The desk farmer
A laptop and a south window
Basil pinched on the way to dinner. A tomato that lives on the return. You want a farm that fits between meetings, not a tractor.
Late summer catalog · 2026
Farming from your desk.
Heirloom seeds, windowsill kits, and botanical soap for people who keep a watering can next to the keyboard.
Open-pollinated seed
Packed in small lots this season. Varieties chosen because they fruit in a pot, not a field.
Built for a window
Desk kits, microgreen trays, and sowing notes written for people with a day job.
Soap from the same garden
Cold-process bars with a pressed leaf. For hands that have been in soil.
Who it is for
Typical growers, and the people who shop for them.
The new homesteader
A serious seed list
Not fifty tomatoes and a coupon. Four varieties you will actually sow, with days-to-harvest written for a pot, not a field.
The gift-giver
Tired of candles
A bar of leaf soap, a printed catalog, a copper can. Things that feel like a place — and like the person you are buying for.
From the packing bench
This season’s goods
$18.00
Three heirlooms that actually ripen indoors.
$16.00
Heat you can grow next to the kettle.
$48.00
Basil, thyme, rosemary. One crate. One windowsill.
$26.00
A harvest that fits between two stand-ups.
$14.00
The bar that lives by the potting bench.
The chair
A seed catalog that grew out of an office chair.
The original drawing is still the map: a tufted chair, a typewriter, a tomato, a pepper, a bar of soap, a watering can on the arm. We started with a pot on a filing cabinet. Colleagues asked for seed. Then soap. Then a catalog you can actually read.
The Office Farmer is for people who want a farm that fits a windowsill — and for the ones who already have a garden and still like a well-made bar of soap.
Read the storyHow a desk farm works
Sow. Tend. Cut.
01
Sow on a Sunday
A tray of microgreens, a tomato in a twelve-inch pot, or the herb crate. Light is the only luxury you need.
02
Water with the kettle
When the top inch is dry — not on a calendar. The patina can lives on the return, next to the mugs.
03
Harvest standing up
Ten-day shoots. A handful of Sungolds. Basil pinched on the way to dinner. That is the farm share.
Seed catalog
Varieties we stand behind
tomato · 80 days
Cherokee Purple
Dusky rose flesh, smoky-sweet. The one we grew first on a filing cabinet and the one people still write us about.
tomato · 57 days
Sungold
Candy-orange cherries that keep coming. The desk-farm workhorse — snack, salad, or a handful on the way to a meeting.
tomato · 70 days
San Marzano Compact
A shorter paste tomato that still makes sauce. We selected this strain because it does not need a barn.
tomato · 75 days
Green Zebra
Chartreuse stripes, bright acid. Looks like a catalog illustration and tastes like a green apple crossed with a tomato.
pepper · 58 days
Hungarian Hot Wax
Banana-yellow to red, mild heat. Pickles well, fries well, and does not sulk if you forget it on a Thursday.
pepper · 60 days
Shishito
Blister in a pan with salt. One in ten is hot, which is the entire personality of the variety.
The farmer
Grown between meetings. Packed on Mondays.
Maren started The Office Farmer after a Cherokee Purple outgrew a filing cabinet and started a small economy of seed swaps on her floor. The shop is still that size on purpose: lots you can count, notes written by hand, soap racks next to the packing table.
Typical growers here are desk people with a south window, new homesteaders who want a serious catalog, and gift-givers who are tired of candles. If that is you, you are already in the right chair.
Write to the farm
From the windowsill
Notes people send back
“The Sungolds on my filing cabinet out-performed the ones I tried in the actual yard. Colleagues keep stealing them.”
“I circled two varieties in the print catalog in January and actually sowed them in March. That has never happened with a website.”
“Sent the leaf soap and the herb kit to my sister. She texted a photo of dirt under her nails. Best gift I have given in years.”
Journal
Notes from the windowsill
August 4, 2026 · 6 min
How to grow a tomato on a filing cabinet
Light, a five-gallon pot, and the one variety that forgives a Tuesday meeting that ran long.
July 12, 2026 · 5 min
Why we still print a seed catalog
Screens are fine for ordering. Paper is how you decide what to become this season.
June 22, 2026 · 4 min
Soap from the garden: leaf, oil, and time
Cold process, a pressed leaf, and four weeks on a rack next to the seed envelopes.