2016

We started with a box of seed gifted by local gardeners from the Canberra Organic Growers Society (COGS) and supported by the Canberra City Farm (CCF)! The first Seedy Sessions were held monthly on a Sunday at the Jerrabomberra Wetlands office, with cups of tea and bikkies aplenty. The entire seed collection fitted into a single box! After a few months, and an injection of seeds from a couple of local gardeners who went on to be long term Seed Savers board members, as well as lots of energy and good company and shared 

2017

The first ‘Introduction to Seed Saving’ workshop was held at CCF, hosted by the Bega Valley Seed Savers (BVSS). BVSS provided invaluable support, guidance and seeds to help the development of CSS.

2017-2019 

CSS grows in size and activity. From a small and dedicated crew meeting once a month at CCF, soon Seedy Sessions were also being held regularly at the Food Coop Shop & Café. The Food Coop also started selling CSS local and organic seeds grown by volunteers! We spent many happy afternoons packing seeds and chatting in the warm and welcoming Food Coop Cafe.

CSS started going to local markets and festivals, including the Southern Harvest Bungendore Harvest Festival and the Canberra Environment Centre Harvest Festival. At Seedy Saturdays, excess seeds were packed and labelled to be sold to raise money for materials for education programs and more seeds! CCF supported our development by auspicing and providing logistical and financial help for the group to grow. 

2019

As part of its development as an independent body, CSS’ core volunteer group decided to formalise the group as a registered not-for-profit cooperative. The original board of 7 members had the first meeting on 4 April 2019 in Rebekah’s lounge room and voted to create a cooperative. The main aims were: to promote seed saving, to provide seed saving education, and create a sharing network of seed savers who would co-create a “living seed bank” for the Canberra community. The founding members of Canberra Seed Savers, Rebekah, Arian, Bea, Heather, … 

2019 – 2020 

As CSS grew, we started searching for a permanent home so that volunteers didn’t have to store the expanding seed bank in their houses. As we were also starting to run more workshops and Seedy Saturdays, it became important to have a space to do them. The Canberra Environment Centre came to the rescue! They offered us the use of one of their rooms for storage, as well as regular access to the workshop space and garden. 

This new home enabled CSS to grow more sustainably and engage more people. In exchange for providing storage and event space, CSS volunteers ran workshops like ‘Introduction to Seed Saving’, promoted by the Canberra Environment Centre to educate Canberrans about seed saving. It was a win-win relationship, and led to many fantastic collaborations and mutually beneficial opportunities as well as demonstrating community organising and cooperation. One of the most popular workshops we developed at this time was Seed Bombs (Mud Pies that Grow Flowers). The beautiful gardens of the Environment Centre were the perfect place to make seeds bombs with kids and demonstrate seed saving.

2019 – 2020 

As a newly incorporated group, CSS applied for a grant from the ACT Government to support a mobile seed library and seed saving workshops program. The application was successful and the program kicked off! In cooperation with the Kambah, Mitchell and Charnwood COGS gardens, mobile seed libraries were set up with accompanying workshops on growing from seed and seed saving. Unfortunately, the program was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Attention moved to food relief for people in need with the Canberra Relief Network (CRN), which birthed the Community Seedling Program, one of CSS’ biggest and far-reaching programs for years after the CRN had shut its doors.

2021 – 2023

The pandemic brought awareness to the importance of seed saving and growing your own food, and CSS had a rapid increase in membership and visibility. Development of education programs became a priority, and partnerships with different local organisations flourished. Once things were more open, market stalls and participation in various events and festivals were the norm, and CSS became very busy. Seed distribution spread to various cafes and honesty boxes around Canberra. Together with the Bega Valley and Mid Blue Mountains Seed Savers groups, CSS founded the Seed Savers National Network. During this period CSS also began the Canberra branch of the Dwarf Tomato Project, an open-sourced tomato seed breeding program started on the south coast of NSW.

2023 – ‘move’ to Canberra City Farm…