Marc and Angela Adler, of Brentwood, went online March 1 with a new business, SeedGeeks, selling heirloom and open-pollinated seeds for gardeners.
Their backyard has been full of urban homesteading projects for about five years, and they were wondering what more they could do.
“How can we integrate this more into our daily lives; how can we even maybe make a living doing what we love?” Angela said. “What other ways can we continue to inspire people to grow their own food?” Marc said.
They were on last year’s Sustainable Backyard Tour.
“It was amazing seeing people’s reactions to what we were doing, sharing ideas with people, what they want to do in their garden,” Angela said. “We hopefully inspired some of them, but more than anything, they inspired us.”
They thought of starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a nursery and a retail storefront, but decided on seeds because “when we distilled everything down to what we were doing, metaphorically and literally, it came down to the seeds – seeds that are open-pollinated that you can share with other people that are passed on from generation to generation, that tell stories about culture and about families,” Angela said.
For now, their seeds come from local farmers and certified seed producers for the best quality, high germination rates and high yields. They started with 100 varieties and are adding new seeds weekly. They’re working towards having seed packets in local nurseries and seed stores.
They’re using the website to share what they’ve learned as well as sell seeds.
“We want it to be more of a community,” Angela said. They’re taking what we’ve learned, such as tools they like, and things others have shared with them, and getting that out as well on their SeedGeeks website.
Here’s one of those things, on their YouTube channel.