2015 Catalog is Here!

Click Here to visit our online store and purchase 2015 varieties

Greetings and welcome to the 2015 growing season! Yes, it’s happening already! I write in the dark of a January winter’s night, but know full well that the days are getting longer and that things can really only go up from here.

2014 was my best growing season since first growing seeds in 2007. Despite a harsh winter that killed many normally hardy crops and delayed spring plantings, we ended up with great weather for farming and gardening—a moderate, dry summer that led to fewer plant diseases and bigger harvests. I also cultivated seed from my largest plots to date. The 2015 offerings were grown in four locations throughout the city—the home office roof in Bushwick, Riverpark Farm, and with tremendous support and assistance from both Brooklyn Grange and Weeksville Bioheritage Farm.

As always, I’m not just offering varieties that grow well for urban gardeners, but also varieties I personally love to grow and eat! I’m proud to offer 10 new varieties this year, including 3 chiles that I consider personal favorites and two winter hardy greens that kept me well fed during the harsh winter of 2013-2014. I’ve also long sought a great tasting tomato that was more appropriate for container growing, and really feel like I’ve found it in Santiam.

I’ve been steadily growing the company by offering more varieties and more quantities of the varieties I do grow, while staying true to my promise to only sell seed I know will work for urban growers—seed I grow myself in New York City, in containers or shallow rooftop planting medium. Growing anything in an urban environment is challenging, so growing seeds is doubly difficult—large isolation distances, longer maturity dates for seed crops, and a narrow pool of appropriate varieties to pull from add up to a limited selection of seeds. So sticking to that pledge isn’t easy. I constantly feel the pressure to add more and more varieties and grow the company, debating weather or not to buy seeds bulk from elsewhere. But in these times when the public is hyperaware of GMOs and organic standards, transparency is of the utmost importance. Most seed companies don’t grow all their seeds and definitely don’t tell you where their seed is actually grown. The potential for unwitting purchases that bankroll business and ecological practices that you do not support is real and happens all the time. What I offer more than anything is my word. I sell seeds that I pledge will work in urban plots, and seeds that I grew myself, using exclusively organic methods, without a whiff of GMO technology within miles of my operations.

Sorry but these standards don’t lead to huge volumes of seeds, so Rooftop Ready Seeds is going to remain a limited supply company for now. Niche. Rare. Collectors Item. Boutique. Call them what you will, but make sure you get them while you can and enjoy them all 2015 long!