Hello friends, seed growers, sowers, and savers. Thanks for joining us in our 7^th year, we’re thrilled this catalog has found its way into your hands.

Every winter it is the same with us. The last harvests come in. The seed lots get their final winnows and screens. Garlic planted, rye sown, we put the farm to sleep: spooling drip tape, row-covers, pulling t-posts. We retreat from the fields to the office exhausted, needing a break, wondering if we are crazy enough to do this another season.

As the rain falls outside, usually around the new year, something happens. A spark ignites the imagination and the excitement of all the potential and promise of a new year in the garden begins to grow. It’s a time for lists and maps and spreadsheets. Of sitting down for a drink with fellow growers, discussing ideas for breeding projects, devising ways to do things a little better. Of drawing designs for tools that don’t exist yet and re-reading passages from well worn copies of Fukuoka, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry. The potential of every new season is limitless.

We hope this catalog might provide some of that spark for you.

This is an exciting time to be doing what we do. By all accounts the outlook for our seed heritage is dire. But amidst all the corporate control and GMO’s, loss of diversity and variety patenting, there is a rascally, populist movement of breeders and seedsavers bringing the work of breeding and variety stewardship back to the farms. We are excited to play a part in furthering the collective work of all the generations before us. If we are able to get good, public domain seeds into the hands of our fellow growers, excited children, new gardeners...and maybe contribute a couple of new varieties that will stand the test time, then we will consider our work, time, and energy well spent.

2012 was the kind of year we will be reminiscing fondly of for years to come. The long dry fall allowed for some of our best, unhurried seed harvests yet and consequently, in addition to all our new varieties, you will find more in bulk, farm-scale sizes this year. Each summer new varieties capture our hearts. A few from this year include the playful frizz of “Russian Frills” kale, the surprising sweet juiciness and great flavor of Sheboygan Paste Tomatoes, the cascading blossoms of “Pride of Gibraltar” Cerinthe, and the soulful creaminess of “Tuxana” sweet corn.

Thanks for joining us in this joyous uprising. It is a privelage to continue this work and share it with you. We wish you all the promise of a new year and a bountiful garden in 2013.

Warmly,

Brian, Crystine, Rowan

Huge thanks and gratitude in our 2012/2013 season to: Katy,  Rio, our fantastic retail partners, and all our volunteers and growers.