Methow Valley Seed Collective

10/11/2024

SEEDS AVAILABLE

As the seed collective transitions away from selling retail seed, we would like to offer the remaining packets from our 2024 season to the community as a gift. Please come find our rack at the Methow Natives nursery shop at Twispworks. It's 216 5th Avenue, East of the interpretive center.

If you haven't had a chance to read the letter about our transition away from retail, visit our website to do so:
https://mvseedcollective.com/blogs/news/futureofmvsc

Thanks so much for planting these seeds! And please tell garden friends to come get some. I will try to keep adding seeds as the rack empties... With love from the Methow Valley Seed Collective team..

07/02/2024

Dearest seed loving community,

We are announcing the closing of the retail chapter of the Methow Valley Seed Collective, and offering an invitation to join us in a new chapter. We will no longer be selling seeds on our website or in stores, as we lean into a new paradigm where we step outside the market economy and offer the seeds freely as a gift to our community.

To read our full announcement, visit our blog:
https://mvseedcollective.com/blogs/news/futureofmvsc

We are looking to the plants themselves as our teachers and models. Plants, which give of their gifts freely, wax and wane with the seasons and the weather, flourish and spread beauty and also senesce and die with grace. Unlike market economies, plants do not expect infinite growth and gracefully and patiently live, gifting the energy of the sun (through the magic of photosynthesis) to all the beings human and non-human that they interact with.

Again, to read my full letter to you, our community, who has supported us and encouraged us as we have built up capacity to offer the gift of the seed to our people, visit this link:
https://mvseedcollective.com/blogs/news/futureofmvsc

~ Anaka Mines

If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to me directly at [email protected]

“We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put out into the universe will always come back.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

03/01/2024

Chelle’s Garden in Okanogan is now open Monday-Friday 10-4!

Our new seeds and seed rack is here!!! We are setting it all up now! I am so excited about these locally grown seeds! And the varieties they offer are incredible! 🫶

02/21/2024

Meet our new collection of seeds from different volunteer sunflowers on our farms:

~ Wild Methow Sunflower Mix ~
https://mvseedcollective.com/products/wild-methow-sunflower-mix

Sunflowers readily cross-pollinate and self-sow in our climate. While we originally and intentionally planted various particular varieties over the years, these are the seeds of the wild ones — the sunflowers that thrived, the ones that made their own way, who grew where the ground wanted them to grow.

Expect to be surprised by a variety of heights, sizes, and glorious colors.

02/14/2024

We’re hosting a Seed Swap with Classroom in Bloom and the Twisp Valley Grange this Sunday February 18th from 2pm - 4pm!

The annual Methow Valley Seed Swap will begin at 2:00pm with an interactive program to learn about the ways we all save seed and the ways we can support each other in creating a community of seed savers to support our present and future seed security.

After the activity we will set up the seed swap, organized in a way that we can learn from each other about the varieties that we bring, and how they are maintained. NOTE: it is best to arrive by 2:45 if you want to share seed.

And also feel free to drop in on the swap anytime, if your time is limited, and learn about the seed and take some home. Please feel free to come with seed you saved, or leftover packets from seeds you have bought and would like to share your excess. You are NOT required to bring seed in order to take seed, all seed is given freely at this Seed Swap.

We’ll bring some different dishes of food to share that are created from seed varieties that we grow here at the Methow Valley Seed Collective. There will be a taste testing of our 3 different varieties of black beans, and other tastes to enjoy as well. We would like to offer everyone the opportunity to bring a side dish of their own that features a crop that you grew, especially one from which you brought seed to share.

01/27/2024

Online ordering for the 2024 growing season is now officially open! https://mvseedcollective.com/

We've added over 16 new varieties to our catalog this year:
https://mvseedcollective.com/collections/new-seeds-2024

We offer a local pick-up bin right outside our workshop at Twispworks ~ and we ship nationwide via USPS.

Our seeds will also be available in the following stores by mid-late February: Ace Hardware (Winthrop), Chelle’s Garden (Okanogan), Glover St. Market (Twisp), Twisp Feed, Mazama Store, Sage Mountain Natural Foods (Leavenworth), and Wenatchee Natural Foods (Wenatchee).

Photo: the gorgeous and easy-to-grow Duchess Mix Aster ~
https://mvseedcollective.com/products/aster-duchess-mix

01/21/2024

Join us at the Twisp River Grange on Thursday, January 25th at 5:30pm for Potluck with a Purpose.

Our very own Anaka Mines will share some introductory concepts on how to save your own seeds from common crops in the Methow Valley. She’ll discuss the basics of how to adapt crops to our climatic region and why it’s so important to be adaptive in our approach to agriculture. As founder of the Methow Valley Seed Collective, she asks how can we work together as a community to maintain a supply of local seeds that we can all use and share: the heart of seed saving.

Doors open at 5:30, eat at 6:00, program at 6:15 pm

Please bring food to share. Plates, silverware and water provided.

And save the date for our next event: we’ll be hosting our annual seed swap & party on February 18th, time TBD.

06/22/2023

Little known fact: Fireweed Print Shop designed the seed packets for Methow Valley Seed Collective using an antique letterpress and hand printed the first 1,000 packets. Artist and printmaker Laura Gunnip runs this hidden-gem of a print shop and helps students of all ages engage in the radical act of creative self-knowledge through letterpress and printmaking classes. Case in point: Laura is hosting a *Young Q***r Maker Space at her shop this Friday, June 23, noon - 3pm for Pride Month."* She also has a retail shop featuring one-of-a-kind and small batch hand-printed items. Call ahead at 509-449-1789 to double check her open hours or find out about available classes.

05/12/2023

Looking for gardening inspiration and ideas?

Join us this Saturday May 13th from 12pm-2pm for a gardening Q&A from Methow Valley Seed Collective hosted by Poorman Plants

Any and all questions welcome. Come learn helpful tips and tricks for gardening in the Methow Valley!

Event will be held at: Poorman Plants
117 W 2nd Ave A, Twisp WA 98856

05/02/2023

Wondering how to get started growing your own veggies, herbs, and flowers from seed?

We've put together a blog post featuring four local and zone-friendly resources to help you get things growing... there's still plenty of time to start growing from seed this year!

You'll find our very own How To Grow Our Seeds in the Methow Valley Guide (a collaboration between us here at MVSC and Dana Visalli), a seed starting video series by Susan Mulvihill of the Spokane area, tips from Snake River Seed Cooperative of Idaho and a link to the Seed Starting Academy from our friends at Fruition Seeds in Zone 5 New York.

Growing from seed needn't be intimidating: we humans have been doing this for thousands of years. Remember that experimentation and trial-and-error is a part of gardening and farming, even for the most experienced amongst us.Having some basics down before you begin can help make it more fun and rewa...

04/16/2023

Wondering where to find our locally grown, farm-based seeds in the Methow Valley and beyond? Here’s a list of stores that carry what we grow:

~ Mazama ~
Mazama Store

~ Twisp ~
Glover Street Market
Poorman Plants
Twisp Feed

~ Wenatchee ~
Wenatchee Natural Foods

~ Winthrop ~
Winthrop Ace Hardware

A selection of our seeds is also available at Leavenworth Nursery.

Special thanks goes to folks at each of these stores. As a small business in our second year, we’ve received useful feedback, encouragement, and support from each and every store. It's helped us to grow, improve, and offer even more to all of you.

Have your own shop or know of one that you think would be interested in carrying our seeds? Feel free to reach out!