Conferences and workshops
Bring seed saving to your institution
Lyne Bellemare
Since 2009, I’ve given over a hundred conferences across the province. I’ve visited libraries, universities, cegeps, as well as private companies, and participated in festivals, Seedy Saturdays, and agronomy, agriculture, horticulture and permaculture courses.
The art of cultivating your own seeds
(level 1)
This conference covers the principles and practices of seed selection and preservation for gardeners and farmers. It highlights the importance of biodiversity and its crucial role in food security.
Participants will learn about seed selection, pollination, cleaning and storage techniques to make them seed self-sufficient, promoting a more sustainable and ecological approach to agriculture and gardening.
This conference is perfect for libraries that have set up Garden Libraries or Seed Exchange Libraries, in order to give participants the necessary tools to collect quality seeds and share them with other users.
The art of cultivating your own seeds
(level 2)
This conference is aimed at people who have already completed training 1, or those with a good foundation and experience in seed cultivation.
It covers the conservation of biennials during the cold season, the selection of seed carriers, the manual pollination technique as well as breaking dormancy. Finally, this conference teaches participants the techniques for creating new varieties.
The seed producer profession
This conference will discuss the work of a seed company. This involves the search for old and rare seeds, sometimes poorly preserved, as well as the work of recording the history of varieties in order to make them known. Of course, this also includes all stages of field cultivation, harvesting and seed saving. Seed companies play a crucial role in agriculture by contributing to food security. But above all, this profession is a passion that can be passed on and cannot be learned at school.
Permaculture at terre promise
Permaculture and agrology might be approaches that, in the upcoming years, might help solving pressing issues like climate change, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and many more.
This conference uses Terre Promise as a case example. It includes presentation of our no-till permanent bed technique, efforts to protect pollinators and beneficial insects, and the obstacles and challenging of non-mechanized/manual agriculture.
Disappeared and forgotten vegetables
This conference explores the often overlooked history of traditional vegetable varieties that have been forgotten over time. It offers a look at ancestral agricultural practices and culinary cultures of Quebec, highlighting vegetables that were once popular but fell into oblivion with the advent of industrial agriculture. Participants will discover the history of unique and often neglected varieties, such as the Tante Alice cucumber, the rosary potato, First Nations beans, and the Canada Croockneck squash. while learning their importance in preserving food biodiversity.
This conference allows you to rediscover and integrate these ancient vegetables into our gardens and our kitchens.
Seed challenges and prospects
Within barely a decade, 75% of our garden varieties have gone extinct. They will never be back, and the few still in existence are poorly preserved, if at all. Many are kept dormant in seed banks, where they are not accessible to the public.
This workshop aims to highlight how crucial seed saving, especially for heritage varieties, is. We will discuss the questions of organic seeds, GMOs, hybrids, and the main seed world stakeholders.
Custumized workshops
It is also possible to develop a workshop tailored specifically to your needs. To not hesitate to contact me to discuss options.
Establishments visited
Horticultural societies
- Société d'horticulture de Granby (2025)
- Horticultural Society of Drummondville (2024)
- Horticultural Society of Balinville (2023 and 2024)
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- Horticultural Soicety of Paincourt (2024)
- Horticultural and ecological Society of Chambly, Richelieu and Carignan (2023)
- Horticultural Society of Argenteuil (2023)
- Horticultural Society of Saint-Hyacinthe (2024)
- Horticultural Society of Dorval (2024)
- Horticultural Society of St-Appolinaire (2016)
- Horticultural Society of St-Lin des Laurentides (2019)
- Horticultural Society of Brossard (2017)
Libraries
- Library of Marie-Claire Blais, Québec (2024)
- Library of Neufchâtel, Québec (2024)
- Library of Gabrielle-Roy, Québec (2024)
- Library of St-Liboire (2024)
- Library of Le Prévost (2024)
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- Library of Paincourt (2024)
- Library of Maisonneuve (2024)
- Library of Mascouche (2024)
- Library of Candiac (2023)
- Library of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (2023)
- Library of Pierrefonds (2023)
- Library of Prévost (2023)
- Library of Trois-Rivières (2023)
- Library of Jean-Corbeil (2023 et 2024)
- Library of Sorel-Tracy (2023)
- BanQ (2023 et 2024)
- Library of Patrie (2019)
Others
- Craque-Bitume (2024)
- Horti-cité - Gatineau (2023)
- Cinéma sous les étoiles (2023)
- House Nivard-De Saint-Dizier (2023)
- Abundance Party of La Prairie (2023)
- Community Garden Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie (2023)
- Book fair of l'Acadie (2023)
- Moulin Grenier - Repentigny (2024)
- House Robert-Bélanger (2024)
- House Antoine-Lacombe (2019)
- Gamelins Gardens (2019)
- PDC Mycellium (2017)
- PDC Populary University of Permaculture (2017)
- Centre Paysan (2017)
- Amis du Jardin Botanique (2017-2019)
- On Sème (Université d'agriculture Urbaine) 2019
- Summer school of Urban Gardening at UQAM (2017-2019)