A Seed Without a Price and
the Seed Farmers Resilience Fund
“The idea that a catalog should do nothing but sell is a fit adjunct to the doctrine that the sole obligation of business is to look to its own bottom line, that maximizing private profit always translates to public gain and therefore that pure capitalism is the best way to solve all social problems.”
– CR Lawn, from the 2005 Fedco Seeds Catalog
How do we put a monetary value on seed, a foundation of life?
Each year in our catalog, we pose this question and offer one seed variety that has no determined price. We invite you to read a bit about the seed’s story below, consider the people who have tended and shared the variety, and decide what you’d like to pay. After we cover our costs for this seed, any profits go into our Seed Farmers Resilience Fund.
This year’s Seed Without a Price is Jaluv An Attitude hot pepper, developed by Earth-passionate plant breeder and Fedco friend Relentless, who passed away this year. We’ve chosen to highlight this variety as a way to honor Relentless’s legacy and to encourage folks to grow and save seed from his excellent pepper. Jaluv An Attitude is open-pollinated, bred in Maine and adapted to our northern climate—it’s worth growing for the name alone! Please read more about Relentless and Jaluv An Attitude pepper below.
By choosing to pay more for this seed than you would for a typical packet of pepper seed (which averages about $3.50), you’ll be supporting our Seed Farmers Resilience Fund. We created this fund in 2022 to help our seed farmers who are facing crop and livelihood losses due to climate disruption. The growers who produce the seed we sell are vitally important to Fedco and to the thousands of gardeners and farmers who plant these seeds each year to feed their families and communities.
In 2024 we had almost $10,000 in the fund, which we distributed to eight of our seed farmers to soften the blow of a difficult season. The funding cycle was very competitive, with requests totaling more than $72,000 that year.
We are now building the fund back up and hope to have enough to distribute in 2026. Our next round of funding will prioritize independent seed breeders. As you determine what to pay for your packet of Jaluv An Attitude, think of the seed farmers and independent breeders whose work and dedication we depend upon.
You can also donate directly to the Seed Farmers Resilience Fund when you place your order.
Remembering Relentless
I had heard about a local seed breeder and somewhat legendary Relentless years before I met him. Given his name, I’d always pictured an intimating somewhat beefcake of a man and was shocked when I encountered a quiet, sweet person, focused on diligently weeding dianthus. “You HAVE to smell this” is the first thing he said to me, pointing a Sweet William at my nose.
Robert Schick III, better known in the Maine seed community as Relentless, was a deep lover of many things in life, notably music and plants. His garden was a haven of lovely plants, many of them unique varieties and crosses. He dedicated much of his time to relentlessly selecting and breeding varieties for superb flavor and beauty, like the excellent Jaluv An Attitude hot pepper. Passionate about open- sourced seed, he also worked on dehybridizing multiple varieties, including Be My Baby cherry tomato, which he bred out of Monsanto’s Sweet Baby Girl.
Although he didn’t live to see it, Relentless was on a quest to breed a sky blue cleome. Can you imagine? How stunning that would be! - Emily Pence Psenka
Jaluv An Attitude Pepper: A Seed Without a Price
Each year we offer one variety with no determined price. As always, once we’ve covered our costs, all profit from Jaluv An Attitude seed will go into our Seed Farmers Resilience Fund.
Through more than a decade of careful observation and selection, seed breeder Relentless grew out crosses year after year with the goal of a thick- skinned pepper with lots of fruity and jalapeño flavor that dried well and produced reliably in the North.
Toward the end of his life, Relentless noticed Jaluv An Attitude had become more spicy than he desired. To honor his legacy and keep the variety special and delicious, Donna Dyrek—long-time trial grower and friend of Fedco—has started selecting this pepper back to how Relentless wanted it. Many independent breeders dedicate their time and efforts to breeding excellent open-pollinated varieties, not for money or recognition, but for the love of plants and dedication to growers.
Past Pay-What-You-Wish Seeds:
2025 - Packer’s Lima Bean: A variety adapted to northern climates. Read more about Packer’s Lima.
2024 - Maine Sunset Dry Bean: A variety passed from farmer to mailman in Knox Ridge, Maine in the 1930s. Read more about Maine Sunset.
2023 - Abenaki Calais Flint Corn: For the inaugural year of our seed-without-a-price program we choose a corn variety that was adapted to the region by Indigenous seed keepers, and then nearly lost. Read more about Abenaki Calais Flint.