Green Journey Seeds

Yes, Rhuem palmatum v. tanguticum is an impressive beauty right now with it's early flowering stalks reaching for the sky! Our first plant to flower has grown 6 feet since the big snow in early February when it was still lying dormant below ground. This herbaceous perennial is great for rhubarb fanciers! Turkey Rhubarb is used in traditional Chinese medicine and the leaf stalks are edible just like the culinary rhubarb, Rhuem rhabarbarum.

Fresh Turkey Rhubarb seeds back lit by the morning sun are a lovely sight.

Thanks to Localharvest.org I have 3 purchase orders for Turkey Rhubarb seed packets on my desk right now! I'll be packing these up for mailing out to our customers in Virginia and Minnesota, today. Thanks so much for your support of our seed work! Love, Aline

Happy Birthday to Localharvest.org and a happy spring to all of you! Have you heard about the Seed Giveaway this week?

Erin Barnett, director of Localharvest.org wrote earlier this week to let us know about this great birthday offer. "Order some LocalHarvest seeds between now and midnight on Friday, March 14 and you'll be automatically entered to win. If yours happens to be one of the 14 orders we'll choose at random the following day, we'll contact you, letting you know your order is **FREE!**"

While you have your seed list in mind, we invite you to look at Green Journey Seeds on Localharvest.org. We'd like to see one of our customers win free seeds!

Thanks for your interest! Love, Aline

this is garden grown goodness from the Pacific Northwest!

Here's our complete list of seed offerings just in time for spring planting. 

Amaranth, Chinese Giant OrangeAmaranthus sp.100 seeds

Amaranth, Love Lies BleedingAmaranthus caudatus200 seeds

Ashwaganda (Indian Ginseng)Withania somnifera40 seeds

Astragalus, ChineseAstragalus membranaceus40 seeds

Balloon Flower or Jie-gengPlatycodon grandiflorus50 seeds

Balsam, Garden Impatiens balsamina75 seeds

Bean, Nez Perce Heirloom dryPhaseolus vulgaris25 seeds

Calendula Mix ColorsCalendula officinalis50 seeds

California PoppyEschscholzia californica200 seeds

China Aster MixCallistephus chinensis100 seeds

Cilantro (Coriander)Coriandrum sativum35 seeds

Echinacea (Purple Coneflower)Echinacea purpurea40 seeds

Holy Basil (Rama Tulsi)Ocimum sanctum100 seeds

Marigold Mix, Green JourneyTagetes patula50 seeds

Mexican SunflowerTithonia rotundifolia30 seeds

Mexican TarragonTagetes lucida50 seeds

Nasturtium Mix Tropaeolum majus20 seeds

Painted Poppy MixPapaver somniferum300 seeds

Rhubarb, TurkeyRhuem palmatum v. tanguticum25 seeds

Runner Bean, Tarahumara Tekomani 'White'Phaseolus coccineus20 seeds

Shirley Poppy MixPapaver rhoeas200 seeds

Shungiku (Garland Chrysanthemum)Chrysanthemum coronarium50 seeds

Skullcap, BarbedScutellaria barbata75 seeds

Skullcap, VirginiaScutellaria lateriflora150 seeds

Strawflower Mix, GiantHelichrysum bracteatum monstrosum100 seeds

Sunflower MixHelianthus annuus50 seeds

Sweet Pea Mix, fragrantLathyrus odoratus20 seeds

Tobacco, ‘Perique’ smokingNicotiana tabacum100 seeds

Toothache PlantSpilanthes oleracea40 seeds

Zinnia, small-flowered heirloom speciesZinnia pauciflora50 seeds

Thank you for your interest in Green Journey Seeds!

Give a gift of Echinacea seeds with this card; each card holds a fresh packet of seeds from our small organic farm. Embossed cards & envelopes are made from 50% sugar cane/ 50% recycled fibers. Seed packets are resealable. Each card has a seed packet mounted inside and blank space on the right for a note or letter to your friend or loved one. 

 

We are in the process of listing our 2014 Green Journey Seed packets. Each different variety listing in our local harvest store catalog includes the seed greeting card option shown above.

Love, Aline

For those of you interested in a good dry bean for your small homestead, we have a rare offering from our seed garden. We originally sourced this strain from the Seed Savers Exchange and have had good success with growing it on our organic farm since 2009.

Nez Perce is a half-runner type, starting out bushy and then sending out climbing vines up to about 6 feet. Rather than ripening all at once, it produces mature dry beans over a long season, within 90 to 150 days of sowing seed.

We think it to be a close relative of the "buckskin" bush bean, judging by its shape, color and taste. We're putting 25 seeds in each packet, and selling these here on Local Harvest.

Packed with love, Aline

 

New Seed Packets for 2014 emerging from the HP Color Laserjet yesterday! The paper feed tray holds a stack of 20 coin envelopes at a time. I print my artwork on the fronts, flip the envelopes over, then print the seed sowing and seed saving information on the reverse side.

We have much work to do over the next few weeks. 1. Finish cleaning and sorting our seed lots from last season’s harvest. 2. Continue germination testing on all the seeds we plan to sell this year. 3. Print packages, pack with seeds, and seal. 

It’s easiest to tackle these tasks methodically in batches, and I now have packets for 8 different varieties printed from yesterday’s session. I’ll pack seeds and have these ready to sell in the next few days! 4 or 5 more batches like this will be necessary to get all of our seed offerings out (hopefully) by Valentine’s Day!

Buy our seeds online in our NEW localharvest.org store. In Lane Co., Oregon buy our seeds from our seed racks at Down to Earth Stores, Sundance Natural Foods, or Kalapuya Books.

In Seeds We Trust!

Love, Aline

 

We love the satisfaction we get from filling our bellies with food from our gardens. We have been enjoying fresh green beans all month. In addition, I’ve cooked up several pots of dry beans to be accompanied by homegrown tomato salsa. An easy to grow and prolific dry bean for the small homestead is the Nez Perce Bean whose small golden seeds make a delicious and nutritious addition to our diet.  During this not so hot month of August, the seed collection has grown. We are thankful for these precious gifts from the garden which will form the basis for future gardens and happy bellies!

I’ve dried down a number of our Oregon Sugar Pod Peas to save for spring planting. To ensure that these have no bugs, we put them in the freezer for a few days.

Our August seed harvest also includes the first of many of the seeds we package and sell to our community. We are collecting Mexican Marigold Tagetes lucida, Ruffled Morning Glory Ipomea species, Love in a Puff Cardiospermum halicacabum, Holy Basil “Tulsi” Ocimum sanctum, Cilantro Coriandrum sativum, Nasturtium Mix Tropaeolum majus, and Steve’s selection from the Marigold Mix  we may introduce next year.

Happy harvest time to you!

This may just turn out to be a cautionary tale…like don’t count your chickens before they hatch?

I'm new to this blog site, and don't see a way to post photos here, so please forgive me for linking you up to my tumblr to read more...

I'm seeking clues to this mystery...anyone?

Love, Aline

Seed Keeping & Chickens Peeping

Happy to say the new chicken house is nearly completed! The chickens are happy, too! I’m also catching up today on the Seed Saving Journal with a new post on our Green Journey blog. Read about how we continue to grow the seed collection with this link.

Seed Saving Journal 2013

As the fresh seeds come in to dry, I’m posting notes to our blog. I’ll be sharing some specific tips on gathering and processing these seeds, and try to keep this journal current until all the seeds are in. Here’s that link: http://greenjourneyblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/fresh-seeds-are-coming-in/.

Celebrate and preserve nature’s abundance!