Tag Archives: heritage seeds

Sourcing Seeds Locally

Where I’m from, the first name off anyone’s lips when talking seeds is West Coast Seeds, best known for their gardeners’ porn annual seed catalogue. The catalogue IS full of beautiful pictures, but the best part when you’re in the garden planning stage at the start of the season is their regional planting chart.

West Coast Seeds provides valuable information, along with gardening books and tools, but as I understand it, they don’t actually source their seeds locally. There are a variety of companies that produce seeds grown in our own climate, many of which are also organic. Here are some options:*

Stellar Seeds Sorrento, BC

Salt Spring Seeds Salt Spring Island, BC

Full Circle Seeds Sooke, BC

Two Wings Farms Victoria, BC

Sunshine Farm Kelowna, BC

Other suppliers from slightly farther afield…

Wild Garden Seed Oregon, USA

Heritage Harvest Seed Carman, Manitoba

Lindenberg Seeds Brandon, Manitoba

Territorial Seed Co. Oregon, USA

Talk about taking eating local to a whole new level: you can eat regionally adapted plants, while supporting your Eat Local economy! Learn more about organic seeds at Organic Seed Alliance.

*List courtesy of Gourmet Gardens

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Related Posts:

Why Local Seeds Matter
Let the Planting Begin
West Coast Seeds

Why Quality Seeds Matter

These days many gardeners are concerned about the quality of the seeds they use in their gardens.  There are a few reasons why it matters:

  1. Local — Seeds that are cultivated in your local geography are adapted to meet the soil and weather conditions of your local geography. That means they need less outside interference to thrive. Hmmm, seems a little obvious when you say like that, doesn’t it?
  2. Biodiversity — With an estimated 80% of all seeds worldwide being provided by only a couple of companies who can limit the variety of seeds  available, the world is in danger of losing many plant varieties that were adapted to micro geographies.
  3. Nutritional quality — Poor quality seeds produce poor quality food. With all the effort put into gardening, you want to be growing nutritionally rich food. Plus, it tastes better.
  4. Organic — If you want truly organic vegetables, doesn’t it make sense to use organically produced seeds, as well as ensuring you’re cultivating it in an organic environment?

The question of whether to choose heirloom or heritage seeds, rather than random seeds which pretty much all come from the same Monsanto bin, is an important one to consider.

Related Topics:

Gina Mallet‘s book, Last Chance to Eat is an easy to read story of how food has changed as a result of the post- WWII environment. What I found especially interesting was the many unique local varieties of any given food over very short distances. Who knew?!