Seeking a rare Indian spice? Sea salt harvested from France? There’s a good chance you’ll find them at one of the specialty markets around town. Or hit up the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink go-to, Amazon.

The world’s definitely become a smaller place, but as the saying goes, sometimes you need look no further than your own backyard. This is especially true if you want to turn your backyard into a garden. In that case, look no further than the University of Hawaii Seed Program, known as the Seed Lab, headquartered in the Sherman Laboratory, Room 108, on the Manoa campus.

Since 1969, the seed lab has quietly been providing the community — mostly local, but some customers from as far away as France or Africa — with varieties of seeds for papaya, lettuce, sweet corn, tomato and much more. The seeds, mostly cultivated by UH breeders during the 1960s to 1980s, resist disease and thrive in Hawaii’s climate.

This makes them a good fit for both backyard and commercial growers, not to mention science and gardening teachers.

Seeds are produced statewide at research stations run by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, of which the seed lab is a part. Fresh seed-bearing produce are then brought to Room 108, where seeds are harvested by hand and readied for selling.

Room 108 is definitely a working space, an organized chaos filled with stacks of bins, shelves, sinks, file cabinets and one crowded desk with a computer and a phone — everything necessary to properly deliver seeds for growing. A tabletop rack displays a wide range of seed packets for home gardeners, each priced at just $1. Large tables and long counters house scales, trays of seeds being dried, and several student workers meticulously retrieving seeds from among more than 20 varieties of local produce. Industrial refrigerators hold large containers of prepped seeds that are kept airtight until they can be packaged for selling.

“You have to handle them properly or you reduce their viability,” said seed lab manager Desmond Ogata, who by training is a plant pathologist.

The staff works like a well-oiled machine. The phone rings regularly, and in between harvesting and drying seeds, calls are answered and orders logged. It’s a testament to the quality of the seeds, and surely the service from staff, that last year the lab processed more than 800 sales.

“Most of our sales are from phone calls. But we get snail mail, email and walk-ins,” said Ogata. “Some folks want to see and touch the seeds, and ask questions. There’s one old man who catches the bus from downtown. He can barely walk but he comes in person.”

The lab can get crazy, too, Ogata said. When papaya fields are in full production, the crew can face 15 bins of papaya weekly to cut and scrape for seeds. Then, depending on the weather, seeds take about a week to dry.

“It can be hard to keep up,” he said.

But demand is there. Most foreign customers tap the lab for Sunrise Solo papaya, among the lab’s top sellers, alongside supersweet corn and Manoa lettuce. Last year, 936 seed packets were sold to home gardeners and schools. Leading commercial sales were bulk corn, at 70 pounds, and various varieties of papaya, which weighed in at 112 ounces (consider this: 1 ounce comprises about 2,200 papaya seeds).

INCOME FROM seed sales go into a special fund to pay for the lab’s student help and to operate research stations where seeds are grown.

The virtues of the lab spread mostly via word of mouth, but Ogata said, “surprisingly, we’re known on the mainland, too. People find us online. Some of them have greenhouses that provide a warm space for the seeds to grow.”

One longtime customer is retired Hilo pediatrician Ruth Matsuura, who calls in orders from her Mountain View home on the Big Island, where she grows hydroponic Manoa lettuce.

Matsuura has been purchasing seeds from the lab for a decade. In the past she’s grown a long list of produce, all from lab seeds, including tomatoes, soybeans and okra. But now that she’s approaching age 89, Matsuura said, she’s cut back to just lettuce. There’s nothing quite like the lab’s Manoa lettuce, she said.

“It’s probably the most tender lettuce you’ll ever find. It’s always so tasty and crunchy, and not bitter. It has a delicate flavor.”

When seeds are put toward education, Ogata often donates seed packets. First-grade teacher Lianne Morita of Noelani Elementary School swears by the lab seeds she uses for her science curriculum.

“WE DO germinating and study plant parts and the structure of seeds. We compare which seeds germinate first, and what plants need to survive and what seeds need to germinate. As the seeds germinate, we do observations of how they change,” she said. “Desmond picks seeds that will help with those lessons.”

Morita has found creative ways to keep her young students interested. They germinated nearly 100 papaya plants in milk cartons, then gave them to their parents. At the College of Tropical Agriculture’s nearby SOFT (Sustainable Organic Farm Training) Garden — the college has partnered with Noelani for some seven years — first-graders grew, composted and harvested a “spaghetti garden” of tomatoes and basil. “We cooked it, and the kids thought it was great. Last semester, we made vegetable soup,” she said.

“Seeds are essential. You can do everything from them. The seed lab is a program we highly value and appreciate.”