D. Landreth Seed Company

I found out the other day that The Landreth Seed Company, the oldest seed company in the United States, could be looking at the end of their days. They've had a few lean years and need to sell 1 million catalogs by the end of September. Or, I presume, sell a bunch of other stuff as well.

You can read more about the company and it's financial problems here. Or go shop at http://www.landrethseeds.com/ to help them out.

I've ordered a catalog and a few packets of seeds. Some stuff I wanted was sold out. If they're still in business in March I'll try hitting them up for some seed potatoes. I also wrote them a letter with some friendly suggestions of ways to draw traffic to the site. Most of my suggestions were to turn them into a gardening site with gardening tips, ways for customers to show off their own gardens, and a store in there somewhere so people can buy what they need to reproduce what others have done with their gardens.

Why should you care about heirloom vegetables? Well, much of what they sell is unique. Remember seeing old films where people are throwing rotten tomatoes at the stage? Those tomatoes weren't rotten. They were a variety of tomato with delicate skin that would splat nicely. Unfortunately, being so fragile meant they don't ship worth a damn. You can't expect them to be picked, put in a basket, shipped, and put in the store without them being ruined. So farmers didn't grow them. It wasn't long at all before you couldn't even get them for your own garden. Today they're presumed extinct.

OK, sad, but not a disaster. They just failed to pass Darwin's test.

Most of what you get at the store has been bred and engineered. Carrots turned from purple and red to orange. Tomatoes got thicker and stronger so they can ship and cut easier. They also lose much of their flavor and nutritional value.

And much of the engineered seeds you get in the stores have been designed so that what you grow will be the last of it's line. If you plant the seeds from what you grow you'll get nothing back. If not this generation then the next generation won't grow. So you have to keep going back to the company to buy more. With heirloom vegetables you can save the seeds and grow more of the same thing next year and the year after that.

So, give them a hand. Buy some seeds or a catalog. Give them a chance to make the changes necessary to survive the 21st century.