Where: I only swap within Canada – I’d hate to unknowingly send seeds somewhere where it is against the law or could result in the introduction of an invasive plant or disease.

How: I have saved seeds myself, and you can tell those as the source will list the planting from which they were harvested. You should know that at this stage I do my best to isolate plants which could cross by distance, bloom time, and only growing one variety of certain plants, but I am not obsessive about it. All that to say that I’m careful, but if you want guaranteed seed purity, you’d probably want to order from a seed company.

What: I do my best to keep the list up to date, but I’ll double check my actual stash before confirming a swap. My wish list is more a holding zone for things I want to grow eventually (not necessarily this year) but I’m always interested in heirloom flowers, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, lettuce, greens, beans, and peas.

When: You can typically tell the age of the seed by looking at the details page. I usually record this information with the batch. It will say 2011 purchase (meaning I purchased the seed from January – December 2011) or 2010 harvest (meaning I harvested the seed in June-December of 2010). If I logged a germination test, you’ll also see it listed as one of the plantings from the details page.