b"people getting into it as well, a trendsphere, just to hedge your bets, he that seemed to pick up during thesays. I mean, its agriculture. Great pandemic. plans, but floods, pestilencestuff As time wears on, the homehappens. Most larger seed compa-garden seed sector continues tonies arent placing all of their bets in adjust to the pandemic and itstheir own fields.aftermath. Blazek points out that theWere still dealing with thecrazy surge in demand for home wipeout, the clearing of the barngarden seeds during the pandemic of all those varieties, and restock- means subsequent years have been ing, Baumann says. The demandvery difficult for the sector to plan has definitely shifted within thoseand project, something Brazaitis varieties and the customer base hasknows well.shifted up a little, so were guessing.It's just been very interesting But it does feel like were a little bitand very hard to predict which more in control on the productionway the pendulum will swing for side finally this year. our industry, he says. I've gone After seeing an almost 200%through with very smart IT people growth rate in 2020, Baker Creektrying to analyze the data but it's built a new warehouse and acquiredsomething that hasn't happened additional packaging machinesHohn Brazaitis, general manager of Baker Creek Heirloomsince we had computers good as they scaled up for increasedSeeds, hoists a Boston Marrow squash onto his shoulder.enough to really analyze the data. demand that carried through 2021PHOTO: BAKER CREEK HEIRLOOM SEED CO./RARESEEDS.COM. Trying to predict what the trend will and 2022. be is very difficult.We upped our infrastructure.Baumann finds himself in the Were ready to process a lot ofsame boat.orders and we have the seed supplyWere looking at our own data, to do it. On the other hand, willour sales history, and guessing. And demand continue? Brazaitiss says,sometimes you guess well and a noting that industry-wide, 2023lot of times you don't but you hope saw demand dip for the first timethat you overall do an okay job, since the pandemic began. Thehe says. There are great tools out interesting thing is that most of ourthere nowadays. Data science is fellow seed companies now havecoming more and more into play. way better infrastructure in placeWe have a full-time data science for order fulfillment and commercialguy helping us crunch data and producers have a better handle ontrying out some of the tools out large-scale production than they didthere. Its just a lot of hard thinking, before. trial and error. Thats really the only For his part, Baumann has coop- way to do it.erative arrangements with seedBaumann says he is philosophical companies in other regions of theabout it.United States and overseas to helpThe one main question is, where maintain stable seed supply for hisis it all going? And none of us know, company and theirs. he says. I'm always hopeful but it Even if it's something that youfeels like were back to a new normal can grow entirely on your own, inand we hope to just keep plugging your own ecosystem, a lot of com- Robb Baumann, a partner in True Leaf Market andour way back to a more reasonable panies still will have people grow invice-president of the Home Garden SeedAssociation andlifestyle and pace until the next crazy another climate, in another hemi- his wife Zsana Baumann. PHOTO SUBMITTED. event brings more change.SWFEBRUARY 2024SEEDWORLD.COM /43"