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Expanding Hardy Seeds

Bringing rare and heirloom seeds to the local food movement and developing a living seed bank.

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Expanding Hardy Seeds

Expanding Hardy Seeds

Expanding Hardy Seeds

Expanding Hardy Seeds

Expanding Hardy Seeds

Bringing rare and heirloom seeds to the local food movement and developing a living seed bank.

Bringing rare and heirloom seeds to the local food movement and developing a living seed bank.

Bringing rare and heirloom seeds to the local food movement and developing a living seed bank.

Bringing rare and heirloom seeds to the local food movement and developing a living seed bank.

Chris Hardy
Chris Hardy
Chris Hardy
Chris Hardy
1 Campaign |
Ashland, United States
$6,801 USD 108 backers
52% of $13,033 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Overview
We are growing our seed company to bring a greater diversity of unique and heirloom seeds to all who want more flavor and beauty on their farm or in their garden.

EXPANDING HARDY SEEDS

Quality seeds. Greater diversity. More flavor. More beauty.

Globally-available. Locally adaptable.

 

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to enrich the food system with rare and heirloom seeds, reviving global seed diversity, integrity and resiliency. We are dedicated to providing non-GMO, open-pollinated, and locally-adaptable seeds in order to cultivate a new future for the local food movement.

--Hardy Seeds is dedicated to a diverse food culture above and below the ground.

We are committed to ensuring that seeds are always held in the public domain and therefore always in the hands of the people, with those who best understand the needs of their communities and what is best for the future of our planet.

WHY WE ARE RAISING FUNDS?

Nestled in one of the only GMO-Free growing regions in the United States, Hardy Seeds began four years ago with 20 varieties of open pollinated (OP), non-GMO, rare and heirloom seeds, and is now stewarding more than 300 varieties. We’re asking for your support to help us expand our retail platform for the 2019 growing season. 

We are raising funds to:

  • Expand our infrastructure for seed processing and storage
  • Upgrade our germination testing and propagation capacity
  • Develop an online retail seed platform
  • Design and create seed packets for distribution
  • Continue our research and development of new varieties

This expansion will enable us to better serve farmers, gardeners and seed savers with seed diversity in support of local food resilience.

 

YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HARDY SEEDS MATTERS

Let’s deepen the roots of our shared vision for the local food movement. To turn the food system around it will take all of us…...

Meeting our goal will more effectively enable us to carry out our mission, to grow more diversity and return quality back into heirloom and open-pollinated (OP) seed varieties that seed savers, farmers and public institutions have collectively neglected for the past 100 years. OP seeds are returning strong and are the clear choice to confront the challenges highlighted by seed patents and failing GMO technology, input intensive hybrids and growing topsoil losses, ocean pollution and climate change.  

For our food future, your gift has power. Your gift to Hardy Seeds has meaning. I hope you will give at this time.  

Please share and ask others to support us in this vision.

 

Help preserve biodiversity on the planet.

Deepen your connection with the food culture in your local community.

Share your energy, wisdom and love to build Hardy Seeds into a vibrant small seed company.

 

ABOUT OUR FARMING PRACTICES AND COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS

Hardy Seeds is part of the greater food movement and contributes to the preservation of local food culture and biodiversity on the planet. The efforts of seed stewardship are growing faster than ever across the world. We are excited to be part of the global revival of diversity in our food system and believe people of all ages and interests must grow and share their stories about what varieties are most appropriate for their foodsheds.

Our practices are based on low input, regenerative agriculture which supports biologically diverse, living soils. We use no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and will be Certified Organic in 2019.

We grow most of our own seeds and also source seed from reliable growers through long-standing relationships.

We are proud to continue carrying the torch with the many seed savers working to protect the future of seeds, especially those who worked hard to ban genetically engineered crops in our area in 2014.

 

In the work to grow a healthy food system, we must start with hardy seeds that can adapt to challenging conditions and be resilient in the face of unknown climate challenges ahead.

 

POLLINATORS, LIVING SOILS AND SUPER FOODS

Pollinator health is necessary for healthy seed crops, so we plant pollinator hedges throughout the farm to support them, many which also provide bird habitat and feed people. We have particular interest in seeds of perennials and super food plants that are often better for the soil and can serve as a food medicine for optimal people health.

 

SEED AND FARMING EDUCATION

We are committed to continuing seed education with youth and those interested in growing seeds. We have mentored a number of farmers wishing to add seeds to their farm operations, taught seed classes for Master Gardeners and the local Farm to School program, and given annual farm tours. This work will continue in alignment with our vision to ensure seed diversity continues to grow into the future.

 

WHY IS OUR WORK TO PRESERVE SEED DIVERSITY IMPORTANT?

Over the last 100 years, the world has lost more than 90% of varietal diversity. 

The consolidation of seed companies and the industry’s focus on hybrid and GMO seeds, is pushing farmers to become reliant on purchasing a limited selection of seeds from external sources—seeds that are designed for the industrial food system, are not as nutritionally dense or locally adapted, and require increased amounts of water, fertilizer, and typically pesticides.

Currently, just three mega seed companies own nearly 75% of all seeds used for growing the world’s food. A resilient food system needs more small seed companies and farmers saving more seeds, not less.

 

We grow open-pollinated (OP) seeds which preserve varietal diversity and reproduce offspring similar to the parent plants, unlike hybrid seeds which reproduce unpredictable traits. OP seeds can more quickly adapt to local conditions and express more genetic diversity than hybrids. And, OP seeds are open source, so farmers and gardeners can save and select them for desirable traits and greater resilience, year after year.

 

ABOUT FOUNDER CHRIS HARDY AND OUR COMMUNITY’S AMAZING WORK IN THE FOOD MOVEMENT

Hardy Seeds was started in 2015 by Chris Hardy, inspired to grow food as a youth while working alongside his grandpa who saved seeds on his organic family farm operation in Iowa. 

His passion for seed saving and healthy local food was also inspired his mother who ensured the family was fed well....including with lots of corn :) Chris has been turning compost piles since age 5 and has worked with farmers and food activist for more than 2 decades.

In Bozeman, Montana Chris started the Bogert Farmers’ Market, which is still going strong, and a market garden on one sixteenth of an acre in his brother’s backyard, growing produce which netted more than $10,000 in a short, 3-month growing season.

He’s been in Oregon now since 2005 and works extensively with kids and adults, providing education about farming and the importance of seed saving. He co-founded Village Farm in 2008 (a community farm and education project) to teach and empower people to grow their own food.

 

In 2012, Chris became the chief petitioner of a successful initiative to ban genetically engineered crops and protect the future of non-GMO seed growers in the Rogue Valley. Hundreds of local farmers and thousands of Oregon voters came together in two counties and successfully banned GMO crops in 2014.

 

Chris has traveled to more than 50 countries to learn from farmers and seed savers about their practices and to introduce a wider diversity of seed varieties to share with fellow seed savers.

 

Please contribute as you can to help us continue this important work - and share and ask others to support us in this vision.  

YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO HARDY SEEDS MATTERS

Many thanks!

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Big thanks to Courtney Williams for epic video and other support And to Sange and Alcyon for rad end video and music clip, Gaia Kozanli, Sascha Meier, Dolly Warden, Carolyn Schafer and others for all their support to get this campaign off the ground. And a special thanks to Nichole Herzmark for her support to this point with important steps that have given us a jump to get this next phase off the ground

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Choose your Perk

Hug of gratitude

$5 USD
A Thank You email and virtual hug from Chris
Included Items
  • Hug of gratitude
Estimated Shipping
March 2019
2 claimed

Planting a seed

$10 USD
We will plant a seed in your honor and send you a thank you email letting you know what we planted
Included Items
  • Plant a seed
Estimated Shipping
June 2019
7 claimed

Painted Mtn or Flint Corn Seed

$20 USD
Thanks for your support! We will send you a seed packet of Painted Mountain or Shawnee Fire Flint corn seed
Included Items
  • Painted Mtn or Flint Corn Seed
Estimated Shipping
May 2019
8 out of 50 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Tulsi or Mint Tea

$25 USD
Thanks for stepping up for our seeds! We will send you a bag of your choice of Tulsi tea or Applemint tea. Both favorites at our farm and with guests at tea time.
Included Items
  • Tulsi or Apple Mint Tea
Estimated Shipping
November 2019
7 out of 15 of claimed
Ships to United States of America

3 Seed Packets - Our favorites

$35 USD
Thank you! We will send you 3 packets of our favorite seed varieties, 1 each: a vegetable, an herb and one of our pollinator flowers.
Included Items
  • 3 pack of our favorite seeds
Estimated Shipping
May 2019
22 out of 35 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Fresh ground corn flour

$45 USD
1 lb of our heirloom, non-GMO corn ground into flour in our own mill at the farm. The corn was grown in the traditional Native 3 Sisters way, interplanted with pole beans fixing the nitrogen which used the corn for support, squash amply covering the ground to block out sunlight from the weeds.
Included Items
  • Fresh ground corn flour
Estimated Shipping
July 2019
2 out of 5 of claimed
Ships to United States of America

Dried melon or dried tomatoes

$45 USD
Your choice of honey-nectar dried melon slices or intense-flavored dried heirloom tomatoes packed in a quart jar.
Included Items
  • Dried melon or dried tomatoes
Estimated Shipping
October 2019
2 out of 3 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Garlic sampler

$50 USD
Our seedy offerings of gratitude with a garlic sampler of 3 rare varieties we grow, with acknowledgments to farmers we traded seeds with while traveling in garlic heartlands of Central Asia.
Included Items
  • Garlic sampler
Estimated Shipping
September 2019
6 out of 15 of claimed
Ships to United States of America

Farm Ferments

$50 USD
Farm fresh ferments, a mix of our favorite Ladakhi daikon radishes, carrots, garlic, chilies and other spices from the farm, 16oz. (FOR PICKUP ONLY, in Southern Oregon).
Included Items
  • Farm ferments
Estimated Shipping
June 2019
4 out of 5 of claimed

Pollinator seeds

$75 USD
Love up your pollinators with a little more diversity and beauty in this seed collection of favorites, 6 packets
Included Items
  • Pollinator seeds
Estimated Shipping
May 2019
5 out of 7 of claimed

Veggie & Herb Plant Starts

$125 USD
Seedling starts of mixed vegetable and herb varieties for your garden, Eight 6-packs (48 plants). (FOR PICKUP ONLY, in Southern Oregon)
Included Items
  • Veggie & Herb Plant Starts
Estimated Shipping
May 2019
4 out of 15 of claimed

Limited Edition Seed Catalog

$150 USD
Limited edition color version of our 2019 seed catalog exclusive. Only 5 will be printed.
Included Items
  • Limited Edition Seed Catalog
Estimated Shipping
April 2019
2 out of 5 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Farm Seeds Deluxe - 10pk

$150 USD
A full selection of seeds to get all your bases covered, from healthy pollinators to greens, roots and things - 10 packets
Included Items
  • Farm Seeds Deluxe - 10pk
Estimated Shipping
May 2019
2 out of 5 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Farm consultation

$350 USD
1 hour, on-site farm design consultation (S. Oregon/N California), or Skype call or on-line video conference anywhere globally, with Chris. He will analyze and assess your land in person, or via Google Earth, and share ideas how to integrate all resource elements into a whole systems design for long-term sustainability of your homestead.
Included Items
  • Farm consultation
Estimated Shipping
March 2019
0 out of 5 of claimed

Seed bundle

$500 USD
A bounty of our most unique seeds, garlic sampler and a bag of seedy surprises ;)
Included Items
  • Garlic sampler
  • Seed bundle
Estimated Shipping
May 2019
0 out of 2 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

Seed to Table dinner

$750 USD
Thank you! Farm fresh dinner for up to 5 people, all food and libations made and grown with love on our farm or just down the road. An experience you will not forget.
Included Items
  • Seed to Table dinner
Estimated Shipping
August 2019
1 out of 2 of claimed

Farm Tour+Seed to Table dinner

$1,000 USD
Tour a diversified, organic farm well known for its community involvement, see other innovative farmers growing cut flowers, seeds, veggies and one of the only local, organic vineyard operations. Dinner will follow to seat up to 5 people. Food, flowers, wine served will ALL be sourced from the farm from our seeds. An experience you will not forget.
Included Items
  • Farm Tour+Seed to Table dinner
Estimated Shipping
August 2019
0 out of 2 of claimed

Homestead consult+followups

$2,000 USD
Three separate 2 hour, on-site farm design consultations (S. Oregon/N California), Skype or on-line video conference anywhere globally, with Chris. He will analyze and assess your land in person, or via Google Earth, and share ideas how to integrate all resource elements into a whole systems design for long-term sustainability of your homestead.
Included Items
  • Farm consultation (extended)
Estimated Shipping
March 2019
0 out of 2 of claimed
sold out

Elderberry Wine or Mead

$50 USD
Estimated Shipping
June 2019
8 out of 8 of claimed
sold out

Plant a fruit or nut tree

$60 USD
Estimated Shipping
June 2019
5 out of 5 of claimed
sold out

Super foods

$75 USD
Estimated Shipping
November 2019
5 out of 5 of claimed
Ships worldwide.

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