I just received my order of Spring garden seeds from Stokes Seeds, Inc., Buffalo, NY. Surprise, surprise! Stokes Seeds Inc, of Buffalo, NY is REALLY Stokes Seeds, Ltd, of Ontario, Canada. And the seeds were produced mostly in FRANCE AND GERMANY, with only the mustard coming from the USA. Lesson learned? If you, like me, are boycotting the products of these three countries, YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL AND CHECK BEFOREHAND TO BE SURE WHO YOU ARE REALLY DEALING WITH! While you're at it, check out where the frozen crayfish, farm-raised salmon and "gulf" shrimp in your supermarket come from. You can find out be using the resourses of your search engine. Pay particular attention to growing conditions and what they are fed! Enjoy......if you can keep it down!
So what does shrimp and crayfish have to do with gardening? For that matter, about every vegetable but beans, corn, and squash are foreign to these shores. Mustard is also non-American. Better not even think about tomatoes which have barely been in the US for 200 years. Do you ever see the country of origin on a tomato packet? Don't bet the house that the seeds were collected in the US! If you're a farmer and planting soybeans or corn, same advice. Also, in regards to Stokes, welcome to Earth! Stokes has been a Canadian firm since the 1930s! They've long maintained an outlet in New York, using AMERICAN labor, so that gardeners and farmers on both sides of the border can have easier access to the same seed source. Martin
Stokes is my favorite seed company, I was a bit surprised it was Canadian, but not angry about it. I am most pleased with the order I got last spring!! Kris
i'm not gonna bring politics into *my* garden. and how much is my few dollars gonna do to bring down these hated regimes? seriously, im not mad at the french or germans. in one big happy global family, our friends dont ALWAYS have to agree with the u.s. do they?
"i'm not gonna bring politics into *my* garden. and how much is my few dollars gonna do to bring down these hated regimes?" I agree Randel!!! I think it is great fun to see all the different places my seeds come from. :haha: As I am planting I often wonder if the person who harvested the seed was thinking "I wonder who will plant this".
Hey, Martin (Paquebot), it's great to see you back again. My garden will not be political and I fully agree with all the posts. I am trying hard to remember just what country tomatoes came from.
Ardie, tomatoes originated in South and Central America. Original wild versions were almost identical to the present currant tomatoes, much smaller than a normal cherry tomato. Several such new wild varieties have recently been identified on the Galapagos Islands. It was either the second or third voyage of Columbus which brought them to the modern world. Their first European landfall would have been most likely the Canary Islands, which still remains a source of "new" tomato varieties. Tomatoes were grown and cultured for 300 years in Europe before they were brought to the US, from France, by Thomas Jefferson. He was the first person known to have grown tomatoes anywhere in what is now the US. If you grow the small Red Pear, the line of that variety may be traced all the way back to Jefferson's Monticello! It is the only variety which has remained virtually unchanged for the entire 200 years that tomatoes have been here. Martin
