Get 15 free seed packets from the Will County extension office on Feb. 25.

Nancy Eleder of Homer Glen shared her love for gardening on Valentine’s Day by sorting hundreds of seed packets in anticipation of the annual SeedFest event on Feb. 25.

Each person who comes out to SeedFest from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the University of Illinois Extension office in Will County may bring home 15 packets of seeds, any combination of vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers, according to Nancy Kuhajda, extension program coordinator and master gardener.

That means a family of 10 may take home 150 packages of seeds, Kuhajda said. She said SeedFest is a popular event, attracting about 150 people every year, even during the polar vortex in 2018, Kuhajda said.

“We still had 140 people show up, even though the actual temperature was 25 degrees below zero,” Kuhajda said.

SeedFest started by chance in 2016 over a holiday meal with an extension office volunteer and a volunteer at the Midwest Food Bank in Bloomington-Normal, Kuhajda said. That’s when Kuhajda learned the food bank received large donations of seed packets and needed an additional distribution partner.

“Since then we’ve given away over 75,000 packages of free seeds to the Will County community,” Kuhajda said. “One of my volunteers actually takes her truck down there, fills it up with as many seeds as she can get and brings them back.”

‘Miracle of nature’

Jeni Hanson, procurement manager at the Midwest Food Bank, said the food bank serves about 500 food pantries in Illinois and receives donations from all over the U.S.

Hanson said distributing seeds is akin to the proverb, “‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

“That’s kind of what those seeds are,” Hanson said. “They give hope. They give people the ability to learn how to grow some of their own food or flowers to brighten someone’s day. It teaches a new skill and the mental health capacity of helping someone learning something different; it’s therapeutic by growing something and nurturing something.”

Kuhajda said people who need food may not have the time or access to land to grow food from scratch. She hopes people who take seeds home will donate some produce back to the food pantries. This way, the seeds become food for everyone, she said.

“It’s just a different avenue,” Kuhajda said.

[ 3 ways to use up your garden’s bounties after you’ve shared with family and friends ]

Eleder, a master gardener, called growing plants from seeds “a miracle of nature.”

“It really is,” Eleder said. “You put them in the ground or in some pots and just watch them grow and produce fruits and vegetables. It’s just amazing.”

Kuhajda said churches can pick up seeds to give away. The only caveat is that the seeds must be given away, she said. Seeds cannot be sold as part of any fundraiser, Kuhajda said.

If there are leftover seeds, people can bring them back to the extension office to be recycled for next year’s event, Kuhajda said.

Or people can store extra seeds in a Mason jar in the back of the refrigerator until next year, she said. Do a germination test before using. Place 10 seeds on a wet paper towel, “mist” them with a spray bottle and then close the paper towel, Kuhajda said. Check the seeds in five days to see how many seeds germinated.

If only half germinated, then plant two in the same space, she said.

I’m interested – but I’ve had terrible luck growing plants from seeds

That’s why SeedFest will have popup informational stations, Kuhajda said. The extension office also has resources and master gardeners willing to help, too, so that people “can get back to us with any questions that they have,” Kuhajda said.

“Starting from seeds can be super easy,” Kuhajda said. “It just takes a little know-how.”

Kuhajda said new gardeners shouldn’t expect immediate success, often due to the “small things they didn’t know” that make the difference, she said.

“That’s why we’re here, to help people learn to grow,” she said.

Free popcorn, too

Popcorn is Illinois’ official snack. So the extension office will pop and serve free popcorn, too, Kuhajda said.

“People don’t think about eating a seed when eating popcorn,” Kuhajda said. “But apply a little bit of heat and we have popcorn.”

University of Illinois Extension - Will County is located at 100 Manhattan Road in Joliet. For information, call the office at (815) 727-9296 or email Kuhajda at kuhajda@illinois.edu.