I Still Have Plenty of Seeds

I've been a bit of a food hoarder ever since the Great Recession. I always buy nonperishable food and toiletries in bulk at Costco. I have a chest freezer in my utility room that I keep full of frozen meat and extra vegetables from the garden. It's all stuff I use anyway (it's not like I'm buying buckets of freeze dried food or MRE's), so I figured it was a harmless habit, but one that I'd probably never really need anyway.

And then this pandemic happened, and suddenly it's all come in really handy. I still have plenty of toilet paper!

Seed saving is similar. Saving seeds is fun, but I figured I was kidding myself to think I'd ever really need it. I don't have any varieties that are unique or special. They are ones always available in seed catalogs or from other gardeners. I could always get more if I have to. I don't have any varieties that are relying on just me to save them or else they will go extinct.

And now since the pandemic, all the seed companies are shut down due to "high demand" that they can't keep up with. I guess suddenly everyone decided they are going to grow their own food.

Since I had the baby, I've scaled back my gardening, and have just been concentrating on my favorites that do really well for me. No experimenting with new things, at least not right now. So I don't really need the seed catalogs right now. I have jars full of all my favorite varieties in my freezer. I only use seed catalogs for trying out new varieties. I have all my old favorites in plentiful supply.

I have enough that I could share them with people. I'm listed on Seed Savers Exchange. I'm assuming, since with the Exchange you request seeds directly from other gardeners, that you can still do that right now while all the seed companies are closed.

I'm surprised I haven't gotten any requests for anything since the pandemic. Actually, I've gotten very few requests overall since I joined. Just one for tomato seeds and two for I'itois onions (I'm waiting for them to mature before I send out bulbs). Maybe not a lot of people know about Seed Savers Exchange.

But suddenly the online seed exchange seems a lot more useful than it did before. Before it just seemed like fun. Now it seems like one of the only safe ways to get seeds right now.