Seed shopping in Denver, the old-fashioned way - Brief Article

* At Rocky Mountain Seed Company in Denver's Lower Downtown, you can shop for seeds the way your grandparents might have. Kenneth A. Vetting is the third-generation owner of the family business founded by his grandfather F.C. Vetting. Established in 1920, the firm is quartered in a building that dates from the early 1900s. In the retail shop, antique wood cabinets lining the walls hold a plethora of seeds. Employees still use metal scoops to dip into bins of bulk seed. Seeds are then weighed on a 1930s scale. You can buy seeds by the pound, ounce, or packet.

Through its retail shop and mail-order catalog, the firm carries seeds of such heirloom vegetables as 'Early Golden Bantam' sweet corn (1902), as well as modern varieties of green beans, hybrid sweet corn, squash (nearly 60 varieties), peppers (50 varieties), and tomatoes (40 varieties). They also sell seeds of culinary herbs, wildflowers, and turf grasses. In fall, the shop stocks a large selection of spring-blooming bulbs.

Rocky Mountain Seed Company, at 1325 15th Street, is open from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday until 11:30 A.M. Saturday The catalog costs $2.

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