[Bright Raven]

This is one of those ideas that could grow!
Would anyone else be intrested in exchanging heritage and open pollinating varieties of seed?

Why heritage varieties rather than other seeds? - Because they are dwindling under the growing pressure on the ecosystem from gm termination and hybrid crops. These do not successfully produce good seed and make the grower dependent on returning to the seed catalogue rather than returning to nature. Some varieties are becoming quite hard to source.

It is not a solution to the problem because GM is out there and Pandora's Box has been opened. But it would empower us in a small way and help to keep these important varieties growing.
There may also be legal restrictions to exporting out of the UK. The whole idea will need more research.
 
I am thinking grain crops, vegetables, fertilisers, animal crops, edible flowers, mushroom, and companion plants.
This could be done fairly informally by pm' ing eachother and swapping to start with. Links to sites with info on harvesting and preserving could be added.
We could do a bit of collaborative thinking on how it might work.
Do any of you already use seed exchange sites and find them successful?
Anyone feel uncomfortable about pm'ing personal info, this would be necessary if we are to do some postal exchanges?
If enough of us think it could work we could ask Dan to add a seed exchange forum?

[claire]

I think thats a fabulous idea, I have saved seeds for personal use from leeks and tomatoes, also flowers. the leek ones did not work.
there are seed exchanges in the uk the ones I know about are with Permaculture and  Scottish Rock Garden ,
http://www.primalseeds.org/seedexchange.htm
http://www.srgc.org.uk/seed/seedexchange.pdf

[northfifeduckling]

great idea. Just that my garden is a bit chaotic and  my memory is not great, lol. So the seeds are a bit of a trial and error system each year. But I'll be happy to share what works and comes from my own garden, maybe spinach and kale. Maybe we want to give it a go on the swap shop section? On the Grow your own forum you just send an self addresses stamped envelope if you requested any seeds. A lot of us  also met up last year for a loveley meal at James'  and had a great seed swap after!

[Susie]

I think this is a fantastic idea as well. There are Seedy Sundays and Seedling Saturday events near us but we have never had free time to go to them when they are on. Something online would be great. We have loads of peas, beans and tomato seeds from last year that we could trade some of, and this year are planning to build isolation cages to be able to save other seed too. We've been looking for grain varieties to try but not had much luck - would be great if these could be included on the seed exchange.

[HappyHippy]

I don't really grow enough to be able to contribute effectively 
But I'm sure Rustyme and Fluffywelsh sheep mentioned this a while ago - worth contacting them by pm in case they don't see the thread 
HTH
Karen x