Where do we find our seeds?

We love seeds, teaching about seeds, reading seed stories, planting seeds, and the best is pouring over seed catalogs and trying not to order too many! We have several favorite seed companies, and every year we find a few more we love.

Over the past eight years, we’ve learned a lot about saving seeds like these Sea Island Red Peas. Most of what we saved in 2023, we lost in the fire, but we’ll keep trying. (image: green lid for a plastic tub turned upside down with dried seed pods and small red pea seeds on top.)

Almost all of the seeds we plant at E.A.T. South are ordered from small companies. Many specialize specific kinds of seeds, seeds from certain regions of the world, or in selling only organic seeds. Here are our favorites. We have a lot of favorites.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds is a source for just about any vegetable, herb, flower, or cover crop you can imagine. The website is an excellent source of information on how to grow everything they sell.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange specializes in vegetables and herbs that grow in our region. Ira Wallace, author of Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast, is the primary plant breeder for this company. 

Ujamaa Seeds is part of the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance and exists to diversify the seed industry and support growers from historically marginalized communities. 

High Mowing Seeds sells only organic seeds.

True Love Seeds works with small scale growers to produce seeds connected to the many different cultures that make up the United States. If you are looking for vegetables from South Asia, West Africa, or the Caribbean, you might find them here. They also offer U.S.heirloom seeds like Fish Peppers.

FedCo Seeds specializes in cold hardy vegetables, flowers, fruit trees and bulbs.

Last year, True Leaf Market bought Kitazawa Seed Company, the oldest operating seed company in the U.S. Kitazawa’s focus was vegetables from Asia and South Asia. Many of these plants like bok choy and sprouting broccoli grow well in our cool winters, and you can find varieties of roselle/hibiscus that like our long summers. 

Territorial Seeds offers seeds for all kinds of vegetables. 

Everwilde Farms sells affordable bulk seeds in mylar packages that make it easier to keep them fresh.

Wild Garden Seeds sells all organic and open pollinated seeds. They have developed their own varieties of lettuce and kale.

Grand Prismatic Seeds is our source for seeds for dye plants.

The Great American Seed Up sells the bulk seeds we buy for the seed swap. 

The list just gets larger every year! Send us your favorite companies!