Photo Credit: Ellen Sabina

Calling all farmers interested in seed saving, breeding, and production! The Organic Seed Alliance‘s sixth conference is rapidly approaching. The conference will be held in Port Townsend, Washington from January 19th-21st, perfect timing for those of us who are deep in winter seed dreams and busy flipping through catalogs, ordering, and scheming for next season. This conference brings together seed experts from all over the country, and is “the only event of its kind in North America.” With local seed exchange programs, Ph.D.s at universities far and wide, seasoned seed-saving farmers, and seed companies like Uprising Organics and High Mowing, there will be a wide range of representatives from all facets of current organic seed research and production.

 The schedule  includes lots of workshops geared towards beginning seed producers like “Farmer-Owned Seed Companies: How to Get Started,” “Integrating Organic Seed Production into a Diversified Farming Operation,” “Seed Production 101,” “Harvesting/Seed Cleaning for Small and Mid-Scale Farms,” and “Toward Community Seed Systems.” You can register through the Organic Seed Alliance website, and, while the conference fee is $155, there may still be some partial scholarships left for farmers who net less than $50,000 per year, interns, and students! And if you can’t make the conference you can still register to access several selected live broadcasts from the conference.