MARQUETTE – It is possible to grow vegetables in weather as cold as Marquette’s seemingly sub-Arctic climate.

And not only that, they can be heirloom and open-pollinated.

The local group Transition Marquette County, which works toward creating a sustainable food source among other goals, held a work session Feb. 10 in the basement of the Peter White Public Library for its annual Seed Co-op.

On its website at www.transitionmqt.org/seedco-op/, people can purchase a $5 annual membership – available as an item on its online store – and buy seeds adapted to growing in the local region, such as Siberian slicing tomato, Buttercrunch lettuce and dwarf blue-curled Scotch kale.

Those definitely aren’t varieties seen in every local grocery store.

Charlie West of Marquette was on hand at the work session. He said TMC is offering a new Superior Collection consisting of 14 varieties for $20, although those varieties also can be purchased individually for $1.50 to $2. Back inventory for the past several years also is available.

“They’re still viable mostly, and they’re reasonably priced,” West said of the older seeds.

The $5 membership fee, he explained, provides supplies for TMC.

“Frankly, the money that we clear on the seed sale co-op goes to support other Transition Marquette County projects,” West said. “For example, we’ve shown movies here at the library, and there’s fees for that.”

There also are seed and plant swaps as well as publicity and poster costs covered through the co-op, he noted.

TMC gets seeds from the Sustainable Seed Co., based in Chico, California. According to its website, sustainableseedco.com, its mission is “Changing the World, One Seed at a Time,” and offers only certified organic and non-GMO seeds.

GMO stands for genetically modified organisms.

“They’re selected to be able to be grown in our growing season without having to start in March,” said Ray Bush of Ishpeming.

Bush said people can save seeds from their harvest, although the different varieties of tomatoes and lettuce need to be isolated because they’ll cross-pollinate.

West said Bush probably knows more about seeds than anybody in Marquette County or the Upper Peninsula.

“I’ve been saving seeds since I was about 7,” said Bush, who took the Master Gardener course. “I do a lot of study on it too.”

TMC has an overall goal related to gardening as well.

“One of our main purposes is just to encourage people to turn part of their yards into garden and start growing some of their own food,” West said, “and enjoy it.”

One thing, though, has changed.

“We’ve kind of shifted a focus from just selling seeds to limiting the seeds that we sell and encouraging people to learn to save seeds so that hopefully in a decade or so we would have our own seed supply in the community, and people saving them as they go along,” West said.

Jim Hyer of Skandia also took part in the Feb. 10 work session, explaining his love of gardening: “My mother made me do it. It kind of grows on you.”

Maybe literally and figuratively.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.