January 16, 2009

The value of locally bred varieties


I'm getting excited for the coming season now that I'm hunkering down to plan my new garden and order the seeds that I'll need. The problem is I`ve ordered a lot of seed catalogues and they are still trickling in. William Dam came yesterday and I am waiting in particular for a couple of smaller, local, seed company catalogues. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that I moved to my new farm in Nova Scotia from BC in late spring last year. I focused on plowing and cover cropping last summer to prepare for this season and the small house garden I did plant were sown with seeds brought with me from BC. Some of the varieties that I have had great success within in BC, didn`t thrive in my new garden. So this is why I look forward to trialing varieties from Hope Seeds. They are a small seed company in New Brunswick and key to their philosophy is `"that the future of sustainable agriculture lies with small, local, organic farmers and that much work is needed to develop a top-quality, decentralised seed bank of varieties that best meet their needs". They are working to develop varieties with natural resistance to pests and diseases, that are adapted to maritime conditions and organic growing methods. This is well worth the wait.

Check out this article about this wonderful small business in Small Farm Canada

6 comments:

Ottawa Gardener said...

I 100% completely agree with this and would always encourage people to support local seed companies as well as save their own.

Anonymous said...

Have you found this place yet?

http://www.annapolisseeds.com/

anne said...

No I hadn't Patrick. Thanks for the link!

Anonymous said...

He's 'Owen' on the Homegrown discussion forum. He just appeared a few days ago.

Ruth Trowbridge said...

can seeds be stored in these little plastic pouches?
peace

anne said...

Yes, many seed companies now have seeds in plastic ziplock..I find them quite handy.