I get Annie's catalog every year. Seems like everything is $5 bucks for any amount of seed, one seed or 10 seeds. You never get a lot of seeds, and everything in there looks surreal. Most of it only grows in zones 9-11, but there are a few in zone 6. Her stuff is expensive, and beautiful. It's her trip, I'm not judging, it just seems out of touch with reality. I can get thousands of seeds way cheaper. She just seems to find really hard to find plants and sell them at a high price. We grow hard to find plants and sell them at a cheap price. Not knocking it, she just has a better selection. Her prices are high bc of her overhead. We don't use expensive heaters and grow what we can by natural selection and for zone 6 and up. I just don't really want to pay the electric company to grow what Mother Nature can grow if you just pay some attention to it, so somebody's gotta pay for that electric bill, and the hoop houses. I still can't understand why they need to be so high when most people who shop are women and under 5'7". They don't need to be 20' high. Hot air rises, seems silly. Check out Elliot Coleman who grows in Vermont with no lights, no heat, and sells to high-end restaurants in the middle of winter. It's more impressive.

Morgan County Seed in Missouri is my favorite company to order from. They can be slow when they are busy, which they say up front in the catalog, but they have the lowest prices I have found. They also might possibly be the most honest people in the world. Their 'tomato fertilizer pack' is an excellent product at a very low price. It's two part, one is cal nitrate, the other is 4-18-38. I also order from Johnny's and they are expensive, but they have good stuff. I order bulk sweet corn and herb seed from Seedway. Grandma always orders melon and pumpkin seed from Rupp. Twilley has a nice catalog, and I have ordered bulk pepper seed from them. This post was edited by Cole_Robbie on Fri, Mar 28, 14 at 22:15

What I like about Penzeys is they sell almost all of their spices in the little 1/4 cup jars, which really helps me keep my spices fresh, since single-me doesn't use up spices that fast, especially the less common ones. I also love some of Penzeys unique blends. But I have to pay shipping so not much of a cost savings so I only order things once and a while from there, specialty items, etc. I can also get good spices locally so it's all good. I don't throw spices out too often, I just use them a little more liberally if they are older. Chile powders seem to hold up relatively well for me, I don't go thru the hotter stuff very fast. Paprika, on the other hand, looses its delicate flavor fast. But who cares if you are just using paprika for the color. I do some N. African/Middle Eastern and Hungarian cooking and I actually use paprika for the taste. As for having little jars of weird spices on the counter, I hear ya! But in those situations I try to find recipes I like using that ingredient. I love to experiment in the kitchen. Tumeric is so good for you, I have developed a repertoire of recipes using it. BTW, that's another spice that doesn't do well sitting on the shelf for long periods of time. I think that's why a lot of people don't think tumeric has much taste, because the taste it does have seems to fade faster than I can use it up. I like tumeric with rice and peas or spinach. It's the poor man's saffron.

I grow and dry some of my own herbs. Most of what I buy, I get through Penzey's. Haven't seen any problem with them at all--I either go to one of their stores or order mail order. Can't imagine they wouldn't be around, since they're the country's major spice importer and sell to many other distributor's, retailers, etc. If I need something immediately, I'll go to the spice market at the Reading Market, or a spice store near my country house. Never buy from supermarkets or discount stores--their spices aren't generally as fresh, nor as pure as you get from actual spice companies. And, I find, Penzey's is far cheaper than buying grocery store spices.