Philadelphia Collection

This is a collection of seed varieties that help us tell the story of the historic Philadelphia area through our gardens and our dinner plates.

These seeds come to us thanks to:

• Lenni-Lenape people (the original people of our area).
• Horace Pippin, the now-famed painter, who shared beautiful peppers from the Black catering communities of Philly and Baltimore with H. Ralph Weaver in the early 1940s.
• The thriving seed and nursery world of our city starting with John Bartram in the 1700s and later in the 1800s with companies like Upsal Botanic Garden, Moore and Simon, and David Landreth & Sons.
• The Pennsylvania Dutch communities of the region. 
• Russian plant breeder Marina Danilenko who named a beatiful, delicious tomato after Philly's hometown hero Paul Robeson.

Click on the varieties to read more about their stories and connections to Philly. Thanks also to all of the people who first formed relationships with these food plants around the world, and who shared these varieties with people in the Philadelphia area. 

For varieties grown for our catalog by Philadelphia area farmers (or anywhere else!), see our Meet the Farmers page and click on the growers in your region.