One of the many pleasures of this seed-ordering time of year is sharing seed order lists with friends and family. I send my sister Sarah my annual order list and enjoy seeing hers. And it’s always fun to have seed conversations with my neighbor Carol and with other gardening friends. In this spirit of sharing, I’ve made a table listing all the seeds I’m planning to plant this year, some brief comments about why I’ve chosen these vegetables and these varieties, and very often links to posts I’ve written about many of these vegetables over the years of this Lopez Island Kitchen Garden blog. I hope this list will be a useful resource and, more important, that anyone who has other vegetables and vegetable varieties they like will share them in return.
Here’s a key to the seed catalog sources listed by letter after each variety:
A = Adaptive Seeds
F= Fedco Seeds
J = Johnny’s Selected Seeds
MT = Moose Tubers
PT = Pinetree
SSE = Seed Savers Exchange
TSC = Territorial Seed Company
UP = Uprising Seeds
| Seed | What I’ll plant in 2018 | Comments |
| Arugula | Arugula F | I plant arugula in August as a fall and winter green. |
| Basil | Genovese F
Sweet F Round Midnight F
|
Genovese and Sweet are both good green basil. Round Midnight is purple and a lovely accent color with sliced tomatoes. |
| Beans, Bush green | Maxibel F | Maxibel is my favorite bush green bean. |
| Beans, Pole fresh | Fortex UP
Golden Gate F Northeaster J Rattlesnake F |
I like the mixture of colors and shapes of these pole beans.
|
| Beans, Pole shell and dry | Aunt Jean
Good Mother Stallard Soissons Verte Tarbais Seeds for all of these I’ve saved over the years or gotten from friends |
Beans that don’t dry on the vine make great shell beans.
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| Beans, Bush shell and dry | Cranberry
Drabo Black Turtle Seeds for all of these I’ve saved over the years or gotten from friends |
Cranberry I like best as a shell bean. Drabo and Black Turtle I like as a dry bean.
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| Beets | Avalanche TSC
Kestrel F Touchstone Gold F |
I like to grow red, yellow and white beets. TSC used to carry Kestrel then dropped it. I’m glad Fedco brought it back. I was happy to order it this year. |
| Broccoli | DiCicco J
Piracicaba F Umpqua F |
I grew Piracicaba last year and liked its constant side shoot production. |
| Brussels Sprouts | Diablo F
Gustus F Hestia TSC Igor TSC Nautic TSC |
Gustus was my favorite for flavor and hardiness in 2017. I’ll grow more Gustus relative to the others this year. |
| Cabbage | January King A | I continue to like January King best for winter cabbage. |
| Cantaloupe | Prescott Fond Blanc F | After a few years off, I’m going to try cantaloupe again. |
| Cauliflower | Fioretto 60 F
Snow Crown F |
Fioretto with its side-shoot growth habit seems worth a try. I’ll grow Snow Crown cauliflower as a back-up. |
| Carrots | Mokum F
Purple Haze F Red Cored Chantenay F White Satin F Yellowstone F |
In addition to orange Mokum and Chantenay, Purple Haze, White Statin and Yellowstone offer beautiful colors as well as sweet, crisp flavor. Purple Haze is my favorite for flavor and beauty of these three colorful, non-orange carrots. |
| Celeriac | Brilliant F
Tellus A |
Both celery root varieties have great flavor but Tellus is a tiny bit sweeter. |
| Chard | Argentata F
Fordhook F Rainbow F |
Rainbow chard is so pretty.
Fordhook is winter hardy in the garden and tender on the plate. I’m trying Argentata this year for its thicker stems. |
| Collards | Cascade Glaze F
Flash TSC |
Despite its rough appearance, collards are very tender when sautéed. It’s a great winter green alone or mixed with cabbage. |
| Corn | Café F
Candy Mountain A |
Café matured early in 2017 and was very sweet. I’m trying Candy Mountain for comparison this year |
| Eggplant | Diamond F
Galine F Rosa Bianca F |
These three eggplant produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche. |
| Escarole/Endive/
Radicchio |
Borca A
Pan di Zucchero F
Indigo F Fiero F Radicchio de Treviso F |
Borca and Pan di Zucchero, both sugarloaf chicories, have become one of our favorite winter greens.
The red versions are great too. |
| Fava | Windsor F | I always grow favas and like Windsor for its size and rich flavor. |
| Fennel | Mantovano A
Preludio J |
These two fennel varieties have been very bolt resistant in my garden, planted in early spring and again in late summer. |
| Ground Cherry | Ambrosia Husk Cherry F | After a few years off, I’m growing ground cherries again this year. |
| Kale | Lacinato F
Lacinato, Dazzling Blue A Red Russian F Redbor TSC White Russian F Winterbor TSC |
If I could grow only one vegetable, it would be kale. Search my blog for the many entries on growing kale, kale puree, kale flower buds and kale salad |
| Leeks | Bleu de Solaize F
Lancelot F |
These two leek varieties seem most winter hardy, most rust resistant and sweetest. |
| Lettuce | Super Gourmet Blend TSC | I like lettuce mixes. They are a good way to get variety without buying a lot of different seed packets. |
| Mache | Granon A
Vit TSC |
I can’t imagine not having mache in the winter garden. |
| Mustard | Red Giant F | Sautéed red mustard is a favorite winter side dish. |
| Onions | Newburg A
Patterson F Redwing F Purplette J |
I miss Copra! Newburg and Patterson are OK substitutes but not as sweet as Copra.
Redwing is a great storage red onion. Purplette is a spring favorite. |
| Pac Choi | Shuko F | I’ve never grown Pac Choi so this will be an adventure. |
| Parsley | Gigante d’Italia F | My favorite parsley |
| Parsnip | Gladiator TSC | What would winter meals be without sweet parsnips? |
| Peas, Snap | Sugarsnap F | I continue to plant this original sugar snap pea despite the off-types that still appear and the lack of disease resistance. I like the flavor better than any other sugar snap pea. |
| Peppers | Red sweet:
Carmen F King of the North F Lady Bell F Revolution F Orange sweet: Etudia A Gourmet F Yellow sweet: Flavorburst F Poblano spicy: Ancho Magnifico TSC Tiburon F |
Peppers produce reliably in my kitchen garden when grown in a cloche.
I grow red, orange and yellow sweet peppers for their flavor and colors and roast and freeze any that are left. Poblanos are mainly a winter treat, roasted and frozen in summer/fall and used thawed for sauces and mixed with mashed squash or potatoes in winter. |
| Potato | Daisy Gold MT
German Butterball MT |
At the recommendation of Will Bonsall, I grew Daisy Gold last year, really liked it and will grow it again.
German Butterball is an old favorite. Both store well. |
| Raab | Sorrento TSC | Though kale and other brassicas provide delicous raab-like flower buds in the spring, I like to grow a little raab in the fall. |
| Radish | Champion F
Cheriette F |
I grow radishes in the cool of spring and enjoy them alone and with new lettuce. These two varieties make pretty, mildly spicy red globes. |
| Rutabaga | Joan TSC | Earthy, sweet rutabaga is the perfect winter root. Search my blog for many root vegetable recipes. |
| Shallot | Ed’s Red | My friend Dave Sabold gives me seed of Ed’s Red. Shallots are another winter treat. |
| Spinach | Abundant Bloomsdale A | Some years I plant spinach in late fall and let it winter over and begin growing early in the spring. It’s always welcome in salads and wilted in butter. |
| Squash, Summer | Costata Romanesca F | Costata Romanesca is my favorite zucchini, flavorful and not watery. |
| Squash, Winter | Burpees Butterbush F
Hunter TSC Candystick Dessert Delicata A Honeyboat Delicata A Blue Kuri A Potimarron A Tetsukabuto PT Burgess Buttercup TSC |
While I like big winter squash like Buttercup and Blue Kuri for pies, mashes and soups, I’ve also grown to like smaller, one-meal squash like Honeyboat Delicata for roasting. And for the past few years I’ve also liked Butternut squashes for both roasting and stews. |
| Tomato | Amish paste F
Brandywine, Pink F Cherokee Carbon TSC Cherokee Purple TSC Darby Red & Yellow A Dester SSE Fiachetto de Manduria UP Genuwine TSC Golden Jubilee (aka Golden Sunray) F Hillbilly TSC Jasper Cherry F Jaune de Flamme F Momotaro F Mortgage Lifter TSC Orange Paruche TSC Prudens Purple F Speckled Roman F Sunchocola Cherry TSC Weavers Black Brandywine F |
Each year, I grow old favorites, return to some I’ve grown and liked in the past (underlined), and try some new (italics) that look intriguing. I was especially pleased this year to find in the Fedco description of Golden Jubilee that this tomato used to be offered under the name Golden Sunray, an old favorite of mine. Search my blog for many post about drying tomatoes, roasting tomatoes, training tomatoes and growing tomatoes.
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| Turnips | Gold Ball F
Oasis F White Egg F Gilfeather F |
Spring turnips are an amazing treat. Try them!
Gilfeather winter turnip is just as great a treat. Try them too!
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Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens 