Sourcing Sustainable Seeds
Ana Skemp: [00:00:00] We have a lot of urban homesteaders and people just getting started that ask us questions about, okay, this is, if you have all the space, that’s great.
You can grow these cow peas and these giant squash, these people are limited to a couple grow bags or maybe a raised bat on a balcony. What varieties would you consider, what vegetables, herbs, whatever, would you encourage them to consider?
Patty Ward: There’s actually a lot you can grow, like even in some different things to consider would be like we have a tiny Tim tomato plant. Any like lettuces or greens do really well in a hydroponic system. They, you could also do container gardening. I love to grow microgreens, especially in the winter, but you could grow those year round on the counter. I love that they’re super good for you and you can have something fresh in eight to 10 days.
So microgreens would be probably one of the quickest, easiest things, but. I’d also [00:01:00] to recommend for people who don’t have a lot of space to try a hydroponic system because we have several hydroponic systems going and I harvest the lettuce and bok choy and kale and herbs out of them frequently, and it’s a really fun way to have that fresh for us during the winter months.
Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast. We host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
Josh Wilder: Today’s sponsor is Sow Right Seeds. They’re an heirloom seed company that offers fresh, high quality, open pollinated seeds. They have a great selection on their website of over [00:02:00] 400 varieties, along with a planter’s library with tips for growing. I love that they offer a wide variety of seeds for sustainable home gardening.
The instructions on the back of their packets have all the information you’ll need to get started. Go to SowRightSeeds.com and use the code MotherEarth10 for 10% off your order today.
Hello. Welcome to this episode of Mother Earth News of Friends. I’m Josh Wilder, the content director here at Mother Earth News. With me today, I have Daryl and Patty who own and operate Sow Right Seeds. Both came from families who garden not just as a hobby, but as a way of sustaining themselves. Also with me today, we have Anna Skemp, Lead Editor of Mother Earth News, who’s a mother, a farmer, and a maker at Deep Roots Community Farm in Wisconsin who raise a variety of livestock. And in the summer, the farm has opened to local school kids for educational programming, and her family recently became the next generation to tend the family Apple Orchard. Welcome!
Patty Ward: Hi. [00:03:00] Thanks for having us.
How Did Sow Right Seeds Get Started?
Ana Skemp: Thanks for being here. So in Wisconsin here today we are in the middle of a blizzard and we’re having snow thunder, but gardening season is right around the corner and this is the time of year that everyone gets excited to choose their seeds and start their seeds.
Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started, how you started a seed company?
Patty Ward: We both grew up gardening and my husband for years. We always had a garden, even the first summer after we were married. And a lot of times we had tomatoes growing in pots outside of our apartment.
And then he started trading seeds online on forums where, we would get piles and piles of mail and seeds and then he would fold packets and send them out to, he says “the little old ladies on the internet”, but just whoever. He started trading seeds and it was a way to try new varieties and just see what was out there, but also to keep the [00:04:00] ones he wanted.
Daryl Ward: And if we’re honest, I’m just a magnet to seeds. I’m one of those crazy people that, that loves seeds and collect seeds and have for a long time.
Patty Ward: That is true. So it morphed into a business. Yeah. Yeah. His hobby and passion and we love the fresh food from the garden. So it was it, I don’t know, it was just a natural thing to do for us. It was the next step.
Daryl Ward: I typically would grow about 50 different varieties of tomatoes every year. Just to try out and find the ones that I love the most. And of course, save those seeds and. It, it grew from that, that, that experience and our love of gardening and love of being out there in the dirt.
Daryl Ward’s Favorite Tomato
Ana Skemp: That’s wonderful. Although one of the best rules of business, if you do something you love, that’s how to succeed. You just gotta find your own niche and if it’s what you’re passionate about, you’ll do great. Tell me quick before I forget your favorite tomato. There’s still time for us all to start tomatoes from seeds.
So what if you could [00:05:00] just choose, that’s not even a fair question. You can say it, it isn’t a fair question that,
Daryl Ward: that’s like asking which of my children is my favorite.
Ana Skemp: I know.
Daryl Ward: I do have one that I really love from last year that I just tried for the first time, and that’s called Cherokee Green. So it’s related to the Cherokee Purple, but the skin is yellow and then when you cut it open the flesh is super green, bright green, and very sweet. It’s. Isn’t it a good tomato honey?
Patty Ward: Yeah. I was surprised how much I liked it. It’s up there in my top three favorites probably. Yeah,
How to Make Gardening Financially Worth It
Ana Skemp: In our April May issue we ran an article called Is Gardening Worth It Financially? And I think on a lot of people’s minds right now are the prices at the grocery store and supply chain stuff. What advice do you have for people? Is it worth it financially? And if you’re just getting started, what’s the way to go?
What are some crops that are really worth your time to begin with?
Patty Ward: That’s a great question with many layers, but I think you should start with things that you will actually eat. [00:06:00] It’s fun to get a bunch of varieties in and plant them, but if your family doesn’t like a certain crop, like maybe nobody likes radishes, but they’re a great spring crop. Maybe that’s not something you wanna grow. I would start with for sure varieties that you know your family will eat and use, and then try some new ones each year after that. And as far as supplies, I think it’s one of those things where trial and error, you’ll figure out what you’d but just add to your collection of seed starting supplies a little every year is reasonable.
Daryl Ward: Advice I typically give gardeners is grow things that are, you can’t get or that are really expensive at the store. Yeah. So asparagus is an example. It’s relatively expensive at the store and it’s not hard to grow and it’s perennial, so it comes back year after year.
So those, crops like that. The other thing is something that’s really productive when you grow radishes. You get a bundle of radishes, there’s a very quick crop, and then it’s gone [00:07:00] and that’s great. But a crop like Swiss chard, one plant. One plant is enough to feed more than we could possibly need all summer long, six, sevenmonths.
Patty Ward: Yeah. So productive.
Daryl Ward: And it’s so good and so healthy that, so you could focus on crops like Swiss chard that are just that super productive.
What cover crops help your garden succeed?
Ana Skemp: At Mother Earth News, we like to talk about the cost of a single packet of seeds, and if you had to go to the grocery store and purchase a bunch of Swiss chard, like your seed cost is basically covered by the time you buy one or two bunches.
There’s so much value in growing your own, I think. One thing I love about your company is that you offer all these great vegetable varieties, but you also have cover crops to help your garden succeed. Could you tell us a little bit more about some of the cover crops you think are worthwhile?
And in particular, maybe ones for beginner gardeners that aren’t gonna take over the whole garden, or would do well like in the paths between crops.
Daryl Ward: It’s funny you asked that question ’cause just this morning we, Patty and I were out in the garden [00:08:00] doing some spring cleanup and we had planted some driller, dicon driller radishes last fall. They, over the winter they get frozen and they die. But just today we were raking them back and you should have seen the holes that they had left behind. They’re great. They do what they’re advertised to do. They drill down on the soil and break it up and leave these big holes that are provide a lot of aeration. Weren’t you impressed by what we saw out there this morning? Yeah.
Patty Ward: Yeah. And what was cool is that, I knew what the, they looked like in the fall, but then to see in the spring that, where we left rows that had the dicons. And then to rake it back, we could see they had started to decompose, but all of those holes were there.
These big, nice holes that are helping break up the clay soil and aerate it just, yeah, it was really cool.
Daryl Ward: Also out there this fall we had some oats and some rye growing, and I was [00:09:00] actually terminating it as well. And everywhere that was growing it the soil was beautiful and dark and, looked really healthy and live. Everywhere that didn’t have a plant covering it, looked, looks a little dead. And that’s the real benefit of the cover crops, is they add, they keep the soil alive ’cause the microbes need the roots of the plants that are growing to thrive. And so it keeps everything alive and going even in the winter.
We offer yellow mustard and of course the daikon radish and some oats and rye. What else do we have? Buck wheat
Patty Ward: clovers.
Daryl Ward: Oh, clovers. That all hairy vetch hairy vetch. Another legume that adds nitrogen to the soil as well, pulls it out of the air and puts it in the soil.
So that’s a great cover crop. The other thing that we’ve done is tried to, we package the cover crops with enough to cover a four by eight bed, and they’re great for raised beds in that way. [00:10:00] Typically you think of cover crops as an agricultural thing, and so it come, they come in 50 pound bags or 10 pound bags. That doesn’t really work for a backyard gardener. And we’ve tried to make those cover crops available for people to use in their raised beds.
Patty Ward: I love the crimson clovers so well. A lot of them have little, flowers and they’re so pretty in the spring before you have to crimp them down. But it just is fun to have that green, beautiful crop and the crimson clover. You’ve got these magenta blooms all over. Yeah it’s just a fun site to see ’em.
Daryl Ward: They are beautiful. It’s sad to, I know take them down.
Patty Ward: It’s,
Plants for Pollinators
Ana Skemp: These cover crops are great early sources of food for the pollinators.
What else in your offerings are good to consider to plant alongside our vegetables for the pollinators?
Patty Ward: I love to always have flowers and herbs that have blossoms, colorful flowers for the pollinators are beautiful in the garden, and they keep the bees and the [00:11:00] butterflies in the garden.
And so that’s always, something you should have, I would recommend lots of blossoms for pollinators, and I love them. I love the flowers. It’s one of my favorite things to grow. I have a flower farm. That I grow a lot of flowers in, but then we also mix ’em in the garden as well. Last year we had a marigold border and we just had different spots that had flowers in the garden, some beneficial things, companion planting like we planted sweet alyssum and basil next to our tomatoes.
Daryl Ward: There’s always a little I wouldn’t call it friction, but the zinnias in the vegetable garden always seem to be coming. I’m like, put your flowers back. I need room for my vegetables.
Patty Ward: I plant more zinnias than he sometimes wants. But that’s okay.
Ana Skemp: Oh, I love that. That sounds like me and my husband too.
He is let’s do production vegetables. I’m like what about the pollinators and the beauty and the flowers for the table too? So [00:12:00] there’s a balance there for sure. That’s funny to hear other people do that too.
Daryl Ward: I will say about the alyssum we actually had it around the peppers too. It was the best crop of peppers we’d had. And I don’t know exactly what the alysumms doing for the peppers, but it was clear there was a benefit there.
Patty Ward: It just helps, so you don’t have weeds underneath. You have something growing at the base of the pepper, so you’re not, it’s not competing as much with different weeds that would get big.
Daryl Ward: I think there was more to it, but I don’t know exactly what it was, but it definitely was beneficial.
Sow Right Seeds Catalog
Ana Skemp: Yeah. That’s fun. Your seeds, are they meant for a particular region of the country? Are you selecting for varieties that thrive no matter where you are?
Daryl Ward: Yeah, that’s true. Our customer base is in the United States and so we are not regionalized like that. We do try to select varieties that we feel will do well in the north and in the south it’s, it more is a matter of timing when you plant them. I will admit that there’s some of our varieties won’t grow in the [00:13:00] upper portion of Wisconsin.
It would be a real challenge without having something to extend the season. But our philosophy is let’s get seeds that will grow well anywhere in the United States.
Josh Wilder: Today’s sponsor again, thank you to Sow Bright Seeds. They’re an heirloom seed company that offers fresh, high quality, open pollinated seeds. They have a great selection on their website of over 400 varieties, along with a planters library with tips for growing. I love that they offer a wide variety of seeds for sustainable home gardening.
The instructions on the back of their packets have all the information you need to get started. Go to SowRightSeeds.com and use code MotherEarth10 for 10% off your order. Thanks again.
Selecting Heirloom Seeds and Open Pollinated Seeds
Ana Skemp: What other criteria do you have when you’re selecting seeds? Are you doing open pollinated ? Tell me more Exactly. About what you’re carrying.
Patty Ward: We only carry heirloom seeds that, and open pollinated seeds. So we have not added any other [00:14:00] hybrid type seeds. We’re looking for, good heirloom varieties to preserve those great varieties. We also, we don’t. You look for any seeds that are treated we want ’em to be untreated and heirloom open, pollinated varieties is is the only thing that we’ve chosen to carry.
Daryl Ward: We feel strongly about that, that preserving those varieties that our grandparents and that we grew up growing, we’re getting old enough. I guess that counts as heirloom now. We feel really strongly about that. They’re great varieties and many of the hybrids bring in characteristics that are good for the grocery store shelf.
That’s not really what a gardener’s looking for. Gardener’s not worried about how long a tomato can last after you pick it and. When you pick a tomato, it’s time to eat it. There are some good hybrids out there. I don’t mean to completely bash hybrids. There’s some that I’ve grown and loved over the years, but the open pollinated ones [00:15:00] are, we like ’em because we and our customers can save the seeds and, move their harvest forward into the next year as well.
Patty Ward: And I feel like there’s a growing interest in saving seeds. For your, home gardeners wanna save seeds so they can grow they can grow crops the following year from the seeds that they purchased once.
Beginner Plants to Start Your Seed Saving Journey
Ana Skemp: I agree. There’s definitely a lot of interest right now in seed saving, and I feel like for beginner gardeners in particular, it feels challenging.
Like how do this, what steps do I follow? How do I even get started? Are there a couple plants that you would recommend that are like great beginner plants for seed saving?
Daryl Ward: Tomatoes are pretty easy and they self pollinate
Patty Ward: and have a ton of seeds and they have a good amount of seeds, so
Daryl Ward: that’s a pretty easy one.
There is some fermentation that is required, but it’s not too challenging. If you’d I could just describe the process.
Ana Skemp: That. Yeah, that’d be fun. I think it’s great for people to hear that. It’s actually [00:16:00] not as hard as it sounds like. Yeah. Fermentation mostly just happens. Tell us how, tell us the details.
Daryl Ward: Yeah, so I, it’s important to pick, the best tomatoes on the plant. So I typically will mark the plant, the tomato that I’m going to be selecting or. They’re fine if I just go out there and find the best one, but I just cut ’em in half and just squeeze out the gel and the seeds into I usually just use a mason jar.
And label the mason jar, fill it full of water, not all the way full, about a couple inches of water in it. And then I just put a loosely, put a cap on it and set it aside for two or three days. And what happens is it ferments all the gel that’s around the seeds breaks down. And the seeds and the gel the good seeds fall to the bottom and the seeds that are not viable float to the top, along with all the gel.
And it looks a little nasty, but. You just pour that water off and outgo the bad, the nonviable [00:17:00] seeds and the gel, and you’re left with the good seeds and rinse ’em a few times.
Patty Ward: Then let ’em dry out.
Daryl Ward: Yeah. And then put ’em on a paper towel and let ’em dry out. And it’s as simple as that. It, takes three or four days and then a little bit of drying time.
It is important to dry ’em thoroughly before you put ’em in any sort of container, especially if it’s plastic. We generally store our seed that we save in paper.
Beans for Flavor and Vigor
Ana Skemp: One of my personal goals this year is I really wanna be growing a large amount of dry beans. I grew some this winter. I loved using them for dinners and I really wanna focus on one variety this year. Grow a lot of them for eating next winter. Do you have a recommendation for beans based on flavor or vigor?
Daryl Ward: One of my personal favorites is Lima Beans. And it’s a, it’s actually amazing the way that one seed you put it in, how much it will produce.
Yeah, Ford Hook Lima Bean is a really big bean and I don’t know if that’s why I like it, but [00:18:00] it’s a great one for doing that to multiply it up and then have it use it as a dry bean. And the great thing is you’re essentially saving seeds as well. You can take what, reserve a little bit and plant it the next year.
Patty Ward: Yep. Yeah, last year we harvested, we saved our blackeyed cow peas and our pink eye cow peas. And that was really fun too. It was, really easy to harvest them because with, I think tomatoes require a bit more, a few more steps and other varieties where you can just let ’em get dry on the vine and then shell ’em and save them is what we did for the cow peas. And that was very easy to do.
Daryl Ward: Folks should not be intimidated by saving seeds. The plant does all the work, right? It’s producing the seed. It’s designed by nature to preserve those seeds and make ’em available for the next year. And so it’s just a matter of picking them at the right time.
Beans, you wanna let the pods get completely dry and brown, so the [00:19:00] seeds are rattling inside of there, and then you take ’em off and separate ’em from the pods, and you got your seed.
Crops That You Can Store through Winter
Ana Skemp: So peas and beans are great winter storage crops. Is there anything else on your list that you’d rec, like these tomatoes, we wanna eat them within minutes of harvest.
They’re as lucky if we make them to dinner, but what about crops that’ll store into January? What’s on your list for those?
Patty Ward: We we still have butternut squash that we’re harvesting and eating the Tromboncino squash. Oh, that
Daryl Ward: one’s so good.
Patty Ward: Yeah. I love those. Yeah.
Daryl Ward: Yeah.
Patty Ward: Any of the winter squash?
I would say mostly the squash, pumpkins, the beans.
Daryl Ward: And don’t forget the preserving of the food as well. That’s the way to really bring the harvest and the freshness into winter. Is just putting the food up either by freezing it or jarring it up.
Ana Skemp: Yep. Enjoy the Tromboncino squash as a summer squash as well?
Daryl Ward: Yes, we did.
Ana Skemp: That’s one new variety that I’m a stubborn old gardener and I don’t readily accept new varieties, but man, that one, it’s [00:20:00] so much of the squash bugs are nothing to it. It’s easier to grow even than a zucchini.
And you get this wonderful summer squash plus storage squash. I’m a huge fan of that one. I
Patty Ward: feel like. Yeah, it was so prolific too. There were so many, and they’re so big. So I feel like you get a lot of, it’s, you get a lot of food for the amount of space it takes up in the garden. It’s a big plant though.
Let’s not,
Daryl Ward: let’s be honest. It’s a big plant. It’s a big plant.
Patty Ward: But, and it’s funny ’cause somebody gave me one like, oh don’t gosh, it was probably like six or seven years ago. They’re like, you’ve gotta try this. Squash and I was like, oh, I don’t know that’s a little weird. We started growing it. We’re like, oh, this is a great squash. Yeah.
Daryl Ward: It’s a super popular seed that we sell for sure. It flies off the shelf. That’s a great squash.
Patty Ward: It’s, yeah, it’s popular. It’s an up and comer for sure,
Daryl Ward: But there’s a lot of easy ways to preserve the harvest as well. So with tomatoes, we make a tomato sauce that we’re still [00:21:00] eating it from last year’s harvest and man, it is so good and it’s relatively easy to make. What we do is we just take the tomatoes. Sometimes we cut ’em, sometimes we don’t. We just throw ’em in a big tin pan, put some garlic and some onion in there, and a little bit of olive oil, and then cook ’em really hard in the oven, like at 450 degrees for about an hour and, strain.
Patty Ward: We strain the seeds out, like I’ll blend it, strain the seeds, and then,
Daryl Ward: Oh, you missed a step. So before you put it in the blender you pour off the liquid that comes from this, from these tomatoes. That makes the very best stock. It’s essentially the gel that’s around the seed, which is where a lot of the flavor is. And so we’ll take that liquid that comes off the tomatoes and reduce it down and put it as stock cubes, put it in ice cube tray and make. And that boy that really brings a strong tomato flavor to any dish, you put it in like
Patty Ward: sauces. Yeah. That is really good too. Yeah.
Okay,
Daryl Ward: So after that step, what’s next?
Patty Ward: [00:22:00] So after we, yeah, take the liquid off the tomatoes, then I’ll blend the tomatoes and onions in the blender and strain the seeds out. And then we will can the pasta sauce. That’s pasta sauce that’s left and it’s. So good because it’s got this, or sometimes I’ll freeze some and use for tomato soup.
But I really like to can the tomatoes ’cause I feel like you get that freshness over the next year. And I just, I love to can tomato, especially the tomato pasta sauce to just have, because I feel like it’s, you’re getting that fresh flavor. Versus I would rather spend my time canning that than other things, in the garden.
Daryl Ward: Yeah, that’s true.
Ana Skemp: It’s always sad when the last jar of that is, is gone. That, and I can’t make enough pesto. I’ve never made it past mid-January, some year I’m gonna finally grown up basil to, to get through the winter.
Daryl Ward: So how do you store your pesto? I’m curious.
Ana Skemp: I’ve just done [00:23:00] like freezer cubes, basically.
Daryl Ward: Yeah. And I can
Ana Skemp: grab the number that I want and add it to whatever.
Daryl Ward: That’s how we do it. And that’s, that is a great way, but I’m always looking for new ways to keep the food. Yeah.
Ana Skemp: Yep.
Daryl Ward: Yep.
Vegetables and Herbs for Small Spaces
Ana Skemp: So we have a lot of urban homesteaders and people just getting started that ask us questions about, okay, this is, if you have all the space, that’s great.
You can grow these cow peas and these giant squash, these people are limited to a couple grow bags or maybe a raised bat on a balcony. What varieties would you consider, what vegetables, herbs, whatever, would you encourage them to consider?
Patty Ward: There’s actually a lot you can grow, like even in some different things to consider would be like we have a tiny Tim tomato plant. Any like lettuces or greens do really well in a hydroponic system. They, you could also do container gardening. I love to grow microgreens, especially in the winter, but you could grow those year round on the counter. I love that they’re super [00:24:00] good for you and you can have something fresh in eight to 10 days.
So microgreens would be probably one of the quickest, easiest things, but. I’d also to recommend for people who don’t have a lot of space to try a hydroponic system because we have several hydroponic systems going and I harvest the lettuce and bok choy and kale and herbs out of them frequently, and it’s a really fun way.
To have that fresh for us during the winter months.
Daryl Ward: And the other thing I would say is look for varieties that have dwarf characteristics. So we offer a sugar and pea and it gets to be about oh two and a half feet tall. It’s not real. It’s not a, the sugar snap or the telephone pole pea
Which get, we’ve had telephone, p pol peas, they’re up six, seven feet. And that thus their name, right? But the sugar hand is a dwarf variety and does great. The other even zucchinis we offer a round [00:25:00] zucchini, and that plant, I’d say is about a quarter of the size of a regular black beauty zucchini. And so if you look for the right varieties that will fit the space, you can still enjoy growing and eating the vegetables, but not have to have tons of space.
It’s also been really surprising to me. We have 10 raised beds in our garden, plus in the ground, but it’s amazing how much food you can place in a raised bed.
Because you don’t need a row. And if you space your plants appropriately you can
Patty Ward: fit a lot. You can get a lot in
Daryl Ward: there.
Patty Ward: Yeah. I love the growing in the raised beds for that reason. I feel like you can do, more. Put ’em in pretty close. They do really well. It’s just fun and easy to work out at the raised bed.
I love that it’s, you’re not on the ground as much. Yeah. There was something else I was thinking about. Oh, herbs. I love to have fresh herbs to cook with, so I feel like herbs do really well in [00:26:00] containers or in a hydroponic system. If you have a full sunny window or a porch, then it’s always fun to cook with fresh herbs.
That’s one of my favorite things about the garden for sure.
Top Herbs To Grow
Ana Skemp: Yeah. And those, the plastic packages at the store, they never last as long as you want them to. They’re expensive. And I herbs, that’s funny. You just read my mind on that. I was just gonna say, tell me about herbs. If you could grow, what are five or six recommendations that you would grow?
Daryl Ward: Boy, that’s hard too. That’s like asking what’s your favorite tomato?
Patty Ward: I love them all. For, I guess for taste and the ones I use the most, I’ll, I would say the ones I use the most are would be the five. But I love chives because I, we have chives coming up. They’re the first thing that come up every year.
And so we have chives in the spring, summer, fall. I love basil when it’s warm outside. Basil, I use a ton. I also love thyme and oregano. And then, [00:27:00] gosh, what would be the, my top fifth one?
Daryl Ward: Gotta be cilantro or sage. Yeah,
Patty Ward: I’d say cilantro. You.
Daryl Ward: The other ones that we’ve recently been growing a lot of and offering for sale are medicinal herbs.
We’ve got comfrey and mugwart and wormwood and some other ones that have more of a medicinal use.
Patty Ward: The chamolies are really, yeah. Chamolies one of my favorite medicinals. You can eat the blossoms and make tea. Plus they’re pretty, and they bring in the pollinators. They serve so many purposes.
Yeah. In the garden.
Daryl Ward: Yeah. That German chamolie is really quite a showstopper, isn’t it?
Yeah. no garden, I don’t think a garden’s complete without some lavender. We’ve got a whole, our, the whole bed of lavender and it’s a boundary. In the theory that it will keep deter some past, but it’s really just beautiful.
Patty Ward: Yeah. It’s a perennial, so we planted it in a kind of on the border to, so critters [00:28:00] will smell the lavender, hopefully stay out of the garden. Yeah. But also it’s really pretty to look at as well. Yeah. I forgot about lavender. I love lavender.
Ana Skemp: You’ve mentioned asparagus, chives, lavender. Do you offer, what other perennials do you offer and which of those would you recommend?
For herbs, just anything. Any what? Perennials. Oh gosh.
Patty Ward: We we have a lot of the medicinal herbs or perennials most of them are one that I am loving just ’cause it’s so pretty. And. I love it in flower arrangements, but the bees love it is blue sage. That’s been my favorite one this last year.
Let’s see, what else? I love the the echinacea as well. It’s pretty, and it’s a great medicinal,
Daryl Ward: So we probably better break this up in, so we have a lot of perennial flowers, like your black-eyed Susan and coneflower, and just too many to list here.
Then many herbs as well. As far as vegetables [00:29:00] go, it, we rhubarb, artichoke, asparagus. We’re always looking for other perennial vegetables, but there aren’t very many to be honest with you.
Ana Skemp: Yeah. Echinacea is such a great plant to grow. I’ve been making elderberry syrup all month and popping a little bit of echinacea in the simmer and that’s good stuff. And it’s beautiful in the garden. It’s beautiful In the winter garden, that would be, that’s one of my favorite plants.
It’s hard to pick favorites, but that one’s up there for sure.
How Does Sow Right Now Source Seeds?
How do you source seeds?
Ana Skemp: So we’d love to grow all of our own seeds but it’s just not physically possible. So take a pumpkin for example. You need two miles of separation between different varieties of pumpkin so you don’t get across and the seed doesn’t come true. And we use contract with seed production companies in California, Arizona, and a little bit in Texas and in Oregon, and they contract the farmers to grow the seed for us.
Tell me what you’re [00:30:00] planting this month. When does your first round go in? Like the early stuff?
Patty Ward: We have a lot in the grow station right now. We have onions, tomatoes, peppers. We just started flowers today, this morning, so that was fun. And our onions are getting ready to go out in the garden, so that’ll go later.
Daryl Ward: Later this week or next week. That will be
Patty Ward: the first thing that’s not a perennial, right?
Daryl Ward: Yep.
Patty Ward: Yep. And then, gosh, we’re getting lots started. We have kale and all the coal crops started. We’ll transplant tomatoes and peppers in the hoop house when it’s warm enough. Probably April, middle of April and then we’ll put other cold crops out in the garden a little bit before that.
Daryl Ward: The other thing is if we grow a fall vegetable garden, typically, and it’s surprising how many vegetables over winter and come back green. Spinach for sure. That’s a no brainer. And we were out in the cleanup, the kale’s all coming back. And that’s really the first [00:31:00] thing that we harvest out of the garden is this stuff that has overwintered and comes right to life as soon as it’s warm enough, even well before the last frost.
Ana Skemp: That sounds wonderful. I’m just a little too far north, but I’m jealous.
Daryl Ward: If you pile up enough straw, it would make it
Ana Skemp: Fresh greens this time of year is so wonderful.
Daryl Ward: Yeah.
Ana Skemp: Tastes so much better than anything you could ever buy.
Daryl Ward: And the spinach even tastes better if it’s over winter. It really does. It’s so sweet. Remember that spinach? We haven’t picked any this year, but last year we had a great crop of overwintered spinach. It was just as sweet as it could be.
Josh Wilder: Whenever I talk to folks who are, as involved in the seed community as you are obviously like anybody who goes to a seed swap or is involved in a seed company or is trading seeds through the mail, really they have a passion for it. And I think the donation program you have is, speaks to that. Can you tell us a little bit about [00:32:00] that program and how it got started?
Sow Right Seeds Donation Program
Daryl Ward: Yeah, absolutely. This, we started donating seeds just as soon as we started selling seeds, to be honest with you. And our ideal organization is somebody who’s growing food to feed people. That’s who we’re really looking for. And I think we normally send out around 500 boxes of about a hundred packets each to different organizations to reduce their costs if they’re growing food, to feed people that are in need. We wanna do what we can to support ’em. And it’s been a real blessing to us to receive all the feedback from all these groups about the good that they’re doing in the world with those seeds. It’s what makes my heart happy.
Patty Ward: Yeah. It’s part of our mission is to give back and do good in the world through our, seed donations to nonprofits and. And also we are able to donate a lot of garden produce to two local food pantries, and they normally [00:33:00] don’t get fresh produce.
Josh Wilder: They mostly get, boxed and non-perishables. It’s really fun to be able to donate fresh produce. And also just support organizations that are, they already have a system in place to help people learn skills and grow gardens. And we can fill in that gap of providing the seed to these organizations.
That’s great. Yeah. ’cause whenever I think about sustainability it’s not just what you’re getting out of or putting into the ground, it’s also your community. And keeping, the qualities that you wanna keep around, whether that’s through organizations or through specific individuals or gardens it’s sharing, whether it’s education or seeds or your time.
Josh Wilder: I think that’s really valuable. It’s a lot of what we try to do here at Mother Earth News and be a place where we can, connect people like yourself with our audience or, whether it’s seeds with folks or, information to anybody who’s looking for it. So we really appreciate your time today and it was great [00:34:00] to talk to you.
Daryl Ward: Oh, certainly our pleasure. Thank you for taking time.
Patty Ward: Yes, thank you. And I love what you guys do as well, so thank you for that.
This episode was brought to you by Sow Bright Seeds. They’re an heirloom seed company that offers fresh, high quality open pollinated seeds. Their great selection on the website has over 400 varieties, as well as a planter’s library with tips are growing. I love that they offer a wide variety of sustainable home gardening seeds.
The instructions on the packets have all the information you need to get started. Go to SowRightSeeds.com and use code MotherEarth10 for 10% off your order.
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast. You can also email us at [00:35:00] Podcast@OgdenPubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications.
