Edamame seeds for the kitchen garden that intends to actually produce edamame this year. Edamame exists in a narrow window between not-quite-ready and past-its-best, which is part of its charm and most of its calendar.

Edamame is the fresh soybean that must be harvested at exactly the right moment and eaten as quickly as possible. Each packet is hermetically vacuum-sealed -- removing the oxygen that causes standard paper seed packets to lose germination viability within approximately one year. State law requires a 3-year viability label on sealed packaging. NASA research on hermetic seed storage indicates viability of up to 10 years under proper conditions. Every packet is non-GMO and germination-tested at independent third-party labs before it earns its Japanese woodblock print artwork.

How to Grow Edamame from Seed

Sowing and Germination

Direct sow after last frost, 3-4cm deep, 15cm apart. Warm soil essential.

Care and Harvest

Harvest while pods are plump and bright green. Shell and boil immediately for best flavour. 75-85 days.

Why Vacuum-Sealed Seeds Last Longer

Standard paper seed packets are permeable to oxygen and moisture -- the two primary causes of seed degradation. Most paper-packaged seeds begin losing germination viability after approximately one year, contributing to significant garden-industry waste: packets purchased, not planted, expired, discarded. Shido Seeds are hermetically vacuum-sealed. The packet does not expire quietly in a drawer. It waits.

About the Packaging

Every Shido seed packet is illustrated in the style of Japanese 1910s woodblock printing -- designed and drawn in-house by Chive, the Toronto ceramics studio that has been exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show in London every year and does not, as a matter of principle, sell to big-box retailers. Customers collect the packets as a series. This was not the original plan.