We just received our 2022 Seed Catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. We always like to purchase our seeds from them as the seeds are heirloom and open pollenated (non-hybrid) which means the seeds can be saved and used year after year. You can't really do this with hybrid seeds. I like to sit down, do a seed inventory, and then purchase seeds for the upcoming year.
Another reason I like Baker Creek is that the catalog is like a coffee table book. The artwork is beautiful and put together with such artistry that it makes you want to buy everything. I guess that is kind of the point with good marketing, right?
We also received an email from them on February 10th. I'm cutting and pasting an excerpt below:
Seed and paper shortages update
Dear Gardening Friends, 2022 has been a year of growth and challenges for our company. Thanks to you, we have had the largest volume of January sales in our company’s history. We want to make you aware of the current challenges we are facing:
1) Unbelievable demand for seeds is causing national shortages. Our growers and our in-house production team are redoubling their efforts to produce more rare seeds, but global demand is causing many items to be temporarily unavailable. We apologize that many popular items are again selling out.
2) The volume of orders have been a challenge for our packing and fulfillment teams, who now work 24 hours a day in three shifts. We are working harder than ever to ship a record amount of orders, and we apologize for any delays you may have experienced in the last month.
3) Global paper shortages will greatly affect catalogs this year. We expect the paper costs for our 2023 catalogs to increase by 110%; we also face the possibility of having a supply shortage. The cost of seed packets, paper mailers, etc. is also quickly rising, and supplies are very short. We are currently out of both of our seed catalogs and copies for 2023 will again be limited!
4) Due to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, about 20% of our staff has been on paid leave for part of the month of January, causing staff shortages and other issues. But through all the craziness, we have been blessed to have such wonderful customers, friends and staff members who have helped in so many ways!
This is me again. So, we learn the supply of seeds has diminished, resulting in the inability to fulfill orders, shortages of paper is increasing costs, and it is hard to staff positions to get work done. We are living in crazy times. I've always tried to save seeds such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, etc. Last year I had great success saving spinach seeds. Some are hard to save, some are a little easier. I do have old vitamin containers stored away with seeds I've saved along with the dates. One thing you have to be careful for is as the saved seeds age, some of the germination rates fall off. This means that you need to plant a little more to make up for those that don't germinate.
Below you can see a big turnip that is going to seed. It came up volunteer from last year. I've had my eye on it, wanting to feed it to the cows on those cold days, but, to the cows' chagrin, I defeated the temptation. Now it's going to seed.
I'll collect the seeds off of it once they are mature and save for next year. All of our turnip crop was decimated by the freeze this year when I was unable to cover them up. One neat thing you can see is that a honeybee from our bee colony has located the flower. It is a great thing to have bees to pollenate.
If you haven't saved or ordered seeds, it might be a good idea to make an order to ensure you have some on-hand when you need them. Won't be long now before we'll be planting. Temperatures will be in the 80's this week! Happy growing, everyone. Get out there and get your hands dirty.
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