Promoting civil disobedience one seed at a time

Luigi nibbled the World Food Garden a day or two back, but I think it merits a bit more of a chew. ((Admittedly he did also point to the link where he found it, which certainly does go into detail.)) At first sight it looks like a typically busy, typically overburdened site, with a very crowded map of all the gardeners who have already signed up. But if it delivers on what it promises, it could be a great resource. The thing that interests me most is a “Seed swap”. Alas, click on that and all you see is “Coming Soon!”. Well, I hope it is, and I hope it works, and works well.

I’ve been mulling a very similar idea here for a long time, and I even have it all figured out as far as wire-frames and flow diagrams and all that stuff goes. But I don’t speak Ruby ((Hint, hint: if you do, and want to collaborate, let me know.)) and right now I don’t have time to learn.

The need for an exchange mechanism is far, far greater in Europe than anywhere else in the world. To be honest, almost everything World Food Garden offers or is planning to offer already exists, especially in the US. All power to them, though for pulling it all together. Gardeners and small farmers can obtain the seeds of any variety they want, if it is available. European gardeners do not have the luxury of choice. A rational, effective seed swap system would cut the pointless European legislation off at the knees.

Which is exactly what it needs.

In the meantime, if you have or want seeds of something interesting, try Pat ‘n’ Steph.

Are these seeds viable?

Picked up Brown Envelope Seeds in one of my feeds. They are based in Ireland, near Skibbereen, a name that will send shudders down the spine of anyone who has read contemporary accounts of the Irish Potato Famine. And they appear to have a range of diverse vegetable varieties that gardeners might be interested in, so I was about to add them to our list of seed sources, when I realized that the home page of the web site has not been updated since February 2008. Can anyone confirm that Brown Envelope Seeds remains active?

Later …

I did the obvious thing, and emailed Madeline McKeever directly. Her reply:

Yes, We are still here. It has just been very busy growing since February and I’m not very good at computers. I have written lots of new pages in my head while out weeding but by the time I get in in the evening it has all evaporated. … I would be delighted to be listed as one of your sources and will link back to you if you like. Thanks for the reminder to do something with the front page.

So, that’s it. At least she’s on top of email, if not the web site. Brown Envelope Seeds joins the exalted company on our sources page. Thanks Madeline.