What our customers are saying about The Ark Institute

Dear Kristin,

I just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with your heirloom seeds. I decided to start my own heirloom garden after watching Food, Inc. and purchased my seeds through your company. I also purchased your Garden Planning Book, and Seed Sowing and Saving.

First off, all of the information in the books is absolutely priceless, I spent hours doing research in them on each individual vegetable, as well as on ways to make my garden thrive. This is my first year gardening, and I cannot tell you how much better my garden is compared to those whose owners used traditional grocery store seeds. My plants have all thrived, they are all so hardy, I am truly surprised.

I have not used any commercial pesticides or weed killers, and do not weed my garden very often due to my busy work schedule (maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks), and my garden has still produced an ABUNDANCE of food.

I attribute all of my success to your company, and thank you for all of your products.

May many blessings come your way. Sincerely,
Brittany Mercier

Dear Kristin,

Thank you for keeping in touch.
Our garden is growing beautifully, with many fantastic veggies to eat and give away. My husband is 84 years old, and I am 80 yrs. old; we love our garden and greenhouse. I am the germinating, "taking care of baby plants in the greenhouse" lady, and my husband is the "planter, taking care of in the raised beds" person. We make a GREAT team!
Each year I save my seeds, and mark the "ARK SEEDS" for each variety I save. When I germinate and re-pot my "babies", I have so many little plants I take them to church and put up a sign "FREE, take what you can use." So, your seeds have spread around my hometown to many families. I mark each plant w/ "ARK peppers", or "Ark heirloom tomato", etc... This spring I put the remains of one tomato mixture into a big pot, thinking the seed much too old to germinate. Well, guess what - they filled the pot w/ nice plants.
I have just ordered a great book - "Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times" by Steve Solomon. It can be pretty tedious reading, but is totally comprehensive for someone who is serious about growing their own food, and those starting from scratch.

Thank you again for communicating, and I'll be ordering some of your new varieties soon!

Sincerely,
(requested to remain anonymous)

Dear Kristin,

Thank you for your support of the Tracy and Forks Elementary School Gardens! The first harvest of mesclun lettuce mix is in - 9.5 lbs! All the Fourth Graders enjoyed a salad day with the lettuce that they grew right outside their classrooms. Check out the Kellyn Foundation Facebook page for pictures.
PS: We had to fashion new hoes and smaller garden tools for our youngest gardeners. (June 2012)



The Tracy Elementary School (Erie, PA) and Forks Elementary Schools (Bethlehem, PA) Gardens, donated lovingly by The Ark Institute.
(These harvests after only 3 months of partnership!)

Dear Geri,

Enclosed, please find some snapshots of the children's gardens here at the orphanage in Haiti. These crops were all proudly grown by our staff and children with the wonderful seed The Ark Institute sent us last year. Not only have the children had more good food than we could ever hope for, but they are learning the priceless skills of gardening, seed saving and self-preservation. All of these give them hope for the future! I think you can get the idea from their smiling faces.
PS: We had to fashion new hoes and smaller garden tools for our youngest gardeners.

(Children's Orphanage in Haiti)

Thank you Geri for the up-date on Ark Institute. My 83 yrs. old husband and I (79 yrs. old) keep a raised bed garden each year, and have saved our seeds - use them from year to year, and have plenty to give away. We live in Northern California, Sonoma County, and Luther Burbank felt that this was the greatest place for growing things in the nation. His experimental garden and his home were here, and we feel about the same way as he did. Our garden supplies beautiful vegetables and fruits not only for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, but much to share with friends and at our church each week. It is a joy to tell others about Ark Institute seed supply, and we are blessed to have found you years ago.
One other thing that I do w/ my tomato seeds - the way my mother (passed at 97 1/2 yrs) did it. I squirt the seeds of an especially nice ripe tomato onto double tissue or paper towel - smoothing them out in a layer to let them dry in my kitchen. When I plant them the next season I pull off one layer of paper towel or tissue, and plant the remaining tissue w/ seeds on it upside down in my germinating soil in a tray. I get almost 100% germination, and enough new plants to give to all my friends who ask me for them each year. Don't know that this is "orthodox", but it works. Thank you for the new web site.

Regards,
M. H., Sonoma, california

Dear Geri,

I hope you are well.
I thought about sharing this with you.

About 5 years ago I bought a group of 40 seeds from you together with a box-full of books. It was my intention back then to start growing vegetables in pots on the roof of our apartment. This however was impractical for me and the project died shortly after it started. I, however stored the seeds properly as instructed by you and started looking for a plot of land where to start growing produce seriously, while still studying the books, especially the one by John Jeavon. Finding land proved to be difficult on this tiny island. The good land is either not for sale or too expensive but I never gave up.
About 2 months ago I acquired a small plot of soil and I started to put the theory into practice. I opened the seed jars and with very little hope, I tried to germinate some of them. You know what? Every kind of seed that I tried did actually germinate!!! After 5 years!!! Even the parsley!! What a miracle Nature is!
Geri I am very grateful that I discovered you. You have been quite an inspiration to me. It has been such a thrill when I saw the first little honeydew melons come out, despite sowing them somewhat late in the season. It is hard work (especially the double dig!) but so rewarding and fulfilling.

I wish you all the health and strength to continue with your worthy mission.

Many thanks and best regards,
Noel Abela, [the Mediterranean Island of] Malta

Hi, Geri! Joe and I just had to write to tell you that we just harvested our first crops from our "Ark" garden. Oh, my goodness, what can we say? We followed everything you told us to do in your Build Your Ark book and it worked, big time! We have more green beans (yes, we saved seed from them for next year) than we could can or freeze, so we gave some away to my sister and Joe's parents. Tomatoes, carrots, onions, corn - you name it, we've got enough to last us until next summer and then some. We cannot thank you enough for your wonderful non-hybrid seed, your encouragement and advice and all the work you and The Ark Institute do to help us become more self-reliant. God Bless You!
(Chris and Joe, Washington)

Dear Geri,

Thank you so much for working with us on our challenges to grow food in Alaska. We appreciate your knowledge and extensive experience, and they have made us successful growers of red and green cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions in a very short, cool season. We want to order a larger package of seed from you this year to expand our growing operation.

(Simon and Jesse, Alaska)

Dear Geri,

Mike and I are SO excited! We broke ground at our new, little property in Idaho and planted our first Ark Institute seeds. I think every one of them came up. Lettuces, onions, beets, broccoli, cabbage and peas all seem happy with our work. Tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds are up in trays we put in our south facing window in the room with the woodstove as you suggested. Next year we'll rig up some shop lights and heating mat just for them. When the warm weather arrives we'll plant our zucchini, pumpkins, all the rest of our family seed pack outside. We just wanted you to know how happy we are with your seed and how thankful we are for your help.

(Mike and Ashley, Idaho)

Dear Ark Institute,

All of us that attended Geri Guidetti's Non-GMO Food Gardening Seminar this weekend want to thank you for all of the work you folks do to educate communities on the need to preserve and multiply pure vegetable seed. Seeing the slides of the gardens you grow at The Ark Institute really motivated all of us to grow good seed and share it with the greater community. Thank you for your outstanding and important work.

(Michael T, Texas)

Dear Geri,

You told us when we bought your big Non-Hybrid Family Package last year that it would feed a family of four if we gardened well and our weather cooperated. Well, we're writing to tell you that you lied! We have fed EIGHT from our garden our first year. Maybe that's 'cause we planted all of the seeds "just in case" and everything grew in abundance! We just had our fourth "canning party" with our Jon's brother and sister-in-law and shared our abundance in exchange for help in canning all the extra produce. Now we're off to hunt down some more canning jars from our local Goodwill! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

(Jon and Karla, Ohio)