Afraid
I don’t know If I’m crazy but I feel afraid from our life in city. I read blogs from other countries where people have backyards and allotments to grow foods. Here, in our big cities we don’t have backyards and we never had allotments in Greece. We can’t grow food. We live in appartments and we have big or small balcony. It’s difficult to grow food in pots.
I sow vegetable seeds but I have in my mind that I will transplanting them in my plot 100km from here. Some people have plots near the sea and they went there in summer and weekends. Other are from villages near the city and went there frequently. But the most people can’t have some land to grow food if they want.
It’s strange you know. My parents work with land when they were younger, they know how the food grow. For me it’s a purpose to learn and I can ask them some things. But… what about next generation?
I’m afraid that the next generation will know the food only from super market. And this is a Big Problem.
I think it’s not just that people will only know food from the supermarket, but it’s also that people will only know modern foods. What I try to grow in my garden are old historical varieties, many of which are being lost because people don’t grow them anymore.
@Patrick you’re right! I am involved many years in organizations for the protection of wild life but I never thought that the vegetables had same problems. Until now…
You know, I found in one US site a traditional variety of tomato who has the name of my city here. I didn’t knew this variety, I can’t find seeds of this variety here. Maybe some older people in villages have some seeds, but they call them just “tomatoes”. They don’t know what variety are.
I promise to myself to buy some seeds from US next year.
Here is Europe we have the European Seed Laws, which means every country has a list of allowed seeds and anything not on these lists are illegal. Most of what’s on these lists are modern varieties.
There are a few places in Europe that sell ‘illegal’ seeds, like:
http://www.realseeds.co.uk
or
http://www.terredesemences.com/
but otherwise it’s very hard to find old varieties here.
In the US and Canada there are no seed laws, and any varieties can be sold there. Also there we so many people who moved there over the last few hundred years from all over the world and brought their seeds with them so there is a huge collection of plant varieties there.
On the front page of my blog there are some links to seed companies that all sell old varieties.
Since World War II it’s estimated that 70% of all fruit and vegetable varieties have been lost because people lost interest in them, so biodiversity in food is an important issue and a very serious problem.
Last month I read about the kokopelli problems. It’s crazy to forbit the seed conservation.
Modern varieties don’t have smell or flavor, they’re like plastic with hormones.
I know that some people in Greece save traditional seeds the last years, but they don’t have websites or it’s difficult to find and contact them. I send one email in a small organization a month before and nobody answer me yet.
Peliti looks like an interesting organization.
I almost always have too many seeds each year for my garden, so I am not really just looking for more seeds.
At the same time, if you come across interesting Greek varieties that might grow in Amsterdam, I would like to hear about it. It’s particularly interesting if you or someone you know has grown them, and have some experience with them.
If you can send me some seeds great, but if not I have enough other places to find seeds that if I know the name of whatever it is I can usually find seeds.
Also if you are ever looking for any variety in particular, you should post about it. There’s a good chance I or some other blogger can help you find it.
For example, I am a member of the US Seed Savers Exchange which in 2008 offers 13280 unique varieties, a number of which come from Greek immigrants. Other bloggers are members of other seed saving organizations.
It’s a start for me and I don’t have seeds. For this reason I search to buy some organic or traditional seeds. Thanks for the tips.
Now I grow in my plot one pepper variety which call them “Florina’s Peppers”. They are sweet red peppers and I can’t find many informations in english for this variety (Florina is one city in Greece). I don’t have seeds because I purchace seedlings. I will save seeds when the peppers grew enough.
The US Seed Savers Exchange send seeds in Europe? It’s interesting if they can.
Florina Pepper is the Greek name for what is also called pimiento peppers. There are lots of different kinds, the SSE offers 25 different ones to their members. They can be yellow, orange, green or red. None of the ones the SSE offers say they are from Greece, they are all from the US, Italy, Spain or they don’t say where they are from.
It’s pretty common for pepper plants to be F1 hybrids, which means you can’t really save seeds because it’s not genetically stable. This is probably the case, unless you bought it from some place that told you it was not an F1.
In any case, I look forward to hearing how it goes!
There are two ways to get seeds from the SSE. The first is to buy seeds directly from them, from their catalog or website: http://www.seedsavers.org In this case they are kind of difficult people, and probably won’t ship to Europe. Even if they do ship to Europe, they have a $100 minimum order when they send outside of the US.
If you just want to buy a few seeds, the SSE is not a good place to do this.
The other way to get seeds from the SSE is to become a member, which costs US$50! In addition to this, you have to pay for the seeds you order. This is quite a lot of money for just a few seeds. However in this case, you order the seeds directly from other members.
You can call or email the other people offering the seeds and ask questions, or ask if they might have other interesting plants. You often meet a lot of interesting people this way, and these people will usually send seeds to Europe.
There are a number of SSE people who live in Europe!
I sent an email to someone in Italy asking about artichoke plants yesterday, I got some seeds from someone in Norway a few days ago, several months ago I got some plants from someone in Belgium, I got some really interesting Soviet era seeds from an SSE person in Belarus a few months ago and I will probably trade garlic with someone in Sweden in a couple of months. Earlier this year I sent some of my garlic to an SSE person in Germany.
@Patrick thank you for SSE informations! I think it’s nice to be member in SSE but it’s too early for me. Maybe next year If I’m more organized in my plot.
The Florina’s Peppers are not hybrid, their story lost in the past and are traditional peppers in Greece. Once a year, in one village in Florina have Pepper Festival for these peppers.
Some years before, I lived in a village near to this village and I know that they have the most delicious red Florina’s peppers.
I don’t know if my plants are hybrids because I purchace them from a nursery here, but I have old (in age)friends in this village in Florina and I will try to contact them and ask them more informations about the peppers and maybe some seeds for my next year peppers.