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.
We are primarily a collaboration between Twin Oaks Seed Farm in Louisa, Virginia (managed by Edmund Frost), and Care of the Earth Farm in Corryton, Tennessee (run by Megan Allen and Lalo Lazaro).
Living Energy Farm (Louisa, VA); Laughing Springs Farm (Boone, NC); Rock Cottage Farm (Farmville, VA); and Brenda Callen at All-Farm Organics (Louisa, VA) also contribute through seed production and selection.
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. 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.