MariLark Farms CSBanks

I am launching a seed movement with the spring 2018 unveiling of my Community Seed Bank (CSB) initiative in the Berkeley Hills! My aim is to build community one seed at a time, to educate the community about seed saving, biodiversity, soil health and much more. I am a member of SeedSavers Exchange @ seedsavers.org and have worked with them over the past few years to build a network and to hoist our annual tomato tasting. This has grown each year with this year being our sixth annual event. 

Our program is soon to be a model of what you can do in an urban environment. Our aim is to use this opportunity to grow the movement, use our urban farm as not only a source of food for the community but a place to gather, to educate both students and members of the local community aaround organic farming practices, to enjoy the fruits of our labor and to share seeds each and every day.

With a week of training at the Edible School Yard, I plan to build a local curriculum that will include education on soil health, the importance of using cover crops and how this all impacts or helps heal the world. Using this platform, I hope to again show the world the value of seed biodiversity, soil health, growing things organically and much more. 

I hope to partner with the Edible School Yard in the furture to bring or build a bridge from that amazing movement to the community and create edible communities. Modeled after the LittleFreeLibrary.org movement, I hope to mimic as much as possible the community movement with seeds, books, tools, and community building along the way. Every Edible Schoolyard needs a CSB to bring the seeds to life and to preserve our heirloom seeds for future generations.