Why Choose the Hand-selected Seeds Pack?

My (Scott's) current mission is growing top quality seed of regionally adapted crops for short-season growers. This philosophy grew from our homestead gardening that already incorporated seed saving to preserve varietal diversity and a focus on staple crops to maximize our family's food security that led Eleanor to incorporate a seed business.

Growing for 'food' requires seed stocks in quantities larger than we can produce. As a result, if significant eating is your goal, you will need to perform several grow outs in succession to accumulate a sufficient seed quantity. I started by offering the 50 seeds packets, several years ago, as it let me offer many more varieties than if I wait until I had 7 grams or more to offer. Those 50 seeds are the closest siblings to the ones I plant for our family, I can do no better. I consider the 50 hand chosen seed choice ideal for those who want to get a jump ahead in plant selection and breeding.  

As costs crept up, in late 2023 we increased the number of varieties that had a 25 seed option.  A count of 25 is also used when we some new and interesting to offer, but don't want to wait another year to have enough stock to make 50 seed packets.

When we first started the 'hand selected' (by a human), we used a letter opener I made in high school wood shop in the 1980's.

Now we use the same sorting aid used by pharmacist to count pills! 

In addition to the equipment used, a lot of hand labor goes into those individual seeds! With precious and rare seeds, broadcast planting is too risky.  Each seed is individually dropped into its new home. Details of planting are found elsewhere on this site, search for "Homestead Skills".