activities, and parents can feel free to leave children ages eight and older at activities while they attend workshops.
Folks can grab a bite to eat throughout the day at Fork in the Road Mobile Eatery or during the event’s lunch break.
Event organizers expect to see over 1,000 attendees this year and have more than 10,000 seed packets available to give out.
Collection boxes for locally saved seeds will be available ahead of the event at ImagineIF libraries in Kalispell and Columbia Falls and at the Good Seed Company in Whitefish. Volunteers interested in joining seed-packing parties before the fair or helping at the event can sign up at freetheseedsmontana.com.