A new seed company will soon open it’s doors in Northern California, the Sustainable Seed Company. Opening day is February 15th, but you can start placing orders now. You might be thinking why a new seed company is such a big deal, but this one has a few interesting things going for it.
Some of you reading this will know some of the seed growers, in particular Sarah and Andrew also known as the Seed Ambassadors, who travelled through Europe recently collecting and sharing seeds.
Their philosophy is to try to source their seeds from as sustainable as possible places and to provide good information on how the seeds you buy were produced. Of course all of their seeds are heirloom and/or open pollinated, so you can save and regrow your own seeds if you want.
One of the neat things about this seed company, is their offer for you to participate in their business:
Looking for new heirloom vegetable seed for our catalog is a passion for us. Do you have a vegetable seed that would like to see saved? Send that heirloom seed to us, with it’s complete story so that we can propagate it and share it with the world.
Products from small companies are always something to be treasured. People who start new businesses are full of energy and motivation, and they really appreciate your patronage in order to get a good start in the world. I think this seed company is going to be a valuable resource in the coming years, and I would really encourage anyone who is looking for garden seeds to browse through their online catalog and consider buying from them.
We (well, my dad!) have already saved some seeds from when mum and dad visited Spain in November – after our FoGroBlo meet last year, he’s very into it, so we’re going to see how they do! Also, going round the garden centres at this time of year, its amazing how many are F1 hybrids! If we do buy anything, we steer clear of them. Education on this is a good thing….Cat x
Hi Cat, it’s great to see you guys are getting interested in saving seeds. Not only is it amazing how many F1 hybrids there are, but there is no requirement that seed companies label F1s accurately, and the often sell unlabelled F1s. The only way you know for sure is if you buy your seeds from a company like Real Seeds.
If you are willing to buy seeds from abroad, another really good company is Baker Creek in the US. They have very reasonable shipping costs for sending seeds to Europe and other places, flat rate US$3 if you only order small seeds and only a little more if you order larger seeds. http://www.rareseeds.com They have a huge selection too!
Thanks for the headsup. I’m going to read in more depth.