Are you collecting a few seed catalogues by now? Isn’t it fun to see what’s coming for spring 2018! I want to tell you about a seed catalogue we received from some very dear friends this Christmas. This seed catalogue is like the Cadillac of seed catalogues, with over 350 glossy, beautifully illustrated pages of all kinds of vegetables, fruits and flowers. It’s the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, and while this amazing company hails from Missouri, it is still a delight and an education to read it. (You can also visit it online at www.rareseeds.com)
Make a cup of tea and let’s peruse it together. These are heirloom seeds, and the company actually has seed-hunters travel the globe for seeds that are rare or endangered. Their introduction on the first page says that “People want the food their grandmothers grew and cooked, as well as trying the foods of other cultures. Seeds and gardening have an amazing way of bringing cultures and families together.” Isn’t it true!
Look at the pages dedicated to beets; there are many of our favorites like “Chioggia” and “Detroit Dark red”, but exciting new (or old) varieties like “Cylindra or Formanova” which is an heirloom variety from Denmark, giving us long, cylindrical roots that are great for slicing. Or “Okragly Ciemnoczerwony”, a smooth, round beet, very sweet, that originated in the old Soviet Union. Or, lads and lassies, there’s “Macgregor’s Favorite”, a dark ruby-red beet and Scottish heirloom that was almost extinct.
Moving on to carrots, there’s a variety called “Black Nebula” that is “one of the darkest carrots available from skin to core”. This purple beauty is good for us because of the high amount of anthocyanins (a type of antioxidant found in purple or blue foods, such as blueberries or black currants or red cabbage), and if you are into making your own veggie drinks, this will stay a stormy purple, or bright pink if you add a squirt or two of lemon. Imagine how delightful this carrot would look on our plates! Let’s visit Switzerland, the country that gives us “Gniff” carrots, the seeds re-discovered in a village named Bre in the 1950’s. These carrots too are a purple color, and a good storage carrot.
Gosh, I wish you could see the pages devoted to corn: beautiful cobs of corn in every color under the sun, including “Sehsapsing Delaware Black Flint Corn” and “Big Horse Spotted Corn” in blues, oranges and blacks. “Glass Gem” perfectly describes the kernels of this corn, each one looking like a glass pearl.
Okay, we have to skip ahead faster, I can’t wait for us to look at more things, like the “Metki Dark Green Serpent Cucumber-Melon” from Armenia that grows up to three feet long! Or how about the “Mexican Sour Gherkin” cucumbers that have just a hint of lemon.
There are stunning salad greens… mouth-watering melons… amazing peppers… and each kind has a beautiful photo and a description of growing habits and uses. Really, this is an outstanding reference book. As always, I encourage you to send away for seed catalogues, because you will always learn something new and exciting and be inspired to try new things!
The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be holding their first meeting of 2018 on Wednesday, February 21 at 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street. Mark the date on your calendar! Everyone is welcome! And if you would like to see what’s new with the group, visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca
We look forward to seeing all our members, and we also extend an invitation to interested gardeners to join us. Have a great week!
