Semailles
Semailles, an organic seed merchant founded nearly 20 years ago in 2000, is a family-run business based in Faulx-les-Tombes in the province of Namur. Given that nearly 90% of Walloon vegetable species have now disappeared, as has the profession of a seed merchant, Semailles was set up with the express intention of restoring (market) gardeners’ access to this vegetable heritage.
Semailles is also striving to gain access to rights-free seed varieties, as any denial of access (for instance the new European regulation currently being introduced in France) preventing market gardeners from producing such old varieties is synonymous with preventing the spread of high-quality nutrition to consumers.
Semailles now markets more than 650 varieties of long-forgotten seeds (whether vegetables, herbs or flowers), of which more than 160 are produced in Belgium on nearly one hectare. To promote these peasant varieties and smallholder autonomy, the varieties on offer are all free of rights and reproducible.
Harvested by hand, all seeds offered by Semailles are cleaned and packaged on its premises. Obviously, all are guaranteed non-GMO and non-hybrid F1. They are grown without chemical fertilisers and without pesticides.