2013 Garden Seed List

I need an intervention.

You know how they say never go grocery shopping when you're hungry? Yeah, well never do your seed order in the middle of winter when you are craving salads, either!

Yes, I went a bit crazy on the lettuce selection this year, but everything else is within normal limits, right? RIGHT??

124 varieties, almost 1000 sq. ft. of planting space (I'm planting beds more than once), somewhere around 4000 separate plants.

It's going to be a busy summer!

Brassicas	Broccoli	Green Sprouting
	Broccoli	Spigariello
	Broccoli	Romanesco
	Cauliflower	Snowball
	Kohlrabi	Gigante
	Turnip	Purple Top White Globe
	Rutabaga	Laurentian
	Napa	Michilli
	Cabbage	Mammoth Red Rock
	Cabbage	Copenhagen Market
	Cabbage	Early Jersey
	Kale	Heirloom mix
	Kale	Russian
	Collards	Georgia Southern
	Collards	Variegated
	Radish	Bouquet Mix
	Radish	Specialty Mix
	Radish	French Breakfast
	Radish	Round Black Spanish
	Radish	China Rose
Greens	Spinach	Bloomsdale
	Swiss Chard	Five Colour Silverbeet
	Swiss Chard	Rainbow
	Arugula	Arugula
	Mache	Mache
	Cress	Curly
	Lettuce	Paris Island
	Lettuce	Red Romaine
	Lettuce	Oak Leaf
	Lettuce	Grand Rapids
	Lettuce	Bronze Arrow
	Lettuce	Amish Deer Tongue
	Lettuce	Yugoslavian Red
	Lettuce	Bunte Forellenschluss
	Lettuce	Black Seeded Simpson
	Lettuce	Drunken Woman
	Lettuce	Brune d'Hiver
	Lettuce	Merville Des Quarte Saison
	Lettuce	Forellenschluss
	Lettuce	Tennis Ball Lettuce
	Lettuce	Heirloom Romaine mix
	Lettuce	Heirloom Leaf Lettuce Mix
	Greens	Pac Choi
	Greens	Tah Tsai
	Greens	Mustard
	Greens	Red Komatsuna Mustard
Onions	Onions	Ailsa Craig
	Onions	Yellow Globe
	Onions	Red Wethersfield
	Onions	White Pickling
	Scallions	Southport White Globe
	Garlic	Garlic
	Leeks	Blue Solaise
	Leeks	Giant Musselburgh
Cucurbits	Winter Squash	Sibley
	Winter Squash	Chersonskaya
	Winter Squash	Table Queen Acorn
	Winter Squash	Spaghetti
	Summer Squash	Black Beauty
	Summer Squash	Bennings Green Tint Pattypan
	Cucumber	Straight Eight
	Cucumber	National Pickling
Carrots/Beets	Carrots	Chantenay Red Cored
	Carrots	Scarlet Nantes
	Carrots	Colourful Mix
	Carrots	Jaune du Doubs
	Carrots	Dragon
	Beets	3 Root Grex
	Beets	Albino
	Beets	Golden Detroit
	Beets	Chioggia
	Beets	Mix
	Beets	Cylindra
	Beets	Detroit Dark Red
Toms/Peppers	Paste Tomato	San Marzano
	Red Cherry Tomato	Riesentraube
	Yellow Salad Tomato	AAA Sweet Solano
	Tomato	Oxheart
	Tomato	Canadian Heart
	Tomato	Brandywine
	Tomato	Stupice
	Sweet Pepper	Alma Paprika
	Sweet Pepper	Marconi Sweet Red
	Sweet Pepper	King of the North
	Hot Pepper	Ancho
	Hot Pepper	Hinkelhatz
	Hot Pepper	Fish
	Hot Pepper	Long Red Cayenne
	Hot Pepper	Hungarian Hot Wax
	Hot Pepper	Early Jalapeno
Legumes	Dry Beans	Ireland Creek Annie's
	Dry Beans	Black Calypso
	Dry Beans	Romano
	Dry Beans	Pinto
	Dry Beans	Soldier
	Dry Beans	Black Valentine
	Dry Beans	Blue Jay
	Dry Beans	Saskatchewan
	Dry Beans	Bird Egg
	Dry Beans	Black Turtle
	Dry Beans	Littlefield's Special
	Dry Beans	Canadian Wonder
	Dry Beans	Jacob's Cattle
	Dry Beans	Mrocumiere
	Dry Beans	Fall Speckled
	Green Bush	Blue Ribbon
	Yellow Bush	Beurre de Rocquencourt
	Striped Bush	Dragon Tongue
	Green Bush	Empress
	Purple Bush	Royalty Purple
	Runner Bean	Scarlet Emperor
	Pole Bean	Lazy Housewife
	Pole Bean	Rattlesnake
	Pole Bean	True Red Cranberry
	Snow Pea	Oregon Giant
	Sugar Pea	Dwarf Grey
	Shell Pea	Green Arrow
	Shell Pea	British Wonder
	Shell Pea	Sutton's Harbinger
Oddballs	Okra	Green
	Okra	Burgundy
	Okra	Pakistan
	Celery	Tall Utah
	Celeriac	Giant Prague

Seedy Saturday Recap

Seedy Saturday was this past weekend, and it was great! Although I had done most of my seed buying already, there are always a few last things I need to pick up. Like, for example, when I just assume I have enough beet and carrot seed, without actually looking.  Ooops!

Or when family members mention seed they want you to start for them - after you've done your buying for the year, of course.

So, I picked up some stevia seeds for my brother (I'll keep some for me too, just to play with), but I'm still looking for catnip seeds for Dad. Well, for Dad's cat, but you know what I mean. Anyone out there with catnip seeds?

I also picked up some curly garden cress, red garnet amaranth, Pakistan okra and true red cranberry pole beans from Rhizome Farms - things I didn't know I wanted, but you know how that goes! Well, except for the beans - I always want new bean varieties, but I had put a moratorium on buying any this year. Hrm.  Unfortunately, I didn't actually get to talk to Elva about the okra seeds, but I hope to get some more info about them. I'm intrigued :D

And speaking of my bean addiction, Kate from the USC booth gave me some Blue Ribbon bush beans, supplied by Greta's Organics. Enablers, all of them!

Linda from Tree & Twig was nice enough to bring my seed order with her, and "refunded" my shipping charges by throwing in a pack of arugula seeds. This will be the first time I've grown arugula - thanks Linda!!

I also bought some carrot and beet seeds from both Tree & Twig and Urban Harvest - I love being able to go to events like this and see all the varieties on offer!

I managed to see a couple of the talks, but I had to leave early, which was too bad. It was nice to see just how popular the event was. There were a LOT of people there - it's great to see so many people interested in both gardening and in supporting some of the fantastic small seed suppliers we have in the area!

Where's the Beef? Right here!

That, my friends, is about 30 pounds of local, grass-fed, sustainable, rare-breed beef! Which now resides in my freezer. Yippee!!

I finally found a local farmer, and it ended up being someone I went to university with. Cue: "It's a Small World"....

Larry and Alison raise the Kerry breed of cattle. In their words:

"While maintaining a nucleus of pure-bred Kerry, we are also developing a premium product by bringing together best characteristics of small beef animals such as the Hereford, with the pasture efficiency of the Kerry.

The Kerry Cow is a heritage breed from Ireland kept for both beef and dairy purposes. They are a smaller breed, typically horned and solid black in color (solid red sometimes shows). They are hardy and long lived.

Originally developed in harsh conditions, we find the Kerry thrive on pasture and hay. 

Rare Breeds Canada classify the Kerry as ‘Critical’ (less than 25 annual registrations of breeding females). With only a few other breeders in Canada, we are attempting to increase the numbers of Kerry in Canada. Starting out with 4 pure-bred Kerry cows in 2004, we have raised our pure-bred herd to over 20."

Their farm is about 60 km away, so well within my "100 miles". It's far enough away that I don't want to be driving out there every week, but a few times a year is no big deal, especially since it also includes a visit! Hopefully, next time the weather will be a bit better and I can get a tour of the farm. And take pictures! And write another post about the cattle and farm.

You can find out more about their farm at their website: www.rosedeneacres.ca

I bought what they call a "box o'beef". It consisted of 3 roasts (~10 pounds total), 10 steaks (~7 pounds total), 3 packs of ribs (~2 pounds) and about 12 pounds of ground beef. The price, like most local, sustainable meat, is about twice what you'd pay for grocery store beef, but it's equivalent to what a local store charges for grass-fed beef.

Oh well - I love the fact that I can buy sustainable beef, that the money goes directly to the farmer, and who is also an old friend! Of course, the drawbacks are that I didn't get to pick the cuts (I'd have loved to have gotten some stewing beef, and less ground), and that I have to store that much beef in the freezer. And the price too - it would have been cheaper to buy a larger amount, but as much as I love beef, I can't justify buying a quarter, unless I was splitting it with someone. I'll see how long this lasts, and adjust accordingly for next year.

Oh, and the bonus? It's paper-wrapped!

I'll write more when I cook with the beef - I can't wait to taste it. Now, to find some good recipes...

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Full disclosure: I received nothing for writing this review; Larry and Alison didn't even know I had a blog or was writing this until after I bought the beef. I did ask for, and receive, their permission to use their names and link to their website, but my review is entirely my own. Mind you, Larry did throw in a pack of pepperettes, but that was because we're friends, not to influence this article. They are really good pepperettes, by the way. Nom nom nom....

Sausage!!

It's that time of the year again - sausage making time! This is my second year for making my own sausage, and this year, I have a stuffer! I found the attachment for the KitchenAid at a reasonable price in the US - $10 vs. an insane $24 here in Canada. $24 for three small pieces of plastic - I don't think so! Eventually I'd like a metal meat grinder and sausage stuffer, but for now, the KitchenAid attachments work fine.

Pork was on sale, so I bought two shoulders, for a total of around 18 pounds. After skinning and deboning, I ended up with around 14 pounds of meat.

Pork shoulder

with skin removed...

cut off the bone...

and cut up for the grinder.

Of course, I tossed the bones into a stock pot for soup!  :)

Making stock from the bones - nothing goes to waste!

I decided on four different recipes this year - sage, Italian, chorizo and garlic-pepper. To make things easier, I made sure to prepare all of the seasoning ahead of time. As with anything to do with meat, it's important to work quickly and keep the meat from warming up, so making sure everything is ready to go means you don't have to stop in the middle of making your sausage to chop an onion or measure out a spice!

Pre-measured seasonings.

After grinding, I weighed out the portions I wanted (5 pounds each for the Italian and sage, 2 pounds each for the others), and mixed each well with the seasoning. After mixing, each bowl went into the fridge until I was ready to use it.

Final product, ground and mixed with the seasonings.

And of course, you have to do a taste test!

Taste test!

Last year, I saw casings for sale at a local grocery store, along with the large cuts of pork. This year, however, I couldn't find them. I know that store makes it's own sausage, so I decided to ask at the butcher counter.

I was told they didn't sell the casings anymore, due to health and safety concerns.

I was told this, standing directly in front of the case of store-made sausages for sale.

Made with the same casings they refused to sell me, due to health and safety concerns.

The clerk couldn't understand why I then asked if the sausages they were selling were safe to eat.

The logic, it hurts.

So, I drove around the corner to an actual butcher shop, that had no problem selling me a bundle of casings, for the low, low price of $4!

Intestines Casings

Soaking in water

The casing have to be soaked and rinsed well, as they are preserved with salt. I cut the casing into four lengths, to make it easier to work with. I greased the stuffer attachment with lard, then slipped the casing onto it, tied a knot, and started stuffing!

Length of casing on the stuffer.

Knot at the beginning

One length done!

Coil of Italian sausage

Italian sausage, all linked up!

Chorizo sausage

Finished coil of Sage sausage

Sage sausage in links

Garlic pepper sausage

I ran out of casing right at the very end, with about a half a pound of meat left. No problem - I simply left it as loose sausage. I probably could have stuffed the casings a bit more, but it's not bad for a first attempt. I did have one break, when I was making links. I need to work on my link-making skills, that's for sure! And this is definitely a job where two people would make it a LOT easier.

But, it's not a hard, long or expensive job, at all. From start to finish, it took me around 5 hours, which includes all the chopping, measuring and clean-ups along the way. I disassembled and washed the grinder/stuffer a few times during the process, both just to clear it (the grinder especially needs to be cleared after a bit) and to make sure everything was clean enough.

So, now that I've made "real" sausage, would I do it again? In a heartbeat. With the proper equipment, it's an easy, inexpensive way to get great sausages. And I need to practise my technique. And perfect my recipes. And really, one can't ever have too much sausage...

Do you see what I see?

Do you see it?

No?

Do you see it now?

No??

How about now?

Isn't it cool! Yes, that is indeed a tomato hornworm being parasitized by a wasp - the white things are the wasp eggs, and when the larvae hatch, they feed on the hornworm.  Bwahahahahhahahaha!  I love nature in action, especially when it means I don't have to squish that damn thing!

If you ever see a parasitized hornworm in your garden, do NOT kill it. Let it live, so that the wasps can reach adulthood, and go out and kill more hornworms. Natural insect control for the win!

As the tomato season winds down...

Yes, it's that sad, dismal time of year once again. The time where night time temperatures start to drop into the 60s (and even lower), signalling the beginning of the end.

And for me, it's time to give the tomato plants a hair cut.

While the tomato plants are all still flowering, there is no way those flowers will have time to develop into tomatoes. So, I went in and cut out a lot of dead/dying leaves, growing shoots with flowers, and any tomatoes too small to grow and ripen. Even though our first frost is (hopefully) a ways away, the cooler temperatures mean the small fruits simply won't grow, and I'd rather have the plants spend their remaining energy on ripening the existing, larger fruits.

The pile of trimmings. Lots of dead leaves- Septoria leaf blight was an issue this year.

Trimmed plant. Some almost ripe tomatoes, and a few green ones that will hopefully still grow and ripen.

Oh, and do NOT wear your good clothes when working in the tomato patch. Because, the plants are covered in...

... shiny, happy, glistening little trichomes (microscopic hairs) on the tomato plants that result in...

... this. Green gunk, aka Tomato Tar.

This stuff will NOT come off with just soap and water, and WILL stain your nice white hand towels. Ask me how I know. Rubbing alcohol to the rescue: before you wet your hands, rub some rubbing alcohol on them. Then soap and water can do their trick.

So, how did this season go? Not bad, not bad at all. I tried a couple of cherry tomatoes in pots, and was not happy with the results - I only got a handful of tomatoes off of each plant. Of course, I do have a tomato thief in my midst...

"That wasn't a tomato seed in my beard, honest!"

Yeah. When your dog comes in with tomato seeds all around her mouth, that might just be the reason you aren't getting as many tomatoes as you thing you should.

"I'm the good dog!" Yes, but you are SCRUFFY!

But even with the dastardly thieving, the plants in the pots were no where near as large as their counterparts in the garden. So next year, no tomatoes in pots. Except maybe one...

Prolific monster - Aunt Ruby's German Green cherry tomato

I grew a green tomato this year: Aunt Ruby's German Green cherry tomato. It farking took over the ENTIRE bed! And talk about prolific! The only problem (in addition to being the tomato that ate New York) was that it's, well, green. And thus, it's hard to tell when it's ripe - especially in my typically over-grown tomato bed. But since I REALLY liked the taste of it, I'm thinking that growing it in a pot next year will solve two problems: it wouldn't be quite as monstrous, and it would be easier to keep an eye on the fruits and pick them when ripe.

For other varieties - well, I don't know. I'll have one and a half beds for tomatoes next year (the other half is devoted to sweet peppers), and I give each plant 4 square feet, so that means 18 plants (no, that is NOT too many for one person - and one thieving dog). 10-12 of those will be pastes - and no, I still don't have a favourite paste tomato. The Federle this year had nice fruit, but inconsistent sizes, and it wasn't that productive. I grew Amish paste last year, which was really productive, but it had tiny fruit - a pain in the arse to peel for canning. And I'd like a determinate variety for paste tomatoes - it's easier to have a few big canning days, rather than have dribs and drabs of tomatoes coming in over time, in my opinion.

I still want indeterminate varieties for eating tomatoes, though - and Stupice will be back. I can't argue with a variety that gives me tomatoes that early! Other than that, I don't know.

Sob.

Taste is SO individual. For example, I think I'm the only person who liked the German Green. And while I found the yellow cherry okay (at best), my neighbour RAVED about them. I'm tempted to toss some money at my local tomato genius, and ask her to send me a selection of tomatoes that taste like tomatoes :)

But still, life is good. Even though the tomato season is winding down, I picked over three baskets today (those are 3L baskets, if anyone is wondering - and a bushel is around 35 L). I'll have one more big canning session, and get some crushed tomatoes done, and maybe another batch of sauce. And there are still tomatoes in the garden, soaking up the last of the summer sun. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get two full months of fresh tomato eating this year.

A garden tomato, every day, from July 12 to September 12? Not bad at all!

Sauce, salad, sandwich - the best of the summer, all in one fruit!

How to Make a Hot Pepper Ristra

Or, more accurately, how I made a hot pepper ristra*. Because, of course I can't do it the normal way ;)

I grew 4 cayenne peppers plants this year, and wanted a way to both dry and store them. The traditional way of making a ristra uses a needle to thread the string through the pepper itself. I have issues with that:

• I don't have a needle large enough** for the twine I'm using, and I'm too cheap to buy one.
• Even if I did have a needle that large, I'd have to put it somewhere for 11 months of the year, and then remember, every August, where I put it.
• My peppers are not ready to pick all at the same time. So, if I used the needle method, I'd have to either keep threading it every time I had more peppers to add, or leave it on the string, which just seems like a bad idea to me ;)

So I decided to try my own method, just by tying the peppers onto the string.

Supplies: hot peppers (I only dry cayenne peppers this way - I'd have to use the dehydrator for larger peppers, due to the humidity), heavy string (I used garden twine), and scissors.

1. Tie a loop into the end. This will be what you use to hang up the resulting string.

2. Start a second knot in the string, close to the loop.

3. Snug the knot up as much as you can, while still leaving room for the pepper stem. This helps, since if you leave the knot too big, trying to hold the pepper in the knot while tightening it at the same time is hard. At least for me. You might be more adept ;)

4. Put the stem of the pepper into the knot, and make it as tight as you can. Note to self: leaving the stems longer helps.

5. Start a second knot, close to the first.
 

6. Add the second pepper, and tighten the knot.

7. Lather, rinse, repeat. If anyone is looking closely, you'll see I changed the order of the peppers: I had to try this a couple of times to get the spacing right. Too close, and the peppers radiate out in a circle (also, spacing the peppers a bit further apart increases air flow and helps them dry). Too far apart, and it just looks odd. Keep the extra twine on the string, and add more peppers as they ripen.

8. Hang to dry and store. Then eat throughout the winter, in pasta sauces and chili and pizza and...

No, it's not Martha Stewart good, but it works for me, and no needle required!

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*Fancy pants name for "string of dried peppers".
**I do have a large-eyed darning needle, but it's plastic, and I don't think it would hold up to the peppers. Besides, I don't know where it is...

The Garden in August

In this last week of August, the garden is indefinitely winding down.

The second bed of potatoes is almost ready for harvest. These are (hopefully) my winter potatoes, so I'll leave them in the ground until the foliage is completely dead, then dig them up. I thought that two beds of potatoes might be a bit much, but considering I've eaten my way through at least 3/4 of the first bed already...
 

Potatoes!

The garlic has all been harvested, and it's apparently a Goldilocks year. 

Garlic!

Onions and garlic hanging out in the shed on my fancy-schmancy curing tray.

I planted three varieties (no, I don't remember what they are, because, even after all these years, I'm still under the illusion that I'll actually remember things like variety names). One variety was too small - it produced wee, little, tiny, pain-in-the-ass heads. I've already used the entire harvest, making roasted tomato sauce. The heads were so small, the easiest way to use them was to roast them - trying to separate and peel the minuscule cloves was. not. fun.  Another variety was (almost) too big. As in almost-as-big-as-my-hand big. And each individual clove is enormous. I don't remember it being this big when I planted it...

It's huge!

And one variety was just right :) I'll keep cloves from these two varieties (as long as the taste is okay) for replanting. Oddly enough, I'm second guessing myself, and I'm tempted to try some fall planting again.

Just right - and purple!

I pulled out the Lazy Housewife beans - they aren't really producing, and I don't like them anyway, so off to the compost bin with them! I'm keeping the Rattlesnakes going for a while, even though they've only produced a handful of beans in the last couple of weeks - hopefully with some more rain and cooler temperatures, I'll get another flush of beans. I'm amazed though - last year at this point, the bean trellises were so full, they were in danger of falling over. This year? Ha!

But what about the Scarlet Runner beans? Complete, utter, 100% failure. Oh, they are pretty enough, but not one bean from 32 plants. Not one.

We don't need to be productive because we are pretty!

I'm assuming they aren't getting pollinated? Because they are flowering heavily, but pods simply aren't forming. And there are pollinators around, right Katy?

What's that? Can I eat it?

Carpenter bee - that explains the sawdust in the raised beds!

There are also hummingbirds around, so I'm not quite sure why I'm not getting any beans. I do know, however, that it's doubtful this plant will make a repeat appearance in the vegetable garden. The flower garden, maybe...

Burgundy okra

One crop that will come back is okra.  I'm really liking it, especially in vegetable soup. I had hoped to save seeds this year, but had one of those brain fart moments: Even though I know they are insect pollinated, I didn't think about cross-pollination. And since I grew two varieties...

I still might keep the seeds, since I really have no preference between the two, and see what I get. And to all those people I promised okra seeds - oops! Yes, I should really have known better :(

 I'm cautiously optimistic on the squash front. Even though my grand total for zuchinni zucchini (OMG - it only took two attempts this time!!) this year will be four, and the cucumbers are a complete wash, and the winter squash plants look like complete, wilty, mildewy crap, I might, just might, actually harvest something from them this year. There are still two Chersonskayas - the others, unfortunately, never grew and ended up rotting :(

Look at the stem getting all brown and hard!

Smaller, but still okay. And yes, that is an acorn squash along side.

Ugh.

There are two good Winter Sibleys too, which I hope will make it.

Winter Sibley among the ruins (and weeds) :)

And hopefully 2-3 spaghetti squash. 

Hang in there, little squash!

The acorn squash are still looking good, but I'm kinda disappointed - only 4-5 fruits in total, and they are small. Oh well - they'll be a good size for individual meals. And really, squash is squash - considering the failure from past years, I shouldn't be complaining about any that I'm actually able to grow!

The sweet peppers are all done, and had a respectable harvest this year, even though each pepper was somewhat small - lack of water, I think.

Yummy yellow peppers.

 And of course, the tomatoes are still going strong. I'm still picking at least one 3-liter basket every day - not bad at all!

Have I mentioned that I love summer?