Welcome to Seed Freaks

Seed Freaks started because as market gardeners we wanted to source seed that was acclimatised to our area, that we knew performed well and provided high quality crops.

We’ve been tracking down our favourite varieties and seedsaving for years and through a number of opportunities thrown our way by the Huon Producers’ Network, we started to package our seed and sell it at markets. Nothing flash, just excess seed.

But like most seeds of things, it grew. We’re still small, but now we’ve expanded the land we utilise to grow seed and have stopped market gardening.

We often find it difficult to source seed from the mainland due to various restrictions, and fair enough, who wants smut and other uglies turning up here? Our relatively pest and disease free status and the current moratorium on GMO’s are two important things to maintain.

While we still do outsource some seed we’re now fluctuating at around 90% our own seed and we’re looking to increase that, eventually, to as close o 100% as we can get.

My obsession is tomato seeds. You’ll find the site is dominated by them, closely followed by bean seeds, for both fresh and dry use. We’re set to grow over 80 varieties in 2017/18, and a burgeoning corn obsession is boosting that range, albeit slowly, as the cross pollinating issues make it difficult to grow many varieties in a year.

Seed saving is at the very core of food security. Ensuring the means to produce our food year in and year out using methods that aren’t dependent on what’s happening in the rest of the world.

With open-pollinated and heirloom seed we can provide ourselves with one of the most important necessities – food.

Happy Planting!