Seed Queen Mary Beth Haralovich

It's that time of the year when our mail boxes are gloriously full of seed catalogs, but which do we order and at what cost?

We want them ALL, (of course) -- the biggest chard, the weird, the colorful, the one our family use to grow... but we are "Food Bank Growers" and therefore our choices are limited to what our individual gardens will grow best and what the Food Bank patrons will love to pick up and cook at home.

These past few years, we also need to know which ones have the best germination rate and can handle cool/hot/wet/dry... conditions. Then there is the cost -- it doesn't take long before the "I want" list has to pare down to the "what do I really need" list -- $4 per pack with shipping can end up being $10 per seed pack.

That's where  Mary Beth Haralovich comes in. She is the keeper of the seeds donated to the Food Bank Growers, from those gleaned off of last year's plants, to last year's store collections to make way for this year's crop of packs. Older seeds may not germinate at the rate of this year's seeds, but many are still viable and luckily, FREE to try. 

Each January, Mary Beth sends out the master wish list of what's available to all FBG Garden Managers. It's still an overwhelming list of options, but at least we're whittling down the list from 1000 options to the top 100 that grow well in the Pacific Northwest. This is also where the WSU Seed Bank  comes in as keepers of local seed that are also free for the community to use on a take one/leave one if you can basis. Karen Seabrook, the manager of Swan Farm Community and Food Bank Garden and  Mado Most  oversee the WSU Seed Bank operation.

This year we'll be addressing the Seediest Issue... How many seeds are needed per gardening row or bed?  How many do you need to have on hand to plant in the spring and then again in the fall? How many will germinate and how does that fit into the order form?

For example a 16 foot row of green beans is probably one packet of beans. But how much lettuce (with those super tiny seeds) can we get out of one packet or gram or jar...  We may be on a fool's errand trying to figure that one out, but if we do, we'll publish the results for everyone to read. 

Until then, FBG Managers get your orders into Mary Beth and arrange a time for her to drop off your seed stash for 2023. She may not have everything you want, but she'll still save you a lot of money.