Welcome to Our 8th Season Offering Staple Crop Seeds!

YAY! It's 2025 and what better way to spend a blustery winter's day than to dream of spring planting! Thank you for being here; what an honor it is that our little company which started on a "Let's give it a try and see what happens" whim, is now in its eighth season offering staple crops seeds that help you meet your plant-based lifestyle goals. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

As we open for seed sales, there are several details I need to highlight for your consideration.

While we have opened for sales, it wasn't because we were 100% ready with the behind-the-scenes tasks needed to go from your click of an "add to cart" button to seed packs being filled to your order entering the USPS system. We open because understandably people are eagerly planning their gardens (I know I am!) Please keep in mind that we have opened three weeks earlier than we did in 2024, so we are still in "holiday-mode" recovery and are a bit behind updating our inventory which includes over 400 SKUs!

2025 sees a HUGE shift in the Great Lakes Staple Seeds ethos in that now we are offering seeds from an off-farm source. The Sherck Seeds Collection is an exciting alliance that enhances the availability of reliably productive Michiana grown staple crop seeds to northern short-season growers. John and his original Sherck Seeds are a positively impactful influence on Great Lakes Staple Seeds' existance. His seeds have always done well for us on our southeast Michigan homestead and it's without any hesitation that we offer them for inclusion in your growing adventures.

A second, perhaps less exciting change for 2025 is you now need an account to place an order. This isn't some nefarious plan on my behalf to steal your identity, it's because unfortunately bots target the free Digital Downloads, spamming orders on a sometimes hourly basis - BOOOOO bots! Please be assured, as an e-commerce consumer myself, I understand wanting to preserve your privacy and I only use your information to fulfill your order. I will never sell your information and I would never share it without your express permission, not that a reason why I would share it comes to mind.

A fair majority of our listings are current when we resume orders; however, updates to varietal listings and inventories are probable. I do recognize this is source of frustration if you place an order and discover later there are varieties that are newly added or that have had their inventories updated but it is the result of a balance between expediency (seeds now! now! now! please!) and maintaining my sanity throughout a stressful resumption of orders and I mean no inconvenience.

And about some of our listings - apologies but I needed to rely on "placeholder" images as 2024 was a very distractive year for us and either the pictures were neglected or for those that I did take, I've somehow managed to misplace them (getting old sucks!) I will work to rectify this in 2025.

A gentle reminder - some seeds have a pack limit; please respect this limit. Why you ask do I place limits on some seeds? It's because we want as many people as possible to enjoy the variety. All our seeds are open-pollinated which means with intention you are able to save seeds for future plantings.

Every single order is processed by a single person - me, so it is probable that it will take up to at least 4 weeks before your order hits your mailbox. Rest assured I work diligently to fulfill orders and since starting to ship seeds in 2018, each spring order has arrived in time for spring planting. I sincerely appreciate your patience.

And a note about shipping - Please know I understand your frustration with the shipping charge. "Shipping" includes not only the actual rate set by the USPS; it covers the fee I am assessed by your credit card / Paypal for electronic payment. Over half of what is charged for "shipping" goes toward these two inescapable fees. The remaining portion goes toward covering necessary packaging/shipping supplies (envelopes, cardstock for labels, mailing envelopes, printer ink, paper for packing slips,...) as well as my time processing your order. Unfortunately like for many small businesses, these supply costs continue to increase. Well, what about the cost of the packet itself, why isn't all that factored into that charge? The price of a seed packet reflects the infrastructure costs associated with crop production and keeping the parent plants safe from critter predation during the season, the countless hours spent sowing seeds and cultivating the crops, and the further countless hours spent harvesting and processing the seeds, as well providing the supplies needed for proper seed storage. Taking all this into consideration, please know I am not using the shipping fee to accumulate a massive hoard of cash to pad my "escape this too dang cccold, too dang grey of a Michigan day" fund at your expense (not that I have such a fund...) Please know I do not take your choice to include our seeds in your growing adventures for granted. I appreciate your support of our family-run business and I do my best to keep shipping and packet costs reasonable for you while still enabling Great Lakes Staple Seeds to remain operational. Thank you for your consideration, and with that I'll step off my soapbox...

Well, I need to get back to it! And again, thank you for your continued interest in and support of Great Lakes Staple Seeds. May your 2025 be abundant in love, laughter, health, and staple crops!

Kind regards,

Eleanor