Swapping seeds in the spring of 2023

In the spring of 2023 two Reclaim the Seeds events will take place, non-commercial festivals were you will be able to swap (or buy) vegetable seeds, seedlings, bulbs and cuttings. The market will also be the place to find information about gardening and agriculture and climate issues.

The seed fairs will take place on the same locations as last year;

In the village Oedelem near Brugge and

At the 'Fruittuin van West' in Amsterdam.

Besides visiting the market you can participate in a programme with presentations and workshops about all kind of seed- and environment related topics.

The second 'Reclaim the Seeds' in West-Vlaanderen on March 11 2023 in Oedelem

It looks like it will be a very interesting seed fair this year. Already more than 20 stalls are announced on the market. On top of this there will be swap tables were everybody can exchange sell saved seeds.
You can reserve your own stall by sending an e-mail to the organisers.

The whole day you can follow all kind of workshops about seed saving, sowing seeds, gardening during climate change and more topics related to gardening. Most of this will probably be in Dutch though.

- where: Land- en Tuinbouwinstituut, Bruggestraat 190, 8730 Oedelem.
- when: March 11, 10:00 - 17:00.
- entrance fee: members Velt: 3 euro, others: 5 euro.

More information about the event is available on the website of Velt.

On March 18 & 19 you can swap seeds again in Amsterdam

Reclaim the Seeds 2023 is sprouting again! In the weekend of March 18 & 19 this festival will take place again at the Fruittuin van West on the West-side of Amsterdam. There will be a seed fair, lectures and workshops. More information about the programme will be published on the website of Reclaim the Seeds Amsterdam (Let op! At this moment you will still see the info about last years event.).

Reclaim the Seeds is an event during which the exchange of information and seeds is combined with discussions on political themes and practical workshops. The goal is to involve more people in the movement towards agriculture biodiversity and robust, sustainable food production. Reclaim the Seeds contributes directly to this by encouraging the exchange of rare and special varieties.

Reclaim the Seeds began in 2010 as a protest against the new EU seed legislation. Today, the focus is more on resistance against patents on crops and on supporting a climate neutral, 'fossil free' agriculture. The programme also covers other practical, theoretical and political topics related to agriculture.

Reclaim the Seeds in 2020, 2021 and 2022

Due to Corona we had to cancel the seed fairs in Amsterdam and Frederiksoord (in Drenthe) in 2020.

In 2021 an online version took place. This resulted in a lot of interesting lectures. More about this you can find on the Dutch section of this website. Unfortunately not many seeds have been swapped. Another disadvantage compared to a real live seedfair was that not that many interesting meetings between people took place.

In 2022 two successful real seed fairs a lot of interactions and exchanges between gardeners, seed savers and other people took place again. One in Amsterdam and one in Oedelem in Flanders.

(old report) A successful Reclaim the Seeds 2017 in Nijmegen and Lent

The annual seed fair took place in De Vasim in Nijmegen on Saturday March 4th. De Vasim is an old spinning mill on the Waal river that now functions as a cultural breeding hub. Come join us in exchanging a wide variety of seeds and cutting as well as ideas, information, and useful skills. We welcome you to bring any seeds or cuttings to exchange along with the myriad of old, local, non-hybrid, and special seeds, bulbs, and cuttings.

During the market there will be talks and workshops about saving seeds, permaculture, seed networks, edible peenial plants, the impact of Bayer/Monsanto and other large seed companies, and other subjects. The overarching theme of the day will be regarding the issues of seed patenting.

The next day, Sunday March 5th, everybody is invited to lend a hand at starting an edible garden in Lent. In this northern part of Nijmegen two ecological communities IEWAN and Eikpunt have recently been completed and now the inhabitants are going to transform most of the public green area to become edible. There will also be some excursions to biodiverse projects in the surroundings.

Reclaim the Seeds is an annual event, each year in a different part of the Netherlands, where exchanging seeds and information is combined with discussions about political themes and practical workshops. It started as a protest against new European seed laws, but now the main goal is to involve more people in the struggle against patents in plants and against the ever increasing power of large agricultural corporations. With the event we contribute to the upkeep of agricultural biodiversity and a robust, sustainable agriculture.

The overarching theme of the day will be regarding the issues of seed patenting. The past 5 editions were a success; many interested people joined in and the workshops and discussions were well attended. Let us reclaim the seeds!