A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Good news today; my bean payment arrived finally at it's destination and Prairie Garden Seed sent me a message that my order us under way. Yay! I had actually forgotten what was on that seed list. Once again, I have WAY overshot in seeds, having bigger eyes than I do gardens, But, I know the tomatoes will germinate fine for years if keep them in the basement. I am expanding the last corner of the garden so it's going to expand a little this year as well....

Some of the tomatoes that might make the final cut - Ruby Treasure, Ostravske, Alpha, Apple Tree Leaf, Prairie Pride, Canada Northstar, Wagner Blue Green. I'm also getting a bunch from a lady in Alberta who specializes in tomatoes for tough growing conditions; drought, high heat & short summer tolerant varieties especially. I've not grown much of that kind of tomato, we'll see what they're like. (I'm not a fan of sour tomatoes.) I think most of them are from Nikitovka Seeds, and a fellow who was very active in tomato circles from Belarus. Also found a source for Prairie Fire and Royal Finger (Korolevskiy Paletc). Been wanting to try PF since it came out.

Got a few new peas too, Sweet Jade and Northern Sweet. One's a sheller, one a snap. When I see a new pea I've never tried I can't help but get it!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

This is good to know @Pulsegleaner, you actually grew this species! Interestingly, Richters lists viride and gratissimum separately, calling one East Indian Basil aka Vana Tulsi and the other West Indian Basil aka Adefetue. However, it's probably just a double listing. I notice they have Huacatay listed twice too. I love the selection there, but from an informational point of view they don't run a tight ship. Sometimes the pictures are not even a match to the listing. My Amsterdam celery packet from them years ago said to stratify in the fridge for 3/4 of a year? And calling them is 50/50 chance of result.

So you didn't feel the plant had any redeeming qualities? My plan was to grow it as an annual, since I don't usually overwinter plants. (While my overwintering peppers are doing good, my overwintereing geraniums are dying!! Argh!) I was hoping for some odiferous power force; I love to grow plants that are full of smelly goodness. Even if I wind up with the crushed leaves as a little scent source. MInd you, I loathe traditional thyme in food. Thymol as a medicinal smell I might like, cause hey, I love camphor basil. But I would want the plant to be able to make seed.

Well, I found none really, but everyone has their own taste.
As far as I know, Vana Tusli is O.sanctum, same as Krishna Tulsi. Which one you grow depend on what you are planning to use it for. If you want it for the medicinal power, the religious implications, or to turn the stems into prayer beads, you plant Vana, since it's bigger, more medically active and it has thicker, woodier stems. If you want the smell, you grow Krishna, since it smells nicer (I think of it as a sort of anise-watermelon mix.)

Speaking of thyme scented herbs if Richters has it (I don't know if it does, I didn't check) skip conehead thyme (thymus or cordiothymus capitatus) . It's thyme smell is one of the most powerful I know (the blossom heads have so much they are actually spicy hot, like black pepper) but it seems to be a very finicky plant that can die spontaneously as often as it survives. It also grows quite slowly, and isn't winter hardy, even for me.)

eta: My Richter's list continues to increase (thanks @Zeedman!) - Balkan mint Clinopodium thymifolium, Palmarosa Cymbopogon martinii, Cardinal basil and maybe Epazote. Been wanting to try that for years but never had any germinate for me. The capers - I did have some! They never germinated either! But that might be a good thing since I don't care for them much outside of diy tartar sauce.

Well, Seed Zoo things are catch as catch can, since they don't regenerate them and the seed can be extremely old.

Tartar sauce uses capers? I though it was chopped pickles. I don't use the stuff (I'm more into the British tradition of using malt vinegar on my fried fish and seafood) so it's not something that has come up. I tend to think more in terms of piccatta when I think of capers, or making a Barese pizza (basically, capers on a Margherita.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Tartar sauce uses capers? I though it was chopped pickles.

Both. Plus chives & parsley. I actually dislike the swimmers, so I need a heady cover on the taste to get it down. Hence, the capers.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Both. Plus chives & parsley. I actually dislike the swimmers, so I need a heady cover on the taste to get it down. Hence, the capers.

I wish our postal system had reached the point of rapidity where one could send perishable food through the post without needed to refrigerate it to keep it good, since there are some places near me with aioli's that would work great in terms of bold flavors (the lemon garlic one one pizza place uses for it's fried calamari, the basil one another uses), any of a few Greek/Middle eastern places and their garlic sauce.) The same pizza place makes a lemon garlic and caper sauce for their Spiedini all Romana on Tuesdays that would knock your tastebuds off (alas, it also knocks a hole in my digestive system, which is why I don't eat it anymore.)

 

[heirloomgal]

@Pulsegleaner Now that you've mentioned thyme I noticed that Richters has quite a unique selection, some of which seem to really deviate from traditional thyme - which is great. The Iberian White Thyme and the 'Orangelo' Thyme look really interesting. I may just try one of them. Maybe two.

 

[ducks4you]

You can tell that I have "time" to kill, waiting this evening on my canning to finish.
So, I had not ever heard of Richters--looked them up.

Richters Herbs - Medicinal, Culinary, Aromatic - Plants & Seeds

1000 varieties of culinary, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Plants, seeds, dried herbs, books, videos, software, seminars, workshops, conferences. For home gardeners and commercial growers. Shipped worldwide.

www.richters.com

Here is their list of different thymes:

Products found!
Your search for "thyme" returned these items:

English Thyme
Oregano-Thyme™ Mint
Caraway Thyme
Compact Thyme
French Thyme
Fredo Thyme
Silver Thyme
Lemon Carpet™ Thyme
Creeping Lemon Thyme
Lemon Thyme
Golden Lemon Thyme
Mystic Lemon Thyme
Purple Carpet Lemon
Villa Nova Lemon
Zambesi Lemon Thyme
Creeping Thyme
Lavender Thyme
Lime Thyme
Mint Thyme
Minus Thyme
Nutmeg Thyme
Orange Balsam Thyme
Orange Spice™ Thyme
Rose Petal™ Thyme
Silver Queen Lemon Thyme
Wild Thyme
Woolly Thyme
Broadleaf Thyme
Silver Edge Broadleaf Thyme
Mosquito Guard Lemon Thyme...
Iberian White Thyme
Orange Thyme
Spanish Lemon Thyme
Spanish Red Thyme
Royal Thyme
Thyme Oil

 

[ducks4you]

I watched their "Seed Zoo" video, btw.
Fascinating!

 

[heirloomgal]

I watched their "Seed Zoo" video, btw.
Fascinating!

It is a neat enterprise for sure. Joseph Simcox is quite the world travelling seed explorer! I check him out on instagram occasionally, super smart man.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

It is a neat enterprise for sure. Joseph Simcox is quite the world travelling seed explorer! I check him out on instagram occasionally, super smart man.

Well, he is SOMETIMES. Not that I am trying to denigrate the work he does, it is very important. But sometimes, when he finds something unusual he automatically assumes it is super rare when it is, in fact, not. Back when he also ran the Explorers Collection (basically the same thing as the Seed Zoo, but on Baker Creek instead of Richter's) there were quite a few times when I would look at what was being offered, and say "I can get that by the bagful at _____" He had rice beans in the club, but he had the same kind as you could pick up at any Asian supermarket (and he also had the WRONG kind, the kind that CAN'T flower within US climates). Ditto the Russian oil sunflower, to get that all you need is to buy some birdseed.

In short, when going through his lists, it's usually a good idea to check if there is some other, cheaper way to get the same thing.

 

[heirloomgal]

So, now that we’re knee deep in snow the seeds keep us warm with thoughts of nice things to come. The ‘Yaki Blue Fawn‘ peppers have sprouted! And you can tell already they'll have unique colouring. Couple others sprouted too. I only planted the small podded peppers so far, not the bigger sweet ones.

Targu Mures can, apparently, get up to 150 pods on a single plant even though the plants stay fairly compact. We'll see if it lives up to that!

DD‘s 2023 turmeric experiment is officially complete. She planted these in May, and harvested yesterday. For the small pot it was in, and the teeny bit she planted, she collected a good amount of roots. It looks just like ginger, until you rub it on your skin and it turns you orange. Smells very turmeric-ish too. She’s so happy with it that she replanted 3 of the roots to try again.

@Zeedman I thought you might find this interesting, you are one of a small number of gardeners I know that grow these. I didn't realize that selections have been made. https://deaflora.de/Shop/Litchitomaten/