After decades of gardening, the vegetables began to call me to a deeper involvement in the future of food. "Grow our seeds," they said. "Help us carry on, and we'll adapt ourselves to your changing climate and provide you with the nutrients you need." What a deal. I began my seed education, relying heavily on the resources of the Organic Seed Alliance, and started selling the seed I grew in 2009, as Laughing Frog Farm Seeds.

A move from my patchwork of gardens to an actual farm prompted the name change to Open Circle Seeds. We are certified organic by CCOF. We grow and sell organic grass hay and an assortment of vegetable and fruit crops as well as seed. Our market plantings revolve around the reproductive needs of our seed crops, for timing, isolation distances, and population sizes. We love growing variety trials to identify the very best for the next year's seed crops. Our criteria: vigor, productivity, and resilience under challenging conditions -- and most of all, delicious taste.

We're proud to be located in Mendocino County, California, the first county in the United States to ban production of genetically modified plants. In addition to being non-GMO and organically grown, all our seed varieties are open-pollinated, never hybrids. We believe the future sustainability of our food systems depends on our stewardship of heirlooms and our development of resilient open-pollinated varieties.

When a seed listing is noted as an Open Source Seed Initiative variety, that means the variety is a recent introduction that has been pledged by its breeder to remain in the public domain forever. The variety can be grown, sold, and used to breed other varieties, but neither the variety nor its descendants may be patented. Free the seed!

Here is the Open Source Seed Initiative Pledge: You have the freedom to use these OSSI-pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others' use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.