Topic: Kokopelli Organic Seeds

[Obelixx]

Kokopelli is an international seed bank organisation dedicated to saving old varieties of fruits and vegetables and also to helping 3rd world communities improve their agriculture from varieties through methods to harvest.

They have a seed catalogue - only 600 varieties of tomato - and also publish a book on how to sow and cultivate a variety of veggies.  If you google Kokopelli-seed-foundation you will find all sorts of goodies.   

[tim]

Nice to think that someone took over from Terre de Semences? It used to be a great catalogue.

[Obelixx]

Hi Tim - The book has a French version called Sémences de Kokopelli but there is an English version available on the website I gave.   They are currently setting one up for Belgium too.

They reckon to have 600 varieties of tomato, 400 sweet and chilli peppers, 50 aubergines, 250 squashes, 80 melons and 250 salad leaf plants among 2,700 varieties in all.   

They are very keen to promote organic methods and biodiversity and campaign against companies like Monsanto and GM.   I approve.   they also gave free seeds to a school in the village where my favourite plant fair is held in spring.  The kids sowed them and sold the resulting tomato and pumpkin plants at the fair to raise funds for the school.  Brilliant.

[tim]

With you on all that. It was the superb free catalogue that used to be. Before bureaucracy took over.

[amphibian]

I really want to see their collectors list, but I cannot, for the life of me, find how you join.

[Obelixx]

I don't think you join, like with the HDRA.  I think you send off for their seed list and buy the seeds.   I first came across them at a plant fair a couple of years ago but didn't realise what they were about until recently when I got some blurb in with a local Walloon  booklet promoting regional horticultural events and nurseries.

As with the HDRA it is also possible to "adopt" a variety in danger of extinction and grow it and reproduce it.  There is also a campaign to have us grow plants here in our gradens and collect the seeds for 3rd world countries to grow.