Sigma, according to the most recent Garden Seed Inventory, you should be able to obtain this variety from the following 2 sources within the USA. I would try the first one before the second. Neither are online/phone and will require snail mail contact.

Peace Seeds (I believe this is Alan Kapuler's org)
2385 SE Thompson Street
Corvallis, OR 97333
$1 for annual seed list

Horus Botanicals (lots of OP vegies and 'botanicals' in the broadest sense :>)
341 Mulberry,
Salem, AZ 72576
$3 for catalogue

Help this helps.

Jennifer

For everyones information: Here is the streight scoop on Alan Kupular, from the Fedco Seeds website:

Alan Kapuler
As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Kapuler was twinly obsessed with orchids and baseball, equally able to reel off lifetime home run statistics or botanical names of obscure flowers. At age 15 he won the Westinghouse National Science Talent Search for his experiments testing the effects of a mutagenic chemical on his beloved orchids. He entered Yale at 16, the youngest student in his class of 1,000 and graduated first in his class. His undergraduate honors thesis earned him the highest grade Yale had ever bestowed and was eventually published in the Journal of Molecular Biology. After earning his doctorate in molecular biology at prestigious Rockefeller University he worked with world expert on nucleic acids A.M. Michelson and apprenticed at the lab of future Nobel Prize winner Howard Temin.

Those were heady days of discoveries in his field. He looks back with awe at that time "when the structure of the genetic code was being discovered...it was the greatest self-revelation about our common unity with all organisms. They were the mystery of the ages, and we were uncovering those secrets." Yet Kapuler, dismayed by colleagues who were producing lethal viruses for the U.S. government, suddenly left his fast-track career at the University of Connecticut and headed for the west coast with his dog, green van and $1,000. "I had to find my beloved wife and my kids and a life that had a heart." He found Linda Sylvester in Oregon. Together they lived in poverty and he started saving seeds because he was too poor to buy them, eventually collecting more than 6,000 varieties and founding Peace Seeds which later merged with Seeds of Change. Currently he serves as Director of Research for Seeds of Change. His recent breeding work focuses on developing increased amino acid concentration as a way of increasing the nutritional value of food plants.

Kapuler once characterized his Peace Seeds catalog as a "Manual for conserving the plant gene-pool of planet Earth." Using computer-generated bubble diagrams he calls "kingrams," he laid out his catalogs in a biological format that shows how groupings of plants are connected to each other. Inspired by the work of Danish biologist Rolf Dahlgren, these maps have given Kapuler a sense of direction in his preservation work, pinpointing whats really rare and needs growing.

To Kapuler, "Heritage seeds are essential to our heart chakra." They are important not just because they produce a high quality crop or grow fast, but because they carry the message of the people. They are important for the same reason life is important. "We are involved in a process of passing on a heritage of liveness..."

The problem is not hybrids but "ownership of life." Hybridizing, an "essential form of innovation," does not go far enough. The next step is to make open-pollinated lines that stabilize the varieties. Rather than owning them, we must return them to the public domain, giving amateurs access to the gene pool and opportunities to develop new plants.

Much of KapulerÂs work has centered on de-hybridizing hybrids, taking that next step to create an equivalent open-pollinated variety. Among his successes are True Platinum, an open-pollinated version of Platinum Lady sweet corn, Summer Sun, an open-pollinated form of hybrid patty pan Sunburst and Swan Lake, a development from the hybrid melon Swan.

Through the Seeds of Change catalog, he has popularized a number of heirloom varieties including Elephant Head Amaranth and Hutterite Soup Bean (which heÂd been collecting for 16 years and never tasted until a chance blizzard marooned him and put him in the mood for a hearty bean soup).

Like many who came of age in the turbulent sixties, Kapuler could justifiably echo the Grateful DeadÂs anthem, "What a long, strange trip itÂs been." Kapuler seems to have weathered it as well as any of us.

Fedco Seeds, PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903
(207) 873-7333
So how you know!

Len

For everyones information: Here is the streight scoop on Alan Kupular, from the Fedco Seeds website:

Alan Kapuler
As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Kapuler was twinly obsessed with orchids and baseball, equally able to reel off lifetime home run statistics or botanical names of obscure flowers. At age 15 he won the Westinghouse National Science Talent Search for his experiments testing the effects of a mutagenic chemical on his beloved orchids. He entered Yale at 16, the youngest student in his class of 1,000 and graduated first in his class. His undergraduate honors thesis earned him the highest grade Yale had ever bestowed and was eventually published in the Journal of Molecular Biology. After earning his doctorate in molecular biology at prestigious Rockefeller University he worked with world expert on nucleic acids A.M. Michelson and apprenticed at the lab of future Nobel Prize winner Howard Temin.

Those were heady days of discoveries in his field. He looks back with awe at that time "when the structure of the genetic code was being discovered...it was the greatest self-revelation about our common unity with all organisms. They were the mystery of the ages, and we were uncovering those secrets." Yet Kapuler, dismayed by colleagues who were producing lethal viruses for the U.S. government, suddenly left his fast-track career at the University of Connecticut and headed for the west coast with his dog, green van and $1,000. "I had to find my beloved wife and my kids and a life that had a heart." He found Linda Sylvester in Oregon. Together they lived in poverty and he started saving seeds because he was too poor to buy them, eventually collecting more than 6,000 varieties and founding Peace Seeds which later merged with Seeds of Change. Currently he serves as Director of Research for Seeds of Change. His recent breeding work focuses on developing increased amino acid concentration as a way of increasing the nutritional value of food plants.

Kapuler once characterized his Peace Seeds catalog as a "Manual for conserving the plant gene-pool of planet Earth." Using computer-generated bubble diagrams he calls "kingrams," he laid out his catalogs in a biological format that shows how groupings of plants are connected to each other. Inspired by the work of Danish biologist Rolf Dahlgren, these maps have given Kapuler a sense of direction in his preservation work, pinpointing whats really rare and needs growing.

To Kapuler, "Heritage seeds are essential to our heart chakra." They are important not just because they produce a high quality crop or grow fast, but because they carry the message of the people. They are important for the same reason life is important. "We are involved in a process of passing on a heritage of liveness..."

The problem is not hybrids but "ownership of life." Hybridizing, an "essential form of innovation," does not go far enough. The next step is to make open-pollinated lines that stabilize the varieties. Rather than owning them, we must return them to the public domain, giving amateurs access to the gene pool and opportunities to develop new plants.

Much of Kapulers work has centered on de-hybridizing hybrids, taking that next step to create an equivalent open-pollinated variety. Among his successes are True Platinum, an open-pollinated version of Platinum Lady sweet corn, Summer Sun, an open-pollinated form of hybrid patty pan Sunburst and Swan Lake, a development from the hybrid melon Swan.

Through the Seeds of Change catalog, he has popularized a number of heirloom varieties including Elephant Head Amaranth and Hutterite Soup Bean (which hed been collecting for 16 years and never tasted until a chance blizzard marooned him and put him in the mood for a hearty bean soup).

Like many who came of age in the turbulent sixties, Kapuler could justifiably echo the Grateful Deads anthem, "What a long, strange trip its been." Kapuler seems to have weathered it as well as any of us.

Fedco Seeds, PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903
(207) 873-7333
So how you know!

Len

Len, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, that's an old article. Alan retired from Seeds of Change some time ago. It may be why Peace Seeds has reopened. He also was overcoming some serious health issues. Wherever he is, he makes a positive difference.

Best,
Jennifer

This is correct, a Phytosanitary Certificate is required for seeds to enter Japan, without this certificate any seeds arriving in Japan would be destroyed by customs. This certificate is to ensure the seeds are free from diseases, however with orders of Peas and beans, there is also a need for the Phytosanitary Certificate to show that the crops in the field, where the seeds originated from, were also free from disease during the growing season.

Many seed companies outside Japan will accept orders, though will require a bulk order to obtain the Phytosanitary certificate, however some will accept minimum orders, though will charge around $75.00 to obtain the certificate.
Cheers...!!