About Us

We are a family based, tiny nursery based in Tennessee. We specialize in more "unusual" -- mostly food plants, from fruit trees and berry bushes to herbs and greens. The seeds and plant materials are all grown by us locally. Naturally grown, no GMO's or anything terrible. Ask us for more detail, we are very transparent about what we do and why. 

We choose the plants we grow on the following criteria: 

They are super sustainable and genetically resilient. They are adapted to the Tennessee climate, but also are chosen for toughness, lack of pests and disease problems, tolerant of climatic stressors. Many of these were also grown in California with success. 

They are super nutritious. Many of the plants we grow are far superior in nutrition to commonly available fruits and vegetables

They are extra fun and delicious. We always say, imagine that never had tried chocolate or vanilla before -- there are new and life changing flavors out there to discover and try!  

They lend themselves well to homesteads and small growers. The needs of a homesteader and small gardener or farmer are quite different often than those of a commercial market grower. We look for things that work for the former. 

Why it's important to grow different types of plants for food:

Food Security and Healthy Environments.   Our food system is precarious due to many factors that is a rabbit hole of a subject that could be a volume of books. On a basic level, our narrow range of crops that we grow to feed ourselves are highly inbreed, weak, and vulnerable to disease, pests, and climate related crop failures. The solution that Kevin has been promoting for 20 years is to diversify what we grow and what we eat.

This can be something that is botanically unrelated to anything else we eat, plants that have resilience not only because they haven’t been weakened by modern breeding and selection, but because they are in different plant families than any other crop, thus less vulnerable to the same pests and diseases.  These crops are often tougher and more resilient, and require less inputs to grow, which creates a more sustainable and secure food system.  Many of these plants attract pollinators, and provide habitat for native species.

On the hand, taking more “normal” crops and trying to re-wild and rejuvenate them is another approach that Kevin is more and more getting into. This is the concept of not only saving seeds of heirloom and other less common varieties, but participating in something called adaptation (landrace) farming.  This is the concept of allowing plants to cross and hybridize naturally, and saving the ones that thrive under local conditions. Over a few generations, the seeds become more genetically rich and diverse, and are thus able to adapt to local conditions. Requiring less inputs and no sprays or pest control necessary. And how cool is it that they become and expression of the land itself!  This is the way up until the last 100 years or so ALL crops were grown.