From: Lawrence.London@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Lawrence London)
Subject: Re: Rare or unusual seeds
Summary: Seed Savers Exchange
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 17:19:51 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.195425.11438@athena.mit.edu> pat@mtl.mit.edu (Patricia E. Varley) writes:
>Someone was looking for a place to buy rare/wild/unusual seeds the
>other day.  

Subject: FAQ -- Seed catalogs (slightly revised) Date: 10 Aug 92 16:31:04
GMT Lines: 905
              GENERAL SEED CATALOGS: NORTH AMERICAN
(and a few plant catalogs, and a few British firms) revision of:6 August,1992
 
SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE
   Rt. 3, Box 239
   Decorah, Iowa 52101 

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Article 10337 (47 more) in rec.gardens:  
Subject: Heirloom fruit and vegetable varieties 
Summary: info on Seed Savers Exchange 
Keywords: seeds fruit vegetable heirloom open pollinated 
Date: 27 Aug 92 18:01:15 GMT 

I have seen several posts from
people looking for better selections of peppers, tomatoes and heirloom
apple varieties.  The Seed Savers Exchange provides a means to obtain
varieties such as Imur Prior Beta tomato (adapted to cool weather), Latah
tomato (a Siberian variety), NASA tomato (3rd generation of seed that were
on the NASA LDEF satellite for 5 years), Marizol Gold tomato (a family
heirloom brought from the Black forest region of Germany to the US in the
late 1800's), Mortgage Lifter tomato, Aconcagua pepper (Argentina),
Georgescu pepper (Romania), Chiltepine pepper (Mexico), Takanotsume pepper
(Japan), Arkansas Black Apple (cuttings from a 100yr old tree), Esopus
Spitzenburg apple (pre-1800's var., Thomas Jeffersons favorite!),
Granniwinkle apple (pre-1800's cider var.), June Red apple (devel. in
North Carolina in 1848).  Seed Savers Exchange is a nonprofit, tax exempt,
publicly supported organization.  Anyone may join for a $25 annual
membership fee.  The purpose of SSE is the preserve the genetic diversity
of fruit and vegetable varieties.  Each year, more and more open
pollinated varieties are lost as seed companies replace them with (more
profitable) hybrid varieties.  Individual members save seeds from open
pollinated varieties and these listings are published annually.  As an
example, the number of open pollinated varieties of sweet peppers dropped
from 107 in 1981 to 77 varieties in 1992.  Of those varieties available in
1992, over half are available from only one or two sources.  Members of
SSE are categorized as either listed (these are members who have seeds
available to other SSE members) and non-listed.  SSE members receive
several publications each year, including the Seed Savers Yearbook.  This
is a listing of all the fruit and vegetable varieties available from SSE
listed members (905 members listing 14,780 varieties in '92).  Although
this selection seems very large, about 80% of everything listed is
available from a single source.  This listing also includes: scionwood of
heirloom apple, cherry, peach, pear and plum; and, tubers of potato and
sweet potato.  

For more information write:  

Seed Savers Exchange 
Rural Route 3, Box 239 
Decorah, Iowa 52101 


Brian Curtiss
==========================
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