> Oh, I wanted to ask the Australians here, a lady on another list
> (heirloom seeds), commented that ya'll can't import corn seed. Is
> that true? What types do you grow for yourself, and is anyone
> doing similar work to Hugh Lovel and Alan Kapular with corn
> genetics?
>
We are unable to easily import anything that has a remote chance of being
alive! Very strict quarantine laws - Aussie light horsemen (cavalry) had to
shoot their mounts before returning home from the boer war and ww1 because
of these rules - in theory you cannot bring in a good western saddle because
of the rawhide covered tree (spose most of em are degenerated to fiberglass
by now).
There is a small company in northern NSW called Eden seeds who have a good
catalog of open pollinated seeds, mostly they sell below the cost of
comparable sized packs in the supermarket, and the seeds I have had from
them have been good quality, vigorus, and true to description. Much of the
stock is biodynamically grown, they also sell some bd and eco farmer books
at very reasonable prices.
Probably have at least twenty tomato varieties and ten or so of corn and
sweet corn - we grew the multi colour aztec sweet corn two years ago - these
people have plenty of genetic base material available for anyone that wanted
to do the sort of thing that Hugh Lovel is doing - but we are different -
corn for grain is not a very important crop in our country - our confinement
livestock industry is built around small grains, wheat, barley, instead of
corn and lupin, faba beans replacing soy for protein. Most corn grown goes
either for canning under contract or is grown close to large feedlots for
green chop silage.
Cheers
Lloyd Charles
