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David Podoll has developed a seed business, not a catalog business, on Prairie Road Organic farm at Fullerton. He learned about selecting vegetable varieties from his father and mother. Today, with his brother Dan and sister-in-law Theresa, he raises organic, heirloom, and/or new varieties for Seeds of Change. His family saved and maintained seeds of varieties they preferred and kept them going when seed companies dropped the variety. They began producing seeds for Garden City Seeds of Montana in 1995, then for Seeds of Change. They have developed some varieties of their own, particularly Crimson Sprinter tomato, and Sweet Dakota Rose Watermelon. ("Revolution Meets Evolution" - Renewing the Countryside)
It is important to remember that many people simply bought their seeds at the nearest grocery, drug, or hardware store as Nancy Hendrickson often did. The colorful displays are very appealing for impulse purchases.
The seed catalog, as NDSU horticulturist Ron Smith has pointed out is an important source of relief from winter’s dreariness. Catalogs bring color, hope, a promise of spring and summer’s warm sunshine - dirt under our fingernails instead of snow on our boots. Perhaps on the northern Great Plains the feeling about seed catalogs is more intense than elsewhere in the US. Do Mississippi residents tear into their seed catalogs with zeal? Do catalogs arrive in Florida homes in January? Or is that too late for their planning process? Our seasons are well-defined here, and catalog season closely follows winter holidays.
The catalog often brings for our consideration the philosophy of the catalog producer. Seeds of Change is about organic vegetables, healthy soil, heirloom varieties. Seed Savers is about old style or heirloom seeds and processes for maintaining them. Oscar H. Will & Co. catalog brought history, cultural traditions, and shifting notions of power, politics, and tastes in vegetables. One can imagine children looking carefully at the catalog covers painted by Clell Gannon and thinking about the story these pictures told. One can also imagine some people tossing the Will catalog into the fire and refusing to buy vegetables from someone who supported the United Nations. Seeds from a catalog source come with baggage. We may choose our favorite catalog when the baggage is either something we are willing to carry, or if it is similar to our own. (Nabhan, 205-228)