This FEELed Note was written by FEELed Lab Administrator Julia Jung.
On January 16, we continued our longest-standing annual tradition at the FEELed Lab: A ‘Welcoming the Dark’ event. Usually, we held those events at the end of the semester as an end-of-term celebration. This year, we wanted to try something different and decided to make it a new-years celebration instead.
Our theme was the question “Who keeps you company in the Dark?” We collected all our Darkness-companions and recipes for warmth on a collective collage, which you can check out on your next visit to the lab!
Our collage included animal friends, cozy drinks, warming activities, games, art and artists who made us feel held and connected in this season.
Seasons in general have always been a big part of our events and particularly the Darkness event. Thinking about the Winter solstice, welcoming the Dark is an acknowledgement of the presence while staying connected to what is and will come again. While the nights are still dark, the days are already starting to get longer again.
FEELed Lab member Jamie Stevens, who also hosted our Plant People Gatherings, brought a second wonderful activity to the event: Seed prepping!
Jamie shared with us that most native seeds in the Okanagan need to be cold-stratified over the winter. Cold-stratification is just a fancy way to say that they need to be cold and moist for a specific period of time in order to sprout. The cold and moistness ‘activates’ the seeds and after that period of time, they know spring is around the corner and it’s time to grow.
Jamie shared a selection of native seeds from her own garden with us and taught us how to prep them for the cold-stratification. Usually, around this time of year, the seeds can just be planted in trays and left outside.
However, as we are currently experiencing an exceptionally mild winter, it is actually too warm for the seeds outside right now. So, we each prepared our selected seeds on paper towels instead, which we will overwinter in our fridges before seeding them in the spring.
The seeds that struck me most were wild bergamot (which smells soo intense – like thyme!), the spiky flower heads of the blanket flower and the aptly named showy milkweed.
The FEELed lab 