Crabjoe, your missing the point. This group is not a catolog or seed warehouse. The assession list lists every seed donated. Most may only be a dozen seed. All available information on the seed is written down. What is listed is not all the information it doesn't have to be, it is not advertizement for the variety and they are not for sale. If additional information is needed the requester of the seed can simply ask and should ask since they are growing out the seed as part of a research project.This started as a research project on southern culture by the Anthropology Dept of the University of Ga. and has resulted in a spinoff in the seed preservation area. There is no paid staff the people who run this are students working on various undergarduate and graduate degrees and it is headed by the founders who are ardent seed savers with a desire to preserve the seeds they were given. The farm was purchased and donated to the program and volunteers plant the seeds given at this farm. It is not large by any means my home garden is larger than the grow out areas on this farm. People who join pay a donation to fund this seed saving effort not to recieve any material reward. Seed is offered to members to grow out in a controlled scientific enviroment. There is a form that is signed stating you will grow out this seed maintaining notes on all aspects of the grow out.You must have a knowledge of seed saving and isolation requirements and use that knowledge to preserve the seed in its original form and return 1/3 of the new seed to the seed bank. In my opinion the vast majorty of peole who request seed have no knowledge at all of seed preservation and have only a desire to obtain seed for there own purpose and do not return any seed to the bank. Of the varieties listed you can request up to five to grow out a year, you may get 3 or 4 possible five it all depends on what is available. If the bank has only a handfull of seed. That seed is not indescrimately given away to someone in Maryland or Califonia just because they donated $25. That is irresponsible and would result in the lost of a unique piece of our Southern heritage. Seed that has been previously grown out by responsible preservationists is the seed someone would recieve. It only makes sense these are the varieties that there is sufficient seed of to give out. So on the apple question. I have no idea on why it is there and it could very well be a tomato seed called red delicious apple. If that seed interests you give them a call and find out the history behind it. I also want to say I do not work for or represent the organization in any professional manner other than as a member with a sincere desire to maintain my southern heritage and I am supportive of the efforts of this dedicated group of people who spend there time mapping the cultures of the rural south. So to answer your question. 1)Yes, it's nice seeds can be past down from one generation to the next, but for all we know, the cantaloupe submitted might be Hale's best (seeds seem to be everywhere). yes it could very well have been hales best. That variety has been around for decades and was very popular in the 40s and 50s as a commercial melon. One aspect of our southern food culture is if a fruit or vegetable has a good taste keep the seed and plant it. This could very well have been how this melon started, as a store bought melon 50 years ago that had a good taste seed was saved and the rest is history. If your interested in a name brand melon I can list several catologs where you can purchase one. If your intersted in doing a grow out of this melon and doing a side by side comparision with Hales best to determine the true cultivar or even if the melon has merit and your willing to document the findings. Then please request information on this melon and request seed to grow out.Then submit your finfings so that it can be added to the data base on the variety. 2)For a group that suppose to be saving seeds, I feel they need to set some strict guidelines on seed submission and also, not just post anything that gets submitted. As a scientific project with no Bias and an obligation to preserve the seed as presented by the giver it would be unethical to alter any information or set such guidelines. The mission of the group is to document southern cultural practices with no prejudice and record those findings. Any and all seed, scion wood, etc is accepted with what ever information can be obtained and responsible people are solicited to grow out these seed and document any information about the seed that can be obtained. Southern Legacy Seeds is not an Heirloom seed catolog. 3)Look the the apple seeds... Someone, not knowing how apples pollinate, gets the seeds for the red delicious apple. They then plant and and waits years for fruit; to get not even a red apple, but possibly a crab apple. That's a cruel joke to play on someone Someone with out the knowlegde of apple trees probably would not be giving the seed.And if they were according to the agreement they signed stating they understood the conditions for recieving the seed, In 8-10 years when the tree set fruit they would note in their report the varietal differences the seeds have.As a side note apples are not the only outcrossing fruit or vegetable and many of our seed vegetables and fruits such as beans and tomatoes, even though they are self fertile, will cross if not grown using proper isolation. The original red delicious apple was not red but was green with red stripping. I have seen and tasted the original red delicious. It is the commercial aspect of our countries food industry that turned the red delicious into a bland, mealy, solid red fruit, that will keep for a year and that when preservatives and artificial flavorings are added becomes quite palatable. The crab apple is native to North America and through natural and selective crossing with European apples have made the American apple varieties of the last few centuries some of the top apples in the world. I can't understand why anyone would want a large perfect blemish free product marketed as an apple when they can have a smaller distorted more colorful but exploding with flavor real American apple.And it is because of someone, such as the person who donated the apple seed to the Southern Legacy Seed Project, why we have so many wonderful old variety apples in this country. Rodger

Personally, I really dislike those garbage to energy incinerators. It sounds smart, but it doesn't seem to work so well. Generally the things consume vast quantities of waste, and much of what they require to burn well is plastic and paper, things which are normally recyclable, but when the local council have to feed their waste to energy plant there's little incentive to promote recycling. If they were to achieve any successful levels of recycling the plant's fuel supply would dry up and the little remaining would be mostly comprised of random inflamable materials such as used electrical goods. You'll notice when looking at recycling statistics that areas with these plants have little or no recycling provision. These plants are just turning valuable raw materials like paper and plastic that can be used again and again in to a pile of toxic ash, thus we must chop down more trees and pump up more oil, all with various environmental and energy costs to replace what has been incinerated. Plus, the toxic ash still has to be disposed of, although I also dislike the term 'disposed' as really nothing is disposed of, rather it's dumped in to the environment. Landfills are the global equivalent of dumping our weekly rubbish in to a pit in the back garden and pretending it's vanished. It's not gone, it's in the way polluting the environment and costing us tax money to maintain the site. The only sustainable option is to keep reusing materials so that they're never landfilled. I really do believe that a closed cycle for almost all, if not 100% of consumer waste is possible. If packaging was limited to just glass, paper, metal and polyethylene (it's 100% recyclable with no loss of quality, unlike other plastics) then we could recycle just about everything. More re-usable containers would help as well, rather than the use once packaging everything seems to be provided in. If companies passed on some of their savings to consumers who bought back their containers for re-filling, then I'm sure it would become a common way to save money at the store. Equally importantly, I believe that large scale re-using of packaging would save vast amounts of energy, plus recycling where needed tends to use far less energy as the materials are allready refined and processed. I'm convinced that the end energy savings would far surpass the energy extracted from incincerating all waste in one of these plants. Waste to energy isn't a good solution to the mountain of waste we produce, places like germany are now averaging around 80% recycling, and potentially the percentage could be higher if the materials used in packaging were better regulated for recyclable content.

5 years in the business hasn't been long enough, I think. You are trying to invent a concept that already exists. Kitchen showrooms do all of what you are describing. They carry multiple brands at multiple price points and can coordinate all aspects of the decor finishes. Design and build firms even employ GCs to be able to 100% handle the home add on or extensive renovation if that's involved. You're not talking about offering anything new. You're just talking about marketing what exists differently, which possibly could work if you found the right ad campaign. Cabinet companies are also pretty particular about who carries their cabinets. And they often will not work with companies that carry their competitors. So, you won't end up with 9 different budget choices and 12 different mid range choices. They just won't allow you to do that. Unless you're talking 9 different Chinese made choices, that is. And those aren't likely to be taking any market by storm any time soon. Too many risks and quality variables. And potential customers who are looking to renovate really won't flock to a "Cabinet Hut" type of place run out of anyone's home. There will be a great deal of suspicion attached to that, directly related to your location (especially considering your sex), as well as your liquidity. If you can't afford a decent sized showroom with really good displays, then you will have people wondering if you'll be in business in 6 weeks when their cabinets are supposed to be delivered. You have zero reputation with anyone as a startup, and that's going to work against you with both consumers and builders. That's why most KDs either go to work at an establised showroom and create a name/buzz and then go out on their own or only work part time out of their home and have a spouse with a more traditional job who carries the insurance and benefits. All in all, you'd probably be best served by approaching an already existing residential KD firm and pitching your services to them as a "contractor division" that you'd run. If your data checks out, and your finances are sound, it'd be a win/win proposition for both of you. And, in 10 years time, after you've built a reputation, you could then sever the ties and have your own company that could easily stand on it's own feet.

Thanks.... nice to see the designs.