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Re: [GWL]: garden tool retailers

Just a side note about Lehmans Country Store in Kidron, Ohio.  They do sell
quality hand tools for the Amish and others.  Their line of how-to books,
seeds, tools, machinery, canning supplies, and numerous other items is so
extensive that the store itself has become quite a tourist attraction in
that little Amish town.  On Thursdays when the Amish travel to town in their
horses and buggies to buy and sell livestock and hay, etc., the tourists
often outnumber them.  (Sadly.)  Lehmans Store is also one of the "must-see"
sights.  Penne Curmode
----- Original Message -----
From: Carol Deppe <caroldeppe@yahoo.com>
To: <Gardenwriters@topica.com>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 6:34 PM
Subject: RE: [GWL]: garden tool retailers


> In the U.S., most gardeners buy most of their tools from chain-store
> garden centers or the garden-center parts of major general retail chain
> stores.  This is the way to get the cheapest tools of the most common
> types.  Such tools are usually cheap in all respects.  They are usually
> made out of inadequate amounts of poor-quality materials, and often are
> poorly designed as well.  There is no point to sharpening an $8 shovel
> or spade from the discount house, because the metal is shaped so poorly
> it will take more than $8 worth of time to sharpen and is so inferior it
> won't hold an edge anyway.
>
> For better quality tools of standard types, I go to a locally-owned
> hardware store that has a bench grinder and sharpens all the tools for
> free for the asking before you take them home.  If you can find a
> hardware store or garden center that sharpens the tools, they are likely
> to be selling tools worth sharpening.  Such tools will usually cost 2 to
> 4 times as much as the equivalent junk versions in the chains.  Farm
> supply stores and "Feed and Seed" stores usually will carry the better
> brands of tools, also.  Farmers tend not to buy junk that doesn't work
> or doesn't last.  So farm supply stores are a good source of quality
> versions of the more common garden tools.
>
> For the more specialized tools, most American gardeners will need to buy
> mail order.  I believe the best single mail order retail supplier of
> garden tools in the U.S. is Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, in California.
> Peaceful Valley was founded to provide tools and supplies for
> small-scale organic gardeners and farmers.
>
> Many seed companies carry useful and interesting collections of quality
> specialty tools of the kind that you can buy only mail order.  I
> consider four, in addition to Peaceful Valley, especially noteworthy.  I
> list these 5 companies and their websites below.  You can find out all
> you need from their websites.  I give an address for Fedco, which is a
> cooperative that does not have a website.  Since tools are often
> expensive to ship, when you have a choice of mail order sources, the one
> closest to home is often least expensive.
>
> I've ordered tools from all these companies, and have always been fully
> pleased with what I got.  Here, in alphabetical order, are my
> recommended five:
>
> Fedco (Maine) PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903-0520
> Johnny's Selected Seeds (Maine) wwwjohnnyseeds.com
> Nichols Garden Nursery (Oregon) www.nicholsgardennursery.com
> Peaceful Valley Farm Supply (California) www.groworganic.com
> Territorial Seed Company (Oregon) www.territorialseed.com
>
> In addition, there are two very interesting mail-order stores that have
> extensive collections of gardening, farming, and traditional "homestead"
> tools.  These two companies supply tools to  Amish farmers, for example,
> whose religion doesn't allow most kinds of electric tools.  Amish people
> buy and use high quality sophisticated hand tools of many kinds.  These
> companies have some tools I've never found elsewhere -- corn husker's
> gloves, for example, and hand-cranked corn shellers.  You can even get
> grain mills appropriate for a home or big enough for an entire
> community, all the gear for your draft horses, a buggy, or a
> wood-burning cookstove. And, of course, all kinds of traditional hand
> tools for everything from gardening to milking your own cows, churning
> your own butter, and making your own cheese.  Here are these two
> companies:
>
> Cumberland General Store (Tennessee)  www.cumberlandgeneral.com
> Lehman's (Ohio) www.lehmans.com
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Carol Deppe
> Author of BREED YOUR OWN VEGETABLE VARIETIES:  THE GARDENER'S AND
> FARMER'S GUIDE TO PLANT BREEDING AND SEED SAVING (Chelsea Green, Dec.
> 2000)  (See table of contents, excerpts, & reviews at
> www.chelseagreen.com.)
>
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