The past week was spent feverishly spreading genetic material around. No, we weren’t backstage with Metallica. We’re talking plants. Here’s a few ways we’ve been spinning the genetic biodiversity wheel in the past week:
Seed Swaps
Yesterday was International Seed Swap Day of Action, sponsored by Food not Lawns. We celebrated the day in Altadena with a bunch of local gardening enthusiasts and countless boxes of seeds. We got seeds for Armenian cucumbers, red ruffled pimento peppers, feverfew, echinacea and zucchini among others. In return we gave away okra, cosmos, and mystery seeds from my mom’s Greek neighbor. A seed swap makes a great excuse for a party and a great time was had by all.
The Neighbors
My mom’s elderly neighbor, who spends each summer in his native Greece, loves to garden and grows, among many other things, at least four different kinds of arugula, which he calls, “the Greek Viagra”. He gave us seeds for two different arugulas, some basil from the northern mountains of Greece and countless other untranslatable plants, and packed them up for us in blue medicine bottles. We’ve grown his vegetables before and, while we can’t vouch for the aphrodisiac qualities and don’t stoop to Viagra jokes, they taste really great.
Seed Savers Exchange
Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit member supported organization that maintains a seed bank of over 25,000 varieties of vegetables. You can order seeds from them at www.seedsavers.org.
Catalogs
We’ve been obsessed with the Italian seed company Franchi for almost ten years now. Meeting the west coast distributor Craig Ruggless at the seed swap and seeing his display racks of seeds was the horticultural geek equivalent of bumping into a rock star. Craig’s got a blog here and, in addition to distributing seeds at local nurseries, he can be found at the Sierra Madre farmer’s market on Wednesdays. Craig also has a mail order operation–send an email to him at [email protected] and he’ll send you a catalog.
Lastly, if you aren’t already, consider collecting as many seeds as possible from your garden to save and share. Here’s some seed saving directions for common vegetables.
Sounds like a week very well spent! Do you know our list of seed sources? http://agro.biodiver.se/seed-exchanges/
My favorite seed company is Botanical Interest. Its a great company, small, family owned with an interest in spreading seeds of heirlooms. Almost every seed they sell is heirloom. they sell a lot of organic seeds as well. Back when I was in the floral business I had the great opportunity to met one of the owners and I can say that I drank the kool aid. I appreciate businesses that stand behind their product and have a tremendous set of core values.
At the end of the season the company does a buy back of their seeds and then ships those seeds to developing countries to help the local grow their own food or flowers to sell. Anyway. I love their company and think everyone should check them out.
For a second I thought that bottle label said “Geek Viagra”.
GREAT SITE – I’m a new visitor and totally psyched and inspired, way over here in Central Pennsylvania.
Alright alright alright that’s exactly what I needed!