Grow Your Own Pea Shoots

I'm getting ready to teach a class on growing sprouts, shoots, and microgreens in mid-March, so I've been experimenting with a lot of different types of seeds and methods for growing them.  Most recently, I'm experimenting with growing pea shoots. I've never eaten them, so I'm excited to try some once they're ready.

I bought a 2 pound back of dried green peas from an ethnic food store (they whole bag was only $2.50). I soaked the peas overnight, then rinsed them every 12 hours for the next two days. At that point, they looked like this:

Then I spread them thickly over some potting mix.

And covered them very lightly with some more potting mix.

I left the pot in the mist-house at work over the weekend, so I'll update once I take more photos of the progress.

Seed Purchases for 2014: Scaling Down the Insanity

I recently placed my main seed order for the 2014 garden. I'm really scaling things down this year due to my new job.  I expect to be pretty exhausted after gardening all day at work, so I don't want things to be quite as crazy at my home garden. In addition, I probably won't need to grow many of my own transplants considering we hold an amazing vegetable transplant sale at work each May.

My main order was with Pinetree Garden Seeds. I've been buying seeds from them for as long as I've been growing my own transplants. I like this company because they sell small quantities of seed (appropriate for the home gardener). Most of their seed packets are less than $2 each, which is cheaper than most seed you can find elsewhere. Here's what I ordered with some personal notes below each variety:

• EARLY PURPLE SPROUTING BROCCOLI (35 days): This purple version of Raab is popular in the North. An alternative way to grow it is to plant in mid-summer, over-winter it and then get two months of delicious cuttings the following spring. High in vitamins with a tangy flavor.
• I've been wanting to try this for a couple years now. We eat a lot of broccoli, but I've never had much success with regular heading broccoli.

• PURPLE PEACOCK BROCCOLI (70 days): We are very excited to add this enchanting open pollinated variety to our broccoli selection this year. It is a cross between broccoli and two kales, absolutely beautiful either in the garden or edible landscape. The young leaves are tender, great for salads and the older colorful serrated leaves are used like kale. Loose heads of purple florets are not massive in size, but taste excellent with the plant then producing generous side shoots. This is definitely one vegetable you will want to show off to the visitors of your garden. Bred by Frank Morton. 
• I tried growing broccoli rabe many years ago. It grew well, but it tasted horrible (I'm not a big fan of bitter greens). I always saw broccoli rabe being used on cooking shows (like Rachel Ray), so I expected it to be a little more universally likeable. This variety is supposed to be similar to rabe, yet different.

• HONEY ROCK MELON (90 days heirloom): HEIRLOOM 1920 In 1936 Henry A Dreer Seed Co. stated: "This new musk melon is outstanding for the delicious sweetness and rich aroma of its tender, luscious, salmon colored flesh. The fruits are almost round. They are of medium size but have extremely thick flesh surrounding the small seed cavity. The skin of the heavy fruits is a grey-green color showing a rough netting". 
• I knew the difference between a honey rock and regular cantaloupe at an embarrassingly young age. I finally had some success growing melons last summer (due to using black plastic mulch), so I'm going to give this childhood favorite a try.

• ZUCCHETTA TROMBONCINO SUMMER SQUASH: HEIRLOOM This tasty zucchini grows like squash and will need a lot of room for its 5 foot runners. The light yellow-green fruit is slender with a bulbous end and should be harvested at about 10 inches.Leaving it on the vine can produce variously twisted squash 3 feet long and 6 inches wide. Firmer than the zucchini we're used to, the flavor is mild and delicious. Can be grown up a very strong trellis.
• I've heard good things about this variety. I've been growing Costuluto Genovese the last few years as my summer squash, so I'm ready to try something new.

• RED STREAKED MUSTARD (20-45 days): One of our favorite trials this year! The deeply serrated fringy baby leaves are purple-red and pack a zingy peppery flavor that gets bolder with age. Great to plant along with other baby greens to add some flare to a salad. It is slow to bolt but best planted in spring or fall. 
• I've been growing this for several years now, so I need to replenish my seed stash. The taste is really great (similar to arugula) and the finely cut red foliage is absolutely gorgeous!

• KYOTO MIZUNA GREENS (43 days heirloom): HEIRLOOM This popular Japanese green is often used as part of a Mesclun mix, but we feel it merits individual attention. The very attractive, deeply cut and serrated, narrow leaves grow vigorously into large bunched heads which resist bolting and allow for extended picking. With a mild, pleasant cabbagey flavor, Mizuna can be eaten raw in salads, or cooked in stir-fries, soups, etc.
• Another green I've been growing for a while and need to restock.

• AMBITION SHALLOT (F1 hybrid 100 days): A fine shallot for growing especially during the summer in the North. This one isn't really designed for "short day" conditions. Provides a nice sized bulb, 2 inches and very high yields. With the reddish brown skin and high-rounded shape it looks like a big nut. Shallots from seed are a bargain and Ambition will address a large cross-section of possible uses.
• I grew this for the first time last year and was really pleased (and somewhat surprised). I didn't realize you could grow shallots from seed, I thought you had to buy bulbs. These grew nicely sized bulbs by the end of the summer and they've been storing really well. I still have some in my onion bin.

• COPRA ONION (F1 hybrid 107 days): An excellent storage onion with a distinctive coppery brown skin and medium to large bulbs that are somewhat globular. The onions are as flavorful when you take them out of the root cellar in the Spring as they were the previous Fall. This is a very hard, sweet onion with thin tops that dry quickly.
• My onion crop was great last year and I still have tons of onions in storage. However, the Ailsa Craig I grew last year is getting pretty mushy in storage. Copra is supposed to store well, so I'll give it a try.

• BEIT ALPHA CUCUMBER (F1 hybrid 52 days): Also called a Lebanese or Middle Eastern cucumber, much of the breeding work on these varieties has been done in Israel. The large, smooth, somewhat blocky, burpless, and nearly spineless fruit can be either pickled or eaten fresh. The flavor, including that of the skin, is very mild. 
• I've been eyeing this variety for a few years now, but I usually stay away from hybrid seed, if possible. However, this is the style of cucumber I like these days, so I'll try it.

• HONEY & CREAM CORN (F1 hybrid 77 days): This long time favorite bicolor corn produces excellent flavor and appearance. Stalks are 7-1/2 feet tall and produce 7 inch ears with 12 to 14 rows per ear. Superior flavor for a normal sugary variety is the main attraction.
• Another hybrid variety that I'm surprised I'm ordering. Last year's corn was a complete bust. I was dumb and planted popcorn and sweetcorn right next to each other. The result was popcorn that didn't pop and sweetcorn that was hard and starchy. This year I'm only planting a single variety, and this one has been popular for a long time.

What Does $500 Worth of Seeds Looks Like?

Well, it doesn't look like much! They came in a package smaller than a shoebox! Even though these seeds were really expensive, this is like a dream come true for me! I got to pick out virtually whatever I wanted to grow in the MSU Horticulture Gardens this year, so I'll be trying out some fun things I've never grown before.  And this order is only the beginning. I placed a second (albeit, much smaller) order this morning!

This order includes 70 different varieties, including annuals (for me), perennials (for the perennial manager), and vegetable/herbs (for the head garden manager).  Most of the seeds will be grown for our plant sale and fundraiser in May, but some of them are for the display beds in the annual garden.

I can't wait to get started! Unfortunately, we are currently only in week 4 (in terms of the horticulture industry calendar), so I'll have to wait until about week 9 before I can start sowing some of these.

2012 Seed Purchases (Part 3): Seed Savers Exchange

Back in November, Seed Savers Exchange had a 50% off sale on "last-season's" seeds. I had never ordered from them before, so I thought it was a good time to try them out. I've grown the soybean before, but everything else will be new for the 2012 vegetable garden. Here's what I ordered (and the descriptions provided by Seed Savers Exchange):


Bean, Golden of Bacau
(Phaseolus vulgaris) Donated to SSE by friends in Bacau, Romania. Very productive, 6-10" long flattened golden Romanotype beans. Excellent sweet flavor. Even when the seeds begin to form the pods are still stringless, tender, and sweet. Best for fresh use but can also be frozen. Pole habit, wax, 60-70 days.


Cucumber, Mexican Sour Gherkin
(Melothria scabra) Newly rediscovered heirloom. Produces abundant crops of 1-2" fruits reminiscent of tiny watermelons that fall off the vines when ripe. Sweet cucumber flavor contrasted by a surprising sourness, as if they are already pickled. Great for growing on a trellis. 60-70 days.

Soybean, Envy
(Glycine max) Developed by the late Professor Elwyn Meader at the University of New Hampshire. Upright 24" plants produce an abundance of all-green beans, excellent quality. Great short-season variety. 75-85 days.

Squash, Galeux d'Eysines
(Cucurbita maxima) (aka Galeuse d’Eysines, Courge Brodée Galeuse) A French heirloom squash from the Bordeaux region; noted in Vilmorin’s Les Plantes Potageres (1883). Seed carried by La Ferme de Ste. Marthe and collected by SSE member Amy Goldman at the 1996 Tranzault Pumpkin Festival. Attains weights of 10-20 pounds. Best used for beautiful table centerpieces or eaten in stews and soups. Harvest squashes slightly immature as they tend to crack. 90 days.

Pea, Golden Sweet
(Pisum sativum) Collected at a market in India. Tall 6’ plants with beautiful bi-colored purple flowers and bright lemon-yellow pods. Best eaten when small, excellent for stir-fry. Seeds are tan with purple flecks, can be dried and added to soups. One of the few yellow edible podded peas in SSE’s collection of 1,200 peas. Edible podded, 60-70 days.

2012 Seed Purchases (Part 2): Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

This past Christmas, I asked my parents for a gift certificate to either Pinetree Garden Seeds or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They chose Baker Creek and gave me $25. Strangely enough, I had a difficult time spending all $25 (mainly because most of the varieties on my wish list were cheaper at Pinetree), but eventually I found enough things to use the entire gift certificate. I've grown the fava bean before, but everything else will be new for the 2012 vegetable garden! Here's what I ordered (and the descriptions provided by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds):

Broad Windsor Fava Bean 
75 days. Yields gourmet high-protein beans on upright nonbranching
plants. An old English favorite. 


Mammoth Red Beet
100 days. Huge, up to 20 lbs. each with large yields per acre. Highly used for livestock feed in the 1800's. Or picked small for table use. 


Tepehuan Canteen Gourd
This gourd was collected from the Tepehuan people at
Santa Rosalia, Chihuahua, a Sierra Madre mountain town
in Mexico. Green fruit are tear-drop shaped and 6”-8” tall.
They have a nice hard shell. Great for crafts 


European Mesclun Mix
Grow this mix of greens for one of the tastiest salads ever! Flavors range from sweet-mild to sour-hot-tangy, and colors come in red, purple, yellow, and green. Colorful lettuce, radicchio, arugula, endive, orach, mizuna, kale, mustard, corn salad and more. A favorite with market growers. 


Extra Dwarf Pak Choy
The perfect baby vegetable for marketing, this tiny pak choy is picked when just 2 inches tall! It has dark green, wrinkled leaves with thick, white petioles and can be used whole to make amazing salads and stir-fries! Very tender and delicious! 


Corn Salad or Mache-Verte D'Etampes
This variety was popular in 1880’s France. It
produces flavorful, deep green leaves, and the small
plants are fairly cold-hardy. In 1885 Vilmorin said,
“They bear cold weather remarkably well, and they
have the advantage of losing their freshness less than
those of any other kind while they are being brought
to market.” 


Costoluto Genovese
The fluted, old Italian favorite that has been around since the early 19th century. Fruit are rather flattened and quite attractive with their deep ribbing. This variety is a standard in Italy for both fresh eating and preserving; known for its intensely flavorful, deep red flesh. This variety has also became very popular with chefs in this country. 


White Queen
70-75 days The favorite white variety of many tomato collectors, this heirloom is said to have been introduced in 1882 by A.W. Livingston, though many people question the exact date of introduction. 4-8 oz. fruit have one of the best flavors of all tomatoes, being fragrant, fruity and intensely sweet. It's creamy white in color and very attractive. A productive variety that has become very rare. 


Garden Huckleberry
(Solanum melanocerasum) 75 days. Large purple berries that are cooked and sweetened, (do not eat raw). Great in pies; huge yields of fruit all summer long. Plant 14 inches apart. Strong tall plants do not have to be staked. Grow plants like peppers. Great for anyone wanting quick easy berries and a huge yield. Originated in Africa. 

Baker Creek includes a free (random) packet of seeds with every order. This year I got 'Red Romaine' lettuce.

2012 Seed Purchases (Part 1): Pinetree Garden Seeds

I've been ordering seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds for years now. They are by far my favorite seed company. They have a good selection and the prices are low. I like that you can order a packet of 25 tomato seeds for $1.50 rather than having to shell out $3 or $4 for a packet of 300 seeds (when am I ever going to need 300 tomato seeds of the same variety?). All of the varieties I ordered this year will be new for the 2012 garden. Here's what I ordered (and the descriptions provided by Pinetree Garden Seeds):

Dinosaur Kale
HEIRLOOM 1885 Also known as Tuscan Black Palm or Lacinato. A unique kale with very large, rounded, well filled, meaty leaves. Plants are large, hardy, and vigorous, and the flavor is bold.


Lancelot Leek
Substantially earlier than others and of high quality. The earlier you start it, the better it will perform. Transplant to the garden in April/May and "hill up" several times for long well blanched leeks. Flavor is mild.


Rouge Vif D Etampes Pumpkin
HEIRLOOM This unique 1800s French pumpkin, Cinderella to us here in America, is popular with chefs for soup bases because its mild flavor doesn't overpower other ingredients. Fruits are flattened and concave on top, about fifteen inches across and six inches high. The skin color is a brilliant reddish orange, more dramatic than the yellow-orange pumpkins you are used to. The flavor is just great, in pies or any winter squash recipe. Plants are vigorous with 15 foot vines. 


Ailsa Craig Onion
HEIRLOOM 1887 British. This fine large onion has gained a considerable following in the past several years. Bulbs in excess of 3 pounds are possible, but the real virtue of this variety is the quality. Color is a snow-white, centers are bull's eye single, tops are vigorous, and the flavor is very sweet. Great for slicing raw. Every year that we grow it we reaffirm that Ailsa Craig is the biggest, the earliest, and the best.


Red Marble Cippolini Onion
HEIRLOOM The extremely dark red color goes to the core of the bulb. Flat onions are 1 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch high. This is a very hard onion and good keeper. Also good for braiding.


Delicata Squash 
HEIRLOOM 1894 A favorite of many Pinetree employees, Delicata is a good choice for the home gardener. The vines are relatively compact. Fruits average about eight inches in length, are half as wide, so they are a good size for a meal. Color is a creamy green with lengthwise darker green stripes. Flesh is an attractive orange and flavor is very sweet. As a bonus, Delicata is also a very good keeper for a small squash and the flavor even seems to improve as the winter passes. We have a particularly good strain of this variety.


Black Cherry Tomato
Indeterminate. Long vines are covered with distinctive, very dark purple fruit. You get the exceptional flavor of a Brandywine in a cherry tomato.


Riesentraube Tomato
Indeterminate In German the name suggests a giant bunch of grapes and that pretty well sums it up. The plant can produce 20-40 fruits per cluster. They are an elongated cherry shape with a pointed end. The flavor is quite acid, not too sweet.

Giveaway: Heirloom Tomato Seeds

Every year I've added a few more heirloom tomato varieties to my collection. As of my 2012 seed inventory, I have about 28 varieties in my collection and I will be adding a few more this year. I don't grow all of them every year and I don't continue growing the ones that I don't like.

Here's a portion of what I have stashed in the fridge  (in no particular order):

Kellog's Breakfast

Yellow Pear

Bloody Butcher

Japanese Black Trifele

Aunt Ruby's German Green

Principe Borghese

Martino's Roma

Polish Linguisa

Matt's Wild Cherry

Cherokee Purple

Pruden's Purple

Taxi

Tigerella

Black Krim

Goldrush Currant

Yellow Brandywine

San Marzano

Amish Paste

Moonglow Chocolate Stripes Creme Brulee Peach Blow Sutton Anna Russian And here's the giveaway:

Leave a comment below (USA and CANADA residents only please) telling me which three varieties from my list that you'd like to grow this year. A week from today (Wednesday Feb 1), I will randomly select 2 winners and mail you a packet of seeds for each variety you've requested (at least 10 seeds per packet).  If you want descriptions of the individual varieties, check out either Pinetree Garden Seeds or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Keep in mind that these are seeds that I've saved myself, so the germination rate and trueness to type can't be guaranteed...that said, I've have excellent results saving seeds year after year and I think they'll work great for you to!

Seed Catalogues Already!

I just received my first two seed catalogues for the 2012 growing season (the Pinetree Garden Seeds and the Stokes Seeds catalogues)! I hear that the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalogue is also supposed to arrive by December.

I know what I'll be reading this weekend!

50% off 2011 Seeds at Seed Savers Exchange!

Attention all you frugal gardeners out there! Seed Savers Exchange is having a 50% off sale on select varieties of their remaining 2011 seed stock. The sale ends on November 30th. I just finished ordering 6 packets of seeds. This has to be my record for earliest seed purchase for the subsequent year!


They have approximately 100 varieties on sale and the selection is actually pretty darn good (although there seems to be a overabundance of pepper varieties on sale). I don't usually buy from Seed Savers Exchange because their prices are higher (probably because their packets contain more seeds) than my favorite seed company, Pinetree Garden Seeds.


Here's what I purchased:
Bean, Golden of Bacau
Cucumber, Mexican Sour Gherkin
Soybean, Envy (2 packets)
Squash, Galeux d'Eysines
Pea, Golden Sweet


And all that for just $11.28 (including shipping)

Cactus and Succulent Seeds Ordered!

I've been having trouble finding cactus seeds this year in any of the local stores (and I forgot to add a packet to my vegetable seed order with Pinetree Garden Seeds). As a result, I just placed an order with CactusStore last night for some mixed cactus and lithops seeds. I'm a veteran cactus grower, but I've never tried lithops before. I've been reading about Gayla Trail's experiences growing lithops over at You Grow Girl and it sounds really interesting. Hopefully this is a decent seed company. I've never ordered from them, but they seem to have pretty much anything you could possibly want in terms of cacti and succulents.


Here's what I got:

1. CACTI VARIETIES MIX: A very diverse assortment of cacti seeds including: Cereus, Golden Barrel, Hedgehogs, Mammillarias, Notocactus, Opuntias, Organ pipes, Ferocactus, Gymnocalycium, Trichocereus, Saguaro and more.
2. MAMMILLARIA MIX: alamensis, armillata, baxteriana, bocasana, columbiana, gasterantha, asiacantha, magnimamma, and others. Profusely flowering cacti, easy to grow.
3. ECHINOCEREUS STRAMINEUS MIX (Strawberry hedgehog): Clumping growth habit to 2' tall. Can become a colony with hundreds of heads. Large purple flowers to 5". Origin: Southwestern USA, Mexico. Seeds collected from West Texas plants.
4. LITHOPS SPECIES MIX (Stone plants): A mix of many varieties, including: aucampiae, bromfieldii, dinteri, divergens, dorotheae, fulviceps, hallii, hookeri, optica and several others.

Starting Seedlings: Obtaining Your Seeds

There are many ways to obtain seeds for your garden. Seeds can be purchased at almost any big box store, grocery store, or hardware store. Seeds can also be purchased through seed companies via internet or mail order. Most seed companies offer free catalogues through the mail, so why not sign up for a few? My favorite companies are Pinetree Garden Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Browsing through seed catalogues is a great way to fight the winter blues and get ideas and plans your garden. You can even find seeds for sale on eBay and Etsy!

Want a cheaper source of seeds? Try one of these tactics:

1) Save your own seeds...this of course, requires that you have planted a garden in the first place. You can only save open pollinated seeds (not hybrids) and for many plants you will have to hand pollinate in order to prevent related species from crossing (but more on that later).

It's easy to save seeds from heirloom tomatoes (yellow pear shown here) because tomato flowers are generally self-pollinated.

2) Get your gardening friends together for a seed exchange. Have everyone divide up all their seed packets into smaller quantities and swap like trading cards (do you really need 500 carrot seeds anyway?).

After a couple years of vegetable gardening, you'll probably have a nice stash of seeds available to swap (or hoard for yourself).

3) For tomatoes: purchase an heirloom tomato from the farmer's market and save the seeds (and eat the rest). This won't work with hybrid tomatoes, so make sure you're buying an heirloom.  There is some chance that the seeds in your farmer's market tomato were cross pollinated and that the seeds won't "come true" (i.e. grow into the exact same heirloom tomato) the next year, but that chance is fairly low.

4) Go to a botanical garden in the late fall when things are going into seed and take a few "samples" for your personal use. I'm not sure if this is legal, but as long as you aren't destroying the entire plant (that doesn't belong to you, by the way), or hoarding every last seed for yourself, it shouldn't be a big deal. I was actually encouraged to sample some cherry tomatoes at a local botanical gardens by one of the employees. What they didn't know was that I tasted a few and pocketed a couple for seed saving (after writing down the species and cultivar, of course).


What is your favorite seed source?

Vegetable Varieties That Didn't Make The Cut

While I am generally happy with most of the vegetables I grow, there were a few new things that I tried last year that I will probably never grow again! Since my inventory of tomato seeds has recently ballooned up to about 20 varieties, I'm happy to cross at least a couple of those off my list. Here are the seeds I will not be growing again in 2011:

1. Lemon Lime Basil: This basil was not as vigorous as the regular lind. I'm also not sure why this seed packet caught my eye in the first place. Why would you want lemon-lime scented/flavored basil anyway (that would make some pretty funky pesto)?

2. Pineapple Tomatillo (Groundcherry): I grew this entirely out of curiosity last year. I was completely caught off guard (and pleasantly surprised) by how much fruit the plants produced! However, I wasn't psyched about the flavor. I would describe it as just plain weird. Luckily, my farmer's market customers seemed to like them. I sold out both weeks that I took groundcherries to the market.

3. Mustard Greens: We never ate cooked greens when I was a kid (I'm trying to teach myself to like them as an adult), so I wasn't too sure what to do with these last year. The leaves were prickly and spiny and just didn't seem like they should be edible! I took a few bags to the farmer's market and one customer laughed at me. I didn't realize that between the three bags I brought (which I thought were huge) there were really only enough greens for about one person (since they cook down so much).

4. Anna Russian Tomato: I purchased these seeds because the catalogue description said that the fruit were extremely large for how early they ripen. For Michiganders, this is always a plus with tomatoes. I don't know if it was just a bad year, but the flavor was not good. The fruits seemed very watery and there was some strange off-flavor (bad enough that I never want to devote garden space to this cultivar again).

5. Peach Blow Sutton Tomato: While the flavor of these strange fuzzy tomatoes was actually excellent, the fruit looked unappetizing and discolored. The fruits had a bruised and lumpy look that made me think they were rotting on the vine. Furthermore, their yield was pretty low and the plants were one of the first to get scraggly and diseased looking.

6. Purple-Top White Globe Turnip: As with the mustard greens, we were never fed turnips or turnip greens when I was a kid. However, I recently had turnips in an absolutely delicious Jamie Oliver-style roast chicken with root vegetables. Besides not being very excited about turnips in general, the ones I grew last year were very gnarly and woody looking. I probably left them in the ground too long, but I'd rather just forget about turnips and free up the space for something else this year.

Have you ever grown any varieties that you'll never grow again?

The Final Cut

Here's the "final" list of what I will be growing in my vegetable garden for 2011. I put "final" in quotes because I know I'll probably give in to seed lust at some point or another and add a few more things. Of the varieties listed, about 50% of them I've never grown before! Not on this list are the potatoes and onions that I will be growing (because I don't know what kinds I'll be getting yet). I also already have garlic in the ground as well as some raspberry plants.

The items highlighted in blue will be grown for sure. The items in highlighted in yellow are on my list of "maybes".

Arugula
Basil	Sweet
Beet	Chioggia
Beet	Burpee's Golden
Broccoli	Calabrese
Broccoli	Romanesco
Carrot	Short 'n Sweet
Carrot	Nantes Half Long
Carrot	Kaleidoscope Mix
Carrot	Parisienne
Celariac	Prague
Cucumber	Lemon
Cucumber	Picklebush
Cucumber	Suyo Long
Cucumber	White Wonder
Cucumber	West Indian Gherkin
Dill	Long Island Mammoth
Fava Bean	Windsor
Fennel
Gourd	mini bottle
Gourd	birdhouse
Gourd	Corsican
Gourd	Swan
Gourd	Egg
Gourd	Corsican
Gourd	Snake
Gourd	Bushel
Green bean	Triumphe De Farcy
Kale	Red Russian
Kohlrabi	Early White Vienna
Lettuce	Green Deer's Tongue
Lettuce	Simpson Elite
Lettuce	Green Oakleaf
Lettuce	Italian mixture
Lettuce	Buttercrunch
Lettuce	Red Sails
Lettuce	Four Seasons
Lettuce	Cimmaron
Lettuce	Marvel of Four Seasons
Lettuce	Pinetree Mix
Mache
Melon	Charentais
Mizuna
Pea	Snowbird
Pea	Mammoth Melting Sugar
Pepper	Carnival mix
Pumpkin	Jarrahdale
Radish	Red Heart
Soybean	Envy
Spinach	Space Hybrid
Spinach	Bloomsdale Long-standing
Squash	Benning's Green Tint Scallopini
Squash	Early White Scallopini
Squash	Costata Romanesco
Swiss Chard	Bright Lights
Tomatillo	Verde
Tomatillo	Purple
Tomato	Kellog's Breakfast
Tomato	Yellow Pear
Tomato	Bloody Butcher
Tomato	Japanese Black Trifele
Tomato	Aunt Ruby's German Green
Tomato	Principe Borghese
Tomato	Martino's Roma
Tomato	Polish Linguisa
Tomato	Matt's Wild Cherry
Tomato	Pruden's Purple
Tomato	Taxi
Tomato	Green Zebra
Tomato	Tigerella
Tomato	Black Krim
Tomato	Goldrush Currant
Tomato	Brandywine
Tomato	San Marzano
Tomato	Amish Paste
Tomato	Moonglow
Watermelon	Sugar Baby
Watermelon	Cream of Saskatchewan

Photo Friday: I'm addicted!

My current pile of library books. See any trends?

Some of the books I've been perusing lately include:

• Mini Encyclopedia of Chicken Breeds and Care by Frances Bassom
• Saving Seeds by Marc Rogers,  No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain
• Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen's Guide to Community Supported Agriculture by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En
• Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy
• The Family Kitchen Garden by Karen Liebriech, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland
• Grow Your Own Vegetables by Carol Klein
• Everyday Easy Cheap Eats, How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle
• Our Life in Gardens by Joe Ecke, and Wayne Winterrowd
• Preserve It!
• The Dehydrator Bible by Jennifer MacKenzie, Jay Nutt, and Don Mercer
• Jerky by A. D. Livingston
• How to Dry Food by Deanna Delong
• The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin

My seed stash as of January 2011.

My first seed purchase for the 2011 growing season.

2011 Seed Wishlist

I realize that it's only December, but I've already been browsing my seed catalogues and I have a general idea of what I will be ordering for next summer. I usually end up ordering most of my seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds, so I am basing my order off of their catalogue. 

I generally try 4-6 new heirloom tomatoes each year.  I've gotten so carried away with heirlooms that I grew 15-18 different varieties and about 57 plants total in 2010! Luckily I had my farmer's market stand to find homes for most of them. I also usually try a new bean or pea each year, a couple new lettuces, a couple new gourds, a new pumpkin, maybe 5 new annual flowers, and then a few new oddballs (like ground cherries).

Here is my tentative list of new varieties for 2011:

Pumpkins: 

Cinderella (aka Rouge Vif D-Etampes) 

Or Long Island Cheese

Peas/Beans:

Edamame- Beer Friend or Envy. I tried to grow edamame a couple years ago, but they were completely obliterated by groundhogs

Fava Bean-Windsor. I've never even eaten favas before, so I'm not sure why I want to grow them. Plus, I remember learning in a biology class a while back that some people are allergic to favas (a condition called favism).

Cucumbers:

Boothby's blonde

Or Miniature white

Diva

West India Gherkin (Anybody know if this is different from Mexican Sour Gherkin?)

Gourds:

Bushel gourd

Corsican gourd. I tried these last year and not a single seed germinated.

Egg gourd

Martinhouse gourd. Pinetree doesn't offer these, so I'll have to find another source.

Greens:

Dinosaur Kale

Lettuce:

Pinetree mix

Beleah Rose

Cimmaron

Spinach

Kohlrabi- Early White Vienna or Early Purple Vienna

Daikon Radish

Celariac

Zucchini. I've been growing pattypan-type squash the last two years and I'd like to try the regular long green zucchini again (I have a great stuffed zucchini recipe that doesn't really work with the pattypans).

Tomato:

Aunt Ruby's German Green

Black Cherry

Principe Borghese (for making sun dried tomatoes)

Big Rainbow

Zapotec Pleated

Paul Robeson

Great White

Cherokee Purple

I'm positive I'll try the first three tomatoes on my list. I'll pick a couple from the rest of the list to go along with the other 15+ varieties I grow every year.

Watermelon:

Pony yellow

Or Golden crown

What new things are you growing for 2011?

Seed Catalogues Are Arriving!

My first seed catalogues arrived recently. On the same day I received the Stokes catalogue and Pinetree Garden Seeds catalogue. It is kind of ironic that these showed up on the same day because these two catalogues couldn't be more different! In my opinion, Stokes seems to be more oriented towards large scale and commercial operations. Their seeds are sold in larger quantities and they sell mostly hybrid varieties. Pinetree Garden Seeds on the other hand sell small quantities of seeds (better for most home growers who don't need 50 plants of the same tomato variety) and sell many heirloom varieties (which I prefer).

Although I receive catalogues from probably 10+ seed companies, I always end up ordering from Pinetree. Their seeds are very affordable, with most regular sized packets costing less than $1.50. Although you get fewer seeds than some other companies (which is reflected in the reduced price), I have never found myself needing more than one packet of anything. I generally only grow a few plants of any one tomato or pepper variety and a packet of lettuce or carrots seeds stretches surprisingly far. Since the seeds are so inexpensive, I can try more varieties each year. In addition, since I only buy heirlooms, I can save the seeds. This means I'll never have to buy that variety again...for the rest of my life!