Where to buy Seeds for 2009...











I love ordering seeds! Seed catalogues, seed packets of all sorts have always been a big part of my life. My mom always had her seeds out and about. My grandfather saved seeds, particularly a good strain of sweet peppers! I remember the newspapers spread out and seeds drying by the furnace when I was little. Ben even remembers his parents seed saving and taking them to a local agriculture station to have them dried properly! As farming all my life, I know a thing or two about seeds. I also plan on beginning a seed business one day. However, I need more and more hands on in the fields to really understand the best of the best.
We order certified organic seeds whenever possible. In alot of cases the certified seed is not the quality needed to be cost effective or reliable for making a living farming, (quantitiy for fields differ from small garden plots of course!!) so better varieties are ordered untreated and exemption forms must be filled out and accepted by ProCert Organic Systems before we germinate.
There is nothing more frustrating that purchasing seeds and having them not turn out. Sometimes the variety is wrong, sometimes mixed varieties and the worse is when they do not even germinate at all. This is what years and years of hands on germ. tests prevent and why we endorse the following companies:
William Dam Seeds http://www.damseeds.com/ is one of our favourites! Exellent varieities, friendly staff AND family run! These folks have been working with seeds for generations! Some favourite seeds would be: Packman Broccoli, Kestrel Beets.
Johnny's Selected Seeds http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ This company out of Maine has excellent quality seeds, decent pricing, and an ever growing selection or organic seeds. Some of our favourite varieties would be: New Red Fire organic lettuce, Sweet Chocolate organic bell peppers.
West Coast Seeds http://www.westcoastseeds.com/ along with High Mowing Organic Seeds http://www.highmowingseeds.com/ are both stellar companies with their emphasis being organic. We've had nothing but excellent luck with anything we've ever ordered through both companies.
Now, heirloom tomatoes: This site I am truly excited about!! If you need certified organic heirloom tomato seeds, check out www.tomatofest.com. A very informative site with over 600 varieties of heirlooms!!! I purchased the majority of my heirloom seeds from Gary Ibsen last year and am getting all my heirlooms from him this year! Germination was successful in over 60 different varieties I tried last year! This year, I'm going for 100!!

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