Blue Fox Farm

Seed ordering time!

We’ve ordered most of our seed for the 2008 season. It’s always exciting to get the seed order in. Makes you feel like the season is inevitable. We try a couple of new seed sources every year. Some of them are great and we stick with them. Some of them, not so great. I have to admit that our favorite seed source, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, is our favorite not only because they provide high quality seed, but more importantly their customer service is second to none.  It’s the little things that keep us coming back. For instance when ordering over the phone with them the order goes quickly and smoothly. They have their databases setup so all I have to say is the item number, amount, the operator verifies the seed type and price and I list the next item number. I went through 3 and a half pages of seed items in about 15 minutes. And they let me know right there whether the item is backordered or not. All of the various seed companies we use have their on attributes that I enjoy. Osborne Seed Company isn’t as fast to order with but you’re basically having a conversation with another person. Not the typical grower to operator interaction. They comment on certain varieties, suggest other varieties to try, etc. And one of the things we love most about them is the resealable ziploc type seed packs they use. They’re waterproof and resealable. Awesome for those days when you’re planting right next to where you’re irrigating. (I’ve been through that scenario more than once.)

And the new sources we’re trying this year: Wild Garden Seeds-  Frank Morton and his family are true artisnal seed producers. We’ve just forgotten to search him out each year prior, but after talking with him last year at the Farmer to Farmer Exchange, I made a promise to myself to support what his crew is doing. Not to mention- I’m hoping we get some highly superior, Northwest localized seed strains.

Seeds of Change is a seed company we’ve known about for quite some time, but we’ve never ordered from them until this year. They carry a lot of the seeds that various folks here in the Applegate Valley grow for them. We thought we’d give them a try. Excited about the Siskiyou Sweet Onions. I’m assuming that they’re raised by Don Tipping over at Seven Seeds Farm in Williams.

Overall, we’re generally pleased with the seed companies we use. We always by a few things from Territorial Seeds, FedCo, and Seed Savers.  Most of the others we’ve come across just don’t have good luck with customer support, off type varieties in seeds, or poor shipping speed. If there’s any I should know about that I’m missing please let me know. We love to try out new sources of organic seeds.