EFAO Seed Mentorship Program
Calling all aspiring seed growers and seasoned seed practitioners alike!
Are you a dedicated cultivator of vegetables or cut flowers, eager to delve into the art of seed saving and integrate this valuable skill into your farming endeavors?
Or are you an experienced seedkeeper, passionate seed steward, or thriving seed company seeking to broaden your connections and showcase your expertise?
In 2026, EFAO is looking to link more new seed growers with experienced seed grower mentors in Ontario. Through this peer learning initiative, our aim is to provide hands-on, personalized, and timely training to farmers and growers seeking to enhance the quality, quantity, and diversity of seeds grown on their farms and in their gardens. Mentors will help guide new seed growers through the season over phone, email, and in-person correspondence. This program will focus on seed production for annual and biennial vegetable crops.
Whether you’re eager to learn or eager to share, our program offers a unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and grow. Mentees will receive personalized guidance, tailored advice, and hands-on support from experienced mentors throughout the season. Mentors will enjoy the satisfaction of nurturing new talent, sharing their expertise, and making a lasting impact on someone’s seed journey.
What can you expect from this dynamic exchange? Here's a glimpse:
- Introduce new farmers and seed growers to basic vegetable seed growing concepts
- Offer guidance to new seed growers as they plan & manage their vegetable seed crops
- Offer in-field experience handling crops allocated for seed production
- Offer advice on growing, harvesting, & processing seeds for sale, trade, & personal use
- Build confidence in new seed growers
- Strengthen our regions network of seed growers, mentors, and ecological growers
- Connect new seed growers and mentees with each other and other growers throughout Ontario
- Identify and engage experienced and new seed growers throughout Ontario
- Upon project completion, the mentor will receive an $750 remuneration for sharing their skills and time
- Mentors or mentees will also be compensated for mileage ($0.61/km) for one trip to the other’s seed growing space.
The mentorship will begin in April and continue to the end of the season or into the winter, taking the mentee from seed to seed along the way. Mentees will receive approximately 25-30 hours or more of support from mentors.
The EFAO Seed Program Manager will correspond with mentors and mentees throughout the season with program updates and to provide logistical support.
Mentees are expected to have the time and space to grow at least one seed crop from planting to obtaining clean seed by the end of this season. This can be on your farm or your gardens. Growing your own seed crop under the guidance of a mentor will allow you to sharpen your abilities to observe plants, learn to pinpoint optimal harvest time, and master the art of efficiently cleaning seeds.
Application Deadline: The application deadline is March 31st, 2026.
Selected mentees and mentors will be informed of their acceptance into the program in early April at which time program coordinators will connect the matched mentorship pairs.
Contact Rebecca at rebecca@efao.ca to learn more and embark on this exciting journey together. Let’s cultivate a regional seed network, one seed at a time!
Quotes from past participants:
“I learned so much about seed production at different scales and how to integrate seed saving into my current growing practices. [My mentor] was so generous with her time and passion and was so helpful at every stage of the seed crop. Really increased my confidence with approaching my first seed saving project, and I feel more prepared to do it next year. Working on my project will take several years so I think I will be using the information every year, but also it has made me more interested and confident about integrating seed saving practices into other crops that I grow as well.”
“I think this format is useful for one-on-one learning. It is more in depth than field days or webinars but compliments both. I think anyone actually growing a seed crop on their farm can benefit from the one on one interaction. It is very valuable.”
“This is our second mentorship and we found that the 2 were very different so having the flexibility to tailor the program to the needs of the mentee is very useful.”
“The most valuable thing about this program was meeting [the mentee] in person and having the time to walk the farm and talk about what we’re seeing/farm questions etc.”
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