A gardener and seed supplier from Murillo, Ontario says while the pandemic is having negative impacts on nearly all aspects of life, it is also providing some opportunities for teaching people about growing food.

Wendy O'Connor is one of the suppliers for Superior Seeds, a collective that provide locally adapted, sustainably grown seeds.

O'Connor said initially, she was not optimistic about what the pandemic was going to do to local agriculture gardening. However, O'Connor now believes it has many people looking at their backyards as a potential source of both comfort and sustainable food.

"I was not feeling good about very much at all," said O'Connor. "And especially thinking what will I grow in my garden? Will there be a farmers market? I was feeling a bit hang dog about it. I new I would grow quantities for myself. It hadn't occurred to me yet that this was an opportunity for growth and awareness of vegetable gardening in general."

Northwestern gardeners only have from 100 to 110 frost free days. (Wendy O'Connor ) O'Connor said Superior Seed Producers is a collective of Thunder Bay area seed growers. The members promote the saving and distribution of locally adapted, sustainably grown, open-pollinated, non-GMO seeds in Northwestern Ontario. The group does this through educating and supporting those who want to learn more about saving seeds, and by making locally grown seed available to gardeners in the region.

O'Connor said she has definitely noticed an increase in interest in vegetable gardening this spring. She said for new gardeners in the northwest, a key thing to keep in mind is the short growing season.

O'Connor said the frost free time in the northwest, by Ontario standards, is pretty short; and according to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, is 100 to 110 days. She said when you go to your hardware store or you go online and are ordering seeds, you want to look at the days to maturity for those seeds. If you pick anything that's under 100 days and get it planted out at the end of May beginning of June that variety will have time to produce its vegetable or fruit within that time period.

"So generally we're going from beginning of June to just within the first third of September for a frost free time here in Thunder Bay," she said. "So don't get a seed packet for something that says one hundred and thirty days because unless we have an exceptional season that's not going to produce."