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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] seed companies
  • Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:37:19 -0500

Road's End Farm, a selection of seed companies I've ordered from recently (I may have left somebody out): I've only included contact info for a couple that I think are not online, but can post it for the others if anybody needs it.

Fedco: good prices, good selection, extremely wide variety of packaging sizes, some organic, it's a co-op. Varieties suited to Maine and similar climates.

E&R: very good prices, some organic, a lot of untreated seed, good variety packaging sizes, not the fastest service

Johnny's: pricey but very fast shipping and good service, good variety packaging sizes, some organic, untreated mostly, employee owned.


Seed Savers Exchange: the place to go when you really need the right strain of something; some items also available in large sizes; not cheap, but the catalogue supports the variety maintenance efforts; some organic; untreated.

High Mowing: all organic; also not cheap; selection expanding but often still limited; service generally good (except for a couple of years ago, but they seem to have gotten over it); varieties suited to Vermont and similar climates.

Pinetree: great remaindered book list; seed in small quantities only, good range of varieties including some unusual ones; they and their seed trials are in Maine

Territorial Seed Co., in Oregon, some varieties not available elsewhere, untreated, some organic, expensive, fast shipping

Turtle Tree Biodynamic Seed Initiative, Camphill Village, Copake NY 12516. 518-329-3037 telephone for catalogues, various other phone numbers for orders. All biodynamic, some certified organic, All seed suppliers listed in catalogue, not cheap, many varieties not available elsewhere.

Lakeview Organic Grain: cover crop and field crop seed, not vegetable seed, most of it locally sourced. I don't know if they mail order, though they do deliver over a fairly wide area (they're in Penn Yan, NY); I'm lucky enough to live close enough to pick up and save the shipping charges.

Mapple Farm, the only place I know for organic sweet potato slips; they carry a little seed but not much; 129 Beech Hill Rd., Weldon NB, Canada E4H 4N5 <wingate AT nbnet.nb.ca> (I don't know if they have a website)

Fisher's Seeds, PO Box 236, Belgrade MT 59714, (mailing address; store street address is 20750 East Frontage Road) 406-388-6052 : this is a small company, not online; Judy Fisher answers the phone, packs the seed, and I think does a lot of the rest of the work; they buy some seed but do a lot of their own seed production and seed breeding; they have varieties for Montana and other short-season climates that are not available elsewhere, and were for some time the only source of Jumbo bush Italian bean (this had been all over, then the one producer quit producing it, and it disappeared from dozens of different seed companies. Fisher's. however, grew some of it themselves, so they still had it.) Many items only in small quantities. I love Fisher's. please give them some business.

I also buy a few things I like but that are hard to find from Burpee's, sometimes Tomato Growers' Supply, sometimes Veseys, occasionally from the HPS family.

(A note on the HPS family: HPS, Shumway, Jung's, Vermont Bean, Totally Tomatoes are all owned by the same people. They have refused to tell me who the owner is. They do, however, have a lot of untreated seed, which generally arrives as ordered and grows OK.)

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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