Fruition’s Transformation FAQs

Friends!

Perhaps you’ve heard our hard and beautiful news:

Fruition will soon stop selling and shipping all our offerings, though we will continue sharing seeds as a gift-inspired practice.

If you’re hungry for more detail, we wrote you a long, soul-searching story about how we’ve come to this transitional moment.

We also made this form so we can more deeply accompany each other in mutually sustaining ways, hop on in!

In the meantime, know we love you and we are deeply committed to sharing seeds with you and our community near and far. Though receiving seeds from us may become less convenient, we’re confident our relationships will yield that much more meaning and connection for us all.

If you don’t already receive our emails, keep in touch with us here.

About the Big Picture

Is Fruition Seeds going out of business?

We are far from going ‘out of business,’ though our work will feel different for us all, especially if you’re accustomed to ordering on our website. If you’re looking for more concrete details of how we’ll give and receive seeds and beyond together in the future, skip straight to Section 5 and 9 of this blog.

Don’t worry: We’ll continue to grow and expansively share many acres of regionally adapted seeds for many years to come!

Above all, know we love you and we are deeply committed to sharing seeds with you, our Beloved Community, near and far. Though receiving seeds from us may become less convenient, we’re confident our relationships will yield that much more meaning and connection for us all.

How will you sustain this work and pay the bills?

This is up to us all, Friends! We are leaning into trusting abundance, as well as deepening broader practices of gifts and reciprocity. For more details, we’d love for you to peek at our Growing Gratitude Beyond Market Economy: How to Thank Fruition and Keep the Gift Moving blog. As we explore what options best illuminate our collective gifts, we’ll be very transparent about our needs and expenditures, and we will gratefully accept gifts of many different kinds. If you are interested in exploring what you uniquely can share with us, hop over here. Above all, know we trust you, our beloved community, to practice cultivating and sharing abundance on all levels, together ~

A few folx have asked if we have wealthy benefactors or other sources of independent wealth. Thank you for your curiosity and the answer is no: Rather than entrusting ourselves to ‘deep pockets,’ we are cutting the bottoms out of our pockets, trusting the generosity of the seeds, soil and our wide community (that is you!) to truly practice receiving and giving very differently than or culture says is possible.

Is Fruition becoming a non-profit?

We find ourselves in a place beyond for profit and non-profit, Friends. Neither fit us well. And, if you’d like to specifically support our non-profit possibilities and have legal experience in setting up a non-profit thanks for letting us know.

About Making Final Purchases

How long will I be able to purchase online?

You can purchase seeds and goods as of now and we encourage you not to dally! Though our website will continue to be a source of extensive growing information for years to come, we’ll be removing ‘carts,’ checkout, and ordering after 11 pm on Tuesday, August 27th.

How can I be sure I’ll receive my garlic this fall?

Garlic orders placed this summer will still be shipped starting mid September 2024, even though online sales will have discontinued at an earlier date.

Why can’t I find the ‘local pick-up’ option during check-out?

For a variety of reasons, we needed to end our local pick-up offering back in May of this year. If it’s alright for us to ship your order, please don’t be shy! We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. It was not a decision we made lightly, and we are hoping that in the long run we are working toward greater accessibility to seeds for our local community. Thank you for understanding and respecting this shift, as our small team is balancing so much in the coming weeks.

About After Sales End

Will Fruition keep selling non-seed items? Fertilizers? Garlic? Ginger?

Fruition will no longer be selling or shipping anything. For non-seed items we have shared in the past, if it’s produced elsewhere, we will no longer be carrying those tools to share (eg fertilizers, grow lights, row cover). If it’s something we can sustainably grow on our farm year after year – like garlic – we may continue growing some to share with our community as a gift, similarly to how we will be sharing seeds. And if it’s something we can’t maintain seed stock of on the farm – like ginger – our capacity to share depends on what we receive from our wider community. So stay tuned!

Will the website still exist after sales end? What about the newsletter?

Yes and yes!

Our website will continue to be a source of freely-available, extensive growing information for years to come, with our “Learn” section and varietal information remaining even after we remove ‘carts,’ checkout, and ordering after August 27th.

Our newsletter will transition to a new platform – Substack – for Petra to continue sharing blog-style insights, inspirations, and invitations. If you’re already signed up for our newsletter, you’ll be transferred automatically, and if not – you can sign up here.

How can I receive seeds in the future from Fruition?

Two ways:

#1: Join us here on the farm!

Across the years, so many of you have come to receive seeds here on the farm and Friends, come on back! 

We’ll share abundant opportunities to gather on the farm and share seeds throughout the year, especially in early spring as we all prepare and plant our gardens. Our Events page is here for you, as are we! Though we don’t anticipate having ‘normal business hours,’ we are growing seeds to be in community, so trust there will be ample opportunities to connect, receive and amplify the abundance: Seeds are gifts meant to be shared.

#2: Let us come to you!

Hello, Rochester! Sending love, Ithaca! See you soon, Buffalo, Burlington, Boston and beyond! 

Would you love to welcome our merry traveling seed sharing practice in the future? Let’s start the conversation here!

Can I receive transplants next spring?

Yes! Fun Facts: Garden Store in spring will be transitioning to Garden Share! The sign is already being painted.

And Friends, rather than our internal team growing, tending and selling these transplants, we’ll be growing and sharing them as a community. For us, by us! Learn more here and stay tuned for events as well as longer-term opportunities to join us and even stay on the farm for immersive, embodied experiences to surround us all with abundance. Please let us know what kinds of experiences and skills you’d love to share with us  here.

What happens with my gift certificate after sales end?

If you are able to anticipate the seeds you’d love to receive in the future, we encourage you to use your gift certificate before our online sales end. Though our website will continue to be a source of extensive growing information for years to come, we’ll be removing ‘carts,’ checkout, and ordering after August 27th.

After we remove online sales from our website, we will move away from market economy exchange, dedicating ourselves to sharing seeds as a gift practice. You (and everyone!) will be welcome to receive the gifts we have to offer at our events on-farm and beyond. As a practice, there is no ‘one way’ to receive such gifts and know we’re here to share conversations in person diving deep into the dynamics of this profound culture shift.