The Storage
This is a view of our latest iteration of seed storage, inside the box. We have actually gone through 4 versions if this over the past 4-5 years. Initially we used boxes which could contain full-sized seed packets like these below, which we still have and we have two sizes in this style of box. The one below is a repurposed ammunition box, the larger one we used was a handgun case, also water-proof. All are made from plastic which in ways is not ideal; however, for now, these are a great, cost-effective option.
Here we are showing how we are building our latest version of the seed boxes, these are wider and shallower and we have now changed our seed size packets to what are known as “coin” envelopes, which are 2.5″ x 3.5″ in size which allows us the “break-bulk” easier and spread the seeds more widely.
This is actually the case we have decided upon and we want to share this, it is from a company called MTM Case-Gard and it is this case. Depending on the seeds we are storing we can get 130-160 2.5″ x 3.5″ seed packets in each box. In the photograph above the packet laying down, the brown one is a coin envelope we have been buying. However, we are actually moving to envelopes we can make out of 8.5″ x 11″, we can get two envelopes out of each sheet of paper.
Tracking The Seed Collection
A few years ago we came across a wonderful open-source project called farmOS, which can be found, here. This is an incredibly useful application set which was designed to support, literally every aspect of managing a single farm. In fact when we first started using it, we were managing a 5 acre farm in a rural location, in Cheshire, Oregon. There is more information on our time there in this link.
After this project, we moved into the City of Eugene and began working on Urban #Permaculture, instead of a single location we actually ended up with 7 locations, so we adapted farmOS into a multi-location system which we named “Permaledger”. We have a video of Permaledger in action here, the video is a bit distorted however it covers most of how we use it.
Conclusion
This is all still a work-in-progress and we would be more than happy to share our experiences and exchange seeds with anyone out there. Thanks for reading this 🙂
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