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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Food Storage Seeds

Many of you know that we are big fans of heirloom seeds here at Backyard Farming. We were at the store the other day and we saw a can of heirloom seeds that you can put in your food storage. We have seeds that we bought a few years ago in our freezer, but I like the idea of buying them canned. The seeds we saw said tehys are good for 4 years. The nice thing about heirloom seeds is that you can harvest the seeds from your fruits and vegetables and then plant them the next year which gives you a perpetual garden. This is not something you can do with most hybrid varieties. I decided to see what I could find online in regards to similar products and here are a few I found. Backyard Farming not affiliated with any of these sites. Our intention is not to endorse any particular site but instead to give some ideas for what is out there.



  • 20 varieties of hardy heirloom survival seeds passed down from our forefathers.
  • Survival seeds rated for 5+ years of storage at 75F, longer at lower temperatures.
  • No hybrids, GMOs, or outdated survival seeds. All harvested seeds are reusable.



  • They allow you to harvest your own seeds, giving you the ability to plant a garden from year to year.
  • Seeds have been specially dried to just the right level for long term storage.
  • At 65-70°, they will store for up to 4 years.
  • Hermetically sealed in E-Z Lock Reusable Triple-Layered Foil Bags.



  •   16 large seed packets sealed in a #10 can.
  •   Plants nearly 3/4 acre of Garden.
  •   Will keep up to 4 years if stored at 66 to 70 degrees and much longer if kept colder
  •   All Non-hybrid, open pollinated varieties
Would you consider adding something like this to your food storage? Have any of you bought something like this in the past and then used the seeds? I would be curious to know how they worked for you.

~Michael~

6 comments:

David said...

Michael, I really haven't tried to save seeds. It appears that I have a never ending supply as long as my daughter works for Walgreens. She brought home 250 seed packs from their end of the spring garden section clean out. They cost a total of $2.50.

My heirloom experiment with Rutger tomato seeds began last fall. I picked off all the over ripe practically rotten tomatoes and pitched them into the raised bed that I plan on having tomatoes this year. I chopped them up a bit with a spade, sprinkled a little soil on them, and covered them with a light layer of straw. My hope is that they will sprout and grow as volunteers. Last spring I transplanted four volunteers from the garden where I had grown tomatoes the year before and they turned out great. If it works with tomatoes, I may try other vegetables as well.

Have a great heirloom seed saving day.

Akannie said...

Hi David!
I bought the Survival Seed Vault this past year and have it sitting in my pantry. It's kind of an insurance policy, lol. I am saving seed, slowly but surely learning the ins and outs of it. I grow organic and mostly heirloom stuff.

teekaroo said...

I love the idea and I was close to buying something like this a few years ago, until I looked at what was inside. We have such difficult growing conditions in Wyoming, I knew at least half of the seeds in there wouldn't grow for me. I did just stumble on a site: seedstrust.com they have a bucket of seeds that perform well in high altitude and short season areas.

Jennifer said...

Can you tell us what store you visited? I haven't had any luck finding seeds in stock now. I went to a ranch supply store in my town this week, walked around looking for seeds, and when I didn't find any, asked the clerk. "Seeds?" she replied, dumbfounded. "What do you mean, seeds?" You know, for vegetables and flowers, I responded. "Sunflowers?" she asked. "Yeah, we've got roasted sunflower seeds -- they're in the snack aisle." Oh, I hope she's a new employee!

Unknown said...

Jennifer, we saw them at Good Earth.

Unknown said...

Through seed we can get the features of vegetables with various advantages. I need the benefits over hybrid seed & non hybrid seeds. If you need the tips over survival seeds then just have touch on it.