Maya Shiroyama and Jim Ryugo of Kitazawa Seed Company! I visited them yesterday in Oakland where they ship traditional Japanese seeds (and many other important varieties from East Asia and beyond) to happy customers near and far. The Kitazawa family started the company in San Jose in 1917. The Kitazawas built up a strong business despite being interned during WWII in Wyoming, and again later getting displaced for the expansion of the San Jose Airport. Maya grew up helping her grandfather open their manilla seed packets for his huge garden, and decades later, when he mentioned the packets hadn’t arrived one year (in 2000), she looked into it and ended up buying the company to keep it afloat! I met them a couple years ago through our dear mutual friend Kristyn Leach who also grows seeds for both of our catalogs at Namu Farm. We’ve had dinner several times since, and they have been soooo supportive of my work with Truelove Seeds, and so wonderful to talk to in general about preserving culturally important seeds, building a sustainable and innovative business, selecting varieties, challenges and successes on the farm and in the seed room, and so on. Please check out their website at www.kitazawaseed.com. Thanks to an article in SFGate by Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan (“Kitazawa Seed connects cultures, traditional foods”) for providing details to the stories I’ve been told by Maya and Jim! @kitazawa_seed @namu_farm #kitazawaseedco #traditionalseeds #dentoyasai #seedheads (at Oakland, California)