The Organic Seed Grower – Book Review

This is book four of my personal Top 10 Farm Books Of The Decade.

I’m presenting my Top 10 in order of publication.

Next up ,,,

The Organic Seed Grower

A Farmer’s Guide to Vegetable Seed Production

by John Navazio

When I was a new farmer in the early 2000s, there were some great books about how to be a vegetable farmer. But when it came to learning how to be a seed farmer, there was a dearth of comparable resources.

Yes, there were some fantastic seed saving books. But a lot of their information applied more to a gardener scale. They did not answer so many of the questions I had as I was trying to scale up seed production.

We did not have an authoritative Seed Farmer’s handbook that could be the backbone for a new commercial seed grower.

For a number of years there was a rumour that John Navazio was writing a seed manual. (Does it count as a rumour if John was one of the main people spreading it?)

The thought that John Navazio, (at the point, a plant breeder with the Organic Seed Alliance; currently, a plant breeder at Johnny’s Selected Seeds) was writing a seed saving book was incredibly exciting.

But this book kept not being released.

Then Chelsea Green announced a publication date.

I immediately placed my pre-order.

The Organic Seed Grower was worth the wait.

The Organic Seed Grower is that authoritative Seed Farmer’s handbook we needed.


Leave a Reply