As with many French words, seeds or les graines is not one that easily comes off my tongue. I never can remember whether to say the “s” or not which has led to Madame Mustard correcting me each time. That’s one think I know about her, she loves to correct my French.
After our what I think mostly successful phone conversation yesterday, I spent today searching for seeds. Two weeks ago, a friend of The Kale Project, educated me on chou reflex and where to buy seeds online from a French company. Although Google translate normally helps me through many French websites, I feel more comfortable trying to find an English provider.
Plan A, Johnny Seeds, America: I started first with Johnny’s Seeds in the States. Of course they sell exactly what I need. Kale seeds in bulk with endless variety. But I knew the issue with buying from an American supplier would not be their offering but shipping agricultural product from another country. It would be impossible to get any shipment past French customs that is in bulk and for potential commercial use. Clearly the option most familiar to me would not work. But I have assumed as much.
Plan B, Thompson & Morgan, United Kingdom: It wasn’t hard to find other seed companies in the UK. And their shipping policies to other countries within the European Union were not stringent. Since I have an address, there would not be any issues buying in bulk. So I found XXX and they too sold a variety of kale seeds in bulk. After a few email exchanges, I was led to their organic seed selection, which was not as promising and did not have any kale options. Next…
Plan C, Tamar Organics, United Kingdom: Well, third times a charm right? The next company I found sold only organic seeds and they too had kale. I wasn’t overly impressed with their website which sometimes makes me a bit weary of a company’s credibility but I emailed them anyways asking if it was an issue to have bulk shipments of seeds sent to France. Immediately they wrote back a really friendly note telling me they are located in Cornwall and that of course shipment to France is never an issue and they led me to their professional online store. This felt like an important step for The Kale Project. I was going to order seeds from the “professional” site?! Amazing. So I did.
Friends of The Kale Project – today is a big day. A bulk order was placed for three different kale varieties. I should have them in a week.
Madame Mustard asked for at least 40 – 50 grams and that is what she’s going to get!
Here is what we ordered… all varieties are the basic, green, curly kale but the two of the seeds are best grown later in the year which suits our timeline since they will *Hopefully* be planted in late June or early July.
Halbhoher Grun Kraser: dwarf green curled. frost hardy kale with dark green, deeply curled heads.
Ribor: medium tall type for autumn and winter cropping. very high yielding with dark green leaves which stand well and are slow to yellow.
Westland Winter: large plant type with blue-green, well-curled leaves. cut october to march.
Could we possibly have kale through the winter into march?
Source: http://www.tamarorganicspro.co.uk/
[…] he showed his big smile and told me that all I need to do is supply the seeds. And as you all know, I’ve found my seed supplier in Cornwall. Monsieur Vincennes’ perfect chou […]