Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Heirloom, Organic, Locally-grown Veggie Starts are in!!!






We got our first batch of Heirloom, Organic, Locally-grown Veggie Starts! Here's what we have:

3-packs and 4-packs $3

6-packs $4


Black Plum - This high yield reddish-black plum tomato is very sweet and the fruit is crack resistant. A heirloom from Russia. Excellent in sauces.


Yellow Pear - Yellow bite-sized shaped fruit. Prolific!


Red Pear - Pear-shaped cherry tomatoes.


Goldie - Great flavor and huge fruit! This golden-colored heirloom tomato has been grown and seeds have been passed down by families for 150 years.


Comonaut Volkov - This is a large meaty tomato, an heirloom variety from Ukraine, and it was taken to the International Space Station by Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, thus its name.



Pruden's Purple - Large dark fruit with rich, sweet flavor.



Brandywine- A favorite. Meaty with the perfect hint of tartness. Beefsteak fruits average 1 lb.





Rose de Berne- Beautiful pink tomato. A favorite!


Amish Paste - Medium sized fruit. Great for slicing and great for sauce.



Striped German - Beautiful 1-2 lb. fruit with red-yellow stripes and dense, juicy, red-yellow streaked flesh. Excellent sweet, complex flavors. Produces till frost.





New Girl - Small to medium fruit. Ripens early!





Moskovich - Yum! Smooth sweet taste, and this one ripens extra-early! Small to medium fruit, and the plants are prolific.



Cayenne Pepper - Long, red, and HOT!

'Doe Hill' Pepper - Small, sweet, yellow peepers. Big producer and ripen early.

'Bizeynne' Pepper - We don't have any info on this one yet. We'll call the farmer and find out!




'EJW Green' Cabbage (Early Jersey Wakefield)- Early, dark green cabbage. Fantastic raw or cooked.

'Red Express' Cabbage - From Hudson Valley Seed Library - "If your garden was a train station, and cabbages were trains, Red Express would arrive ahead of schedule. Because it is a smaller cabbage and was bred for Northern climates, it's an early producer. This red cabbage is the perfect size for home gardening. Dense but not too large, you can try planting this cabbage closer together than most. Great for a bright coleslaw or homemade sauerkraut."


'Shacko' Pak choi - Also called bok choy, you can steam it, stir fry, and toss it in soups.

'Prize Choy' Bok choi - Upright habit and vigorous! Both the leaves and the stalks are edible. Use as a replacement for celery.


Piriciacaba broccoli - About halfway between a heading broccoli and a broccoli raab, these succulent tender small green heads with very large beads make delightful raw eating. Very loose heads, lots of side shoots, sweet stalks. Even the fairly large leaves make excellent greens. Good hot and cold temperature tolerance.


'Apple Green' Eggplant - Great reviews from Local Harvest - "What a great eggplant for northern gardeners! Apple Green is round, pale green, and very delicious. The fruits are 6"x4" and mild with non-bitter flesh. Produces early and abundantly on a modest sized plant. Developed by the late Dr. Elwyn Meador at the University of New Hampshire for northern gardeners, but also does very well in warmer climates. Keeps producing until frost if kept picked."

Rainbow Chard - Another Hudson Valley Seed Library selection - "Other names for this colorful and tasty type of Swiss chard include Bright Lights and Five Color Silver Beet. Its wavy leaves and colorful stems are irresistibly pretty. It's also really easy to grow. One sowing will provide harvestable greens all season, though it's smart to do a mid-summer sowing in case disease pops up.

One of the tastiest ways to prepare chard is to heat some oil over low heat in a tall pan, toss in some sesame seeds until toasted, and then toss in a mess of washed chard until it wilts. Add soy sauce and a little sweetener: so good!"

4-packs of Lettuce

Dino Kale - More HVSL! - "Crinkly, deep green kale of exceptional eating quality.
The blue-green foliage of this kale is nearly reptilian: deeply hued, rippled, and tough. Despite its rough appearance, it is extremely sweet and tender, just like our canine companion Kale. It's also Kale's favorite brassica, as it is for gardeners worldwide, who have given it many names: Lacinato, Cavolo Nero, Tuscan Kale, Palm Tree Kale, and Dinosaur Kale. A consistent, long-season garden companion, Dino Kale will never go extinct as long as you grow it each year."

Red Russian Kale _ And one more from HVSL - "Among kales, Red Russian shines: its tender leaves are bluish-green framed by pinkish-red veins. It's as at home in a decorative border as it is in a productive row. Because its leaves are flat and thin, it wilts very quickly; if cooking with thicker, curlier kale varieties, toss it in later to keep it from overcooking."