The Seed Share is a long-standing tradition on Vashon.

It’s an event created by seed farmer Jen Williams, of Wild Dreams farm, along with her seed mentor, Lotus, a legendary local grower and activist who died in 2021. Together, the pair organized the event for a decade.

The next Seed Share will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 27, at Dig Deep Gardens & Art.

At the Seed Share, seeds are free for people to take. Islanders can bring seeds if they have some to give or simply come and take free seeds. It’s an event for new gardeners or seasoned farmers alike, where questions are asked about gardening and seed propagation and information is freely shared.

The bounty will include seeds for veggies, herbs, flowers, and sometimes plants such as strawberries and raspberries or other plants people have divided in their yard.

“You never know what you are going to find at the Seed Share,” said Williams. “There are always treasures.”

This year, some of those treasures will have been grown by the children at Vashon Green School (VGS).

In 2021, Williams brought a small jar of dry Whipple bean seed over to VGS’s 7-acre farm and forest campus. These are seeds that do well in Vashon’s micro-climate and, importantly for school founder and lead teacher, Dana Schuerholz, they are a seed that is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. This means that aside from some summer month weeding and watering, students could be involved in the whole process.

During the 2020-2021 school year, the kids began by preparing the garden bed and planting soil. They then seeded the beans into flats. They did the math to discover how many plants can fit into a 50-foot row with the right spacing; then transferred the sprouted seeds into the garden. They tended the beans and weeded them before the 2021 school year-end.

In the fall, students harvested the beans — getting them off the vine before the rain and mold came — so that they could dry them in their seed pods. Once the seeds were cured in their pods then they went through, with some other beans they had grown the year before, and began culling and sorting seeds to give away, replant, or add to the compost. Next was taking all the beans they had cured, weighing them to fill the seed packets– and making those packets.

“Farming involves so much hands-on mathematics, from figuring out ratios for soil amendments and measuring out the rows and spacing of seeds and transplants,” said Schuerholz.

VGS kids even computed roughly how many beans are on a plant, to determine the size of their seed packets. They ascertained that one ounce of beans was an amount that, if grown by one individual, would yield a nice jar of dried beans for the winter. They also saved some beans for themselves — so this year at school, for lunch, they’ll cook some pots of the beans they grew.

VGS’s partnership in seed growing is one that touches on many of the school’s core values — teaching kids that they can make a difference, giving back to the community and creating sustainable practices that, in this case, foster island food security.

“This project is a natural way to embody the gospel of gratitude — the earth gives to us, we give to each other, it’s a process of giving and receiving constantly,” said Schuerholz. “The kids see that in the process and learn about the gift in giving. And they get to do the math!”

Except for the math, it’s a sentiment echoed in the journey of seed farmer Jenn Williams. Her foray into seed farming started when she witnessed it on her farm one year.

“My kids were little and a lot of things didn’t get tended as planned,” she said. “When I saw everything going to seed I thought, ‘What is this? This is amazing!’ I was enchanted.”

She described how, as a farmer, she had been taught that letting a plant go to seed is a terrible waste of space. But for her, that fortuitous year, when everything did just, was the beginning of a life-long passion.

That love has inspired her to put together a network of seed growers on the island: the Vashon Seed Project. It’s comprised of those who, like the Vashon Green School kids, are growing seed to share with the community. Other members include Ryan Wheeler, Beth Tuttle, Merrilee Runyan, Dana Illo, Deborah Epstein, Sue Letsinger, Lisa Hasselman, Forest Garden Farm, Pacific Crest Farm, Matsuda Farm and LaBiondo Farm.

“Making seed available in the community goes hand-in-hand with the abundance that is embodied in a seed,” said Williams. “It should just be free for everyone. Even though I have a seed company, I am very committed to the seed being available for free – because there is plenty to go around.”

Islanders can experience that bounty in person at Dig Deep Gardens, at 19028 Vashon Hwy SW. To be a part of the island’s growing community of seed growers and sharers, contact Jen Williams at wilddreamsfarm.org.