Excellent Seed Sources

I would like to remind folks that a great local source of imported Asian veggie and herbs seeds (especially if you like to cook Asian cuisine as I do) is the Oceanic Market in downtown Tampa. The produce dept. sells cool things that can be PLANTED vs. eaten, like various hot peppers, watercress, Chinese White Yams (Dioscorea alata), ginger root and galangal ginger root, garlic bulbs, shallots bulbs, sweet potatoes, plus various fresh herbs that can be rooted, and more. Their shelves of dried seeds sold to be cooked are a cheap way of getting seeds of adzuki beans, soybeans, garbanzos, mung beans and many more. My diet is heavy with seaweed and they have a wonderful selection, including the iodine-rich kelp kombu essential to great miso soup. Right outside their scary meat dept. full of creatures still moving are three seeds displays that can include hard to get brassicas like Wong Bok and various Chinese rapes.

Welter Seed and Honey Company in Iowa is a great family company I promote in my gardening classes and are the sources of the various Forage Rapes and Forage Turnips I buy to give to my students, including Bonar and Appin and Pasja and other mild flavored VERY cold hardy brassicas. They have OODLES of grains, even Teff from Ethiopia, plus a vast selection of cover crops and green manures plus seed crops for wild birds. Very reasonable per pound prices in many cases. You can reach them at:

http://www.welterseed.com/ or 1-800-728-8450

John