Is there a catch to these free seeds from Going To Seed?

So I'm on Going To Seed (landrace), just wondering...is there a catch? Why are they free?

From the website "We ask that you commit to growing these seeds without pampering, save seeds from the tastiest, earliest, and healthiest plants, and send a portion of those seeds back to the program. This will allow us to grow the seed supply and provide adapted selections to new gardeners."

If you do participate, I would recommend considering a donation. I gave roughly $2 a packet to hopefully offset a little bit the cost of the labor that went into it. I'm hoping to be able to grow a few and start developing some landraces.

Have other people here ordered from there? Just worried about scams, sorry for the suspicion

Joseph Lofthouse is a member of Permies and this organization so that was enough for me to participate.

Awesome, thank you Tim

I consider this seed swap the most important of my life. The seeds are free, because we intend to build a community of seed stewards, and community seed-keepers, and we want to remove barriers to participation. We want more people to practice adaptation agriculture.

I worked towards this type of swap for 15 years, but lacked the technical and organizational skills to pull it together.

Last winter the Going To Seed non-profit conducted the first swap. I feel super content about it. They did what I always dreamed about, but couldn't accomplish by myself.

We studied the swap, and lessons-learned, to make this year's swap even better.

The swap, the free video course about my book, and the farmer support program, receive funding from generous donors. We ask that people who receive seeds cover the modest shipping charges.

Thank you all for this information.  I just placed an order.  I am hoping to do better than with the lame packaged seeds from the store, which have been less than successful.  The best plants we ever had were the tomato plants that grew from seeds our chickens missed and pushed just outside their fenced area.  Anything we planted from seed or bought in a pot from the store were lousy.  After reading info on their website it makes sense why the corporate varieties wont work around here.

I was really hoping to order seeds, but every time I look at the going-to-seed site under 2024 collection it says "No Products Found".  I was on there on the first day, as I really didn't want to miss out on the opportunity.  

Could it be that it is because I am in Poland?  

I do have family in Florida who I could send them to, and they could bring the seeds when they come to Poland in the Spring.  

Ive already taken the free course on adaptation gardening, and am currently in the middle of Dr Whites endophyte/microbes course.  Really hoping to get into the landrace practices, and eventually helping to share what I am able to produce.  

Last year was my first time ordering from them and it was a mixed year as far as harvests.  Better prepared this year and looking forward to give another try at growing potatoes from seed again.  

I tried potatoes and peppers last year and had really good germination and what I thought would be a stellar year until the neighbor's cattle got loose one day and trampled everything that wasn't fenced.

They ask that you do send a portion of seed from the earliest and most tasty varieties back to be introduced into the mix and in return you'll be given priority access to the next year's seed offering.  

Arthur Wierzchos wrote:I was really hoping to order seeds, but every time I look at the going-to-seed site under 2024 collection it says "No Products Found".  I was on there on the first day, as I really didn't want to miss out on the opportunity.  

Could it be that it is because I am in Poland?  

I see the same thing now (UK based) so that is possible.
We're probably best to participate in a more local scheme anyway due to the risks of cross border diseases, apart from climate differences. I can't even import seed from you legally anymore . I'm now a member of a Scotland based seed swap/saving scheme (Far North Seed savers) If there isn't a similar one for Eastern Europe, why not consider starting one? You could be the catalyst for change there.

Like Joseph, I'm also a seed steward for Going to Seed (though he's one of the bigwigs). There is a thread in the GTS forums about European members unable to access the catalog -- the issue was unexpected and a resolution hasn't been posted yet. But we can't ship to EU, so you might have to use a North American ended VPN to see the catalog. Or you can join and get into the forums. There is a substantial European population that has blossomed over the last year and they have a big seed-train going for diversity exchange. on top of that, the mostly-video based classes are all three pretty great too. We've put a lot of work in, collectively, (including some big financial donors) to give people stuff for free. I guess there's some risk that you won't find anything of value (though I doubt it) but it's certainly not at all scammy.

I see the same thing now (UK based) so that is possible.
We're probably best to participate in a more local scheme anyway due to the risks of cross border diseases, apart from climate differences. I can't even import seed from you legally anymore . I'm now a member of a Scotland based seed swap/saving scheme (Far North Seed savers) If there isn't a similar one for Eastern Europe, why not consider starting one? You could be the catalyst for change there.

Do we really need to worry that much about disease transmission with seeds?  If it was something else with soil attached, or as a root or tuber, then yes...more risk for sure.  I actually had to deal with this before when trying to bring Taro from Hawaii to Taiwan.  Phytosanitary certificates and such.  Both Taiwan and Hawaii are very strict about plants crossing their borders. A lot of the concerns I can understand, but some regulations seem to be a bit overblown.  Taiwan did say I could bring in seeds of Taro no problem, but at the time I was focused on keeping the very specific varieties I had collected, which meant transporting cuttings (huli).  

As far as helping with something for Eastern Europe..I would love to be of service!  But, foundations first.  I need to get something growing, and save the seeds.  To get something growing Id love to get started with more favorable genetics.  This is where ill be able to provide something of better value to others.  

So, back to the seeds.  I haven't yet found a good supply...  

But we can't ship to EU, so you might have to use a North American ended VPN to see the catalog. Or you can join and get into the forums. There is a substantial European population that has blossomed over the last year and they have a big seed-train going for diversity exchange. on top of that, the mostly-video based classes are all three pretty great too. We've put a lot of work in, collectively, (including some big financial donors) to give people stuff for free.

Thanks for everything you all are doing Christopher!  Maybe the solution will be to ask family to look at the catalog from their computer in Florida, make an order, and have that be shipped to the US address.  

I did join the GTS forums recently.  Ill head on over there, make that first introductory post, and spark up some conversations, or join into already existing dialogues.  

Arthur Wierzchos wrote:[Do we really need to worry that much about disease transmission with seeds?  

I'm not sure what the answer is Arthur, so I started a thread here: https://permies.com/t/240086/seeds-carry-diseases

Arthur, I think it's because of EU rules on importing seeds the risk of the seeds being impounded and destroyed is unfortunately quite high.

But there's a EU seed swap group happening on the Gone to Seed site, and a separate UK one, as well. It may be too late to join for this year but you could apply to be part of it for next year.

Just thought I’d check back in — my seeds arrived!

Lots of good genetic variation there to play with! Happy growing!

Look what came in the mail yesterday!

I was the seed steward for pepo squashes this year, and I was a contributer of seeds last year.  These mixes are fantastic.  The amount of love and care (all of it volunteer work) that goes into these is amazing.  Everybody in the Going to Seed community is trying to make great things more accessible to everybody.

Got mine today!
Thanks to all who made this happen!!!
...what a wonderful sharing and affordable opportunity

What people fail to realize is that nature is super generous with seeds. I as a breeder am focused on retracting seeds. Imagine the amount of seeds you can take out of 1 tomato or 1 corn cob.. we have seeds..
I don't have the space to grow out all these seeds, but they need to be grown out to check for the most vigorous hybrids. Which as a thank you part of them you can send back into the pool, to be shared by the next generation of growers.
As these seeds are very diverse to start with there's a much higher chance that some will do well in your circumstances, whatever your soil type or climate. These diverse seeds will have a much bigger chance to work great than the homogeneous ones you buy from biological shops online.
So you'll have more fun gardening..
The catch is we're a community and want seeds back... People are not very much inclined to honor this part of the equation.
In Europe we're not as many yet and haven't organized ourselves as in USA yet, but we have different strategies, we have a serendipity box going around for members. A box going from member to member full of seeds, people can take and add as they see fit.
As adaptation gardening gets more popular this system also lead to some depletion so i made a different system for newcombers were we distribute seeds we have plenty off. Starter Packs were born, for newbies and they can chat on the Telegram channel about all things gardening, low barrier. GTS is pretty nerdy and offputting for people new to gardening, i guess Permies is a bit scary as well.
And there is a lot of peer to peer exchange going on between members who have specialized breeding programs.

So i hope it's a bit more clear now that there is no real catch, other than we'd like you to be part of our community when you take our seeds. And if you don't want to,  feel free to buy seeds from the industrial seed complex perpetually.

I'm interested in getting involved (central England) but I would have to get a lot more organised on the returning seeds side especially ..

Ac BAker. The UK crowd is a nice bunch of chaps and lasses. They'll for sure provide you with what they can miss when you're honestly saying, i might not be able to return seeds. For me personally if someone would say that i'd give them cucurbitaceae, parsnip, tomato, rocket lettuce and salad, but not things that i don't have a lot of or am struggling to produce.
I don't know about your personal context, but if people do like total STUN (sheer total utter neglect), that's really appreciated, because what survives in those circumstances will do great anywhere. While most of us softy breeders, talk hard, but still moddycoddle our plants more than should be done. In many cases to ensure that crops survive and get a chance of crossing before moving to harder selection criteria and sharing those seeds out to who wants to get involved.
One can only try.

Ac, we've got a 'pass the parcel' seed train in the UK with various seed packets in it - take what you need and add what you can. I think so far it has balanced out pretty well. I think it will get going again at the end of the season as the seeds become ripe for harvest.
I expect you will be able to put in peas and beans and maybe tomatoes? Even if you decide not to take part, there are some interesting discussions going on, although I still prefer permies!