Laurel Nagengast's Contact Details

Laurel Nagengast's Company Details

Seeds from Italy

Lawrence, KS, US • 5 - 9 Employees
Retail

Seeds from Italy is a seed catalog company offering vegetable seeds, herb seeds, and flower seeds imported from Italy from the seed company Franchi Sementi.Seeds from Italy was started in 2001 by Bill McKay, a dedicated gardener and cook, because he couldn't find the Italian vegetable varieties he wanted to grow.By luck, he happened upon Franchi Sementi, Italy's oldest family-owned seed company, which offers an extensive selection of traditional Italian varieties. Franchi didn't have an agent in the U.S., so Bill started importing the seeds and reselling them. For the next decade, Seeds from Italy grew rapidly under Bill's enthusiastic ownership. You can watch Bill on the Martha Stewart Show talking about his favorite Italian vegetables.In 2011, Bill decided he was ready to retire. He sold the business to Dan Nagengast, a long-time market gardener in Lawrence, Kansas. In addition to growing vegetables and flowers for local markets, Dan was director of the Kansas Rural Center, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable agriculture and family farms. Dan is married to Lynn Byczynski, the founder and publisher of Growing for Market, a national periodical for market farmers, and the author of several farming and gardening books, including The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers.