www.FreeHeirloomSeeds.org

Distributing FREE Heirloom Seeds to the public.
Empowering individuals & communities to be self reliant.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When will I get my request for free seeds? -

Requests with donations placed June - November have an average turnaround of 2 days + transit
During peak times, December - May, or after a viral online event it can take up to 4 weeks from the time we receive a request to the time seeds arrive.
We are trying to upgrade our facilites to be able to deal with high volume & the rapid growth of this organization, but we are working with limited resources & also dependent on people actually showing up to work, which has been a challenge lately.
If you donated & have not received seeds in 4 weeks
you should email freeheirloomseeds@gmail.com with the donation info & we will look into it.

Requests without donations are primarily filled in bulk when we have the resources.
It could be 2 days or it could be a few months.
We have a limited amount of time to donate to this,
so please do not email to ask when you will get seeds,
as this could move your request to the back of the line or even cause it to be deleted.
This best time to request without donation is the June through November.
More info about requests wihtout donations can be found further down this page.

How is this possible? -

Free Heirloom Seeds is supported by donations from individuals & small businesses.
All of the donations received are used for producing, acquiring, packing & distributing seeds, so a little goes a long way!

2. How many seeds will I get? -
Seed count varies by variety, based on availability.
You could get as little as 1 seed of a certain variety (extremely rare & will say in the variety descrition), or hundreds depending on what you request & what's available.
We also hand pack the seeds so count can vary greatly just by chance.
We also have limits to how many seeds we pack because of the way they are shipped
A standard envelope (4-8 packs of seed) cannot weigh more than an ounce, with packing material.
Also envelopes cannot be too thick (more than 1/4") or it risks getting returned for parcel shipping.
Most variety descriptions have estimated quantities listed.

3. Where do the seeds come from? -
Some of our seeds we grow or wildcraft, others are donated to us by individuals & businesses, some seeds are "grown out" for us by members of our community & some are purchased from trusted seed producers & packers.
We also admin the Facebook group - Free Heirloom Seeds Community Group. There people can trade seeds freely amongst each other & we will be using that as one of our tools in our Species Preservation Initiative.
We are creating a database to track who is producing what kind of seeds to help prevent species extinction.
It is our hope that eventually our seed distribution will become more regionally localized by inspiring more people to grow & share seeds.

4. Why are there 2 different seed lists? -
USPS will charge a parcel rate if the envelope is not flat enough.
Even one bean costs a average of $4.65 to ship, regardless of it's weight or if it is in a simple envelope.
We learned that the hard way & unfortunately we would cease to exist if every package cost us $4-5 to ship.
The seeds on our second list have been identified as too bulky or fragile to send in a standard envelope & require parcel shipping.
As it is, our local post office has identified our packages as carrying seed & demands we pay an extra fee for hand canceling, for a shipping cost of $1.19 per envelope, at the time of writing.
We created our suggested donation guidelines to allow us to send you the most possible seed for the least amount of postage.
We sponsor parcel shipping when we can, but our capacity to send parcels of seeds & pay $4 to do so is very, very limited.
When you submit your request please combine seeds form both lists into a single alphabetical list with 10 codes per line, as described & pictured in our request instructions.

How can I grow seeds to support this effort?
Simply put, just do it. Grow any given seed variety with proper isolation from varieties that will cross with one another.
We cannot micromanage others efforts to grow & save seeds.
We make the seeds available & would be thrilled if you grow them out & save seeds from them.

5. How can I get involved? -
We encourage you to join our Species Preservation Initiative (link coming soon!)
& our facebook group - Free Heirloom Seeds Community Group
Anyone can help! We need volunteers from all walks of life & all variety of skill sets!
Please check out our Volunteer! page, to find out how you can help!

Of course, you are always welcome to & every penny helps keep this going!

6. What is a Free Heirloom Seeds Retail Partner & how can my business become one? -
FreeHeirloomSeeds.org is partnering up with small businesses all over the world to offer Free Heirloom Seeds in as many communities as possible! Retail partners provide promotional & financial support to FreeHeirloomSeeds.org, in turn they are able to be an official distribution location for FreeHeirloomSeeds.org
Distributing seeds for FreeHeirloomSeeds.org is a valuable promotional service that can bring hundreds of new customers into your store, shows that your business cares & gives back to the community, while also giving you global exposure online & with our promotional tools.
To apply to be a Free Heirloom Seeds Retail Partner or learn more simply email us - FreeHeirloomSeeds@gmail.com

Feel free to send your questions or comments to - FreeHeirloomSeeds@gmail.com

All about requests without a donation -
Requests without a donation, are filled when we have the time & money to cover your postage.
The last few years, requests without a donation made between December & February, have been filled in bulk in March & April.
We suggest making your request without a donation between June & November for the fastest service.

We will likely not fill a request without a donation from someone who also made a request with a donation.
Priority is given to those that cannot afford to donate & our minumum suggested donation of $10 for a parcel really only covers expedited shipping & packing materials, the seeds are still free.

Priority is also given to requests without a donation that do not request seeds that will cross pollinate.
We want you to save seeds, that is why we do this, so you can have free seeds forever.

When we get multiple requests in the same calendar year without a donation from the same person, or going to the same address, we may block them.
We have limited resources to do this & give priority to those requesting one envelope per year.

If you send us an inquiry asking where your request is & it does not say no donation,
we will search the name & then when we see that it was a request without a donation we will erase both emails. No one is getting paid to open your email & search for you.
We will open one email to fill a request without a donation, if you send multiple emails it will absorb the resources that otherwise would have been used to get you seeds.

If you send a request without a donation & it does not say "no donation" in the email subject line, we will search for a donor & if we do not find one, the request will be moved into a folder for incomplete requests. In order to join the que for seeds without a donation your email aboslutely must say "no donation" in the email subject line.
Failure to write "no donation" in the emakil subject line wastes our time & you will not get seeds.

Please, do not include detailed hard luck stories & ignore our request guidelines.
The way to get seeds is to follow our request instructions, doesn't matter if you are rich or poor.
We offer this service to everyone & all we ask is that you follow our request instructions.

We really do not have the resources to send seeds from our oversized list in a request without a donation.
It's $5 average in shipping alone to send more than 8 packs of seeds or even just 1 pack of seed from our oversized list.
If you request oversized seeds & they get put into your envelope, it will get returned, we will have wasted our time & the $2+ it costs us to pack & send an envelope.

We try to get at least 4 packs of seed per request without a donation, & will sometimes send up to 8 packs.
If you request all of one variety, example would be a no donation request for 4 varieties of tomatoes, you will probably only get 3 packs.
Some extreme cases we may not send the request at all, if you are requesting 4 poppy varieties, for example.
The reason for this, is that poppies wioll cross with one another & we will run out of them.
By requesting multiple varieties of an outbreeding plant, it tells us, you are not likely to save seeds & are also not likely in a tight spot, where you relly need these seeds.
Since this is a variety we, as of yet, cannot keep in stock, we would prefer getting the seeds to someone who has a higher chance of saving seed from what we send.
Priority is given to those that request seeds that will not cross pollinate.

Top Reasons your request without a donation may not get filled -
1. Your request did not say "no donation" in the email subject line.
2. You or your household made multiple requests without a donation in the same year.
3. You did not choose seeds. It costs us about $2 to send these, you must choose at least 4, up to 8 varieties of seed & substitutes that are not on our oversized list.
4. You chose seeds from our oversized list, which cannot be shipped in a standard envelope.br> 5. The seeds you requested are out of stock. List substitutes to avoid this!
6. You ask us to "do" something, other than fill your properly formatted seed request

Free seeds are subject to availability. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.
Free Heirloom Seeds & our affiliates offer no guarantee of any kind regarding our services & products.