The San Luis Valley Seed Exchange has hosted a free event each year since 2010. This event is open to all and attracts regional market farmers and backyard gardeners from the SLV, including Saguache, Crestone, Moffat, and Villa Grove. However, the event constantly attracts people from as far as Buena Vista, Salida, Alamosa, and parts of northern New Mexico such as Costilla, Taos and Tres Piedras.
$650 was donated by Seed Exchange attendees during our 2023 Spring Seed Exchange for the Mountain Valley School Community Garden!
2023 Youth Program Recipient
Mountain Valley School Community Garden
In the summer of 2022, Roze, a community volunteer, had the Boys and Girls Club After School Program in the garden where they helped weed and harvest. Once students returned in the fall, they helped with harvesting tomatoes, snap peas, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, kale, flowers, collards and more. All of the produce harvested was donated to the Saguache Public Library for their Free Food Friday program. They planted garlic and collected hardened pea seeds off the plant. This spring and summer they plan to work with school faculty to bring classes into the geo-dome and garden where students will help with seed starting and learn about the different elements needed to garden, as well as learning about nutrition and how the garden benefits us.
Current needs are:
- Kids gardening gloves ($30)
- 2 yards of compost ($60-$100)
- Wash tubs and harvest bins ($160)
- Two 50 ft hoses ($60)
If funding allows they would like to:
- Take the students on a field trip
- Bring in guest speakers
- Hire a chef to harvest from the garden and give a cooking demonstration to the community garden members
$574 was donated during our 2022 Spring Seed Exchange for the Rising Stewards Youth Program at the Rio Grande Farm Park!
2022 Youth Program Recipient
Rising Stewards Youth Program
“In March (2022) we had an ambitious vision, and then we realized we didn’t have the funding to make it a reality. Thanks to the SLV Seed Exchange, we were able to jumpstart our fundraising efforts and refocus our commitment to hosting a meaningful program for Valley youth. With our four participants, we got our hands in the soil every day, played in the adobe and mud, visited our allies and neighbors in San Luis and Northern New Mexico, and invited experts and other youth programs who enthusiastically shared their knowledge. Our participants finished final projects of their choice, and we remain thankful to the Seed Exchange for giving our little seed the environment it needed to grow.”
~ Seth Armntrout, Program Director, Rio Grande Farm Park, 2022
Photo Credit :: Rio Grande Farm Park
In the past, the financial beneficiary of our work has been our local school districts (Moffat Consolidated School District and Mountain Valley School District) and their garden programs. However, due to Covid-19, the schools have been in session remotely and are not currently operating graden programs. In light of this we will be donating our proceeds to a regional and resilient agricultural program – The Rising Stewards Youth Program.
2022 Youth Program Recipient
We are pleased to announce that we will be supporting the Rio Grande Farm Park’s Rising Stewards Youth Program (previously the Jr. Farmer Incubator Program), which is in its second year.
This program was designed to bring regenerative agricultural exposure and education to high school students from the San Luis Valley. They will spend 12 weeks during the summer tending their own no-till plots while learning the basics of ecosystem observation, soil health, seeds, mulching, watering, and harvesting. They will also learn about food justice, the history and construction of adobe and hornos, and the physics of greenhouses, so as to put the farming skills into a broader context.
The Rio Grande Farm Park is located near the corner of HWY 17 & 160 in Alamosa, CO.
2021 Youth Program Recipient
The Moffat Preschool has been enjoying their greenhouse this year! At the beginning of the school year, the children had the opportunity to check in on some of the plants, fruits, and vegetables that were already growing. At the end of February, the greenhouse was made ready for new planting to occur, and since that time, the Preschoolers have gotten to plant radishes and snow peas, and have made predictions about what they think will happen to the seeds and plants as they sprout and grow. More planting is planned for the remainder of the Spring, and the goal is to show the Preschoolers how food gets to our tables: from planting the seeds, caring for the plants, and harvesting them. We are so grateful to the SLV Seed Exchange for their support of this program and what it means for our Preschoolers. It has been a wonderful way to remind our kids how to connect with and care for our planet Earth.
~ Ashley Hurst, Director of the Moffat Preschool Program, March 2021