Blog

It has been several years since we've done any long distance travel, and I imagine it may be the same for many of you as well. Amanda and I have been fortunate to have traveled a lot in our earlier lives, including to some very challenging travel destinations, but having children and the pandemic put that on hold for the past 6 or 7 years. While we like to think of ourselves to some extent as expert travelers, there were times during our recent t… Read more

Franchi is known worldwide for their quality seeds and high germination rates. These attributes don’t just happen; it takes a lot of work and dedication to quality to produce the excellent seeds you enjoy growing with. We saw this firsthand when we visited the Franchi factory earlier this month.  The factory is located in Bergamo, in northern Italy. It is here that the seeds, grown in fields around Italy, are shipped to be stored, t… Read more

One of our side goals on our recent trip to Bergamo to visit the Franchi headquarters was to Eat, Eat, Eat! We love the Italians' culinary focus on using vegetables when they're fresh and in season, and we were particularly eager to attempt to identify vegetable varieties that we import. While Northern Italy was just starting to emerge from winter as we arrived, and the menus of the restaurants primarily consisted of hearty fare such as polent… Read more

Along about 2010, life for me was getting a little mundane. We had been farming since 1988, and my body was starting to suffer oil leaks and warning lights pretty regularly. Vegetable and flower growing, the way we did it, was a young person’s game. Our kids were grown. I had been working for the Kansas Rural Center for 20 years, and the joy was going out of grant writing and reporting to funders - which were big parts of every hot idea I ever… Read more

Every year the seed companies bring you new varieties in almost every category. Even an heirloom seed company like Seeds from Italy is constantly seeking out new products — for us, the older the better! We understand that you like the adventure of growing something new-to-you.This year, we have a large number of new varieties, and it’s my job to grow them and tell you what I think. I’ll be doing that throughout the growing season, but for now I w… Read more