Faith Feeds | Glean Kentucky will be hosting its fifth annual heirloom seed sale from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. March 23 at Woodland Christian Church (530 E. High St.). More than 90 varieties of vegetable and flower seeds, including a selection of locally grown varieties, will be available for gardeners to purchase. Seed packs will cost $3 each.
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This year, Faith Feeds aims to raise more than $3,000 to support its gleaning efforts. Gleaning is the process of gathering excess food from farms and markets that would otherwise be thrown away and donating it to hungry populations. In the three years since the organization’s inception, Faith Feeds has gleaned more than 191,955 pounds of fresh, local produce to give to emergency food agencies, providing nearly 16,000 meals for Lexington’s hungry.
“In the U.S., 40 percent of food gets thrown away,” says Erica Horn, president of Faith Feeds | Glean Kentucky. “If merely 5 percent of food discards were recovered, 4 million more Americans could be fed each day. Faith Feeds is central Kentucky’s only gleaning organization doing this important work.”
InFeed garden coordinator Bob McKinley will be available during the event to advise shoppers on seed selections and answer gardeners’ questions about the upcoming garden season. John Walker, director of the Your Edible Garden series, will also be providing seed-starting demonstrations throughout the day. Also joining Faith Feeds for the sale will be Seedleaf, a Lexington-based community-gardening organization, the Cooperative of Lexington Urban Chicken Keepers (CLUCK), and Lexington's Master Gardeners.
Locally grown seeds were produced by Faith Feeds’ InFeed gardens and by Berries on Bryan Station, a Lexington-area community-supported-agriculture farm. Locally grown varieties include:
Black Ruffle tomato
Chocolate Stripe tomato
New Big Dwarf tomato
Peach Blow Crossing tomato
Peach Blow Sutton tomato
Roughwood Golden tomato
Stickless Wonder beans
Fish peppers
For more information about the Faith Feeds’ heirloom seeds sale or about Faith Feeds | Glean Kentucky programming visit www.faithfeedslex.org.