Kari Witthuhn-Henning is the founder of the Appleton Seed Library, an Outagamie County Master Gardener, avid seed saver and a budding herbalist. She believes that some of the most profound teachings and healing come from working on the land with plants. Blending the arts, sustainability, intentional living and community collaboration are what fuels her creative endeavors. To that end, Kari offers classes and educational nature walks to help people explore and deepen their connection to what grows in the beautiful Fox Cities, Wisconsin.

In this episode, I sit down with Kari Witthuhn-Henning with Appleton Seed Library. Kari and I had a delightful conversation about seed-to-table as an emerging trend in meetings and events. Kari had a lot of amazing ideas to over on this trend, and I always admire how passionate she is about master gardening. Check out our chat!

Kari’s tips on leveraging seed-to-table on your events:

• Ensure that you allow your event the time it needs to cultivate crop in enough time
• Bring your chefs and local farmers into your vision
• Don’t forget about the other vendors that can help provide more local fare (ie. aviaries, beekeepers)
• Leverage your imperfections of fruits and vegetables
• Use heirloom seeds to help continue the growing of crops that have been cultivated for many generations
• Harvest times can be different in all corners of the world, know the season of growth for the location of your event

Kari’s Tips on managing your stress:

• Being in the vicinity of nature helps reduce your stress
• Add nature/outside elements to your décor for your event to bring a sense of relaxation to your attendees
• Add nature to your work environment – step outside if you have to!
• Breathe! Go outside, put your feet on the earth and breathe for relaxation

Links and Resources:

Appleton Seed Library
The Seed Guild Instagram
The Seed Guild Facebook

Again, a huge call out to Kari for sharing her experience with us and giving us a vision for something unique and naturally beneficial all around for our events. Much appreciated Kari.

Cheers!

P.S. Want to learn more about work-life balance? Check out these tips.