http://www.annapolisseeds.com

One of my new friends over at the Homgrown Goodness Message Board has started his own small seed company called Annapolis Seeds, there are lots of good selections over there for you to check out, be sure to surf on over there when you get a chance and check it out friends!

World Wide Garden Seeds.....American Gardener from The Homegrown Goodness Message Board is onto something big!

One last post for the day can never hurt anything.

Perhaps you have been following the posts by American Gardener over at The Homegrown Goodness Messageboard detailing the start up of his future business and his current seed trade list. What can one say other than that Dave is a pretty amazing guy and has an excellent collection of seeds that he loves to share with the world, the next best thing that could happen to a great guy like Dave........Have him run a seed company for gardeners and by gardeners.

Recently Dave started a blog about this project at World Wide Garden Seeds where he details what he is working towards as well as how he plans to accomplish his goals, he asks for critique from other bloggers and commenters out there and I'm sure he would love to hear from you. I plan to get more involved in his project shortly myself and wanted to help to spread the word to others out there regarding what my buddy is up to.

Be sure and check it out!

Apparently I'm an "Evildoer"!

I love it when folks make ill-informed and irrational comments on the internet that only open them up for the dissection of the blogging community at large.

The jist of this post is that I've been away from the blog for a few days and as such have not done the normal and required amount of reading and commenting on other blogs around the net and as such had no idea that such a commotion had been made about the Seed Growers Network that Patrick has blogged about here in recent weeks.

When I first announced that I was trading seeds for the year and/or accepting donations for research and postage the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog chronicled our work and promoted us at this location , promotion and encouragement which I greatly appreciated and I thought could help us build upon our work of spreading bio-diversity.

Anyhow, imagine my suprise when I went web-surfing today and came across this at the Agricultural Biodiversity web log.

Apparently after doing a bit of research Cassandra was replying to that same bit of promotion Agricultural Biodiversity gave my organization and the Seed Growers Network a little while back and as such this is the reason that the word "HOMEGROWN" was particularly singled out and implicitely laid out as though it was some kind of a terrorist organization.


Below is the full text of Cassandra's post in bold letters:

Cassandra 12.12.08 at 1:09 am

I take the time to read many, many articles on Internet Seed Sales. In most cases I am disgusted with peoples lack of knowledge as to what happens when you go searching for seeds in the “HOME GROWN” category.

There are several internet garden club forums that encourage the members to sell or “trade” their seeds to each others. In my opinion these people should be put in prison. There are no limitations on these sites as to what or to where these seeds can be sold or “traded”.

If I could bring myself to be an “evil” person I would offer tons of my “HOMEGROWN” seeds to them and even ship them for free. That way I could get even with all the idiots that are happily transporting their “noxious” weed seeds along with their lovely and so prized Pansy seeds.

It’s time for the United States Dept of Agriculture to step up to the bat and start fining these idiots that are polluting the earth with weeds, among other things.

How about the lady that bought four trees off of a seller on that four “****” letter internet auction site, lovely trees they were. Nice full rootball with plenty of dirt still attached. Little did she know that she was also buying an entire family of “Fire Ants” . Have you ever tried to rid your property of “Fire Ants”?

In consideration of the fact that I live in a county that has ONE THOUSAND, (1000) Napweed seeds per square inch of land I would never consider sharing seeds and or plants with anyone .

I have my doubts that my state is the only one with infestations of noxious weeds and absolutely know that ignorant people are spreading their noxious weeds from state to state through the mail.

So if your truly interested in some “AWESOME” Dahlia seeds, they have been in my family for generations please just ask me for them. Be prepared to have your request denied. I don’t even know you and care more about the wellness of your state and property than you do.

Anyhow, being one of many keepers of the flame of Bio-Diversity, the seed saving and seed trading movement, an independent plant breeder, a lover of the natural world and a patriot, I decided it would be time to fight fire with fire and made the following remark:



What cassandra fails to realize is that the USDA is more responsible for contaimination of food and animal crops by unwanted pests and consequences than any single one of us many seed traders, home gardeners, and plant breeders out there. Surely Cassandra does not realize the importance of the work that we do in trading these seeds back and forth between one another and increasing the dwindling bio-diversity left on this planet.

The issue at hand that she brings up is the movement of weed seeds and pests such as fire ants from place to place, but this is by no means the exclusive fault of seed traders, such movement of species has happened all across the globe since the dawn of time when the first man realized that he had something that might be of value to someone down the road. Plants, Animals, and Disease are all adaptable in some form or another and all lend to bio-diversity which is why many can adapt to adverse environments, however, as an example, fire ants will not be finding themselves living in northern latitudes at any point in the near future (excluding global warming which would bring them here without any help anyhow) due to the biology of their organism. It’s rather interesting how nature creates barriers and tends to be able to intricately balance her systems.

This plea for help to the USDA that Cassandra makes is completely misinformed and reeks of propaganda by big ag and/or GMO advocates who use the USDA as their lapdog. Sure it’s OK to put GMO pollutants into pollen which flows freely, but invasive weeds? I mean, to me that’s a dead give away of her uninformed stance on the state of seed trade and her implied view that the word “HOMEGROWN’ has some kind of evil intent; perhaps she is trying to make the case that we are Bio-Terrorists? We are preventers of bio-terror if we are anything, we are keeping the food supply clean, the environment catered to, and the hopes and dreams of humanity alive and well, as Willie Wonka said “We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of the dreams!”.

Granted, sure your going to get some noxious weeds sent in a seed trade from time to time and yes there is a such thing as the White list which labels invasive species which are not to cross into or out of the USA, but in all truth, in all honesty let us take a look at our situation.

In agriculture (keep in mind this is not wildcrafting or hunter-gatherer society we are speaking of here) there is not a single plant growing in your garden that is not in some way either foreign and or invasive. Agriculture in and of itself, even sustainable agriculture, is an invasive operation regardless of how it is looked at and how much stewardship and biodiversity is involved, it’s just a matter of dampening just how invasive the operation is, one could argue even that humans are an invasive species, but I doubt that anyone wants or needs to have that argument since it is almost as irelevent as Casandra’s case above is. In the United States for example, everyone has a lawn growing in domestic grass, the problem is, this in and of itself is an invasive species, a noxious and chemical loving, health endangering weed if you will, most of our native grasses and prarie grasses have been killed out by way of such varieties, but I am willing to bet that Cassandra has a lawn and isn’t any time soon going to take the pro-active approach of hand weeding the lawn of all of that useless grass in order to replace is with native species, this makes Cassandra a hypocrite. How many tomato seedlings do you have pop up in your garden every year? How many of those produce fruit which is actually of use and or any meritable quality? I don’t like tomatoes, the foliage is poison, they are highly invasive, to me that makes them a noxious weed. Perhaps Cassandra would like us to stop growing anything that self replicates where it either A is not wanted and or B is not expected, this list would include nearly all garden plants, what then shall we eat. How many weeds do you have in your garden that you do not see in the surrounding un-tampered area? All of which are invasive. Perhaps Cassandra likes blackberries, if so, then once again she will be proving my point, the Burbank blackberry is one of the most invasive species alive on earth today and yet it’s population is both reviled by land owners and praised by wildlife enthusiasts, if the Burbank blackberry did not exist there would be little shelter left in the forests across the country due to the over abundance of logging operations and inability of decidious forrests to quickly regrow, surely leading to a demise in many creatures who’s very existence depends on the berries in some form or another.

Maybe Cassandra should lobby the USDA to put strict controls on migrating birds which spread seed via excrement all accros the globe? Surely those birds are doing more harm than we are. Perhaps Cassandra would like to have a limit on the number of deer and other mammals moving these foreign seeds across the globe.

The truth is, it was going on long before us evildoer seed traders came along to help increase bio-diversity and keep people like Cassandra well fed, and it will go on long after we are gone. Nature has this amazing ability to regulate itself. If you don’t believe me then please, for your own sake open your eyes and look at the natural world, maybe you should take a moment to read about the chaos theory.

Now if you do want to talk about what is dangerous in seed trading, then yes the conversation can be had, but that conversation is based more on seed that is commercialized and treated with any number of toxic substances, tainted with GMO’s, and generally disproportionately bred for big ag compared to those concerned with self sustainability and the feeding of ones family and community.

In closing, I would like to state to Cassandra, that I am openly challenging her to defeat me in this argument, a task which she is incapable of doing and a challenge I fell worthy of commitment too.

Cassandra, it is time for you to educate yourself on just exactly what truly is Evil, your attack upon my orginization is unfounded and completely unfounded and I will not stand for it.





Jail for seed trading? How ridiculous is that statement alone.
Perhaps Cassandra would like to reply, if so, here is her opporotunity.

Thinking about '09 and looking over new catalouges.

Well, it's definitely that time of the year again. You know that whole "Santa is making his list and checking it twice sort of thing....yeah, I'm not talking about Christmas (though I am the town of New Pekin's official Santa Clause), instead I'm talking about that time of the year that somehow manages to arrive earlier and earlier every year, that time when I once again find myself staring at seed catalogs and making a list of what I want and what I need and breaking myself up over the compromise between the two.

Most of the seed I'll need for the farm I already have, there are a few gaps, and most certainly breeding and trialing will continue, there are many new cultivars from Hip-Gnosis Seed Development in the pipeline, but most of them are all a few years out from any type of stabilization that will make them a reliable market garden crop, then again those that I have stabilized so far give me hope for what the future holds.

Most of what I'll need for next year I can usually get in trades. I'm pretty much finished with my Tomato collecting and trialing, though there is a new one on the list for next year that is O.P., a large, red, productive beefsteak from Val and Grungy on the Homegrown Goodness messageboard (check the links to their picassa album and new blog in the "what's growin' on around the web" section of this site) called Guido. Those who grew it this past year say it is terrific and one of the market farmers on our site sang highly of it's praises.

Maybe some of you out there have some seeds I might be interested in? Want to do some trading?

In general here are a few things I am looking for:

Large bell peppers of various colors
Greasy Beans, preferably pole types
Soup Beans of all colors and stripes, preferably pole types
Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower and other brassica crops of this type
Grains, particularly wheat and millet, quinoa, amaranth
Flowers of various types.

Things are going well in the greenhouse and I will have some tomatoes coming in next week which is great cause I definitely need to put some cash in my pocket, I'll try to get some pictures of the tomatoes as they ripen.

I'm also selling some alpine strawberry plants locally. These are mixes of white alpine strawberries, as long as you keep them warm and give them a little sunlight they will bloom and produce all winter long, next spring you can bust them up and make 10-15 seperate plants out of them, they are in five gallon nursery containers and have been grown and fertilized "eco-logically". I'll probably make a post about this in a little while, a little self promotion for Bishop's Homegrown couldn't possibly hurt the blog any I wouldn't think!

I'll be posting some new blogs over the next few days and spending my spare time over at our Homegrown Goodness Message board over at http://alanbishop.proboards60.com If you have never been there, come check it out, make some friends, trade some seeds, share some knowledge, help be the solution to the closed minded gardening forums out there, we are really pioneering something great on this little site and I am very proud of it!

Independent plant breeders and their importance in the 21'st century

I was responding to a post about our little blog over at Patrick's blog (http://www.patnsteph.net) when I realized that my response might make for an interesting blog of my own, so as follows is my copy and paste blog entry (with minor corrections):

I think we are on the verge of some great things in the sphere of agriculture and plant breeding on an independent and self-sustainable level considering the number of breeders showing up recently on our message boards (http://alanbishop.proboards60.com). It was only a couple of years ago that the majority of all conversations held on gardening web-sites based on organic/eco-logically grown practices were based on only open pollinated/heirloom seeds and their conservation and it seemed like any talk of breeding work using these varieties or commonly available hybrids was heresy condemned by forum arguments and the general shunning of plant breeders, little did people realize that the seed planted by folks like Alan Kapuler, Ken Etlinger, Frank Moreton and Tom Wagner had already began to sprout and take root and suddenly experienced heirloom gardeners were becoming interested in plant genetics and alternatives to the available heirlooms.

Looking back I suppose it was only a matter of time as the general problem within the heirloom seed movement was that there was a growing contingency of what I call “seed snobs”, that is to say completists whom thought they could grow any heirloom seed anywhere and it would be better than anything on the market, OP or not, that was considered new and possibly trendy.

The problem with that line of thinking is as we all know Heirlooms are adapted to specific climatic and micro-climatic conditions and have been adapted to those conditions for generations, this is something that can not be changed with only a year or two of work regardless of experience, this of course led to any number of disasters with both experienced gardeners trying heirlooms for the first time and new gardeners giving them a go in their earliest attempts at food production and this is not to mentioned the experienced heirloom gardener who thinks he can pull of that miracle of growing a crop from the high dessert in the humid Ohio Valley (lesson learned), something that just can’t be done with much measured success from my experiences.

I think this more than anything has opened gardeners up to looking for local heirloom seeds and regional ones and then looking to independent plant breeders for segregating and unstable genetic material and the direction to make selections from this material that is young enough in the Filial chain for them to make educated decisions in selection criteria in creating their own variety or strain adapted to their area. In this way gardeners can fill in the gaps in their locally sourced heirloom seeds, create an alternative to what’s available, and generally create the “Wow” factor in not only their neighbors but even in experienced heirloom gardeners.

Of course this isn’t discounting the work being done with alternative crops such as Quinoa, Amaranth, Yacon, and Oca by new up and coming independent plant breeders, it is often us who first find an interest in these crops (by way of the previous generation of independent plant breeders/seed savers) and then introduce them to the wider heirloom growing audiences. We set very good examples I think.

In the near future I look for this to be the next big gardening movement, thanks in part to Carol Deppes book, "breed your own vegetable varieties", which changed the perceptions of heirloom gardeners in response to plant breeders, I think we will see many more backyard plant breeders coming up with unique innovations, a very good example of this is Ken Allen and his Tetra Baby watermelon which Michel Lachaume (Canada Mike) turned me on to this previous season, be sure to look it up as it is a very interesting work of “art”.

A few years down the line I don't see it as impossible to find listings of one variety of seed followed by their "strain" identification including various selection criteria and what region that the source material was selected in and from whence the original mixed genetics came from. A database of varieties and their various alternative strains if you will, this will give gardeners a better grasp on selecting new material that is adapted to their location already. I foresee how this can open many doors for the independent plant breeder.

All in all the new wave and old wave of independent plant breeders are responsible for some very terrific things in regards to plant breeding, we are the future of gardening really, particularly when it comes to “Functional Foods” or as I call them “Value Added” seeds and their continued adaptations to local climates.

-Alan Reed Bishop

Seed Network Proposal

Over at my good friend (and fellow member of Homegrown Goodness http://alanbishop.proboards60.com)Patrick's blog site he is proposing an interesting and much needed blogger seed network. He explains it much better than I ever could, so instead of trying, I'll quote some relevant text and drop a link to his site, please check it out, join if you have something to offer, and give a helping hand to a cause that is worthy.

lifted from/relevant link:
http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?page_id=65

Seed Network

Email address for orders or questions: weblogQ@patnsteph.net

This is my Blogger Seed Network page. Feel free to use it as a template for your own if you wish.

See the bottom of this page for the seeds I’m offering!

I’ve written before about why a Seed Network is so important.

Everyone on this list has their own policies for distribution of their seeds, but have one important thing in common. They are all motivated to get their seeds out into other people’s gardens!

Generally people here offer seeds for trade; either for other seeds, for something else you might both agree on, or for small amounts of money. There are enough of us sending seeds and other things back and forth, that we can also handle a lot of local currencies as well. For example I am happy to handle US$ and all major (west/north, maybe Swiss) European currencies. I also have agreements with several other people offering to exchange small amounts of local currencies if necessary to facilitate trades, let me know if I can help out with this. I only accept paper currency, no coins please.

This is a worldwide effort! It’s open to everyone to participate who accepts the basic principles outlined here.

If you don’t have anything to trade, and have a local currency that is not widely accepted, most people below are also willing to send out reasonable numbers of seeds for free. In fact a few people are willing to send seeds out free to anyone who asks.

These seeds are for everyone!

You don’t need to have a blog to request seeds. You don’t need to be an experienced gardener, or have any seeds yourself to offer. Most people below will send seeds anywhere in the world. If you are interested in growing anything listed here, just ask!

If you have seeds to share under similar terms outlined above, get in touch! If you have a blog or another place on the Internet offering seeds, let me know and I will add a link to you to this list. If you don’t have any place on the Internet to list your seeds, get in touch with your seed list, contact information and policies regarding payments and where you will send to, and I will post it here on this blog and forward requests to you.

Please note this is primarily a network for gardeners to share their own seeds, saved from their own gardens. In any event no unstable commercial F1 hybrids. If you are a plant breeder or have been selecting for traits in your own garden, this is a great place to offer your seeds! Unstable varieties, F1s or genetic mixes are considered, as long as you are clear about what they are and someone growing them can expect, and they must be useful and interesting to the average gardener.

A few small or up and coming seed companies have expressed an interest in participating. This is also very much welcome if done under the terms outlined here, and I will be adding links to these as they come forward.

Think in terms of offering your favorite and best quality seeds.

Anyone who wishes to offer commercial F1 hybrids (seeds from purchased packets or store bought produce), suspected commercial F1 hybrids or the seeds saved from plants grown from these seeds should do this elsewhere on the Internet and not make reference to this seed network. Members of this seed network are encouraged not to link to people who try to offer these seeds, and to make these people known to others on the network through private communication. Most of us know what these seeds look and sound like! The only exception to this may be people who have selected over a number of generations and stabilized an F1 hybrid. If you don’t know what this means, your commercial F1 seeds are not welcome here.

In addition if you encounter quality problems with seeds, you should first address this with the person offering the seeds and try to help them solve the problem, but if necessary we should work together to make sure any persistent quality problems are identified as such.

People in this network should be choosy who they link to! Promote quality together with your own friends and personal contacts.

If you have a blog, please use it to publicize this network! Please pretend you are the organizer of the network from the point of view of explaining it and making sure all the information necessary to find other members is on your blog. If this blog disappears tomorrow, make sure the idea of a seed network can go on!

Please consider offering some seeds in this way, even if you only have one or two varieties to offer.

If you have a blog, and obtain seeds from this network, make sure to post about your experiences.

This page is licensed under Creative Commons, that means you are free to copy it for non-commercial purposes as long as your mention the source and provide a link back to this blog. Feel free to copy any part of this page in this way. With reference to this page only, you are also free to make derivative works and modify it according to your own needs.