What we do

Ferry Boat Seeds grows organic seed on contract. With in-house expertise in plant breeding and genetics, Ferry Boat Seeds can help with variety testing, development and maintenance. We take pride in stewarding foundation and stock seed and can accommodate crops up to one acre in size. We have experience producing a wide range of both dry-seeded and wet-seeded crops. Whatever the crop, we would love to talk to you about your project – please contact us.

​Our operation

Ferry Boat Seeds is headquartered on Page & Furrow Farm, a seventeen-acre farm on San Juan Island in northwest Washington State. The stable maritime climate and Olympic rain shadow create ideal conditions for a wide range of seed crops. Page & Furrow Farm is dedicated solely to seed production. A barn is under construction in 2021 and will house a cleaning and storage facility. The farm and barn are certified organic by the WSDA.
​Ferry Boat Seeds also works with other growers in San Juan County to produce seed on additional isolations.

our mission and values

Ferry Boat Seeds strives to manifest an ethic of stewardship in all aspects of its work. We believe strongly in the importance of genetic diversity in our agricultural systems – and the importance of clean, disease-free seed, especially in organic farming. Ferry Boat Seeds’ mission is to help increase the range of crop varieties available to farmers as high quality organic seed, supporting the success of those working towards a richer and more resilient food system.
We see the farm as a whole system, integrated with the natural environment around it. We build soil fertility using multi-year cover crops and maintain perennial beetle banks and hedgerows to provide wildlife habitat and prevent erosion. At Page & Furrow Farm, Ferry Boat Seeds has signed a Candidate Conservation Agreement to help save the rare Island Marble Butterfly. 
Ferry Boat Seeds is owned and managed by Louisa Brouwer. Louisa moved to San Juan Island in 2017 after completing her PhD in plant breeding and genetics at Washington State University as a member of the Sustainable Seed Systems Lab. Louisa has also done post-doctoral work in vegetable seed pathology.
Throughout her career in agriculture and research, Louisa has focused on the organic sector. Before moving to the USA, she worked as a researcher on an organic arable agroforestry farm in the east of England (Wakelyns Agroforestry); and as a field assistant for an organic market garden. Her PhD was funded by a fellowship from the Seed Matters Initiative to support organic plant breeding.  
Louisa is British-Swiss and was born and raised in Hong Kong. She and her husband, Brook Brouwer, live near Friday Harbor with their two dogs, Mabel and Oliver.