So, my little seed shop has been around for quite a while. At some point in the future, I would like to give a more descriptive summary of my business venture, but for now, I’ll provide a quick summary:
2007 – I began my gardening hobby in Tucson, AZ
2011 – I started this blog
2012 – I began growing other varieties of muskmelons as cucumbers, beginning with the Cucumis melo variety flexuous (Armenian or Tortarello snakemelons) and then moving to Italian Carosello or Cucumis melo variety chate. I also registered the CucumberShop domain and commissioned my sister-in-law to help develop the logo.
2013 – Taking out a loan from the family, I made my first large Italian seed purchase. I registered my logo and trademark and began e-commerce sales on the blog using “Paypal buttons” on the blog. All sales required additional shipping costs and a padded manilla envelope.
2014 – Cucumber Shop opened up as an Etsy Store and made additional sales in-person at the Tucson Organic Gardeners
2015 – Cucumber Shop (as well as my family and I) moved from Tucson, AZ to Fairfield, CA
2016 – I purchased a small office refrigerator and registered my Google Business Page
2017 – A broker contacted me and I purchased CucumberSeed.com for $750, which I forwarded to CucumberShop.com. I started the Cucumber Shop YouTube channel.
2019 - A broker contacted me and I purchased CucumberSeeds.com for $750, which I forwarded to CucumberShop.com. After hundreds of hours of work, CucumberShop.com became its own website, utilizing FastComet hosting, Wordpress Web builder and WooCommerce as the e-commerce platform. I streamlined my packaging processes to enable me to offer free shipping. I also aquired one of my best-selling cucumber varieties.
2020 – I made another seed purchase from Italy and seed sales skyrocketed during the pandemic. I then registered my shop as an official business, backpaying costs from previous years and obtained a license to sell seed.
2021 – worked with a Sacramento farmer to grow out a gourmet cucumber variety and started up on Facebook and Instagram.
2022 – Made some presentations about Cucumber-melons
2023 – Had two podcast interviews and a New York Times article about my shop
2024 – Presented at a virtual conference, attended the Vegetable Variety Showcase and participated in some podcast interviews with Modern Grower.
2025 – Honored with a story about saving cucumber seeds in Seed Saver’s Exchange 50th Anniversary “Stewardship Stories” series.
After having read all that, I wouldn’t blame anyone for not continuing any further. But there is so much more that can be said. The real meat of running a seed business is not in the “what happened” but in the daily small changes that make the business what it is, from seed acquisition to growing, processing, packaging, offering, mailing and dealing with everything else.
For me, acquiring seed is not always as simple as it is for most gardeners – who may purchase their seed online, trade seed with others or receive their seed from a friend. While I am more than willing to obtain my seed through the same channels as others, my journey is often much longer and much more complex.
While it is true that I did start my seed shop by making a large purchase from an established Italian seed company, over time I noticed that the seed quality was going down. Additionally, the difficulty of having Italian seed shipped to the United States continued to increase until a shipment that I paid nearly a thousand dollars for did not arrive. This, along with difficulty getting the quality of seed that I needed, led me to start growing my own seed. Even then, I cannot just get seed from a single source and grow it out expecting it to produce the desired fruit. Instead, after consulting with friends in Italy who are familiar with each cultivar, I source seed from multiple sources – including business sources – in order to discover which population is most “true-to-type” exhibiting all the traits that distinguish the cucumber variety from others. This being said, there continue to be a few cucumber varieties that are available in the United States that I still purchase directly from larger seed companies.
Similar to other growers, I do trade seed as well as acquire seeds from friends. But my friends usually reside far from where I live. I have consistently worked to find those who have much more knowledge and experience with growing specific cucumber varieties in their native country, region and town. Finding such friends requires incredible flexibility, as they could be anywhere online, at a checkout line, at the park, a neighbor, a co-worker or anywhere. I take my time to develop a true friendship with these individuals who have usually grown, or know others who have grown the cucumber variety for years. Over time, when I feel that the time is right, I work to ask them more about the cucumber variety that they know so much more about. Despite investing weeks, months or years of developing a relationship, sometimes things just don’t work out. Even if I don’t eventually acquire the seeds that I am looking for, I continue to learn about them. Some lasting relationships have come from this and some of these growers have become good friends of mine.
Once I have developed friendships with others, I am always willing to trade seeds with them, pay them for seeds (something that can be a cultural taboo in some countries) or grow out the older seeds they have in exchange for a promise to later send them a larger quantity of fresh vigorous seeds of the same variety. If possible, I try to have the individual send seed to an established friend within the country so that the sender is not shouldered with the burden of shipping the seeds internationally. Then, when I eventually receive the seeds, I can finally grow them.
Partial Harvest 2023
Releasing new exotic cucumber seed for multiple years in a row does not come without concerted effort. There is the germination of older varieties, planting them in soil blocks and planting the seeds out in the garden. Preparing everything for planting can be an emotional and time-intensive process. But before I can plant anything out, I have to find a place to grow the seedlings to pure, uncrossed fruit. That requires them to be isolated from other seedlings of the same variety and that requires that each location be far enough from the other to keep from being cross-pollinated. Much like acquiring seed, acquiring space to grow the seeds requires developing a friendship with the those who host the garden. And if at any time the host does not feel that the arrangement that is made is satisfactory, then I, the gardener, will not be growing there for very long. Removing a garden is generally easy on plots that are in the ground or already established, but it can be much harder on plots where I bring in and out the infrastructure and tons of my own soil. But for those plots that I can continue to grow on, the joy of growing is almost always worth it.
Partial Harvest, 2022
One major aspect that can stifle the joy of gardening is the amount of work required - especially when it gets hot. Throughout the growing season, I am out checking the plants again and again to check to ensure that they are growing properly, receiving the proper watering and nourishment, that disease and pest issues are mitigated as much as possible and that I care for the plants in their various stages of development. Occasionally, I indulge and take time to enjoy the fruit itself and snap pictures of the plant and fruit for future reference. In addition to the regular growing, I actively select plants and fruit with traits characteristic to the cultivar – rouging some plants and fruit that deviate far from the characteristics of the variety while saving more ideal fruit for future generations. Then, after harvesting, there is the need to sort, transport, label and store the fruit properly – all in preparation for processing.
Properly harvesting and storing a seed from a fruit is likely a relatively easy process for most gardeners. They may simply scoop out the seed, perhaps wash it, dry it, put it in a container and perhaps even label it. But to harvest high-quality seed, it requires a very good understanding of each variety, what it looks as well as what it feels and smells like when it is ripe. After scooping out the seed, it takes knowledge of how to deal with the pulp, how to properly ferment seed that requires fermentation, deciding what kind of colander or colanders are needed, how to rinse the seed to maximize viability, how to water winnow in a way that removes poor seed and pulp, and how to dry the seeds quickly in a cool environment. Once the seed is dry, it must be winnowed again, removing any less viable seed. Then the seed is usually packed and labeled in temporary bags until germination is tested.
Processing seed and labeling it may be the end of the story for many. But for a seed shop, this is just the beginning. After testing to make sure that the germination is well above 80%, the seed is sorted and packed with a portion being left in a working refrigerator for the shop. The remainder of the seed goes into an emergency go-bag and in jars for long-term refrigeration. Then, descriptions are written out and printed on labels, which are stuck onto small paper envelopes and the packets are packed with seed. Finally the packets are put in organized slots and pictures of the cucumber and a description are listed on my website – as well as sometimes on Etsy.
Seed Sellers Authorization
Once everything is ready and someone purchases a packet of seeds, I hand-write the name and address on the packet, put the seeds, along with a sample packet of another variety, into the envelope and seal it shut. Most mornings I drop off the envelopes at a secure location. Then comes the pleasure of recording transactions, purchases and sales for the purpose of running a business and paying taxes. Not all of running a business is physical. While running does a business requires the owner to manage things, I believe that running a business requires so much more. Though money, creativity and even opportunity are important, there is something often much more important than even these.
I believe that the most important part of running a business is the individual who runs it. To be clear, I’m not saying that I am anything special, or that I am in any way the ideal standard to emulate. Instead, there is something that is required to continue to do things day after day. The stamina required to continue to offer a product or service to the world is strengthened by a knowledge that what is being offered helps to make the world a better place. The honesty to quickly acknowledge when what I am doing is not working and admit that things need to change and the meekness to do whatever it takes to improve the situation is essential to staying in business. Recognizing the big and small wins and developing relationships is all important. There are days when I feel taken advantage of and other days when customers express gratitude for allowing them to access something from their past.
Cucumber Shop has not just been about preserving the best of the past for the future, but about building relationships with others. The caretakers of ancient varieties, the landowners, the customers and those that are just curious about why cucumbers even matter. In short, as amazing as heirloom vegetables are, without relationships and without connection, we will never realize our full potential.
