News and Updates
Updated February 2, 2012
ORDERING A FREE 2012 PRINTED CATALOG (sent by bulk rate mail only)
You may request a printed catalog for 2012 by contacting us by regular mail, e-mail, or by telephone. Please give us your complete name and mailing address (including Zip Code).
To e-mail your catalog request, write to us at Sand Hill Preservation Center. PLEASE BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS IN THE BODY OF THE E-MAIL. Catalogs sent in response to e-mail requests are sent out by bulk rate mail the first week of the month for the next Bulk Mailing.
UPDATES OF 2012 ONLINE CATALOG
We have finished sending out the initial Bulk Rate mailing of printed catalogs. The next Bulk Rate mailing should go out in early February. We have the poultry, sweet potato, and book portions of the online catalog updated for 2012 (except for the order form). We are working on the seed portion of our online catalog. We have updated the tomatoes, corn, books, beans, flower, okra, cotton, and squash. We had hoped to have all the online catalog updated by the end of January, but it is now February 2 and we are not done yet. We will continue to update the seed catalog as quickly as we can. Please be patient. If you would like to order right away, you may do so by using the 2011 order forms and availabilities. We will try to fill your orders if items are available, but please understand that there are significant changes coming in the seed catalog.
NOTICE!!!!!!!!
Glenn has just been checking our checking account register. He found that there are MANY refund checks that have been sent out in the past few months that have not been cashed. If you have recieved a refund check for an order, we would appreciate it if you would cash it. There is a notice on the check saying that the check is void if not cashed within 90 days. If you were expecting a refund on an order and have not recieved it, PLEASE LET US KNOW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. We are fearful that we may have had an incorrect address or that the check may have been lost in the mail and our customers might think we have kept their money.
2012 SEED ORDERS
You may place your seed order for 2012 at any time. We have updated the Tomato and Corn pages of the online catalog for 2012 (as well as the Book pages). You may use the 2011 order form until we get the form updated for 2012. We hope to be able to get the remainder of the online seed catalog updated within the next week or so.
POULTRY ORDERS FOR 2012
You may place an order for 2012 at any time now. The 2012 poultry catalog online (except for the order form) has been updated. You may still use the 2011 poultry order form until we get that updated for 2012. Please include your payment in the form of a check or money order and send it to us by regular mail (USPS).
PLEASE NOTE: We will still not be shipping any poultry orders to U.S. border towns for transport into Canada. We have had too many problems in the past with Canadian orders and just cannot handle the paperwork and extra time that it takes to fill these orders any more.
SWEET POTATO SLIP AVAILABILITY AND SHIPPING
SWEET POTATO SLIPS FOR 2012
After three cold, cloudy Springs in a row, we are looking into putting part of our slip production into a hoop house/greenhouse next year to get our slips mailed out in an earlier, more timely fashion. This will, hopefully, alleviate problems we have been experiencing in being unable to send out the slips in the manner in which we need to send them out. You may place an order for sweet potatoes for 2012 at any time. The sweet potato online catalog has been updated and is current. You may use the 2011 order form (be sure to revise the shipping amounts) until we get it updated for 2012.
Quantity limit on orders: The maximum number of slips you may order of a variety is only the maximum number of slips listed for each variety. Example: Spanish White is sold as 6 slips for $6.00 or 12 slips for $10.00. You may only order either 6 slips of 12 slips. You may NOT order two (2) sets of 12 slips. A total of 12 slips is all that you may order of this variety.
Many of you who have ordered sweet potatoes from mainline nursery catalogs in the past cannot understand why, when you have ordered from a company in the northern United States, you are able to get your sweet potato slips more quickly than when you order from us. The reason for this is that with other companies, they are "drop shipped" from growers in the South. This practice is also the reason that some companies are not able to send sweet potato slips to California as we are able to do. Ours is an entirely different operation where the slips are started here on our farm in Iowa from roots that are grown the previous year here on our farm in Iowa. We cannot start the beds any earlier than the first part of May. It is simply too cold.
We start the slips by placing the roots in a slightly dug out area. then cover with peat moss and wet it down. Number nine wire hoops are placed over the area and the whole area is covered in clear plastic (forming a grow tunnel). We lay a soaker hose down the 2-3 foot wide bed and bury the edges of the 50-75 foot long tunnels on both sides with dirt. In the garden it looks like long, clear worms. The beds are not disturbed for the first 2 weeks. Then the plastic is lifted and any weeds removed and a check is made for slip development. Generally 3 weeks after bedding down the first slips are ready to be shipped out. (If we have not had any heat or sunshine during that time, it takes longer for the potatoes to start sprouting.) When those slips are pulled, then more develop and are ready to go out about every 5 days. PLEASE NOTE: The slips for each individual order are all pulled within a few minutes of each other and the order is mailed out that same day. There has been an indication on a gardening forum recently that we pull part of an order on one day and hold those slips over until the remainder of the order is ready to pull a few days later. THIS IS TOTALLY UNTRUE. Technically (and then again it depends upon the variety) every 5 days we have a fresh supply from any given potato. This allows us to make slip pickings about 5-6 times during our normal shipping season of May 25 to June 25.
Seed Orders to Canada and Other Foreign Countries
We have always requested that orders from Canada and other foreign countries be sent to us with payment in U.S. DOLLARS ONLY. We have continued to receive foreign orders in Canadian funds and in Euros. It has been very difficult for us to get these payments converted to U.S. dollars, sometimes receiving a 10% to 15% discount for the conversion. THIS MEANS THAT WE HAVE BEEN LOSING MONEY ON FOREIGN SEED ORDERS. We have been notified by our bank that as of March 1, 2009, the fees for converting foreign funds to U.S. dollars are increasing greatly (sometimes up to $100.00 US per request).
Therefore, WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT ANY FOREIGN ORDER FOR SEEDS WHICH IS ACCOMPANIED BY A PAYMENT IN FOREIGN FUNDS. If you send us a foreign order with payment in anything other than US dollars, your order will be returned to you immediately. We are very sorry for this situation and for any inconvenience that it may cause. We were informed by our bank that "US Dollars" must be pre-printed on the check or money order and that it may not be written in by hand. It is our understanding that most any foreign bank (or possibly your local postal facility) is capable of selling you an "International Money Order" made out in U.S. Dollars. We just can not continue to incur this loss any more.
ORGANIC CERTIFICATION UPDATE:
We are now listing everything that we grow here at our farm as Certified Organic. We have many varieties in this year's catalog which are being offered as CERTIFIED ORGANIC. If the item is being offered as CERTIFIED ORGANIC, it will have an OG after the price of the seeds. If it does not have an OG listed after the price of the seed, it is not CERTIFIED ORGANIC.