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Gardening is a great way to enrich your life, diet, and land. Many homesteaders who have acres of land, or even urban homesteaders with small backyard spaces, want to put the land to good use. Tilling and starting a garden is a fun way to use natural resources to produce fresh flowers, vegetables, and fruits.
If you’ve ever perused the seed packets at your local garden store, you may have noticed some seeds with an “heirloom” label. These seeds are often known as those that existed at least 50 years ago and are known for their exquisite taste, shape, and variety.
While hybrid seeds are most common for many gardeners, they are usually created using science, technology, and a little bit of luck. Heirloom seeds are different in that the seeds are saved from parent plants year after year. Heirloom seeds are either open-pollinated or self-pollinated. They aren’t as robust or bountiful as hybrid varieties, but they do create beautiful and special produce that many homesteaders love.
Due to their unique attributes, many heirloom seeds cost more than their hybrid counterparts. However, they are more than worth their weight in taste, beauty, and the ongoing future preservation of seeds. Learn more about where you can find these seeds with the 10 best heirloom seed companies.
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Annie’s Heirloom Seeds
As a newer company with just a few years under its belt, Annie’s Heirloom Seeds has made big waves in the heirloom seed industry. The company offers many heirloom seed quantities, and a packet of a minimum of 25 tomato seeds costs a little over $3.00 each. Check out their potato and onion plants as well.
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Every year in late winter, you can find homesteaders gawking over their beautiful Baker Creek seed catalog. The gorgeous booklet is a masterpiece in itself and offers photos of what every gardener wished their produce looked like!
Baker Creek offers a wide variety of seeds and has the largest selection of 19th-century seeds available. You’ll find unusual and rare types as well. Most heirloom seed packets cost about $3, and the seed count varies. They do offer free shipping in the United States.
Location: Mansfield, Missouri
Botanical Interests
You may find a packet of Botanical Interests seeds at your local Whole Foods or natural grocery store. Starting in 1995, this company is easy to spot with their painted style pictures on the front of each seed packet. They carry over 600 varieties, and their goal is to provide you with everything you need to know about the seed packet itself. You can pick up heirloom seed packets for about $1.80-$2.30 each.
Location: Broomfield, CO
High Mowing Organic Seeds
This popular heirloom seed seller offers 100% certified organic seeds. Their non-GMO seeds are robust and ready to produce in any garden. High Mowing Organic Seeds cares about organic growing and building a greener, more sustainable world. They offer heirloom vegetables, herbs, flowers, and cover crops. You can get a 1/10th gram packet of most seeds for about $3.00-$3.50 each.
Location: Madison, Wisconsin / Walcott, Vermont
Johnny’s Selected Seeds
For 49 years, Johnny’s Selected Seeds have been offering non-GMO seeds to customers. Their company is entirely owned by employees, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee! You’ll find plenty of seeds, materials, and tools to get you started. Their seeds are vital and fresh, and the website is easy to use and find what you need. Many of the options are USDA Certified Organic as well. Pricing is a bit higher, with a packet of seeds costing about $5.50 each.
Location: Madison, Wisconsin / Fairfield, Maine
Pinetree Garden Seeds
This Northeast seed company started in 1979 and offers over 1300 seed varieties to customers. Pinetree Garden Seeds offers reasonable prices with smaller seeds in each packet so that you can experiment with what works well in your garden. They provide organic seeds as well as heirlooms that are 100% non-GMO. Most packages include about 20 seeds for about $2-$3 each.
Location: New Gloucester, Maine
Seeds of Change
You may notice this brand as they are well known for their grain and rice food options in local stores. Seeds of Change also offers heirloom seeds that are 100% certified organic. While there are only a select number of heirloom seeds available, they do ship through Amazon. A seed packet with about 25 heirloom tomato seeds is about $5-$7 online.
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Seed Savers Exchange
Founded in 1975, Seed Savers Exchange is a new way to swap and save seeds from year to year. They have a beautiful catalog and are a non-profit company that encourages membership. You can purchase seeds or exchange seeds with others on their website. Most heirlooms cost about $3.75 and contain various amounts of seeds, depending on the item.
Location: Decorah, Iowa
True Leaf Market
This one-stop shop offers a wide variety of tools, kits, and seeds for gardeners. Opened in 1974, True Leaf Market has grown to offer seeds under the brand names Mountain Valley Seed and Handy Pantry. They provide items for new gardens to wholesale options for large growers. True Leaf Market offers a variety of seed packet sizes, with their smallest being about $2.75 for 65 seeds.
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Victory Seeds
As a family-owned and operated business, Victory Seeds has worked hard to provide rare heirloom seeds to gardeners. They offer non-GMO, open-pollinated options and are on a mission to become the best heirloom seed supplier. Victory Seeds has a wide variety of heirlooms for just about any vegetable you want to plant! You can get a packet of about 20 heirloom seeds for $3.00.
Location: Molalla, Oregon
No matter where you get your heirloom seeds from this year, it is important to support those companies that preserve the old way of gardening. Heirlooms might not get you a bumper crop every year, but they speak to the taste and beauty of gardens generations before. Try out a few heirloom varieties in your own garden this year to see and taste the difference they can bring to your table.
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