All of our 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, managed by Carrie Piesen.
East Wind Community Gardens in Tecumseh, Missouri, managed by Richard Goerwitz
Common Ground Ecovillage in central North Carolina. Gardens managed by Doug Jones.
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Here are bios of growers involved in the project (more to be added soon):
Edmund Frost lives at Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, Virginia, and has been growing certified organic seed crops at Twin Oaks Seed Farm since 2008. He also does breeding and variety trials research work, especially with cucurbit crops (squash, pumpkin, cucumber, melon, gourd). Edmund has worked as an anti-GMO activist and is committed to building functional alternatives to corporate control of our food, farms and seeds.
Debbie Piesen
has managed seed growing at Living Energy Farm since 2010, growing seeds and produce on three acres of certified organic land just outside of Louisa, Virginia. LEF is a project to build a self-sufficient farm, community and education center that uses no fossil fuels or grid electricity. She is passionate about identifying and stewarding varieties that really work well for homesteaders and gardeners who grow most of their own food, as well as for market growers.
Megan Allen and Lalo Lazaro have been farming Care of the Earth Farm in Corryton, TN since 2009.They operate a CSA, do on-farm field experiments and a little plant breeding, and save seed, all with the goals of improving local and regional sustainable agriculture, connecting people to their food, and creating a peaceful, spiritual and comfortable space for their family and the community.
Lyndsey Walker has been farming and growing seeds at Rock Cottage Farm in Buckingham County, Virginia since 2015. Before that she worked for several years on the seed growing crew at Twin Oaks.
Kristina Korobeynik lives at Twin Oaks Community and has worked in seed growing for several years. She grew up in a village in Russia where her family grew much of their own food. Kristina manages the spring greenhouse plant starting operation for Twin Oaks Seed Farm
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Jay Bost and Nora Rodli run Laughing Springs Farm in Boone, North Carolina. They each have about 25 years of agricultural experience, managing farms from Florida to New Mexico to Hawaii. Jay studied with the late James Brewbaker, who bred tropical corn and other crops at the University of Hawaii over six decades. Nora is an herbalist, and makes a variety of. tinctures and herbal products that are for sale on the Laughing Springs Farm Website.
Brenda Callen learned seed growing skills from her years living and working at Living Energy Farm. She is now growing seeds independently in a seed production garden at All-Farm Organics in Louisa, Virginia.
Piera Yerkes lives at Twin Oaks Community and has worked in seed production for the 2023 and 2024 growing seasons. She also does the design and layout for our print catalog.
Doug Jones grows and breeds vegetables at Common Ground Ecovillage in central North Carolina. In 2004 he was encouraged by some farmer-breeders at a New England seed conference, who said “you can do this super-creative work on a small farm.” He suddenly knew that his life was about to change dramatically! He has specialized in breeding sweet and exotic peppers, and also played with other veggies and staple crops. Because peppers are “primarily self-pollinating”, they require fairly small isolation distances, and their shade tolerance allows considerable flexibility in locating them in a landscape. His intentional community has a strong Agrarian vision, and supports its farmers to dive deep into the goal of nourishing members and customers with nutrient-dense food from the Land in the Piedmont Bioregion.
Carrie Piesen has grown for CWSG in the past as part of Living Energy Farm, and has now started a new community project in Louisa County called Bay Branch. In 2025 she grew and did selection work with the new CWSG variety Virginia Red Moon and Stars. She plans to continue selecting and stewarding the variety moving forward, and to expand her work with seeds more generally.