|
|
Post by Owen on Jan 10, 2009 21:11:31 GMT -5
Hello everyone
I'm just introducing myself as a new member here. I have a small heritage seed company (www.annapolisseeds.com) that I run pretty much out of my bedroom. I've been growing vegetables since the age of about 11 when I dug up my family's entire back yard on Vancouver Island to create a vegetable garden (luckily, they hate lawns as much as I do). Soon after I met Dan Jason (www.saltspringseeds.com) who inspired me to begin growing and saving heritage seeds. More recently, the whole family moved across the country from BC to Nova Scotia to buy an old farm. With acres of garden space at our disposal the seed operation has expanded greatly, leaving us in our current position of just beginning to offer seeds commercially. I'm just starting to research plant breeding which led me to this site. for a few years now I've had four bean sports that I've been trying to stabilize, one is finished now and is just in need of a name, while the other three are still being grown out.
Anyway, great to meet everyone here and I hope to learn a lot and hopefully contribute where I can.
|
|
|
|
Post by americangardener on Jan 10, 2009 21:34:11 GMT -5
Great to meet ya Owen..
That's not a very common name.. happens to be my middle name.. but it's not one you hear around here in the US much anymore.
Looks like you found the right place.. we talk about heritage and new creations here. I think you'll find alot of usefull info. And if you ever want to trade seeds.. i'm sure you'll find plenty of people here with some nice collections. I have a few myself.
I'm not much of a breeder either.. i've dabbled around with crossing some cucumbers years ago. I'm still growing out some of those. But, for the most part i've just been growing open pollinated varieties for seed saving purposes. Next season i'm gonna try some crossing experiments with peas. Rebsie here has inspired me to try and create a red podded one like she's doing. So, that's about my extent of breeding.. none really. I'm still learning myself.
OH.. and i didn't find any link mentioned in your profile.. maybe i'm missing something.
Anyways.. welcome to HG goodness
Dave
|
|
|
|
Post by lavandulagirl on Jan 10, 2009 21:35:02 GMT -5
Looking forward to your posts, Owen. I couldn't find a link from your profile, so you might want to try putting it in again. (Or maybe it's my old, 42 year old brain, and I'm just missing it! ;D)
|
|
|
|
Post by grungy on Jan 10, 2009 22:06:11 GMT -5
Hi Owen, welcome to the "club". Good to see you younger folks are taking such an interest. Hope you will feel welcome and add to the growing wealth of knowledge and information.
Cheers,
Val (grungy) and Dan (grunt)
|
|
|
|
Post by bluelacedredhead on Jan 10, 2009 22:16:02 GMT -5
You moved from the Island to N.S.?? That's quite the change...Have you lived through a Maritime winter yet? lol
Owen, all kidding aside, Welcome to Homegrown Goodness.
Can't wait to see your seed list!
|
|
|
|
Post by Owen on Jan 10, 2009 23:12:16 GMT -5
You're right, my website's not in my profile. Here it is: www.annapolisseeds.com I actually just set up my blog today at annapolisseeds.blogspot.com so I think I must have confused my two profiles. ;D This is actually our third winter in this frozen hinterland, time sure flies when you're busy restoring an old farm. I'm always on the lookout for interesting new seeds, especially beans, peas, tomatoes and soybeans so I'd love to swap seeds with anyone interested. Thanks to all for the welcome. |
|
|
|
Post by lavandulagirl on Jan 10, 2009 23:19:18 GMT -5
Owen, WOW! Great job, man.
|
|
|
|
Post by canadamike on Jan 11, 2009 0:21:46 GMT -5
Welcome again Owen, Now I know you have find your spot!! I need help in melon trials  it could suit you very well we are trialing to then create more cultivars for the north. I am growing 300 this summer, can you take some others ;D ( ghee I just found a way to help my sore back, download some work!! I hope he doesn't find about it!! and says yes ) |
|
|
|
Post by americangardener on Jan 11, 2009 0:49:00 GMT -5
Ot Oh.. now Michel found ya..
Does look like you could use a few melons on your site though Owen. Nice little site.. now you need to get more stuff!
I see you have a couple things i haven't tried yet though.. and i did want to ask you about those lazy housewife beans. I have one that i grew out last year that came to me with the name of lazy Wife. Not housewife like you see everywhere else. And this year is the first year i've seen it listed as Lazy wife in any of our seed catalogs here. Still it's not an exact match to what i grew. My seeds are more rounded than what i've seen or read in descriptions. I was just wondering since you didn't state anything about the bean seed itself what shape your's are. My plants grew to almost 20 ft tall last year.. and they were extremely productive.. but from what i could see in that thumbnail of yours your pods look longer than mine did too. Couldn't get the enlarged pictures to work... so i'm just going by the thumbnail.
I think it's great that you're a Woof host farm too. I've heard some great things about that program.
If you don't mind trading across borders.. i see you have some golden sweet snow peas. I wonder if you'd be interested in trading some for something i have?
And while i'm at it.. might i ask why you don't ship to the US? I know there are alot of people that will tell you it's too hard but it's actually not. Most people will talk without ever knowing the facts.. i get that alot. It's harder to ship seeds out of this country than it is to get them in. According to our regulations we're allowed to import up to 50 packets of 50 or less seeds without a phytosanitary certificate. I know technically we're supposed to have an import permit still but i've never once had any shipments coming to me stopped without using one. Just a thought.. i think you would find alot of customers in the US if you decided to ship here.
Dan and Val might know if there's any problems since they send alot of seeds to the US.. but i've never had any.
Anyways.. welcome again..
Dave
|
|
|
|
Post by grungy on Jan 11, 2009 3:29:34 GMT -5
No problems either way so long as you use sample packets of less than 5 grams per variety coming into Canada and label out goings (same size packets) with vegetable seeds- name - sample packet, on a custom sticker that you can get at any post office. For that matter if it is only a few packets of seeds use a regular business sized envelope, a sheet of bubble wrap cut to size, tape seeds to bubble wrap, use one sheet of stationary around the whole thing and mail as a regular letter. Have never had any problems with the letters. Some packets from the States have been open by Canadian Customs for verification but were resealed and forwarded to us. Larger requests go out either in a large bubble envelope or small package box and no problems with those either. Hope this helps,
Cheers,
Val
|
|
|
|
Post by flowerpower on Jan 11, 2009 5:19:34 GMT -5
Hi Owen. Welcome to HG!  Nice selection of seed you have. Though it looks like you may need more winter squash.  You can never have too many of those. lol I did laugh at the Mama Leone tomato. I have been to the Mama Leone's restaurant in NYC. Best spumoni ever! |
|
|
|
Post by Owen on Jan 11, 2009 11:21:10 GMT -5
What a great website, I've only been a member for a day an people are already offering me seeds!
Lavadulagirl: Thanks!
Michel: I'd love to grow any good melon varieties you have. Our crop of Nutmeg melons that we got from Mapple Farm failed last year due to poor soil, but this year we've created a John Jeavons style Biointensive garden along the south wall of the barn that should be a great site for melons.
Dave: Lazy Housewife is really a great variety for us. I think it's at least as good in every way as the more popular Blue Lake. The seeds are white, flat, large and almost kidney shaped. The pods are really long, often ten inches in length while still remaining reasonably tender. Our beans sound very similar in terms of their prolific growth. Ours will overtop their ten foot poles and then reach the ground and pull the poles over under their weight! I've heard a lot of conflicting information about shipping to the states. Dan Jason has kind of been my mentor with this whole thing, and he's unable to ship to the states without a phytosanitary certificate with every shipment. Lots of other people and companies in Canada seem able to ship across the border with no problems. I think I'll start accepting orders from the states for now at least just to see how things go. It would definitely be nice to have that new market of gardeners opened up. I do have lots of Golden Sweet peas that I'd love to trade. That could be the test-run of our cross border shipping operation.
Val: Thanks a lot for the shipping advice.
Flowerpower: Thanks for the welcome. We grew four squash varieties of four species to avoid cross-pollination. We've actually cleared an overgrown old field seperated from the main field by a thick buffer of trees. We plan to grow eight varieties next year in our two isolated growing sites. I've picked up some great new (old) squash varieties from Baker Creek for next year. Mama Leone tomato was actually brought from Italy to New York, so maybe there's a connection there!
|
|
|
|
Post by houseodessey on Jan 11, 2009 11:54:40 GMT -5
Stick around long enough and these people will send you more seeds than you know what to do with. If you want to grow more squash varieties and have the time, you could always bag blossoms or keep the different varieties under row cover and pollinate them yourself. It's nice to have another seedsman in our midst.
|
|
|
|
Post by americangardener on Jan 11, 2009 12:00:02 GMT -5
Dave: Lazy Housewife is really a great variety for us. I think it's at least as good in every way as the more popular Blue Lake. The seeds are white, flat, large and almost kidney shaped. The pods are really long, often ten inches in length while still remaining reasonably tender. Our beans sound very similar in terms of their prolific growth. Ours will overtop their ten foot poles and then reach the ground and pull the poles over under their weight! I've heard a lot of conflicting information about shipping to the states. Dan Jason has kind of been my mentor with this whole thing, and he's unable to ship to the states without a phytosanitary certificate with every shipment. Lots of other people and companies in Canada seem able to ship across the border with no problems. I think I'll start accepting orders from the states for now at least just to see how things go. It would definitely be nice to have that new market of gardeners opened up. I do have lots of Golden Sweet peas that I'd love to trade. That could be the test-run of our cross border shipping operation. Yeah, The lazy wife and lazy housewife do sound very similar. I beleive mine were a greasy bean. I didn't eat many of em cause i was gonna save what i had for seed. But i do think they were a greasy bean type. I'll know more next year when i do a larger planting. I only had 26 plants that germinated this past season. But from those i collected over 2 lbs of seed. So i'll definately be doing a much larger planting next year. I guess the biggest difference i can see between mine and yours is the shape of the seeds. It might be interesting to try the two side by side and see for sure. As for importing.. yeah i forgot to mention that you are supposed to have a declaration on the outside of the packages we import. That's all our rules say.. they don't say it has to be an official form just that it needs to have a declaration saying there's seeds inside. And for breeders.. there's different rules. Then it needs to say for experimentation or breeding along with the declaration. For the home gardeners.. it's a little harder to find that rule about the 50 packets. It's hidden away in our codes under Nursery Stock Quarantine (7CRF 319.37-3) if anyone asks. You might even want to tell your friend he can look up our rules online. And it definately says that we don't need a phytosanitary certificate for 50 or under! Val is right though.. just about all our rules state that the packets are supposed to be labeled with kind, variety, type, origin, and use for which it's intended. Do they ever check the small packages? Never in the past 7 years that i've been trading has any small size package ever been inspected. Once with a large box coming from Germany did they open it and check for a phytosanitary cert.. which i had.. so they just passed it right along without detouring it to the USDA inspection. So it is quite easy to ship to the US. Least in my experience. If in doubt you could always do like Val says with the envelopes. After all it's not illegal.. it will most likely still make it even if it were stopped for not having the right paperwork. It'd just take a little longer. Like i said.. i've had more trouble shipping out of the country than in. And only once have i had a shipment going to Canada delayed by customs. It was a rather large box and i was worried bout it.. but it made it to it's destination about a month late. That's the only time that ever happened. But, like i said.. our rules allow importation! Everyone thinks that since 911 all of a sudden we've started inspecting every single envelope and package that goes thru the mail. We don't! Nothings really changed.. if anything it's gotten easier in the past 7 years to import. After all it's not like some terrorist is gonna try and send anthrax thru a seed shipment. And if they did.. i doubt they'd be putting it on a customs slip anyways. Anyways.. looks like we'll have to put together a trade. You know what i'm interested in.. what are you looking for? Dave |
|
|
|
Post by johno on Jan 13, 2009 13:25:39 GMT -5
Welcome Owen. I enjoyed the scythe info from the links at your site. That girl makes it look so easy...
|
|
it could suit you very well 
Nice selection of seed you have. Though it looks like you may need more winter squash. 
You can never have too many of those. lol I did laugh at the Mama Leone tomato. I have been to the Mama Leone's restaurant in NYC. Best spumoni ever! 