ARCHIVE : not updated anymore: Welcoming Joseph in October!

Hello friends, European members of the Going to Seed Community,

Great news : @Joseph_Lofthouse will be with us at the International Farmer Seeds Gathering that will be held Antibes, France, from the 3rd to the 5th of October (link to the programme)!

I would love us welcoming him warmly at this event, and as many as we can!
There will be notably 2 workshops dedicated to modern landracing on friday morning + saturday’s forum where we could have a stand, as Going to Seed. More details soon…ish

Then, what is even better is that he just announced that October was free for him and that he would love spending “as much time as needed” in Europe, so I believe we could here brainstorm with him about how best welcoming him after this gathering… for example bringing him on a tour to discover different parts of Europe, rural or not, your places and others, offer him events to do talks in your community, things like that. Just my first thoughts.
We have also talked about the Slow Food Fest in Torino the week-end prior to the gathering.

Let’s gather ideas and exchange with Joseph about this exciting opportunity!

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PS: I won’t have much spare time to visit the forum over the next days, so don’t mind if I don’t react to posts.

@Julied @Justin @JesseI @Tanjaeskildsen @Holly_S @WojciechG @mtttthwww_vdp @Hugo @Susanwakeman @ThomasPicard @Anphlo @isabelle @red @mare.silba @Jayne.oxtons @PippaChapman @malterod @JaneMulberry @seedsaver @Han @Soeren @polarca @Thulahn @Pog @Richard @Txolillo @artsyhonker @Chloe.G @Joran @lupinaster @Ruediger @Logan @stephane_rave @Nancy @Arnopikar @Dave
Made from the EU seed swap list. There may be other europeans not on this list.

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@ChrisF @eArthur @Laura @LIeven @marcela_v @Shao

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If Joseph happens to be coming to North-Western Poland for any reason, then I will gladly do what I can to be of assistance. It would be an honor to be able to hang out and learn from him personally.

I do, potentially, have a couple of hectares of my own land here that I am hoping to close on very soon. I intend to develop it in a way to be able to experiment widely with direct seeded perennials and trees that aren’t normally found in this climate.

If there is a way to be of service to Joseph and the GTS community in the process then Id love to play a part.

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I’ve initiated a conversation with @Soeren and @Logan about inviting @Joseph_Lofthouse to Denmark. I hope he would be interested to come. We’re all very excited about the idea and are looking into which partners and communities to collaborate with to make it happen.

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Hi there, we would be very happy if @Joseph_Lofthouse could come to Southern Scotland and visit us here. Might this be possible?

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I’m the same as Marianne, if it goes in the schedule Joseph and entourage are welcome to pass by and can stay at mine’s. It’s a couple of hours drive from airport Charles the Gaulle or halfway to the channel tunnel in UK. @stephane_rave is not far either.
If this looks like worth a visit, welcome.
Hugo's grexes - #11 by Hugo

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The conference is being held near Nice, France.

The group in Denmark have certainly been strong supporters over the years. All options are still open.

What’s it like to take seeds to Europe by plane?

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I was able to bring banana and taro starts, and all kinds of seeds when i travelled from Taiwan to Poland. Nobody gave me any trouble. My wife also had seeds with her. Her baggage was checked by security, and they asked what the seeds were. She told them, and they didn’t give her any trouble. She got to keep them.

My parents recently came here from Florida, and mom had a huge amount of seeds. The baggage was inspected, but they didn’t give her any trouble either. Everything got through. Im not sure what the regulations are, but if there are any, then they don’t seem to be enforced at the moment.

Or maybe we all just got lucky?

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Although lovely if you bring seeds Joseph, the ones beng sold are trickling in. I would hâte to sée you in trouble.
Maybe post to some attendees in advance? That could give peace of mind while traveling.
It’s going to be great!

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Greetings from Croatia :slight_smile:
I am still considering if I would manage to come to Antibes or not since I have an even in Malaga (Spain) the same weekend.

However, even if I don’t come, I think Croatia would also be an amazing host for Joseph after Antibes. I have started introducing the “landrace” concept everywhere I go to around Croatia, and it seems it “has sprouted in minds of many gardeners and seed keepers”. There is an increasing interest about this topic, and I am sure many people would love to hear more. We have started landrace projects in several parallel locations, and hopefully we will have awesome results in autumn to show and many seeds to exchange.

I have carried many seeds on many flights, and nobody cares. Sometimes if the security people are not busy they ask questions, but it’s all good. If you enter EU / Shengen zone there should be absolutely no fear. And for outside EU as well. I have brought seeds from different countries from outside EU… had more seeds than clothes in my bags.

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@Joseph_Lofthouse there is possibility on the side of the center of France, if you wish and have the time, to make a conference via my association Charolais Brionnais in Transition working on the ecological transition and the agricultural experimentation of our territory.

1st case: do something simple as we usually do with national stakeholders and receive about 150 local people for whom the landrace gardenning idea is new and unknown. It would certainly be less interesting for you

2nd case: take advantage of your exceptional arrival in our country, to shake the coconut tree :palm_tree:, assemble with other collectives in a broader scope and bring a public mostly professionals (farmers, market gardeners, seed producers…etc). I can have a partnership with Kokopelli to take advantage of their reputation on the subject of seeds to help such an event.

If you consider this, we should have the maximum information at the beginning of July to get in order and ensure the organization. We also need to finance this and know your conditions, and see if we can succeed such a project.

To sum up: everything is possible in Charolais Brionnais! :smiley:

CBT : https://charolaisbrionnaisentransition.weebly.com/
kokopelli : https://blog.kokopelli-semences.fr/

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I suspect I will not be able to join the meeting in Nice, because of other engagements these exact days. In the days after the meeting, if Joseph is hosted at a conference or gathering in any other place in france , I will do my best efforts to join (and help organization if needed). My place is not appropriate , I regret. I am not yet stabilized here and don’t have enough people in my local network to organize a nice shared event.

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To those past contributors and @Joseph_Lofthouse :
@Hugo @malterod @marcela_v @stephane_rave @eArthur @Marianne @isabelle
+the other europeans listed:
@Julied @Justin @Tanjaeskildsen @Holly_S @WojciechG @mtttthwww_vdp @Hugo @Susanwakeman @ThomasPicard @Anphlo @isabelle @red @mare.silba @Jayne.oxtons @PippaChapman @malterod @JaneMulberry @seedsaver @Han @Soeren @polarca @Thulahn @Pog @Richard @Txolillo @artsyhonker @Chloe.G @Joran @lupinaster @Ruediger @Logan @stephane_rave @Nancy @Arnopikar @Dave @ChrisF @eArthur @Laura @LIeven @marcela_v @Shao
There should be new europeans on the forum I don’t know, please edit the list or share directly


Sorry for not being there on the forum over the past 1 1/2month, been verrrry busy gardening and also networking on 2 events, including the one in Antibes… Will show pictures of the garden when I can, but it’s huge : about 700m² (7000 square feet) of cucurbitaceae of about 20 sub-types (either species or sub-pops within species), and about 1000 solanaceae plants + the usual garden + some breeding work in collaboration with @JesseI

Coming back to the point: from what I read in that topic and in this one -and it is still a bit of a disppointment- our european network seems to be not mature enough to handle this opportunity to welcome Joseph and offer him a tour or a visit of a few places in Europe in October.

I will be very busy before the international gathering, and very tired after, so then I 'll go back to my … cave^^. To rest.

Does anyone has a suggestion?
@Joseph_Lofthouse did you have serious propositions?

And then here, let me summarize once again the programme AT the international meeting (already 100 people have registered from all over the world, notably Africa and South America, then Europeans and specifically French are slow registering, but we should be from 300 to 500):
2 workshops dedicated to modern landracing, adapatation gardening or “evolutionary populations” or “PEPS” as others have coined… so new populations created intentionnally and then resselected in the farmers fields by the farmers/gardeners, in collaboration with nature…
First one (friday 8:30am) about those pioneering those selection processes with extras from Peru putting things in perspective, second (friday 10:30 am) about initiatives currently developing diverse populations all over the world. Talking about techniques and the selection process, about how do collectives organize on such promising methodologies.
Then Joseph will be part of those speaking at the plenary session (friday afternoon). Theme : seeds and migrations.
Eventually the saturday there will be a NGO forum, where I love we’ll show up as GTS.

Prior to that, for those who want to come: 2 days on farm (tuesday, wednesday), then on the thursday 1st of october: meeting of the European Let’s Liberate Diversity Coordination in the morning, and about ten different parallel workshops in 2 times in the afternoon.

All details accessible (to this day) here.

Personnally I will come with my van, so that I can sleep right next to the event and help all day long, but am open to a shared accomodation.

I promise being there if anyone asks for anything. Once aagain been busy, now will facilitate anything which is in our collective interest regarding Joseph’s visit and this possibiliyt to meet in person… an opportunity that won’t show up frequently!

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Also, the international gathering (coordination of RSP/ SOL/MSPM) has had grant difficulties and GTS can’t help also with travel costs, so I propose doing a crowd funding for Joseph travel from his place to Paris (or Torino, we shall see shortly).

As I have discussed it with farmers and seedsmen and women last year, as the cost is under 1500€, a crowd funding will be done fast with few donors. So it is more an opening to the GTS community I do. Do some of you would like to take a share in that.

From today, and with travel timings in Europe (because we will eventually manage to propose something to Joseph! ), that should be clarified and done within let’s say ten days: details of organisation, GTS/RSP coordination, crowd-funding and payment of the travel included.

If one thinks that making one or a few visio calls for that, let’s do it.
… Oups: I have created a permanent visio link, with nothing to download to use it :

Jitsi Meet .

Let’s have a call one of these days, maybe first with europeans only, to propose something clear to Joseph and talk about Antibes. Let’s say this thursday 27th of July at 8pm, Paris time. 2024-06-27T18:00:00Z

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Yeah i’m OK for a 150€

You are super generous. I will give something like that also.

Hi Thomas, is Joseph coming to Antibes in October for the LLD forum on the 3rd to the 5th of October?
I will not be there but was wondering if Joseph would like to visit Ireland and if he does will I try and gather Seed savers in Ireland as I know most of them or would he just like to chill out and do the tourist thang?
I will try to talk to our small group here in Co Tipperary tomorrow and see what they say, but we would love to have him here!
I am also sorry that im not online alot and haven’t posted any photos but illness and crazy cold weather (Runner Bean plants with golden yellow leaves,the first time that ive seen this after growing them for over 50 years)has me burnt out a bit.
I just want to shout out to all the European Serendipity crew for the amazing seed that I received this year,for the first time I have Bumble Bees on Tomato plant flowers and my new obsession is the Perennial Kale Grex!So thank you to my European Seed Community.
All the best,Kevin D… @seedsaver

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Yes, LLD forum is just the 3rd of october (morning), the international meeting is from the 1st to the 5th, the last three days in Antibes, and the 2 former on farms.

Don’t know for Joseph but Ireland is lovely :heart_eyes: I have been living in County Mayo a loooong time ago.
Great you talk to your friends’ network. Could be a good opportunity.