Although the snow is just starting to come down, I'm deep in garden planning, a pile of catalogs to my left, credit cards to my right. I have just finished ordering all my seeds for 2013. My goodness, it adds up! My order to Johnny's Selected Seeds totalled $136.25, including $25 of asparagus crowns. My order to Territorial Seeds was $134.30, including a paw paw bush and a honeyberry bush. Still, most of that was tiny little envelopes of seeds. When you order 20 packets of seeds at $3-5 each, plus tax and shipping, it sure adds up.
Then I went to Irish Eyes for my seed potatoes and discovered to my horror that they had sold out of Bintjes for the season. Eek! I did a quick Google search for "organic bintje seed potato" and found a place called GrowOrganic.com, which offers the lowest seed potato prices I've seen anywhere. Here's a quick comparison of organic Bintje prices:
Annie's Heirloom Seeds: $14.50/1lb. !!! And not actually organic!
Grow Organic: $2.95/1.1lb
Irish Eyes: $8/2lb.
Wood Prarie Farm: $10.95/lb (using Yukon price since they don't carry Bintjes)
Now, GrowOrganic did charge me $16 in shipping fees, but Wood Prarie Farm was similar at $12.95. So I guess it pays to shop around. I'm delighted to find an organic supplier with much, much better prices. I'll let you know how they grow.
If you're interested in which other seeds I bought this year, let me know and I'll post the whole, enormous list. The thing that really astonishes me is that I saved a lot of seed from last year. This is what I didn't save. Yikes. I have got to be more diligent about saving seed this year.
Does organic mean it's not Genetically Modified?
ReplyDeleteCorrect. EatRight.org gives the following definition:
ReplyDeleteThe term organic has specific guidelines defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program.
It states that organic meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic plant foods are produced without using most conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation. A government-approved certifier must inspect the farm to ensure these standards are met. In addition to organic farming, there are USDA standards for organic handling and processing.
See http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6442451536