From the Field: September 2003
by Micaela Colley

Another season has reached its peak and cooling nights remind us that fall is approaching. Growers are shifting into fall planting for extended harvests and overwintering crops. As summer crops are harvested, open ground is soon to be filled with winter cover crops. In addition to our one and five pound packages, this year we are excited to offer bulk quantities (50 lb. bags) of organically grown cover crops for market growers. All of our bulk cover crop seed will be available in early September and shipped directly to your farm from our seed growers. Now the organic farming cycle can be completed with organic seed to protect and enrich our organic soils.

Reflecting upon the first year of our bulk seed program we are busy gathering feedback from our cooperating trial growers and evaluating our bulk seed offerings as we work to meet the growing needs of organic farmers. Trialing our bulk seed on working organic farms continues to provide us with valuable first hand feedback on our varieties' performance in the field and at the market and keeps us in touch with the needs and desires of an expanding community of organic growers. We feel this is particularly important as growers work to comply with new USDA organic seed requirements. As we develop next year's bulk seed catalog we welcome all organic growers to provide us with feedback on how we can better serve the organic farming community through our catalog, website, and customer service. Please email your comments to grower@seedsofchange.com.

In addition to on-farm trials, our research program includes trials and variety development at our Seeds of Change Research Farm in New Mexico and through our network of organic seed growers. Throughout the growing season, Steve Peters, our head of seed procurement, visits as many of our seed growers as possible to evaluate our crops in the field, ensure seed quality, and communicate with growers on variety development. Our on-farm trials, research farm, and seed growers network form a triangle of quality assurance and variety development that drives our bulk and garden seed offerings.

One of the most rewarding aspects of providing seeds to market growers is to see their excitement over unique varieties that have never been available in bulk quantities. Some of these are garden favorites, like our heirloom tomatoes, specialty melons, and uniquely flavorful and colorful peppers. In a marketplace that honors diversity, beauty, and taste, organic growers are finding that using our seed gives them an edge in the specialty market. The organic consumer wants the kind of flavor we find in the garden and rarely encounter on the supermarket shelf.

We recently held a melon tasting with one of our trial growers and visiting farmers who marveled at the complex flavors and unique colors and shapes of varieties, such as Swan Lake and Eel River, that set our melons apart from the readily available market standards. Working with specialty lettuce growers in the Bay Area of California we are seeing that the unique shapes, textures, and colors of some of our varieties offer a new palette to enrich their salad mixes and develop something different than the ubiquitous mesclun bags on the market. Along with rare, unique varieties, we are confirming that some of our market standards, what our friend John Nevazio likes to call the "work-horses", like Detroit Red Beets, Scarlet Nantes Carrot, and Rhubarb Chard match up or excel when grown beside other common commercial varieties on the market. As we develop our offerings for next year we'll let you know more about the cream of the 2003 trials.

Remember that it is you, the organic grower, who is directing the future of organic seed. Please share with us your comments, concerns, and dreams.

From the Field,
Micaela Colley, Bulk Seed Field Representative