PHOTO ESSAY | Carmarthen’s Spring Festival of Seeds - Seedy Saturday 2023

9 Mar

For 13 years n0w, the growing and gardening community of West Wales have shaken off the dust of winter, emerged from the shadows and wandered down the winding trail from their hibernation places, clutching packets of seeds & their precious coins, to gather in the centre of Carmarthen town on the cusp of Spring. And once again, on Saturday 4th March 2023, we welcomed over 300 people to the Nurture Centre in Carmarthen for this year’s Seedy Saturday Carmarthen, a day festival of seeds, gardening, food growing and land based living. The biggest gathering of the gardening community of the year, Seed Saturday welcomes local environmental groups, seed sellers, producers and makers, plant nurseries and more to it’s Eco Fayre, saved and surplus seeds to its annual seed swap and some of the leading voices & experts in growing food, seed saving & seed sovereignty for a full programme of inspiring and motivational talks.

We were very fortunate this year to welcome Jason from the YouTube channel A Great Alternative as our photographer for the day, too. He was there to capture every moment of the day. We’ve compiled some of the best of his work into this photo essay. For those of you who weren’t able to join us, we hope this it helps you to get a sense of the magic of the day, and that it serves as a treasured memory bank for this of you who did join us!

“As a newcomer to the smallholding, permaculture & seed saving scene, I’ve been itching to learn as much as I can whilst meeting the people who bring it to life. ”

— Jason, Filmmaker & Photographer, 'A Great Alternative'

We were handed the reins of running Seedy Saturday in 2022, in it’s first year back after the COVID-19 pandemic. But the event has its roots in Llanelli as far back as 2003. Our local Seedy Saturday, led by Colin Hill from Tools for Self-Reliance Cymru, moved to Carmarthen in 2009 in order to reach a wider audience. Colin decided, after COVID cancelled the event in 2021, to step down. He’s done an incredible job and left quite a legacy, and we couldn’t watch such a vital, vibrant and important event for the local growers’ calendar get cancelled for another year. Seed saving and seed sovereignty have become so important to us at Glasbren, and the need for locally-adapted, climate resilient, diverse and plentiful seed has become even more apparent. A core part of our work, too, is creating and facilitating spaces for our community to come together around meaningful purpose, so taking on the running of Seedy Saturday Carmarthen felt like the obvious choice for us as a team.

We’ve preserved everything that Seedy Saturday was so popular for - the Eco Fayre, which offers space for community gardening groups, environmental groups and charities, plant nurseries, seed banks and seed sellers, makers and craftspeople, producers and growers to connect with a large audience all in one place! And, of course, the seed swap, which is a great chance to share surplus, saved seed, find a home for spare seed packets and start to develop a community seed bank in the ground, in local gardens and on local farms.

Honey & Apple Juice from local One Planet Development *Dan y Berllan*

Colin of *Tools for Self-Reliance Cymru*

Basket-weaving work form Cassandra Lishman, *Bryn y Mor*

When we moved the event over to the Nurture Centre, a vital community hub that we at Glasbren have always had a special bond with, we made a few additions to what folks knew of Seedy Saturday Carmarthen. A big one being a talks tent, so that we could invite leaders & experts in the fields of gardening, food growing and seed saving to share their knowledge and inspire packed crowds of gardeners as the growing season gets underway! This year, Sue Stickland, author of Backgarden Seed Saving, returned to lead an ‘Introduction to Seed Saving’ session, nurturing a fresh cohort of seed savers and helping build their confidence to get started with this vital practice. Bestselling author and YouTuber Huw Richards & No-Dig expert Stephanie Hafferty drew a packed tent for their Q&A with Abel Pearson, answering questions about seed saving, hot beds, planning your garden, busting myths and unpicking misconceptions to help make veg growing an accessible, affordable prospect!

The Wales Seed Hub growers sat down with Katie Hastings, Welsh coordinator of the Gaia Foundation Seed Sovereignty programme to talk about growing seed to sell, and how smallholders and gardeners can earn an income from growing and saving seed. And finally, we heard the story of how the seed of the Ceirch Du, an old Welsh oat, were saved by a dedicated group of farmers and seed activists. Following on from a feast in the Autumn, where the Ceirch Du were eaten by people for the first time in living memory (they’d always been grown for livestock), Gerald Miles, of Caerhys Farm in St.Davids, Katie Hastings and chef and food advocate Jacqueline Anne Morgan told the story of how the oats were grown, processed and turned into beautiful dishes for a moving gathering of growers and supporters. A historic moment, on of our defining Welsh seed stories and an inspiring reminder of the importance of keeping heritage varieties alive, by growing them and eating them!

*Stephanie Hafferty & Huw Richards joined us for a Q&A*

*Katie Hastings & Jacqueline Anne Morgan*

Our very own Luisa and her mum, Marion, cooked up the delcious food served by Steffan from the hut throughout the day. The food was all organic, using locally grown and foraged ingredients. Simple, wholesome filling food from the Gasbren peasants’ kitchen. Luisa also ran a bright and colourful ‘Little Stewards’ kids’ activities area, offering seed hunts, seed sowing and the chance for children to vision a truly abundant, regenerative landscape of their dreams for the future.

Seedy Saturday is an event very close to our hearts, and feels like a vital day in the calendar to bring together this vibrant community of gardeners, growers, farmers, seed savers, activists, craftspeople, educators & leading lights in the feeds of permaculture, sustainability and in getting more people growing their own food and saving their own seed. It was a touching thing to observe the conversations and connections that were going on, to hear how folks were inspired by what the speakers had to share and to see people gleefully clutching their new tool, plant or packet of seeds excited about the growing season ahead. These spaces feel more important that ever, real life, in-person meeting spaces, where real culture and real meaning is made around a shared purpose and passion. With a changing climate, food shortages & an insecure future, coming together, sharing seeds, growing food, together, now feel like essential acts. The atmosphere and the unique magic created at Seedy Saturday had the spirit of community resilience and a sense of empowerment about it, which is what we all need in uncertain times!

“I truly feel lucky to be able to capture communities like this and tell their stories. The ethos of Seedy Saturday is something that I believe should be supported & encouraged, particularly because it gives me lots of interesting people and topics to film!”

— Jason, Filmmaker & Photographer, 'A Great Alternative'

If you attended Seedy Saturday Carmarthen 2023, we’d love to hear what you thought! Tell us about your experience in the comments section below, and please do share this post on your social media feeds, so that lots of people can see Jason’s photos. And don’t forget, Jason will be releasing a video on his YouTube channel in a week or so. Look out for that!