seeds... seeds... and more seeds

It's that time of year that every gardener looks forward to. The time of year where one's eyes start to wander the seed catalogs, the seed websites, and dreams about all the vegetables and fruits one will be growing that year. It's the time for hope; hope that everything you have spent your hard earned money on will grow and multiply and be fruitful.

We've been on the hunt for the most interesting seeds that we can buy, but the only hitch is that we must find seed that is organic seed. You see, we are in the process of becoming a certified organic farm (more on this in the future). This presents itself with limitation on the seeds available to purchase by us from seed companies. Some organic seeds are everyday varieties that many people have heard of (who wants to grow Kentucky Wonder pole beans? Everyone and their great great grandpa has been growing it since 1864, which on the one hand makes it an heirloom and on the other makes it common place). But, we are after varieties that might be a bit more unusual (look out Turkey Craw and Mayflower beans!).

seeds from Horizon herbs: wild arugula, chilhuacle pepper, hopi yellow bean, hopi red lima bean, palla rosa chicory, chinese wild yam (couldn't help myself), Chadwick's cherry tomato, principe borghese tomato

We have been pouring over lots of great seed companies and seed saver websites. Maybe you might be interested in looking at them too for your own garden? Maybe those kids might want to grow something their classmates might never have heard of or would have ever imagined eating?
Here's a quick list of the places we have purchased from:
Seed Savers Exchange
Sustainable Seed Company 
Horizon Herbs
The Natural Gardening Company
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Bountiful Gardens
and for potatoes
The Main Potato Lady

seeds from Sustainable Seed Company: chiogga beet, american flag leek, hungarian black pepper, australian brown onion, and a free packet of speckles lettuce

In general, we found most of these organic seed websites and more from the CCOF website
organic seed resources

What we have learned though, is that there is a loop hole....
You must use organic seed if you are a certified organic farm, BUT if you cannot source a particular seed as organic and have records showing that you have searched for said organic seed, but can only find commercially available conventionally grown seed, then you are allowed to grow that seed. The other stipulation is that the seed must be non-gmo, and either untreated, or treated only with allowed substances.

With this in mind we have agreed to abide by this rule and only source organically grown seeds. This presents us with the challenge of a treasure hunt for these special, heirloom, rare, or unusual organically grown seeds. We have purchased a first round of seeds, but will be getting our next treasures within the week.



and here's a little sneak peak for the next post...

what does 22 feet of schedule 40 1/2" PVC,  3sided 1/2" PVC elbows and male adapter fittings create when it's all cut to length and fitted together?

tune in next time for a post about the art of seed sowing and building your own mini greenhouses.