Vegetables

As promised here is our vegetable variety list, which includes the reasons we have chosen to grow them. The reasons can range from having a connection to who gave us the seed, to flavor, color, productivity, keeping quality or just because we like the name. By no means, what you would call scientific. I still enjoy my garden because of this criteria. You will find a mix of open pollinated and hybrids here. This is what grows good in our garden with the conditions we have to work with. Since we have livestock, we have a steady supply of highly mineralized composted animal manure for fertilizer.  Tomatoes, peppers and melons are grown in an unheated greenhouse. We try to buy  seeds from companies that sell to farmers or market gardeners.

Seed Sources:

Fedco www.fedcoseeds.com inexpensive, good quality, catalog is a good read. Good selection of OP seeds.

Johnny’s www.johnnyseeds.com excellent quality, excellent customer service, catalog contains,  good cultural info.

Territorial Seed www.territorialseed.com  OK, but has some issues with seed quality, catalog has good cultural info and seed life specs.

Wild Garden Seeds www.wildgardenseed.com excellent quality, carries cold hardy, vigorous seeds for greens that will withstand our rainy winters. Small local co. doing the right thing.

Ronnigers Potato Farm www.ronnigers.com  OK, slow customer service, catalog contains good potato growing info.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange www.southernexposure.com  Good quality, Good place to look for lettuces that survive our hot summers,  good selection of OP seeds.

Seeds of Change www.seedsofchange.com Eye candy catalog, good quality, good selection of OP seeds.

Turtle Tree Seeds www.turtletree.com Good selection of biodynamic seeds

Cook’s Garden www.cooksgarden.com good quality, caters more to home gardeners

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply www.groworganic.com  Catalog very helpful for learning about what’s available for organic supplies. Usually you can find the same thing locally. Key for my seed saving endeavors: TC

BEANS Maxibel, filet, succession plant, eat all summer! TC

Veda’s Purple Bean, pole, most like Dow Purple Pod, canning and freezing. TC

Uncle John, dried bean, like a pinto, grown in our microclimate since the area was settled. TC

BEETS Detroit Dk Red, early, for summer beetsWinterkeeper/Lutz, keeps well in row all winter,BROCCOLIPackman, hybrid, productive, dependable for the freezer, plentiful side shootsSince we grow so many other types of brassicas that produce broccoli type flower buds in the spring, we plant broccoli to mature in September and we miss most of caterpillars.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Oliver, hybrid, productive and dependable

CABBAGE
Charmant, Green, spring or fall

Ruby Ball, Red, spring or fall

Melissa, savoy, spring or fall

Danish Ballhead, green, kraut, fall

January King, over wintering, all purpose

CARROTS

Nelson, crisp nantes, good flavor in summer

Napoli, crisp nantes, good for fall, splits once rains commence

Chantenay, our workhorse, these store in the row until late spring

CELERY

Ventura or Conquistador, best in fall, will freeze, but crowns can be replanted for celery seed production TC

CELERIAC

Diamant, stores in row until March

CAULIFLOWER

Cheddar, a new hybrid (to us) that my daughter grew in her garden last year.  Huge, perfect heads.  No blanching required, and it tasted EXCELLENT!

Veronica, minaret type, probably should be with the broccoli, but it grows more like cauliflower.  Another kid pick – she likes bright colors!  Maybe it’s all that Fiestaware we have…

CORN

Welcome TSW, tender SE type

Abenaki Calais, Flint, actually dries here good enough to use for meal. TC

CUCUMBER

National, pickling, succession plant for continuous supply

Marketmore 76, slicing, succession plant for continuous supply

GARLIC

Music, hardneck, early, large easy to peel cloves, stores med well, so I use this for salsa, and pickles. TC

Oregon Blue, softneck, keeps 1 year or longer TC

GREENS

Too many! Arugula, Aurora Orach, Goldberg Purslane, Red Giant, Bau Sin,Mizuna, Tatsoi, Joi Choi, Fordhook Gt Chard, 5 Color Silverbeet Chard, Lucullus, Yukina, Chicories, Cress, Endive and any of the mixes from WILD GARDEN SEEDS. Many of these have naturalized in my garden/greenhouse so if they aren’t in the way I just let them volunteer.

HERBS

Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, Flat Leaf Parsley, Cilantro, Dill, Sweet Marjoram, Sage

KALE

Lacinato, Lacinato Rainbow, White and Red Russian, Redbor, Winterbor, Red Ursa, or Wild Garden Kale mix for WG

LETTUCE

Too many! Here are the favorites, Little Gem, Valmaine, Parris Island, Jericho, Anuenue, Thai Oakleaf, Simpson Elite, Red Sails, Merlot, Flashy Butter Oak, Salad Bowl, Red Salad Bowl, Rouge D’ Hiver, Brune D’ Hiver, Kweik, Blushed Butter Cos, Oscarde, Hyper Red Rumple and Outredgeous. These are all good. Some are almost too pretty too pick! We look for lettuces that withstand summer heat without getting bitter or bolting.

ONIONS

Walla Walla or Siskiyou, summer eating and preserving (for pickles and salsa)

Stuttgarter, storage, I plant sets around Memorial Day, then the day length sensitivity is not a problem.

Potato Onion, storage, keeps a year to 18 months, plant same time a garlic.True survivalist food TC

PARSNIPS

Javelin, these are for my milk cow. I wanted a winter supplement that didn’t require any work, and parsnips are it.  They don’t freeze,  and I can harvest as needed until May.  I’ve found that mangels froze AND upset my cows digestion. 

PEAS

Green Arrow, shell

Sugar Snap, snap

PEPPERS

Vidi, red bell

Sunray, yellow bell, I first grew this one last year, I LOVE THIS PEPPER!! I stake my peppers and it was so productive that the branches broke with medium size green peppers. Sweet, juicy, and thick walled – I’ve been dreaming about this pepper since I ate the last one.

Sweet Pimento, red, early and almost as good as Sunray. We eat these like apples.

Valencia, orange bell, tastes as good as Sunray, but not as productive.

Paprika Supreme, productive, good for paprika

Numex Joe E. Parker, anaheim, very productive (some plants had more than 40 large peppers), sweet and mildly hot when red ripe. Our dogs even eat these.

Long Red Cayenne, productive and drys well for crushed red pepper

Garden Salsa, medium hot jalapeno type for salsa or whatever

POTATOES

Purple Viking, productive, excellent keeper, moist white flesh, all purpose

Dark Red Norland, early moist

I like the red skinned potatoes because their stolons don’t spread as much as the yellow varieties. This just makes it easier for us to hill and/or harvest without damaging the spuds or leaving too many behind

RADISH

Daikon, succession plant all season, Johnny’s has good varieties to cover each season. Needs row cover at planting for pest protection

RUTABAGA

Joan, sweet and productive, what we don’t eat in the winter, puts on large amounts of “spring broccoli”

SPINACH

Winter Giant, planted in the fall will over winter and regrow in spring

Space, succession plant spring and fall, sometimes it will over winter

SQUASH, summer

Raven, this one puts its crop on all at once, succession plant

Cocozelle, succession plant, good for roasting and freezing

WINTER SQUASH

Sweet Meat, this is my other workhorse, keeps until May, good for pies, very

sweet, lots of seeds for roasting. These usually weigh 12 – 18 pounds. TC

TOMATOES

Costoluto Genovese, all purpose, sauce, salsa,

Tiffen Mennonite, Brandywine type that will actually get ripe for us

Bellstar, early salad/sauce

SunSugar, cherry, excellent flavor, productive and crack resistant

Green Zebra, salad

Principe Borghese, plum type for drying

TURNIPS

Hakurei, salad type, succession plant all season long, very sweet and crispy

Needs row cover at planting for pest protection.

I probably have forgotten something, but these varieties take us through the year.  We always are trying new varieties, so each year brings something new.