Local seeds, local food and local fundraising in Wakefield

Following our call out for your Incredible stories of all things seeds, we heard from Incredible Edible Wakefield who have a great way to make a bit of money out of raising awareness about local food and promoting growing from seed.

At Incredible Edible Wakefield seed saving is an important part of the year with lots of seeds saved from across the city. Some of these seeds go to support seed swaps but they also are used for a game played by Incredible Edible Wakefield called “How Local Is Your Food?”

The team use an egg box for 26 eggs, each hole has a small egg or potato in it, and underneath is a piece of paper which says if the potato or egg is home grown, locally grown or flown in. The participant pays 50p per go and gets to pick two of the potatoes/eggs. If under the egg there is a home grown message the player wins a windowsill planter and if it’s locally grown a packet of seeds. Last year the team took this game to Wakefield Rhubarb Festival and had a fabulous time with the residents of Wakefield not just playing the game, but having some varied and fascinating conversations around locally grown food and how folk in Wakefield can get involved with Incredible Edible.  All proceeds from the game go back into running Incredible Edible Wakefield activities.

The main seeds collected each year by the team are marrow, sweet peppers, runner beans, spinach, tomatoes, peas and chives – a great selection to begin any edible garden.   If you need a bit of confidence on how to grow from seed, have a look at our section on growing from seed in the Toolshed – sign up required.  If your group fancy holding a similar event, have a look at our seed envelopes which are a great way to promote your group as well as share seeds.  The templates require a bit of Blue Peter scissors and glue to become seed packets and are a great activity for everyone to get involved in on a rainy day.  Who said seed saving can’t be fun!