That's great news!  It is wonderful to hear that!

Kim Luppino wrote:Carol is in the process of filling her orders. I received my order this week, don't loose hope!

Good to hear. I received seeds about 3 weeks ago.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:

Kim Luppino wrote:Carol is in the process of filling her orders. I received my order this week, don't loose hope!

Good to hear. I received seeds about 3 weeks ago.

Hi- THANK YOU ALL for posting on this- I had sent in an order in early April of 2018 after hearing that she was indeed taking orders on the 2017 order form- it's a relief to hear that things are- better than might be. It's planting time now and I'll proceed with what I have but will save space. Her seed and her work have been an inspiration and a huge part of my gardening evolution since 2014. I wish I lived closer and could lend a hand.. Louise W.

Carol now has a 2018 seed catalogue on her webpage.  It includes an explanation of last years difficulties and also a request to contact her again at Caroldeppe@gmail.com if you had cheques cashed but no order received.  If the cheque was not cashed then re-order as the cheque can no longer be cashed anyways.

Thanks Joseph.  It's great to clear up such a difficult situation.
John S
PDX OR

I will have to email Carol.My check was cashed in February 2017 and I still have not received my seeds. Thank you for the update everyone.

It's super rare for Carol to leave her  home. She will be teaching at a seed school the first week of September. Wow!
Mountain Seed School Campout

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I still have not received my seeds from 2017. I went Carol an email to the email address that Joseph posted, but have received no reply. So frustrated to not have any communication from Carol or my seeds. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I love her seeds. thanks so much. Pat sansom

Like many others, I sent Carol Deppe a seed order in the Spring of 2017 and as has happened to the people here, my check was cashed but I received no seeds nor any reply to a number of inquiring emails, postcards, and so on. This spring I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope with extra postage, asking that some seeds, ANY seeds, be put into the envelope as I no longer cared about my original order. I also said I'd wait a few weeks and if I got nothing, I would contact her publisher.

Like others, I have been patient and compassionate. I too was concerned that ill health or other serious issues had prevented the filling of my order. Now it is my understanding that Deppe simply got overhwelmed with orders and sorted out the muddle the best she could and then moved on.

This is a problem for me, s Deppe and her publisher, Chelsea Green, promote her writing as having a spirtual and wholistic outlook in life as well as in gardening. I was a fan of Deppe's work and loved The Resilient Gardener. I am deeply disappointed that she took me money and left me hanging.

I am also disappointed in Chelsea Green Publishing. I emailed them and told them of the ongoing issues. I got a reply from Nick at Chelsea Green saying, in essence, it was my problem and I shold work it out with Carol by email. I wrote back and said I'd troed that and Carol was ignoring the emails. And I said I would see if other people shared my belief that it's not fair for Carol to continue to receive royalty payments from her publisher while taking money from people for seeds she does not send out.

I will not be emailing the publisher again as it was clear there was no help to be found there, but I will figure out who else I can contact. Perhaps Oregon's Attorney General? I feel Carol has been the opportunity to set things right and she chose not to take that path. I care less about the loss of my own money than i do about this not happening to anyone else in a community of kind and suportive people.

Here's the website for Chelsea Green. https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/carol-deppe/

I don't see the post I wrote this morning, but I am new to the forum and maybe the posts need review first. I wanted to add an update to my original post, in which I said Chelsea Green didn't help at all when I contacted them. I got a follow-up email from Nick at the company and I was very satisfied with the response. He said he would forward my complaint directly to Carol, that thay've had complaints before, and there are some other action steps they asre taking to get the problems sorted out. I wrote a note of appreciation to him and said that all I needed the company to do was to hear what I was saying. I feel heard and I hope things will get resolved so everyone is sastisfied and we can all go on with our lives -- and with our seeds.

Mg, there is a second page of this thread with instructions on how to contact Carol re your order.  

It looks like others have managed to contact her through this means to reach a satisfactory conclusion.  

From what I've heard, she's had a very difficult time and is working hard to resolve these issues.  Perhaps if you were to send a kind reminder, asking for an update on your order.

I have just been reading all the posts re non filled seed orders. What lovely people you all are. Not a cross or rude word. You are so supportive. I hope Carol gets back on her feet. Good gardening and farming to you all.

When we didn't get our 2017 order and didn't hear anything, we figured something was wrong and wrote to ask that our check be accepted as a donation in thanks for all Carol has done for so many through her work with seeds and through her writing. I am glad to read that things are getting better for her again after a rough year.

I too sent an order in 2017 and got nothing in return...and considered it a donation to her work.  But, now, I see that she's posted a 2019 ... yes I double checked.. 2019 !!! catalogue... shall I take another chance?  Maybe, definitely! but maybe a smaller order : )

PS - I'm trying to go gluten free and low carb...emphasis 'trying'!, so am really interested in Carol's Goldini Zucchini for drying into noodle substitutes!... not to mention grating (and freezing) for pizza crusts!!  Yum...can't wait : )

And, here's her catalogue (have to print off, or duplicate, her order form... ordinary mail, only) for your drooling and educational pleasure : )
http://www.caroldeppe.com/FVS%202019%20Seed%20Catalog%20&%20Order%20Form.pdf

I chatted with Carol on the phone recently. She seems to be in good spirits.

Soooooooo GLAD, to hear that, Joseph!  Thanks for sharing .... and glad that she is offering your landrace seeds : )

nancy sutton wrote:Soooooooo GLAD, to hear that, Joseph!  Thanks for sharing .... and glad that she is offering your landrace seeds : )

It sure takes a burden off me, when other people carry my seeds. Then I can focus on what I love -- Plant breeding -- and less on growing seed crops.

Excerpt from Carol's current order form for those in a position to help her do what she does:


"DONATIONS. Breeding open source or public domain, open-pollinated vegetables is more of a public service than an economically viable activity. Do you like the work I’ve been doing? Can you help? If so, send me a donation, or include a donation along with your order on the line provided. Donations in any amount will be very welcome.


PATRONS NEEDED. It has become obvious that I can’t do the plant breeding I want to do with my current resources. My book royalty income has dropped dramatically in recent years. And Fertile Valley Seeds, at its current size, is more effective as a means of distributing my varieties and information about them than as a source of income. And any attempt to expand it to a more profitable size takes it to a size that has proved to be beyond what I can handle.  

I believe that because of changes in late blight lines, it’s going to become impossible to grow all heirloom tomatoes outdoors almost everywhere in North America within the next 5 to 10 years. None of the heirlooms have adequate defenses against late blight. There are commercial late blight resistant varieties produced by university breeders and big seed companies. But these are all in the form of hybrids, not open pollinated varieties. Worse yet, they pretty much all taste awful. They are bred to have uniform gorgeous color, which requires the u gene (uniform shoulders). The u gene actually causes sugar content and aromatics (flavor) to drop. In addition the commercial varieties usually have tough, unpalatable skins for resistance to damage in handling and shipping, and additional genes associated with slow ripening that confer longer shelf life, but also destroy flavor. That is not what most gardeners want to grow and eat.  

I’ve begun a major project that involves crossing major genetics for late blight resistance as well as resistance to other major diseases into a large repertoire of heirloom varieties. My basic plan is to cross resistant hybrids to each of a couple dozen heirlooms, backcross once to the respective heirlooms, choose the offspring that carry an appropriate repertoire of late blight and other disease resistance genes, take those to the F2, OSSI-Pledge these lots as breeding material, then distribute that material far and wide for hundreds of gardeners and farmers and seed companies to use to select hundreds of new varieties of heirloom-quality open-pollinated OSSI-Pledged tomato varieties with late blight and other disease resistance combined with heirloom-quality flavor. I hope in this fashion that we can replace all the current heirlooms with equally delicious late blight resistant versions before the late blight situation gets so bad that our current heirlooms become ungrowable. This project is going to require major resources in land and labor. In addition, the step of “choosing the offspring that carry an appropriate repertoire of late blight and other disease resistant genes” from which to get the F2s to distribute will involve marker assisted selection. That alone will require several thousand dollars in lab fees per year for a number of years. However, the result of this project should be a new generation of heirloom-quality tomatoes that are not only resistant to late blight, but also carry the other important genes for disease resistance that most heirloom tomato varieties currently lack.

In addition, I’m breeding new lines of eat-all greens crops as well as more corn, beans, and squash. My varieties are being designed and selected to grow faster and more vigorously and yield better than commercial hybrids under organic growing conditions as well as to taste a lot better and create new niches in the food, farming, and gardening worlds.

Do you like my work? Would you like to help me continue it? Are you so situated such that you might be able to make a major contribution? If so, will you become a patron of my plant breeding work?  

Patrons for any given year contribute $500 or more as individuals, $1000 or more if institutions. They will be acknowledged on my website unless they choose to be anonymous. In addition, as a small token of my appreciation, patrons will automatically be sent all new releases of finished varieties as I release them. Please send any Patron checks to Carol Deppe, 7263, NW Valley View Dr., Corvallis OR 97330. Please include an email address and phone number so I can call you, thank you personally, and get to know you a little. (I have also included a section for Patron-level donations at the end of the order form.)"

Greg..... great!!!  ox