During the early 1920's, our ancestor, the late Franz Schutzwohl came to Oregon's Rogue River Valley by way from Bohemia and settled a 40 acre homestead where he later grew vegetables for market use (just as his father, Karl Schutzwohl, had in Bohemia years earlier). During the Great Depression, our ancestor provided most locals with their only source for fresh vegetables during those troubling times, established the first 4-H club in our area, started the local school hot lunch program and founded the Josephine Grower's Co-operative (now known as the Grants Pass Grange Co-op which was recently moved back to near the old homestead on Schutzwohl Lane, which is named for our forebear. The Grants Pass Daily Courier ran a nice story to mark the historical significance of the move and interviewed a few members of the family for the article). He also bred the most amazing Jersey Cattle, maintaining the top Jersey herd in the United States Department of Agricultural HIR tests for over 25 years. During the 1950's he was listed in the book "The Who's Who of Oregon State" due to his many accomplishments. Today, our office is located less than one half of a mile from where all this took place over 80 years ago! Some day, we hope to relocate our seed operation back to the original homestead property, which we hope our customers can help us to accomplish through their continued loyalty. We take our company name, "Roguelands", from the name of our ancestor's dairy.  Our family is not only native to the Rogue Valley, but has lived in the same general neighborhood for over five generations.

Our company goal is to seek out, breed and offer to our many customers, the highest quality, old fashioned, non-hybrid, non-genetically modified and rarest heirloom vegetable seeds available throughout the world. In this capacity we have excelled, in that we have went through great pains and expense to import many rare and exciting vegetable varieties. 

Our Seeds

We take our seeds seriously and the greatest care goes into the production, packaging and shipping of our seeds. Currently, all of our seeds are packaged in re-sealable polythene bags with paper labels noting the variety, though we are hoping to upgrade into more advanced packaging in the near future. All of the seed we offer is 100% open pollinated, meaning that it is purebred seed and is the exact opposite of hybrid seeds in that it will reproduce purebred seed which can be saved year after year. In addition to collecting our own seeds, due to the constraints of space, staff, funding and time, we also procure seed from select industry sources so that we are able to offer a more complete inventory to our customers.

The greatest absolute attention is paid to the quality, freshness and purity of the seed we offer to our customers. Just as when we started, we still select all of our seed by hand and take great care to discard deformed or damaged seed from our packets.

If You Honestly Cannot Afford Seeds

Our main goal in doing "what we do" is to encourage the average person to attain some semblence of self-reliance and to spread old fashioned heirloom seeds through the world. Unlike a lot of other seed companies, we are not owned by a big global corporation and our bottom line is not the Almighty Dollar. 

As little as eighty years ago, over 75% of the population of the United States lived on the small family farm and grew the majority of their own food. Today, that number is less than 5%! In the meantime, the production of food has fallen into the hands of a handful of global corporations, who have been proven time and time again to show very little regard for the welfare of the public at large. In addition to cutting corners on quality, contrary to the knowledge of the majority, these big companies have introduced genetically modified foods into our food chain and have little concern for the nutritional and health needs of their customers. In the United States today, over 80% of all processed foods contain GM products. Meanwhile, even if one lives strictly on fruit and vegetables, few realize that the procuce they buy is loaded with toxic chemicals, is not as nutritious as it should be (nutritional values of commercial vegetables have been dropping dramatically since the 1950's) and we don't have to tell you that the safety of these vegetables leaves a lot to be desired, as easily attested to by recent salmonella scares in a number of commercial produce crops. Even if you think you are eating a healthy, natural diet, the chances are pretty high that you are really not eating a good diet and we can say without a doubt, that if you suffer from health issues or basic aches and pains, that most of your problems stem back to what you eat.

If you want to learn more about these topics, we really recommend the following books and films:

Dr. Gillian McKeith's "You Are What You Eat"
Jeffery Smith's "Seeds of Deception"
Marion Nestle's "Food Politics: How The Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health"
"The GMO Trilogy" (DVD and audio)

The bottom line is, the companies that produce the food, really don't care about the health of the people who eat their product. They just want your money.

But it really does not have to be this way. Even if you don't have a lot of space for a garden, you can grow your own wholesome food and even if it's only a small fraction of your diet, every little bit counts. Considering the present economic situation that is going on today, learning to grow your own food and to save your own vegetable seeds, may very well mean the difference between really struggling and having some real security for your family.

That said, if you cannot honestly afford to buy our seed, please don't hesitate to push your pride away for a moment, tell us a bit about your situation, how much space you have and to ask us for some seeds and some advice on how to gain a little bit of food security. (Note: Keep in mind that it costs us money to ship seed and that people who abuse this policy just to get something for nothing could endanger our ability to provide seed for the people who really need do need them in the future).