Due to the new EU law on seed regulations with a very complicated approval process, we are obliged to provide the following information:
Note on all my seeds: My seeds are sold expressly to private users as ornamental plant seeds and collector's items. All information regarding taste, use and ingredients is based on traditional experience and is for general information only. Tomatoes are only considered ornamental fruits and are not officially intended for consumption.
We are small-scale farmers cultivating many rare heirloom varieties, old traditional varieties from different places in the world, and also many newly crossed varieties. We can present one of Europe's largest assortments of tomato varieties, with more than 1100 varieties. We grow hundreds of different varieties every year, many new varieties but also old "best-sellers". We only have a limited stock of each variety, so varieties might sell out.
We do not grow any GMO varieties. We do not grow any hybrids except on rare occasions. If a variety is a hybrid you can clearly state this in the name. If it is a hybrid, it will say f1, f2, f3, etc, after the varieties name.
We are farming according to ecological principles. We are not ecologically certified, because certification is expensive. We avoid chemical fertilizers and use chicken fertilizers from our own flock. We also use fertilizer from goats and horses from nearby farms. We also produce compost and mulch from our own, small orchard of olive trees and fruit trees.
All our seeds are packed by hand, by us. Most of the packets with tomato seeds contain 10 seeds, but some varieties contain fewer seeds in each packet. The exact seeds count for each variety, you find in the description for that variety. We do our best to always keep the correct amount of seeds in each pack, but mistakes can of course happen. If you do not receive the correct amount of seeds in your packet, don't hesitate to contact us!
We grow all our tomato seeds by ourselves. All tomato seeds are fermented for the best germination rate.
All our tomato seeds are openly pollinated - OP. Tomatoes though are mostly self-pollinating and the risk for cross-pollination is very low. In general, the risk for cross-pollination is between 0,5% - 12% depending on the kind of tomato. Normally all tomato seeds you can find on the market of heirloom varieties, are openly pollinated.
We get plants from cross-pollinated seeds somewhere around 3% of all our plants each year. Both from our own seeds, seeds traded with other small-scale farmers, and seeds bought from large seed companies. It is probably mostly cross-pollination, but sometimes it could also be a natural mutation. This is of course a hassle if it's a specific variety you have excitedly been waiting for, I know this for myself. But this is how it works with openly pollinated tomato seeds. It is nothing I worry too much about though. We just use these tomatoes for fresh eating, sun-drying, or other uses, and then grow the variety again next year.
Also, many of our seeds from aubergine, chili peppers, and sweet peppers are openly pollinated (OP). Some of the varieties are isolated and pollinated by hand. Read the description for each variety to find out if it's isolated pollinated (ISO).
Our policy is to produce all the pictures we use on our webshop by our own hand. We don't use other companies/people's photos for our tomatoes or other products. Most of the varieties are very rare and unique. Some of the pictures might not be the best. And for a few of the varieties, we missed out on photographing it. But in our opinion, it is better with a picture of lower quality than to steal someone else's photos. Not only that photographing is both difficult and time-demanding, and thus respectless to take advantage of someone else's hard work. It is also illegal to use someone else's pictures without permission.
We have chosen to not use watermarks on our pictures when this would lower the quality of the pictures and lower the experience of the site. We try to picture the variety in the best possible way to show that variety's characteristics. Although the color might differ on some occasions depending on the light when the photograph was taken. For example, a variety might look more red than pink if it is photographed later in the evening when the light is warmer.
All pictures on our site are taken by Meraki Seeds and are the property of Meraki Seeds. It is not allowed to "borrow", or steal, any picture. Any use of pictures from Meraki Seeds without permission will be invoiced according to current standards.