Farmer Direct, Source Transparent Seeds - Common Wealth Seed Growers

Updates

January 5th, 2026: Our online store has been fully updated for the 2026 season! We’ve added 20 new listings, and a new page where you can view all our original introductions together. The 2026 print catalog is also complete. Order one for free here, or view the pdf file.

December 16th, 2025: We are now shipping orders for 2026! Online store here. Seed cleaning and germ testing are mostly done. A few things are still in test and are short-term backordered. Most of our new listings are up, but we are still working to finalize and post a few of them.

November 2nd, 2025: As usual we are taking a break from shipping seeds between early November mid December. Seeds ordered in the meantime will be shipped on December 15th. We take this time to focus on seed cleaning, inventory, germination testing, putting up new listings, and designing our print catalog. If you are in a warm area and need to plant right away, please contact us (info@commonwealthseeds.com) and we’ll do our best to accomodate. Also, we will be adding about 20 new varieties this year. It may take us till the end of November to get them all listed, so make sure to check back after that.

January 5th, 2025: All our online listings are now updated for the 2025 season! We have 18 new varieties this year, several returning varieties and several new research samples.

Note: for international orders please email us at info@commonwealthseeds.com.

January 1st, 2025: Our new catalog is out y’all! Here’s a link to the PDF. If you’d like a physical copy you can order one here.

November 1st, 2024: Please note that, as usual, we are pausing order shipping between now and December 15th. During this time we are focusing on seed cleaning, germination testing, inventory, and updating listings. Seeds ordered during this time will ship on December 15th! If you are in a warmer climate and need to plant right away let us know at commonwealthseeds@gmail.com and we’ll do what we can to get you the seeds sooner.

September 2nd, 2024: We have a new crop of Mira Red Stem Kale in stock! This is an original variety bred by Care of the Earth Farm.

February 3rd, 2024: Our new 2024 print catalog finally started arriving in mailboxes this week!

View PDF

Click here to get a free catalog sent to you in the mail.

January 2nd, 2024: Our new seed store is live! All our seed listings are up and the seeds are ready to ship. We have 12 new varieties this year, including five new CWSG originals – Easter in August Cherry Tomato, Bakers Branch Butternut, Mira Red-Stem Kale, Margie’s Melon and Solar Flare Sweet Pepper!

Also we’re printing a catalog! To receive one, click on “Mailing List” in the top menu and enter your address. It should arrive around January 22nd.

While we’ve now opened our own online store, we want to express our appreciation for Seedwise — a website for farmers to sell seeds that we’ve used for many years. It is a valuable resource for seed growers, farmers and gardeners. We’ll continue to maintain our listings there as well.

See Archived Updates

Who We Are

Common Wealth Seed Growers is a cooperative project to research, breed, produce and sell regionally-adapted, open-pollinated seeds for a limited number of outstanding varieties. We grow all the seeds we sell, and we only sell what grows well on our farms. We don’t sell outsourced or commodity seeds! We especially seek to serve market growers and small farms in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions.

All seed listings and seed packets note who produced the seeds. Our seeds come from ten farm projects:

Twin Oaks Seed Farm in Louisa, Virginia, managed by Edmund Frost.

Care of the Earth Community Farm in Corryton, Tennessee, managed by Megan Allen and Lalo Lazaro.

Living Energy Farm in Louisa, Virginia, managed by Debbie Piesen.

Laughing Springs Farm in Boone, North Carolina, managed by Jay Bost and Nora Rodli.

Rock Cottage Farm in Farmville, Virginia, managed by Lyndsey Walker.

All-Farm Organics in Louisa, Virginia. Vegetable seed production managed by Brenda Callen.

French Farms in Redland, Florida, managed by Chris French.

Bay Branch Community in Mineral, Virginia. Garden managed by Carrie Piesen.

East Wind Community in Tecumseh, Missouri. Garden managed by Richard Goerwitz.

Common Ground Ecovillage in central North Carolina. Seed production done by Doug Jones.

Read more about the growers here.

Most of our varieties are certified organic. All are grown using organic or biological farming practices, and all are untreated and non-GMO. Organic certification status is indicated on each listing and on each seed packet. Common Wealth Seed Growers has an organic handler certification from Baystate Organic Certifiers.

Along with the work we do in the field, we aim to spread knowledge and excitement about working with seeds, and to help reconnect farmers and gardeners with seed work. Farming and seed work belong together! Restoring this connection will make our farms, gardens and communities more resilient, more connected to place, and more fulfilling for all of us. We can’t afford for seed work to just be the domain of seed companies, plant breeders and university or company researchers.

We work with many types of food plants, with a special focus on downy mildew resistant cucumber, squash, pumpkin, melon, watermelon and gourd seedstocks.