does anyone know where to get seeds for organic redbor kale?

[kaybee]

I am looking for organic seeds for the organic curly red/purple kale. its technical variety name is "redbor" kale. i cannot find them anywhere, even using google. Im not looking for the "red russian" kale, which is green with pink veins and a sort of oakleaf shape. i want the red curly kale. i grew some last year from seedlings i had gotten from a man nearby, but i dont think it was from organic seed, and the garden plot i am using this year requires that it be organic. i cant use the seed from last year because unfortunately the redbor is a hybrid variety, so you have to keep purchasing the seed, as the next generation tends to revert back to the green variety or something. the man i got them from last year said all his turned out greenish or with tinges of purple, but not the brilliant purple he had had the first year. i am going to ask him about seed, but he tends to grow things organically but i dont think he is adamant necessarily about getting organic seed. i LOVE this kale because its so beautiful, i really want to grow more of it.... anyone, anyone? i can find redbor on the internet but not organic redbor.

thanks
kaybee

[michigan roman]

www.territorialseed.com

[michigan roman]

sorry i just reaD whole thread and saw you want organic

[kaybee]

yeah theirs was one of the few i found at all. but the place where i have a plot this year is trying to get organic certification so she doesnt want anything non-organic in there.... what i dont "GET" is that its possible to buy this kale in markets, organic--i think ive gotten it at whole foods and i know ive gotten it at MOMS near Washington DC, and we used to have it at the organic produce delivery company i worked at in seattle, and at the farmers markets in massachusetts as well.....so if they are selling organic kale in the stores, then organic SEED for it would have to exist SOMEWHERE, right? hmm...my parents sell at farmers markets too.... maybe i can get my dad to contact another farmer and try to source some for me...parents are coming in a few weeks. if worst comes to worst and i cant get organic, there is another plot where i could probably put it, but id prefer not as things havent grown well there.

[michigan roman]

isnt there a thing called ' seed exchange ' , where people list what they've .
along with what they want and exchanges are made . i know there is but its been years since i read about it . try a search

[michigan roman]

ya i did a search and theres bunch , heres a canadian one


http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu_YG9rZJhr8AetJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByamlqaW9 mBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkAw--/SIG=11tj3p18s/EXP=1236813702/**http%3a//forums.gardenweb.com/forums/excan/ ..

[kaybee]

ooooh. yah i forgot. there IS something called "seed savers" here. you have to belong though. i know a guy who does though, maybe he will check for me. ill check out the canadian one too. thx.

[sport]

Maybe Monsanto have bought it all up so that you can not have it.

[kaybee]

yeah, no kidding, huh? im SO glad to not be living in the states right now... i read something yesterday about them wanting to to REQUIRE everyone in the states to have mandatory bird flu vaccines, regardless of religious or other objections...

sport--did you get your house finished and are you putting up a polytunnel or putting in a garden this year? maybe i will come give you a hand with some of your gardening if you want, once i get my garden stuff here sorted... i wish i had my own polytunnel... there was one i was using, and the man had had no interest in it all of last summer. i went away to spain for 2 months, asked someone to water it, and have come back to find most of my plants, including the huge, beautiful nasturtiams, rows and rows of coriander, rocket, kale, red cabbage, and all the wild or "volunteer" stuff that had randomly started growing in it--nettles, wild sorrel, avocado trees, chervil, leafbeet, etc CLEARED away and him having put down onions and lettuce or some crap like that. at least he left my parsley. but the rest was HEARTBREAKING, especially the nasturtiams. i just dont get why people here "clear" stuff that could continue being used to feed us just so they can start a "new" crop--often a "new" crop of the SAME THING!!

[sport]

Kaybee.
No house yet but they have told me that I can move in in about 3 weeks so maybe that is four if I am lucky.
You will be the first to know when I get there and I expect you for tea within a week of that date.

[kaybee]

hehe. would love to see the house. is it all ecological and solar and stuff? i know you were getting special windows, though i have forgotten why they were special... wow, i think it took longer than you expected, huh? i have a car now but we'll see if it can make it that far. (crossing fingers) lol. it made it all the way from here to spain, then silently died while i was off hiking for 6 weeks. it better run for a billion years now to make up for the billion dollar repair bill ;p

[Lavendula]

My husband just went to Galway for work a few weeks ago. He talks of all the bangers and mash (not to mention blood pudding) he saw consumed. He says he will have to go every three months, and maybe I'll try to go with him. Will I be able to eat well there as a raw inclined traveler? What's available in June? Would love to meetup.

[michigan roman]

i just ordered a quarter pound , 80,000 seeds :eek: , of this red russian kale in below link from willhite seeds in texas . seeds arent organic but the price is too good to pass up when i can save like 40 bucks on my total order as i buy seeds in large quanitys because i like broadcast seeding greens in several waves each growing season . link =


http://www.willhiteseed.com/proddetail.php?prod=55 ..

[Lavendula]

My father got alot of his seeds from this place in Oregon. I checked, they do have it, don't think it was organic though. We visited them in Albany many years ago.


http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=27&mscssid=7J24GGD7ATV89N76NBNJ7B98SQQ53N9A

[sport]

My husband just went to Galway for work a few weeks ago. He talks of all the bangers and mash (not to mention blood pudding) he saw consumed. He says he will have to go every three months, and maybe I'll try to go with him. Will I be able to eat well there as a raw inclined traveler? What's available in June? Would love to meetup.

Be sure to let me know if you come and maybe you and your husband will come for a weekend. My husband would love to have an excuse to eat bangers and always uses a guest as an excuse.

[kaybee]

michigan roman--did you ever think of collecting the seeds so you dont have to buy them all every year? although i guess if you want 80000 seeds thats an awful lot of collecting work...might just be easier to buy...

yeah im after the redbor kale though, not the red russian. do you know the one im talking about? its SO beautiful. anyway, no luck through seedsavers, though i did find a source for nonorganic here...not ideal, but... looks like thats all thats available. i might see if my dad can talk to the growers at the mkt and source me some organic. problem with the redbor is its a hybrid between 2 kale varieties so you have to buy every year; the seeds if you collect them dont breed true, but revert back. theyre in the process of developing a non-hybrid, organic, red curly kale which would breed true. that'll be nice.

thanks lavendula, i did find a source here; not organic either though.

hmmmm. raw food in ireland.. well, sport is able to get a pretty good variety of stuff down in cork, and i have the impression that galway is more "healthy food friendly" than other places but i doubt youll find a raw cafe there. the only one i know of is in wicklow which is on the otherside of the country. June is good though because there should be farmers markets going already, i know theres a big one near limerick and i know of a huge organic farm that sells there, and theres a small organic market down in milltown, kerry, near killarney...some grocery stores have some organic now, depending on which store and where you are will determine the offerings. I hit up Lidl grocery chain for fruits and avocados, some are organic, and some health food shops have produce sections but many that Ive seen dont. where I am, if i want greens, I more or less have to grow them myself or forage them or eat non-organic, we dont have great organic variety here. I am Kerry, let me know if you are coming this way.
kaybee

[michigan roman]

i do save alot of seeds , but in this case ive never grown the red russian kale

and yes im familiar with the redbor , ive grown the green / siberian type with the same frilly / curled leaves . but wanting to try the flat / uncurled red russian type this season . im hoping that it taste less brassy during the summer months because the siberian type tastes too brassy for me during summer heat . but then when cool fall weather hits it sweetens up and taste real good imo .

im going for a salad base of SPINACH / ROMAINE / REDRUSSIANKALE / ARUGULA / RED LEAF LETTUCE / DANDELION this season

[kaybee]

hmmm...i dont know about the kale tasting brassy during the summer heat because....we dont get any summer heat here ;p. i have to say that i prefer the curly kale to the lacinato or red russian, but i use it mostly for kale salad where you massage olive oil into it. Otherwise for me its too tough to use raw. the red russian IS more tender so it would probably work better for raw "un-massaged" (lol) salads. its nice as baby greens too but baby greens are SO much work... and take so many plants to get any amount. hey ya know what else is LOVELY? red amaranth (eat the leaves). but it HAS to be the "edible red leaf" (Een Choy Hiyu). all the other amaranth ive tried is so so bitter. so disappointing. Botanical Interests has the seed. anyway, its like spinach, but a little bit different. and VERY pretty. (sorry, im into "pretty", lol) and i think it actually likes the heat. we have to grow it in the greenhouse here. Also very nice for "pretty salads": the sorrel that is shaped like a shamrock--WOOD sorrel. SO pretty. and sour-y tasting. i dont know where to get seed for it though. we only have it wild here so im trying to pot some up and transplant it. also, chervil is pretty in salads, and calendula petals, nasturtium flowers and leaves, and Borage flowers. borage flowers are REALLY pretty; calendula and nasturtium grow very easily.

sorry, off on a roll ;) im about to order some "exotic/medicinal" seeds from mountain rose herbs. and figure out the rest of my seed orders. problem is that for some thing i only need a COUPLE of seeds, just to try things out and instead i have to pay for the whole package...then some of them arent good still by the next year :(


kaybee