As each growing season is planned, along with the tried and true favorites, I always like to try some new things. After pouring through the mountain of seed catalogs and following rabbit trails all over the Internet, the decisions have been made: which new veggie varieties will make it to the ground this year? (A few of) the winners are:
Jade Cross Brussels Sprouts….hold the applause…this is the first time I’ve tried Brussels Sprouts in YEARS. This variety matures quicker so maybe I won’t have to torment over it in the garden for so long….
Russet Potatoes–going for some bakers here in addition to the Kennebec and Red Pontiac.
In the pepper category, Ancho San Martin, Georgia Flame, Cabernet, Purple Cayennes, and Lipstick peppers join the myriad of peppers already on the books. Peppers seem to like the soil in one particular garden here on the farm, so I try to rotate them there every couple of years.
New salad tomatoes being grown this year include every kind of salad tomato you can imagine and a couple more. I’ve really gotten into the salad tomato mix–it’s a real hit with the Wild Things followers and I LOVE to package them up–it’s like playing with M&M’s. All the colorful and tasty salad tomatoes will be marvelous on top of the new lettuce varieties. Names like Cherokee, Panisse, Skyphos, and Summertime will join the popular gourmet leaf lettuce mixes AND two iceburg-type lettuces will be trialed in the garden this year.
A horticultural bean (eaten shelled but not dried) called Tongue of Fire has arrived for planting and will be growing along with the usual Roma II, Blue Lake, and Jumbo beans. A filet bean called “Masai” is scheduled to make an appearance at some point during the season as well.
Lots of heirloom tomatoes will be planted again as in years before, and a few new ones are going to be added; Nepal, Cherokee Purple, Holy Land–hopefully they will be worth saving seed from for future gardens– Hippie Zebra –that one sounds like a keeper to me 🙂
A couple new summer squash varieties, Magda and Safari, will be added, and oh, I almost forgot the coolest one of all…..Veronica Romanesco. It’s classed with cauliflower but it looks like some kind of cool alien vegetable–
Well, that’s about all of the new crops I’m going to share…..I can’t tell you EVERYTHING…. if you’re within the reaches of Wild Things this coming season, you’ll just have to check it out for yourself.
Wild Things Farm 