Hudson Valley organic farm produces seeds largely by hand

Greene and his partner Doug Muller get about half of their varieties from like-minded growers, with the other half grown on a three-acre organic farm hemmed in by wooded hills.

In 2004, he was a public librarian who started a novel program in which patrons could "borrow" seeds for planting and then return seeds produced by the plants months later.

Beyond that, the business has about 14,000 retail customers annually and 250 wholesale accounts through the likes of garden centers and museum shops.

The library and like-minded enterprises are a virtual acorn compared to the soaring oak tree of the U.S. seed industry.

Jim Gerritsen, a Maine-based organic seed grower and president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, estimated that there are 500 to 1,000 commercial organic seed growers nationwide.

The number of suppliers has been growing along with demand from organic farmers and home gardeners.

Greene, who sees himself as an educator, talks about a time he was selling seeds at a New York City farmers' market and man insisted there was no such thing as lettuce seeds.