SWEETHEARTS FINNISH RYE SEED - Heirloom rye with sweet, nutty flavor. Ideal for baking or sprouting. A versatile addition to grain gardens and excellent great cool-season cover crop, scavenges excess nitrogen and adds organic matter to the soil and suppresses weeds. EASY TO GROW, HARVEST, AND ENJOY - Sow seeds in early spring or late summer; prefers fertile, well-drained soil. Harvest when grains are plump and dry. 120-180 days to maturity. Packet contains a minimum of approximately 200 seeds. SEEDS YOU CAN TRUST - Our seeds are organic, non-GMO, heirloom, untreated, and open-pollinated. This makes sourcing seed from our company an easy and ethical choice. Seeds are certified organic by Oregon Tilth: OT-017423. KNOW THE SOURCE, GROWN IN THE USA - Our company is located in Ojai, California. We take great pride in our plants and are dedicated to bringing you the best quality seeds for your garden. GREAT CARE, GREAT RESULTS - Our team is dedicated to bringing you only the best selection! We have spent years developing our expertise as seed specialists. Our seeds are tried and true, resulting in better germination rates and hardy harvests! This is an heirloom variety of rye that originally hails from Kainuu, Ristijärvi in Northeastern Finland. It has been cultivated for at least 100 years. We obtained it from Maatiainen, the Finnish Landrace Association, located in Helsinki. Rye is easier to grow than many other grains because it tolerates poorer soils and harsher cold conditions. It also grows taller and matures faster than wheat. While it's an ideal grain crop for small scale or subsistence farming contexts, it also works as an excellent great cool-season cover crop, functioning to scavenge excess nitrogen and add organic matter to the soil and suppress weeds. Finnish rye varieties have been grown in North America since the mid-1600s. This variety grows especially tall and produces great deal of straw, making it perfect for a cover crop use. Unlike modern cultivars of rye, the seed is easily released from the stalk, making non-mechanized/hand threshing for grain far easier. Seeds are certified organic.