Customer Reviews

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving Techniques for the Vegetable Gardener

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Sixty million American gardeners buy their seeds from mail order seed companies. In the period 1984-1987, 54 of the 230 seed companies in the U.S. and Canada went out of business, resulting in 943 non-hybrid varieties becoming unavailable. One answer to the extinction of food crop varieties is Seed Savers Exchange, the publisher of Seed to Seed. Begun in 1975, SSE maintains more than 18,000 rare vegetable varieties at Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa. Another answer is for individual gardeners to save their own seed from non-hybrid varieties. Varieties that grow and taste exceptionally well in specific areas can be planted year after year from home-grown seed. A further advantage is protection from seed price increases. Ashworth provides definitive information on seed gathering, processing and storage techniques. Twenty family entries include taxonomy, pollination characteristics and techniques, general production and processing techniques. Each of the 160 species entries includes botanical classification; pollination, crossing, and isolation; seed production, harvest and processing; seed viability. Ample black-and-white photographs complement the text. Hybrid seeds are in the control of large companies. You can be in control of heirloom varieties that do best in your garden. Happy eating.

This book is THE resource on seed saving
and the world would be much poorer without it
It is as useful for a beginner as an expert.
Go for it

This book is great for someone who knows nothing or very little of heirloom gardening. It is very precise, and a little repetitive(but in a good, reinforcing way). You can look up any particular plant by alphabetical order or just read it straight through. There are lots of pictures and plenty more descriptions and explanations. I could not reccomend this book strongly enough. I was not completely ignorant of gardening, but have learned so much about record keeping, to seed saving, and even that potato plants produce a small seed pod fruit, filled with seeds that may each grow a different variety of potato. This book is written in an encyclopedic format, so it is direct and straight to the point.

Excellent for anyone who wants to know how to do their own seed stock. It did leave a few questions but overall a "must have" for the independent gardener.