SolidariteitsNetwerk BuurtTuinen / Solidarity Network of Community Food Gardens

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Activity Archive

Sonebutu © 2022

Anne Tuin’s 5-Year Celebration Festival

May 25, 2022

On the 21th and 22th of May, Anne’s Tuin commemorated the 5th anniversary of the birth of this unique food forest in Amsterdam. The celebration involved a variety of activities such as workshops, pot luck lunches and guided tours.

The SoNeBuTu team, in a partnership with A SEED, had a stand in the festival to connect with the public and showcase ongoing projects. We also took this opportunity to launch our Free Seeds/Vrije Zaden project.

Seed bombs and an assortment of vegetables seeds were available to the public for free. The SoNeBuTu team had a lot of interesting questions and discussions with our fellow gardeners!

1st Seed Circle: Amaranth Family

On June 16th, SoNeBuTu celebrated Amsterdam's first Seed Circle in de Fabriek Volkskamer. The event started by cooking together a wholesome meal with the season’s bounty. There was plenty of opportunity to share experiences and to
nurture connections.

We were honoured to have Nora Vargas, an Amsterdammer from Peru, as ourspecial guest who opened the circle with a blessing to Mother Earth (Pachamama) and her children who include seeds and human people. Nora shared stories about her ancestors and friends who belong to ‘pueblos originarios’ (indigenous cultures) in the Andes that relate to seeds as children.

We were introduced to three nourishing grains who originate from the Andes, Quinua (Quinoa), Kiwicha (Amaranth) and Cañihua (Kaniwa), who all belong to the Goosefoot (Chenopodium) genus of the Amaranth family. We learnt that these plants evolved from a respectful co-creation between the Andean people and the living environment over thousands of years.









Today they remain vital for the cultural, physical and spiritual health of pueblos originarios in the Andes. In the international scientific community they are considered the grains of the future because they are tolerant to drought, hot and cold temperatures and are not dependent on fertilizers. They are gluten-free, highly nutritious and store well.

Sadly, we remembered the harmful realities of colonial processes that extract and export Andean grains to the West without proper compensation. Nora informed us that even today many of the indigenous cultivators remain in economic poverty. Many experience malnutrition as they sell their grains and buy cheaper rice that misses important nutrients, such as iron.

Nora advised that we need not stop buying or eating Andean grains such as Quinoa, but we do need to try to source grain as direct as possible ensuring that the cultivator community receives just payments. Nora also shared about her foundation, Help de Andes, which gives visibility and support to Andean women who are the original guardians of much of the food we eat, including potatoes!

We also had a discussion on the threat of GMO seeds in the remaining megadiverse areas of the world, such as the Andes. Social movements, civil society succeeded in convincing the government to renew its ban on GMOs in Peru until 2035. Still there is a risk of biopiracy where seed corporations extract valuable genes from Andean varieties without compensation. They then use CRISPR gene editing technology to make new GM seeds that they then patent and gain rights to sue anyone who has seeds with the same genes!

With this in mind, all the seed guardians present took the initiative to shared their own seeds and the experiences they had with them. Most of the seeds came from packets of seed breeders and companies and some seeds were F1 or hybrid seeds that are very hard to reproduce and technically illegal to multiply and share. We realised we still have quite some work to do to build up a store of healthy seeds grown in Amsterdam from local seed guardians.









Thankfully, we do have some seed guardians in neighbourhood at the community plant nursery, Het Groen Gemaal. At an open day they shared their native amaranth seeds of Tuinmelde and Boomspinazie. If anyone would love to share Brave Hendrik, a perennial goosefoot plant, with SoNeBuTu, please get in touch.

We are so grateful that Nora shared the three Andean grains that come from the place of origin and invited us to visit her Quinoa on July 2, 2pm growing atZimmerhoeve Kinderboerderij.

The Circle ended with a feedback session where great ideas were shared for the future sessions of the 21st of July, 15th of September and 27th of October. We hope to see you there!

Aseed in collaboration with SoNeBuTu facilitated a webinar about the human right to seed and the rights of the seed themselves. Two organisations were invited to present their ongoing campaigns on this issue: No Patents on Seeds and Unverblümt.

No Patents on Seeds, represented by Johanna Eckhardt and with a campaign with the same name, explored the contradiction between EU Law which clearly states that you cannot patent seeds that evolve naturally from conventional/traditional breeding and the reality, in which we see that 200 patents have been granted to agro-corporations on plants that are conventionally breed. This unethical and exclusive ownership of life enables agricultural biotech corporations to slowly take over our food systems, since patents mean that small and medium-scale seed breeders have reduced access to genetic material and therefore fewer possibilities for adapting crops to new changes (pests, diseases and climate). The campaign aims to encourage the EU to make the necessary legal changes to exclude plants and animals derived from conventional breeding from patentability. You can sign their petition

Unverblümt represented by Barbara Hale showcased an ongoing campaign on Free Seed Exchanges for Savers of Seed Diversity. Currently, only seed breeders have access to commercially registered seeds and the right to save, multiply and share them. The result is the hindering of the increase of plant biodiversity and the variability of genetic resources. This campaign focus on ensuring that the EU provides the necessary rights to all gardeners and farmers who sustain the diversity of cultivated plants by saving seeds. You can sign their petition

The floor was open for a Q&A and fruitful discussions. It was concluded that while the two campaigns have different approaches, they can be harmonized with a diversity of tactics.

We really recommend that you read a detailed account of the discussions had in the webinar by clicking

Webinar: Defending our Rights to Seeds & the Right of Seed

June 16, 2022

June 20, 2022

2rd Seed Circle Social: Herbs

June 20, 2022

At the height of Summer the Fabriek Volkskamer opened its doors again for the second Seed Circle Social. This time herbs were the main highlight of the session.

The group cooked a communal meal and thanked the bountiful harvest shared by Mother Earth. The meal was followed by a workshop given by Eva Thomassen focused on all the potential that can have in our community gardens.

Eva explained the difference between annual, biannual and perennial herbs and which herbs are the best for a kitchen garden. She explained how to best take care of well known herbs such as Thyme, rosemary and more. She also shared her knowledge on some less frequently used herbs, like Meadow Sweet, Yarrow, Sweet Woodruff and more. The workshop finished up by learning various propagation techniques for herbs.

You can find Eva’s workshop notes
We are extremely grateful to Eva for sharing her deep and extensive knowledge about herbs.

After the workshop, the seeds took the centre stage. The participants shared their own seeds and their stories with each other, supporting in maintaining biodiversity and the seed heritage of Amsterdam's community gardens.

3rd Seed Circle Social: Milpa and the Five Cousins

September 15 2022

Summer quickly came to a close. We had an abnormally hot and dry season here in The Netherlands which in some cases negatively impacted our crops. However, our desire to learn the lessons provided by Mother Earth and share its bounty with our community certainly hasn’t diminished.

We had our third Seed Circle Social on the 15th of October, in the cozy Volkskamer. As customary, we started with a communal meal, using vegetables of the season such as squash and beans.

The focus on this session was on the “milpa”, an ancient indigenous crop growing system used throughout Central and South America. Milpa (also know as “The Three Sisters) fosters the intercropping of Maize, Beans and Squash. By growing them together, these crops mutually protect and enhance each other's growth.

Inspired by this profound indigenous knowledge, modern permaculture is trying out new and different combinations, such as ‘the five cousins’. In this configuration, the plants used are: 1. Radish, 2. Buckwheat, 3. Cowpea (or a nitrogen fixing legume), 4. Corn, 5. Amaranth/Sorghum.

Seed circle finished with a lively exchange of not only seeds, but also tips and stories between all the participants.