The complex process of fulfilling seed requests

With another trip to the post office soon, I am moving at a slow but steady pace through all of the seed requests received last year. I don’t know the exact count, but from 120 emails in my 2023 seed request folder, I am at 38 emails to be processed. 2/3 done, 1/3 to go.

I use a bit of a triage method - some requests are easy - just 1 or 2 varieties. Those get done first. For whatever reason, there are quite a few “complex'“ requests looking for older seeds, or to play in the dwarf tomato breeding project, or heading outside of the US. These take more time and I leave them for last.

I am running out of quite a few varieties that I talked up, so don’t be alarmed when you find seed packets with but a few seeds - Abraham Brown in particular. I will save 5 for myself, but that will end up being the extent of that variety in my collection (I will grow it next year to bump up my seed supply a bit). Captain Lucky and Cherokee Purple are also running down fast. The lead selection for Lillian Rose is down to just a few seeds for me, so I will be sending F3 seeds to select from.

This represents my very last large scale seed distribution, an activity I’ve done each winter for many years. It is the end of an era! My seed stock will be appropriately depleted after this, so for those obtaining seeds from me, be a seed saver!

NOTE - I did a bit of work on the Dwarf Tomato Project release page on this website. I have to work on descriptions, but the releases via Victory per year should now be accurate and stands at 157 varieties. Though the project is officially done, a few remaining releases are working their way through the system - the eventual final number will be between 165-170!