Jere Gettle is founder and owner of Baker Creek Seed Company. In this last of a series of interviews conducted at the EcoFarm conference in Pacific Grove, CA, I speak with Jere about his company and about the seed collection.
PlanterTomato:
I'm here today with Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Seeds. Jere thanks for speaking with me today.
Jere Gettle:
Good to be here. I sure appreciate you having me.
PlanterTomato:
To begin with, let's talk a little about Baker Creek and how the business got started.
Jere Gettle:
Basically, it started as a hobby in my bedroom. My parents and grandparents had always gardened and some of my first memories are of the garden , looking at seed catalogs, and planting things. As I grew up, I started noticing varieties disappearing from seed catalogs and that gave me the inspiration to start saving seeds. And it all happened from there. Once I started saving seeds, I printed up a little price list and then the catalog and this is now the fourteenth year doing the catalog.
PlanterTomato:
As you think about those fourteen years, what's the accomplishment that you are most proud of?
Jere Gettle:
Probably keeping up the diversity of seeds and finding new varieties. That's the thing I really enjoy...meeting people, finding new things and then getting it back into peoples hands. Say for example, an elderly Japanese man who has been looking for this certain variety of squash for 50 years and being able to re-introduce it to him. Or someone in the Blue Ridge Mountains re-introducing them to a local melon variety that they've lost. Finding things and re-introducing them to their cultures and other cultures, that's what I really enjoy.
PlanterTomato:
Baker Creek offers lots and lots of varieties. I'm going to put you on the spot here and ask if you remember how many varieties you currently sell.
Jere Gettle:
We currently sell about 1,400. It's always going up and down a bit but anywhere between 1,350 and 1,450.
PlanterTomato:
Wow that's quiet a lot. In that group, or in seeds that you've sold over the years, was there a variety that was particularly surprising to you.
Jere Gettle:
Oh there are so many...Yokohama squash is one that had disappeared for almost 100 years and we found seeds in France from a French seed collector. It's a very beautiful, flattened, pumpkin-like squash and grey-green. Unbelievably beautiful and incredibly good eating. It was featured in Mother Earth News recently and other magazines but it's an unusual looking squash it's flattened, wrinkled and warted. It was part of Japanese culture and American history for 50 years before it disappeared around 1900. That was one of the varieties we were really excited about but that's just one example.
PlanterTomato:
I do know from your book that you travel the world looking for new varieties, but I suppose there's a limit to what you can put into the catalog. How do you decide what goes in the catalog and what comes out?
Jere Gettle:
We don't get rid of anything, we try to rotate through things. We might not have something in the catalog for a couple of years if we think it's less valuable or if it's less popular for some reason. But we then re-introduce after a couple more years. But the most important things, we try to keep every year such as Alibaba or Orange Glow watermelons, Cherokee Purple tomatoes. Certain things we have to have every year because our customers would have fits if they couldn't get that certain thing. There are other varieties that are marginally important right now, but we feel that in the future they hold potential. A lot of times, people just haven't discovered how to use them yet.
PlanterTomato:
I know we're just getting into the 2012 gardening season, so perhaps this is an unfair questions, but I would love to have a peek under the tent. Are there any new varieties that you are thinking about for the 2013 gardening season that you think are particularly interesting?
Jere Gettle:
We want to do a lot more with Morning Glories... Japanese Morning Glories in particular. There are literally hundreds of them and we want to bring some of those back like the giant Imperial Japanese Morning Glories. Another crop we want to do more of is eggplant. We love eggplant and are getting some really incredible eggplants shipped to us from Syria which we feel is very important since we never know that the situation is going to be and how long they will be growing the old crops. Our goal is to introduce a lot of Syrian and Middle Eastern varieties. A lot of really cool Syrian stuff is in the picture for next year.
PlanterTomato:
What is your personal favorite heirloom variety?
Jere Gettle:
That's almost impossible... Alibaba and Orange Glow watermelons are great as far as melons go. For tomatoes there's Cherokee Purple and Paul Robeson but if I were to pick one it would be Cherokee Purple Tomato.
PlanterTomato:
OK, well I'm going to have to add that one back in. I've grown Cherokee Purple in the past, but I switch things around each year and didn't grow it last year. It is an awesome tomato.
Jere Gettle:
It's better if you have a hot climate. It tends to be sweeter and richer tasting in Southern climates. Driving along the roadside stands in North Carolina and Tennessee and many of them will have this tomato out and they are really intense tasting in that Southern climate.
PlanterTomato:
Can you give us a few tips to make our gardens more productive?
Jere Gettle:
Try a diverse variety of things. Try some new things that you might not be familiar with because a lot of the more unusual crops are good producers. Other than that, I recommend that you mulch everything really well with straw or other mulches. We also like to use drip lines. Putting a drip line down takes some work to install, but once you have it in, you can water your garden automatically or by just turning on the hose. Drip irrigation also keeps water from splashing on the leaves and increasing diseases. You should also add chicken manure or compost or other organic matter to help loosen up the soil.
PlanterTomato:
You and your wife just came out with a book called the Heirloom Life Gardiner. Can you tell us a little about that?
Jere Gettle:
About two years ago we were thinking about doing a book and we got this call from an agent in New York. We thought it sounded like a cool idea. We thought about and wanted to cover all aspects of heirloom growing...seed saving, cooking tips, how we garden at Baker Creek, as well as the overall picture of each type of vegetable so that people can learn about the vegetable and how nutritious it is, learn how to grow it, and a little bit of history as well.
PlanterTomato:
If someone wants to get a hold of your book, where can they buy it?
Jere Gettle:
You can get it through us, you can also get it through most any bookstore.
PlanterTomato:
I encourage people to go ahead and get the book. Thank you for speaking with us today.
Jere Gettle:
Well I appreciate it. It's been great to meet you.
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