Reviews

I received eleven seeds instead of ten, of which eight sprouted. Pretty good odds since I started them inside in early spring to give them a better chance since I live in Washington and this year our winter was pretty severe. All eight are still growing well in the garden, all of them have a melon growing and doing pretty well. I don't know how big they will get as our August has been cooler than normal but I'm hopeful and very happy with how well they've done for being watermelons growing in Washington state! They're not black skinned yet, I assume they'll turn color as they mature more, but they are a nice deep green.

I started growing these in my house in march. Ever single hirts seed i planted has come up and growing strong. They get a full days sunlight and i am shocked at the strenght of these seeds! I tried just two, as i dont have room for everyone of them, i have two very hardy black watermelon plants! I also have 2 hardy tiger melon plants growing so fast i need to get them into the ground soon. So far, Hirts is looking to be the only place to get my seeds. I bought livingston seeds and out of 10 i only have 2 plants. Thats disapointing. I plan to share a picture when i get it of my Hirts plants, i have 10 Black seaman tomato plants, 10 black krim tom., 15 roma tom., 10 beefsteak tom., 10 black trifle tom., and more. Thank you Hirt's for your fast shipping and reliable seeds, my greenhouse will be filled with great food and my cold storage is waiting for fresh canned products! I cant wait to get my next shipment of seeds!

I dont understand why Hirt's is recieving so many bad reviews. I ordered these seeds and got them within 3 days. The product was undamaged and came with great, detailed instructions. I started them in a seed starter I purchased from the hardware store and have seen FAST, FLAWLESS GERMINATION..!! A lot of the seeds Hirt's carries are exotics and may not be right for your Zone. You cant expect them to grow without doing your homework first. Study up, read the all of the instructions, and explore all options before blaming the seeds or the company.

Reviews

These are a bland fruit. They grew well enough, some seeds were a non-striped variety. They're just a bland, very small melon.

All of my hirts seeds germinated. Im not why everyone is having a problem. I have my tiger melons germinated, transplanted and thriving like crazy. I also have most of the varities of black tomatos seeded, transplanted and thriving. I have had to give away some of my plants because i have too many! I also purchased the black watermelon and plan to give out those as gifts, they have all germinated and grown strong. I give hirts a 5 stars for everything all around great service, great seeds and i plan to buy the rest of my plants, seeds and anything else from hirts. Thanks so much this years garden will be prime!

I absolutely love this melon! When everything was frying in the garden in June '08 due to a heat spike, this plant was growing 2" a day! It's originally from Armenia, whose summers average around 90 degrees a day- perfect in Texas! They look so unique I was sharing seeds with co-workers whose kids get the biggest kick out of the green/dark green striped melons as they turn to orange/light orange stripe! About the size of a softball, they do have a "cantelope type" taste, but better. And they're just right for an individual serving size.

I was able to grow myself some decent tigger vines by 1) not even touching the seeds when the outside temperature drops below 60 at night (we're zone 9 bordering on 8, so we're ready in april) 2) very carefully using park seed starter domes (to further protect these delicate vines from cold, disease, etc) 3) vigorously soaping their transplantation area and then hitting them with fungicide weekly They hve a tendency to pick up any disease in the air, soil, or water, and very sensitive to temperature. Anything below 55 will stunt and then kill them. They're even worse than cantaloupes with respect to their sensitivity. Easy, no. But very satisfying.

My children and I ordered a selection of really fun seeds from you. (Hmong Red Cucumber Black Sea Man Tomato, Rare Tigger Melon, Mexican Miniature Watermelon, Toga Striped Eggplant, Purple Cauliflower, Unwins Exhibiton 7 Pound Onion, Rare Red Bull Brussels Sprout) My germination rate has been about 25% or less. All my other seeds from other companies are doing wonderful on my tables, but my Hirt's seeds are in a category of their own, small, stunted, wimpy, or not at all. I will not be ordering from you again, and I'm sorry I wasted my money.

Reviews

These were the worst seeds I have ever seen. I bought them last spring and they never did anything. They grew about the size of a hair and then just fell over dead. I followed all directions to a T. I even used one of those seed greenhouse things and still nothing. You would think out of 40 seeds I would have gotten at least one plant but nothing. I will never buy seeds like this again. Save your money and get plants at Wal-Mart or Home Depot. Thats what I ended up doing.

Last year was my first year gardening and I decided that I wanted to try growing strawberries. Honestly, I started late in the season, but I wanted to try to grow them anyway. Many of mine sprouted, but they did start to die off. I believe that was my fault because it was too damp with not enough air movement. Anyway, about 4 out of the 10 that sprouted survived, and they all grew beautifully. I can't remember how many seeds I planted, but I believe it was no more than 15. The strawberries were very tiny, but so sweet and tasty! They aren't like the strawberries you buy at the store. I tried to pick off most of the flowers and berries from all but one of my plants to encourage root growth, and am hoping they produce better and larger this year. Also, maybe I should fertilize more to produce larger strawberries. All-in-all I believe the problems I had with these were due to user error and not the fault of the seeds themselves. I admit to being inexperienced in this department, but I give them 5 stars.

I ordered strawberry and asparagus seeds from the same seller and they never germinated. I have some gardening experience and never encoutered any problems before. Also, strawberry seeds were marked as germination tested. Yeah, right! ;) Needless to say, I will never buy from this particular seller again.

When I received my strawberry seeds, I thought, these are so little, will they sprout? They did. I put them in my aerogrow seed insert, and after 10 days, they are up and looking beautiful! I couldn't believe how tiny they start out, but each day they get bigger. It's amazing. I was impressed with how fast I received my seeds.

I was a bit wary about starting these outside as it is already too warm for this (February in the tropics) but they sprouted quite nicely and sooner than I had expected. Customer care from Hirt's is top-notch as well.

Reviews

Costly but well worth it!! my birds are much healthier & we use it for everything, clean & disinfect & use in pets water.

Reviews

I have finally gotten into the holiday spirit and started baking (fruit and nut breads / muffins this year) and decided to give these bread machine mixes a try. Love them! Delicious! And The Prepared Pantry gave me excellent customer service when I called and brought their attention to a couple of missing muffin mixes. The two muffin mixes arrived within three days. I will most certainly be ordering these again.

I send this bread every year to my Dad for Father's Day as he has a bread maker and he LOVES this bread. Gotta do it!

I love my bread machine and I love this sample pack. It is the best of this sort of thing I have ever purchase. There was not a dog in the entire collection. I confess that I did not buy these at this site (they were a gift) but I also confess that I will be buying more. I know for a fact that my friend paid much more for the ones she purchased that the ones offered here. Of course I am lucky, as even if these had turned out terrible, I could still have foisted them off on my dumb sister, who probably would have put ketchup on them and eaten them anyway. As it is, she will not get a bite. Highly recommend this product. No, I was not really kidding about my sister...she and her family of Neanderthals put ketchup on virtually anything and it would not surprise me if they did not slather it on this bread too. Sad, oh so sad.

My stepfather is retired and has been enjoying making bread in his bread machine. I bought these for him for Christmas and both he and mother said they were excellent. I thought all the bread mixes I found were rather expensive, but these were comparatively inexpensive. Plus, he is always hard to shop for, so it was nice to find something I was pretty sure he would enjoy.

I really enjoyed this collection a lot-i have a great bread maker and every single loaf came out perfect.

Reviews

Our 4-yr. old daughter got this kit as a birthday gift and has had a fantastic time doing the experiments with her dad. The pieces are well-labeled and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. They require a little parental guidance, but most can be started in a few minutes -- well within our daughter's attention span. She especially like picking apart the owl pellet and identifying the different mouse and mole bones. Growing brine shrimp also provided several weeks of entertainment as we saw the eggs hatch and grow. The kit also has suggestions for other experiments that use household items -- like dissolving an egg shell in vinegar. I highly recommend this kit to anyone who wants to give a child something more constructive, fun and educational than plopping him or her in front of the TV. And, I'm happy to say that it's actually fun for the adults too!

Reviews

I just purchased this book and in thumbing through it I was stunned by the breadth and depth of the material. A perfect companion for long winter evenings and garden dreaming.

I have been growing herbs and vegetables for years. Each year I learn a little more and my garden gets a little bigger. I grow organic and heirloom plant and this year I decided to learn about seed saving. People have saved and traded their seeds forever but so many of us have gotten used to buying packing, I didn't realize that I don't have to do that for plants I'm already growing. Plus, when you save your best seeds you're actually improving your seeds for your own growing area. This wonderful book will tell you everything you need to know about saving and keeping your own seeds. She has sections for every type of plant and gives you detailed information on how to save them. You'll save money and your seeds will grow better too.

"Seed to Seed" is the best book to pick up and read if you want to learn how to CORRECTLY save seed for future crops. It has become our Seed Saving Group's bible when teaching others and for personal use. GREAT--JUST THE BEST THERE IS! Highly recommend this to anyone who wants to start their own seed bank!

For anyone learning to save their own seeds to become more self sufficient or to keep heirloom variety seeds, this book has everything you need to know!

This book is great for someone who knows nothing or very little of heirloom gardening. It is very precise, and a little repetitive(but in a good, reinforcing way). You can look up any particular plant by alphabetical order or just read it straight through. There are lots of pictures and plenty more descriptions and explanations. I could not reccomend this book strongly enough. I was not completely ignorant of gardening, but have learned so much about record keeping, to seed saving, and even that potato plants produce a small seed pod fruit, filled with seeds that may each grow a different variety of potato. This book is written in an encyclopedic format, so it is direct and straight to the point.

Reviews

I bought two books in Kristen Suzanne's series and while the recipes look good, I have to agree with other reviewers who've pointed out how repetitive the series format is for these books. Almost the entire first half of each book is an introductory guide to the raw vegan lifestyle. Had these books been offered at half the price they are, this might have seemed an appropriate format for a series like this. But each one of these books is nearly as costly as other, more thorough books on preparing raw vegan food. Certainly once you've spent the money to buy a few of the books in this series, you should have something that amounts to more than an intro and the last few pages of each.

I always get such great ideas from Kristen's books. I've used this one alot. I've had my dehydrator for awhile and don't use it that often, but since getting this book, I've been making more dehydrated goodies. I like the extra tips included in the book about dehydrating different types of foods and how to store them. Kristen is just so creative with her recipes and I've loved everything I've tried from this book. Another thing I like about Kristen's books is they are straightfoward and leave out all the fluff and unnecessary pictures. I know she did this to keep the books affordable and accessible, which I think is very cool. Not every raw fooder has $35 to spend on a cookbook, afterall. All in all, her books are a great value and loaded with original ideas and valuable information - I'd recommend them to anyone!

First, I have most of Kristen's books. She provides good basic info in each of her books, valuable if you're new to RAW Uncooking. On the downside, the books don't have that many recipes. Instead of offering one complete book with all her recipes, they are in a small book series. It is pricey to get all of them. However, there are a few recipes in each of them, that I will make often. Kristen's recipes are creative and some of them different from other books. That is why I purchased most of her books. Also, there are no pictures inside any of the books. She gives her site that a person must go to, to see pictures of her food. For the price of the series, that isn't great. Overall, the series format seems a mistake. The recipes are good.

This book was perfect because it gave me lots of tips and ideas for using my new dehydrator. When I first saw this recipe book I knew the Raw Pancakes pictured on the cover would be the first recipe I tried. They were hands down the best pancakes I have ever eaten! The fruit leather turned out amazing, and because it was so easy, is something I plan on making often. The best part about this book was how easy the recipes were to follow, and all of the ingredients that I needed were easily found at my local health food store!

Owning a dehydrator and knowing how to incorporate it into your 'raw' lifestyle are 2 different things. All Kristen's ebooks contain the basics that you need to know if you are just starting out, and this book in no exception. I love experimenting even more with the helpful hints and tips as well as the mouthwatering recipes Kristen has given, which give you the confidence to dehydrate to your hearts content. Still working through the recipes, as I find I like to repeat them as the ones I have tried are just way too delicious to pass up for the next!

Reviews

Basic sprouting here, its many benefits are told as they should be!! Buy this ,and get some seed, you are ready to go!! What ever kind of seed that You would want to possibly sprout is in here.The exact instructions on how to grow them too. Have fun ,and get healthier too, eat your sprouts, they are good for you! What a wonderful idea.A food that you can grow anywhere, does not even need light, dirt, only add some water, a little time, and You have fresh, organic food right where ever You are.

If you want to know about growing sprouts, buy this book. Steve "Sproutman" Meyerowitz really knows his sprouts.

Steve Meyerowitz, a.k.a. Sproutman has been sprouting since the 1970s, and owns a company selling sprouting equipment and seeds. I've read several of his books and chatted with him in person about sprouting. Sproutman knows his stuff, and IMO, anything he writes about sprouting is worth reading. I have grown magnificent sunflower sprouts by using a Sproutman Sprouthouse (a bamboo basket in a plastic house) and following Sproutman's instructions. If you have good sprouting seeds and follow the instructions in this book, I suspect you too will grow awesome sprouts. Unfortunately, the book is not that well organized and the instructions for sprouting, a fairly simple process, are unnecessarily confusing. There are many methods of growing sprouts, such as baskets, sprouting bags, glass jars, open-ended glass tubes with screens on both ends, trays, etc. This book gives instructions for only 3 methods: baskets, bags, and trays. Sproutman doesn't explain that upfront, however. If you want to use one of those 3 methods, the instructions are knowledgeable and detailed. BUT: I suggest that when you choose one of these methods, you read through the entire chapter first, because if you try to follow along step-by-step, it's easy to mess up. For example, in the chapter titled, "The Technique", Sproutman launches into instructions for using a sprouting basket, without first explaining that this technique just ONE of many sprouting methods. For this technique he says to soak 5 rounded tablespoons of seeds. He doesn't explain until 7 pages later that you use 5 tablespoons of seed for an 8 inch basket, 6 to 7 tablespoons of seed for a 9 inch basket, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of seed for a 6 inch basket. A beginning basket sprouter who tries to follow his instructions without reading the entire chapter first, could easily make the mistake of using the wrong amount of seeds for the basket size. In the next chapter, Sproutman gives instructions for how to use a sprout bag, a different technique. The first thing I would want to know about this is, what are the best seeds for growing in a sprout bag? That information is there, along with days 'til maturity-in the middle of the chapter. Another thing that's important to a good sprout book is information about seeds. What are the varities, the days until harvest, the uses and tastes, etc? There's chart near the end of the book which gives this information, but the seed varities are not in alphabetical order. I can't figure out any logic to the way the chart is sorted, so if you want to look up a seed variety, you have to read down the entire list. Also, there are some types of fairly popular sprouting seeds missing from the chart, for example, broccoli sprouts. Although I think most of Sproutman's information is excellent, albeit a bit disorganized, one thing I take issue with are his frequent sermons about why sprouting jars should not be used. I first used a sprouting jar in 1984, and my jar sprouts have always turned out just fine, without all those immature yellow sprouts Sproutman warns of. If you are careful not to use too many seeds and to shake your sprouts back and forth so they drain well and lay the jar on its side, your jar-sprouted sprouts will turn out just fine. Also Sproutman says a jar requires cheesecloth, screens and rubberbands. Back in 1984, a decade prior to the book's publication, I used a lid which was a plastic screen and have never had to hassle with cheesecloth, screens and rubberbands. In addition, he says automatic sprouters sell in the range of $450 to $1000. It's somewhat possible that information was accurate in the 1990s, but in the 2000s, one can find new automatic sprouters for a lot less than $450. Some of the book's strengths include the chapter discussing which type of water to use on sprouts, the nutritional information scattered throughout the books, and the presence of an index. I personally think the book's dumb puns are a strength, but I'm sure the majority of readers will not. :-) Despite my qualms with this book, Sproutman is outstanding in his field, and I still recommend it to anyone who wants to sprout via vertical sprouter (basket), bag, or tray, or learn about sprouting in general. If you're using either a vertical sprouter or a bag, I suggest first reading the succinct review of instructions on page 173 for the vertical sprouter and p. 175 for the sproutbag.

This is a great book for a person who is interested in sprouting; it is very detailed and is truly full of very interesting and useful information. The book also helps to nullify a lot of the myth about toxins and hidden dangers in sprouts. The real dangers, in actuality, exist in cooked, processed, adulterated, toyed-with, sprayed, chemicalized, distorted foods (which our grocery shelves are full of). I am now 50 years old. Back in my youthful college days, I used to sprout a great deal, eating living foods exclusively. Though I stayed being a vegetarian, I got back into the cooked food craze... eating food like it was a drug for "taste" only. I work with the multiply handicapped and even though I am a teacher I have to do a lot of lifting (of adults who are not at all feather-weight). My arthritis (which runs in the family) was killing me, despite taking all kinds of natural and man made supplements. Getting back to live food was the answer I needed. Steve's book was inspirational and very helpful. I should have never deviated from what was truly the most nutritious way to eat! There are many ways of sprouting. I happen to like the sproutpeople.com sprouters best of all. Steve's book is a priceless tool for anyone interested in sprouting... it has all kinds of neat tips and suggestions. Also, one suggests doing a web search on Dr. Budwig's Diet... as most people are seriously deficient in essential fatty acids of the proper type. I take my oil with a little bit of live yogurt. Anyway... I would not want Steve's book, including his Kitchen Garden book... missing from my shelves! As Hippocrates said: "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food."

Yes, as one person noted, the humor is sort of out of place. Bad puns throughout. I'm still giving it a 5 because it's the most helpful sprout book I've seen. Friends of mine recommended it to me - they have an attractive set-up of baskets of sprouts growing in little seed-germinator covered plastic trays. They are thrilled with the book, and we are excited about starting to sprout. We did sprouts years ago in jars, but this system is better.Though the book could be more condensed, it's still an easy read in a few hours. And where else is this vital information available in such thorough detail? If you are considering sprouting, you will find the information valuable.