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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 7, 2013 11:24:56 GMT -5
Yesterday when I got the e-mail that they had forgotten the Misc. section of the yearbook, I went on-line and looked at it. Sometimes I think this is the most interesting section of the whole book.
As always, this book comes too late for me to order things like tomatoes from. Not that I would order tomatoes, as Dar has set me up with tomatoes for the next 20 years.
However, there was an entry for Sugar Cane in there growing in FL, I know someone was looking for that.
I'm interested in non-GMO Sugar Beets.
And Emmer/Farro. Particularly the stuff you can make pilaff out of. Since my rice trials were such a failure, I'm trying to go in this direction.
Seeds through the Exchange have gotten pretty expensive at $5 smackers a packet and really there's so few seeds that there's barely enough for a test plot from. For some seeds that I've received, I've had to do 2 years of increase before I could even taste them.
I really don't know what the big deal is about ordering 2 packages of something. Really, if you planted something like Emmer, enough to offer seeds, you should easily have hundreds of seeds.
Rant, rave, pout.
The gophers ate my beautiful sugar beets. If I get another package, I'm going to basket them. The ones I received from Oz were lovely. Yes I ate one. I was leaving the rest to go to seed. Ha, the gopher has had a lovely winter snack.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 7, 2013 13:24:03 GMT -5
Hudson Valley Seed Library has some non-GMO sugar beets.
I offer my seeds at different rates from the suggested ones, and a lot of other listed members do to. I also find that if somebody looks to be a cool gardener and is growing some interesting stuff like small grains or anything other than tomatoes and dry beans, it is worth calling them, emailing, or writing them and seeing if you can get more if you need it. You never know till you ask.
IMO the suggested prices are bullshit. The SSE Home Farm is by far the largest listed member. Way bigger than anyone else including ME BO W when he was still in. They've got a lot of staff and infrastructure costs and they use the suggested prices as an income generator to cover a lot of those costs. I also never resented sending ME BO W the full suggested prices because Scatterseed was depending on those requests to fund the project. But the suggested prices go way past the cost of shipping as soon as you request more than one item from anyone. If I order three corn varieties as a listed member that's $12. I could get three 2 oz corn samples in a padded mailer to anywhere in the US for way less than that.
I only to use the request form/suggested price if I am requesting a single item from somebody. Then the seed + shipping is pretty close to going rates. If I want multiple items from somebody or need more than the minimum amount of seed I contact them first to see if we can work out a deal, especially a seed trade which is my preference. Most listed members only get a handful of requests a year and usually they have a ton of seed of whatever it is. THey also usually like to talk shop. The other thing that it helps to do is break the ice and tends to prevent the black hole of lost seed requests.
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Post by Leenstar on Feb 7, 2013 22:34:51 GMT -5
I used to be really excited about the yearbook and poured over it upon arrival. I let my membership lapse this year because of joining here and the prices of stuff listed in the year book was getting a little crazy. Its 5 a packet now from people? Yikes!
They didn't include the miscellaneous section??? That was the best section, partly because it was a potpourri of rare and weird stuff.
Maybe I'll join again. I have enough seeds right now of most stuff I am looking to try. I contemplated sharing seeds but wasn't sure my work schedule would really be able to to accomodate filling requests.
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Post by paquebot on Feb 8, 2013 0:37:59 GMT -5
Over about past 10 years, this was the first time ever having received it in January as mine was in hand 1/29. Previously, always from mid-February onward.
As for pricing, it's up to the individual lister. Tomatoes/small seeds are $3 for listed member or $4 for unlisted. My price is $2 each or 6 for 10 regardless of member status. Others also have special prices for small seeds since there is not a big cash outlay for packing and postage.
$4 for large seeds listed, or $5 unlisted, is quite reasonable when the costs are considered. They require a bubble envelope and the cheapest run about 25¢ when purchased as box of 250. Postage on that is now $2.07. Although I list 402 varieties of tomatoes, I also have at least 100 varieties of beans but will not list them due to the time and expense involved.
The suggested SSE prices were for US and Canada but should no longer apply for north of the border. Postage for 1 packet of large seeds in a bubble envelope to Canada is now $6.55. Two weeks ago it would have been $3.15. A packet of tomato seeds would have been 85¢ and now requires $1.10.
Martin
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Post by paquebot on Feb 8, 2013 2:03:04 GMT -5
Neglected to mention something else. The lateness factor for southern growers no longer applies. If one is a member, he or she has access to the on-line version which is updated immediately with every individual entry. I was already receiving requests in December and none had a proper order form since none was available. No problem with that since if they have access to the yearbook, they are also a member since it requires password access. A good feature there is that one can add or delete a variety year around with the on-line version and I have already done so with several new ones and several which I feel have too few seeds available.
Martin
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Post by ilex on Feb 8, 2013 4:51:24 GMT -5
5$ for domestic? oh my. I list my seeds at 3$ for everybody, some big ones like lima, chickpeas at 4$ ... and I'm in Spain.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 8, 2013 7:20:28 GMT -5
I agree that for a single request the suggested prices are not out of line for shipping inside the US, even with the large seeds. But the disconnect happens when multiple items are requested. One bean sample at $4 can be shipped quite easily in a bubble mailer. But if I request 5 bean samples, it takes much less than $20 to ship. That's why I charge the suggested prices for the first sample and then 50 cents for each additional.
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Post by paquebot on Feb 8, 2013 20:31:06 GMT -5
Like I said, anyone can price as they wish. The prices are "suggested", not mandatory. Normal rule throughout the consumer world is that if one doesn't like the cost of buying something from one source, find a cheaper source.
Postage from Europe to the US is cheap now compared to from here to there. There is a member on this forum who is from Israel and wanted some of my bean varieties. The 3 ounce package cost about $4.50 postage two weeks ago. Now it would be $9.45. I recently received a package of seeds from France with postage of 0.89€ which would have cost me $6.55 if going the other direction.
Martin
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Post by atash on Feb 9, 2013 0:24:00 GMT -5
12540dumont, I appreciate farmers like you willing to grow items that it's hard to find seed for. I'm guessing you've already tried Emmer aka Faro. I've had it store-bought. I use it in non-leafy salads.
The online catalog will be down for a while as per an announcement over Facebook. So much for using that to work around the missing sections. If you look closely, you'll notice that the categories are somewhat different online from the published catalog. The online version at least could use some reorganization.
I don't mind the prices or the small seed amounts, because I only use it as a resource for finding stuff I can't find elsewhere, which implies that quantities are limited up front. I realize that some items are tedious to grow out. Others, like quinoa, are fast to grow out. We're lucky in the states (those of us in the states, anyway) to have it as a resource, as selling unregistered seed varieties is illegal in Europe. Presumably too you have to be licensed to sell seed, since the whole point is to grant a monopoly on cropseed production.
I suggest collecting what you really want while you can.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 9, 2013 13:47:33 GMT -5
So what I'm looking for is Farro from Italy - Piccolo Farro....Cortona, can you hunt me more kinds of Farro. It needs to speak Italian!
This was stolen without shame from Anson Mills. Farro is Italian. Specifically, farro is the Italian word for ancient grains brought by denizens of the Fertile Crescent to the region that is now Italy. The cradle of civilization and birthplace of wheat, the Fertile Crescent is an arc of territory beginning in northeastern Africa and ascending up through lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean rim, then swinging up and over to the east, and then down to the Persian Gulf. Think war: the region has been at war in some form for millennia, a curious backdrop for an occupation as peaceful as farming innovation and world-class seedsmanship.
Like many transcultural foodstuffs, farro abounds with confusing names and a trove of great stories, some of which contradict, some of which move farro foodways forward. Farro dates to the inception of domesticated plants and the advent of dedicated farming. We can be proud of farro because Roman legions charged relentlessly across conquered lands at inhuman speed sustained by its nourishment. And we excuse the recent scrambling of farro classification because, really, it’s amazing food no matter what it’s called.
Simple whole-berry farro has three identities in Italy alone, and each dates back to antiquity: farro piccolo (little farro), farro medio (medium farro), and farro grande (big farro). So what’s the problem with this?
In the 20th century, the Germans, master grain growers and millers since antiquity, chose to call farro piccolo einkorn—a succinctly German downbeat of a name that refers to an individual awn’s tendency to break into single spikes: ein korn or “one kernel.” More poetically, the French call farro piccolo le petit épeautre. In Hebrew, the name for farro medio is emmer, or “mother.” (We like this one, because Native Americans call corn “mother.”) When it comes to farro grande, the Germans call it dinkel, though we note no special reason in that. In English, farro grande is spelt. Farro medio is emmer just as it is in Hebrew. Farro piccolo is probably einkorn, but einkorn can come from anywhere, and farro piccolo comes only from Italy. There, that was easy.
Latin for each farro classification (pay attention—there will be a test later) is more precise: farro piccolo is Triticum monococcum, farro medio is Triticum dicoccum, and farro grande is Triticum spelta. Farro should be classified small, medium, or large, and it should be that simple. But those sneaky Italians have farro piccolos that are larger than farro medios, and farro medios and farro grandes that are smaller than farro piccolos. So, as often happens when you stray from Latin names, everything gets all mixed up.
Forget the test. The Italians and the French of Provence romance farro dishes, and one comes to fall in love with their unending and luxurious culinary takes on this grain. Germans quote health proverbs and boast that their farro cookery is better than that of the French. Here in America, we watched farro become a trend almost two decades ago. It’s hard to believe chefs use to fight over supply. Farro was allocated in Italy and in America like rare wine. But American chefs have brought thrills to farro’s flavor and texture envelope in the last few years, and now there are candied farro puffs floating around out there in pastry chef land. Curious, but sublime when paired with airy popcorn mousse.
More than a decade ago, Anson Mills began growing dozens of different cultivars of farro piccolo, farro medio, and farro grande. We knew they were farro, not einkorn or emmer, because they came from Italy and spoke Italian, not German or Hebrew. We did this because the first Charlestowne rice farmers were Italian, and it was these Italian rice farmers who brought farro—tough, persistent, and barely removed from its wild counterpart—to Charlestowne for winter cover cropping in the new rice fields. They winter-grazed and occasionally early spring–grazed their cattle over the farro before harvesting the grain and moving on to the next crop in late spring.
What really hooked us on farros piccolo, medio, and grande was the stunning spectrum of their whole-berry Italian heritage cookery. We were particularly interested in slow-roasted farro, and rice and farro cooked together in the same pot as pilaf, and farro cooked to its risotto clone (and known as farrotto). Beyond these forms, the plain berries overtake your senses when simmered in a little water and finished with shaved sea salt and a splash of young estate olive oil. If you cook farro this way, you will be devoted for life. What draws you in is the primordial “grain” aroma and flavor, the al dente cushionlike resistance of each berry, and the miniscule but distinct pop of each grain, as well as the burst of caramel across the palate, followed by deep mineral and field grain richness. This is how the oldest domesticated grain food on our planet drills into your consciousness.
We learned from farro that you can teach an old grain new tricks. Farro can be ground and simmered like corn to make polenta di farro, it can take the place of rice in rice pilaf, or it can replace Arborio rice and cooked into farrotto. The oldest grains adapt to diverse foundation recipes with blinding versatility, as if they have always been a part of the preparation. Farro culinary culture also taught all of us at Anson Mills the global nature of cereal foodways. We hope you have this epiphany as well.
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Post by bunkie on Feb 9, 2013 17:52:16 GMT -5
holly, i can include some whole grain Farro i got from bluebird grains www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com/ in 2011. am growing it this year. may have some none GM sugar beets for you too, from two different sources. am growing them this year too. are you interested in mangels? i PROMISE to get your package off to you this coming week for sure!!! between weather, aand our local PO giving us hassles, we now have to send seed packages at the big PO not our little one, and that's a trek.
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Post by atash on Feb 9, 2013 22:22:51 GMT -5
What's the nature of the hassle? I'm curious because it looks like some policies have changed system-wide.
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Post by bunkie on Feb 10, 2013 13:03:56 GMT -5
What's the nature of the hassle? I'm curious because it looks like some policies have changed system-wide. atash, i know. i'm wondering what's next?! i am trying to get some seeds to a friend in Iceland, and the local, small PO will not do any mail international now, so they told me. we have to take it to the bigger PO, 30 plus miles down the road. course, now i'm thinking of weighing the dayum envelopes, and calling the big PO and having them tell me how much to put on it and put them in our mailbox...i need to get a scale!
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Post by Drahkk on Feb 10, 2013 15:04:08 GMT -5
I think I'm a little behind. My work schedule changed about 6 months ago, and the new hours rarely let me make it to our little local post office when it's open, so my last couple of internationals to Israel and Croatia went through the big PO in Vicksburg out of necessity. Now I'm hearing prices have jumped and small POs won't ship them anymore? What did I miss?
MB
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Post by atash on Feb 11, 2013 0:26:14 GMT -5
Ours won't either, and you can't do it by automated kiosk either, which means standing in the long, slow line at one of the big post offices. Worse, they now require the post office staff to type in the information on the customs form. Well, none of them can type, or spell, so they put up a lot of resistance to doing any at all. This is turning into a small disaster for our business.
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