THE SEED SAVERS HANDBOOK

for Australia and New Zealand

by MICHEL and JUDE FANTON

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New softcover book, 180 pages. First published 2008, this edition updated and reprinted 2022. Illustrated by Alfred Bonanno, preface by Bill Mollison

The founders of Australia's Seed Savers' Network show how gardeners can protect our global food heritage - and eat it too. Learn how to save seeds or propagate by cuttings, tubers or roots, of 117 vegetables, culinary herbs and edible flowers. Also includes notes on cultivation, growth cycles, usage, origins and the meaning of the botanical name of each plant. Traditional varieties are described so that you can look out for them.

Chapters include

PART ONE - The Issues

• The Seed Savers' Network
• Background to Biodiversity

PART TWO - The Practicalities

• What Seeds to Save
• Purity and Production
• Selecting and Collecting
• After the Seed Harvest
• Planting, Planning and Permaculture
• A Special Family - Cucurbits

PART THREE - The Plants

A complete list of 117 plants including botanical name, description, cultivation, how to save the seed, ease of saving the seed, storage of seed, usage and varieties to look for and collect.

About the authors

Jude and Michel Fanton were inspired by Bill Mollison to start their life work in seed saving, founding the Seed Savers Network in 1986 to preserve the diversity of our cultural plants. At the time they lived on Tuntable Falls intentional community near Nimbin. Later, they took the Seed Savers Network down to the coast at Byron Bay, where it is presently located. The Network is now a national organisation with numerous international links. Many permaculture people have gone through its training, some working with the Network for a time as interns.

In 1993 Jude and Michel published the influential 'Seed Savers Handbook', which sold 23,000 copies in the first 10 years. It is now translated into several languages including Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Khmer and Bulgarian. In recent years, the Network has paid greater attention to the full food cycle from seed production to growing, processing and cooking - and the conviviality of eating.

In 2007 Jude and Michel launched into video production to document seed saving efforts around the world. At the same time, Seed Savers set out on a course towards decentralisation, with the foci to become the numerous local seed networks set up by enthusiastic Seed Savers Network members across the country. Seed Savers' has helped to establish Seed Networks in a number of other countries such as Cambodia, East Timor, Ecuador, India, Japan, Solomon Islands and The Philippines. Information: ww.seedsavers.net

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The Seed Savers' Handbook by Michel and Jude Fanton