To make heirloom seeds and rare
varieties more available.
To help gardeners find varieties that will tolerate very hot summers.
To provide older, standard varieties that have been favorites for years.
Specialties:
Heirloom Tomatoes. Every year I look for varieties that have some special characteristics, such as
great flavor, heavy production, drought tolerance, interesting colors or fun shapes.
Carrots. I have many carrots in a variety of shapes and colors. Try something different this year!
Easy to grow varieties. All the seeds in the catalog (except Bush Potato) are easy to germinate and grow following standard
germination and growing practices. Any garden book can give beginners adequate advice. Packets include basic planting instructions,
such as seed depth, seed spacing, etc. (Why list Bush Potato? It is very rare in the US and I want to keep it going.)
Seed grown in Kansas are grown with organic methods, but we have not paid
for certification. Some seeds are purchased from large commercial wholesalers
and some from small certified organic producers. Since I don't have a
certified facility, I can't list them as "certified organic." Those seeds purchased from
certified farms are listed
as organic, but do not state "grown in Kansas."
We try to find seeds that are adapted to different climates. Some are
offered because they grow well in most climates, and others are chosen because
they produce well in difficult climates. If the plant was bred specifically for
a certain climate, the listing will state it.
Our farm
This is a mom-and-pop seed company. We do try to send your seeds
to you within two business days of receiving the order. However, there are four miles
of dirt road between our farm and the post office. If it rains, it usually isn't
practical to go to town. We also try for energy efficiency, so we drive as little as possible. (In addition, we generate our own
electricity with solar panels and a wind generator.)
How did we get started? I joined Seed Savers Exchange many years ago, back when it
was located in Missouri. They moved to Iowa quite a while ago. Kent and Diane (founders of Seed Savers Exchange)
were some of the first people to realize the rapid rate at which vegetable varieties were going extinct.
For thousands of years people have been breeding and saving all kinds of useful, delicious, beautiful, healthful, locally-adapted
vegetable varieties. With the consolidation of hundreds of small seed companies into a few massive corporations, many plant varieties
were being lost forever. They started a grass roots movement to save heirloom vegetables. Inspired by them, I started
to grow several varieties to offer to other heirloom grower members of Seed Savers Exchange. It just kept growing and soon
I decided to buy enough land to help more in preserving the vegetables our ancestors worked so hard to develop.
My husband and I are trying to preserve
heirloom seeds, poultry and Guinea hogs. We grow as many heirloom veggies as the
grasshoppers will allow. The chickens are older breeds in danger of dying out
and a few varieties that lay pretty blue/green or dark brown eggs. We buy most of our
rare chickens from Sand Hill Preservation Center. Sand Hill The Guinea hogs are a
very small breed, than pot-bellied pigs, but 1/3 to 1/4 the size of commercial hogs. They were bred to
produce smaller quantities of meat for homesteaders and for personal use of small farm families. We are members of the Society for Preservation
of Poultry Antiquities and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
Visit our Guinea Hog web site.
Seed trials Every year I try many varieties to see how
well they do in central Kansas. We usually have very hot weather in July and
August (in the 90s) with 1-2 inches of rain per month, if we are lucky. I hope to be able to offer the best of
the trial varieties in the future. In 2007, I grew 59 varieties of tomatoes. Some were to replenish varieties that
were sold out. Some were heirlooms that seemed like they had some worthwhile traits. I have added the best 18 of the heirlooms
tested to the 2008 catalog. They are marked "new in 2008."
Our logo The picture is my interpretation of a painting from a pre-Inca Peruvian pot.
