Victory Garden News

Current News & Information About the Victory Seed Company

Spring & Summer '04

Page 1

Welcome to VictorySeeds.com™
and the Web home of the Victory Seed Company.

We are working to save old plant varieties by keeping them available to home gardeners.

A Longer Introduction

Check out our Victory Seed Company weather station page and our "Victory FieldCam".

Mike's
Corner

I would like to thank all of you who have chosen to support our work.  It is quite humbling to know that you have made us a part of your lives and we take this seriously.

We know that garden seeds can be purchased anywhere.  When you chose Victory Seeds as your source, you are not only helping to keep us viable, you become an active part of the preservation process.

Since we are not motivated by money but by the work, we think of each transaction as a relationship.  We want each relationship to be strong and so we work hard at fast order processing, offering fresh, high quality seed, interesting varieties, and doing what we can to help you succeed.

I wish that I could personally get to know all of you.  (I try :)  The reality is that time is a finite resource and although I don't require a lot of sleep, time gets spread pretty thin among all of the hats I have to wear.

As we head into the growing season and my time in the office becomes negligible, one tool that I am becoming reliant on is the new message forum that we implemented this Fall.  It is a great resource for you to ask gardening related questions as well as a method to foster a community among all you VSC supporters.  As a reminder, you can access the forum online at www.SaveSeeds.org.

Technology
on the Farm

This past summer and fall we worked at implementing an inventory system which includes part numbers.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out these numbers on the order sheets that you mail in (automatically done for online orders).  It really does save a lot of data entry time.

In order to keep staffing and overhead low, improving time efficiencies allow us to maintain fast order turn-around.

Although our philosophies are "old-fashioned" and deeply rooted in history, we are interested in new technologies that can help us better accomplish our mission or that foster the personal connection with our gardening friends.

Along with the Web forum (message boards) already mentioned, we also maintain a local weather station as well as a web camera, in an effort to allow you to "visit" electronically.

If you do pop in from time to time, let us know.  You may even catch a glimpse of Mike.  He is the guy in the 1930s looking overalls.

Seed Company History

If you are a regular visitor to this site, you know that along with our seed variety research, we are also interested in the seedsmen that released the varieties and the companies that they established.  An evolving resource for presenting this information has been created online at www.saveseeds.org.

In my recent studies, I found another interesting parallel between several old seed houses and the Victory Seed Company.

In the 1920s, the world was rapidly evolving into the electronic age. Two rival seedsmen were pioneer adopters of the new technology called radio.  Henry Field and Earl May, both built radio stations and large studios to entertain the heartland and get their messages out.

I am still reading through old magazines, books, catalogs and pamphlets but will get some history posted soon.

Anyway, while learning about these men and their use of wireless technology, I could not help but think about our early adoption of the Internet back in 1998.  I am sure that these two men, if alive today, would be using the Internet as well.

Watch this newsletter for future information pertaining to our own low powered AM radio station with streaming Internet simulcast.  We will hopefully have it operating by Winter 2005.