Seed/Tuber Sources

Now that I've posted about oca, mashua, and wheat, I thought I'd post some sources on where to obtain seeds and tubers for these species.

Oca can be bought at the following places:
- Nichols Garden Nursery - Oca
- Territorial Seed - Oca
- Seed Savers Exchange (you need to be a member, but it's worth it. There are so many alternative crop species there in addition to oca, and there's a far wider range of oca than the common red-white variety for sale at Nichols and Territorial.)

Mashua:
- MZ Bulbs - Mashua "Ken Aslet" (currently unavailable, but hopefully will be available again soon; Ken Aslet is the day-neutral variety)  Note: Now available, but they sent me a moldy dessicated tuber, so I would not recommend buying from them.
- Seed Savers Exchange
- Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (they don't ship them, but a good source if you're in Northern California)

Wheat:
There are certain varieties that do best in Western Washington, so those are the kinds you want to get if you live here. Here's a list of varieties of different types that I know do well.

Hard red spring: Hank, Kelse
Hard red winter: Bauermeister
Hard white winter: MDM
Soft white winter: Xerpha, Cashup, Chuckar (it's a club wheat - just different seedhead shape)

You can buy seed from the Washington Foundation Seed Service. You have to order by a certain deadline, but they're a good source for many of the varieties I listed. It's not organic seed, but you can request it untreated. They normally sell very large amounts, but they'll ship you small quantities too (shipping adds up, so be aware of that - the seed is cheap, but the final bill may be higher than what you expect). For farm name on the order form, I just put my last name followed by "Homestead".

You can also buy wheat berries from some of the farms growing wheat already in W. Washington and plant those. Nash's sells grain at their farm store in Sequim, and there are some farms in NW Washington that may sell grain directly to customers, though I can't think of any right now in particular.