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Bean - Contender Bush Green Bean
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This bush green bean is an early compact plant that requires no staking and does well in our cool climate. A reliable, heavy producing variety with tasty, string-less beans make it a long-time classic.
Nitrogen fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant (included).
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Bean - Indian Woman Yellow Shelling Bean
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An excellent shelling bush bean that does well in our climate where summers tend to be cool and short. Yellow, medium-sized beans with great flavor and texture that reliably mature to dryness in a shorter growing season. Now considered a rare heirloom, this bean originated in Mexico & made its way to Sweden before arriving in Montana via a Swedish family in the 1800’s. Nitrogen fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant.
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Bean - Kentucky Wonder Green Bean
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This pole bean, aka “Old Homestead,” is a treasured heirloom dating from about 1864. A delicious and prolific green bean with a brown seed and a smooth stringless 7" pod, it has stood the test of time. As a pole bean it does require staking or trellising.
Nitrogen fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant (included).
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Bean - Windsor Fava
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A frost-tolerant classic, old world shell bean variety with huge seeds, perfect for high latitude climates. Likes cool weather and is a very dependable yielder. Sweet, meaty beans also known as broad beans. Delicious fresh, dried or processed.
Nitrogen fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant (included).
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Beet - Cylindra
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This stout dark red "carrot-shaped" beet dating from about the 1880's is excellent for pickling, slicing, juicing and dehydrating. Roots are about 6-8 inches long and grow well in cool climates and alkaline soils. Can plant close together, and greens are sweet.
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Beet - Detroit Dark Red
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The classic beet. Round, red and vigorous with tasty nutrient-rich greens and roots. A true heirloom first introduced in 1892. Stores and cans well, can last all winter in root cellar. Grows well in cool climates and alkaline soils.
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Broccoli-De Cicco
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De Cicco Broccoli is a treasured Italian heirloom introduced to the US in the late 1800’s and for good reason. It is an abundant and early producer of delightfully flavored good sized, blue-green heads, from both the main stalk and side shoots. Delicious raw or cooked, it also freezes well. The flowers make tasty edible treats on their own or tossed in salads or stir-frys, and the seeds are great for sprouting too!
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Brussels Sprouts - Long Island Improved
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Brussels Sprouts are the hardiest of the cabbage family, perfect for our high latitude climate. This heirloom variety, originating in the 1890’s, grows to 20 inches tall and bears a heavy crop of firm flavorful sprouts over 1 inch across.
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Cabbage - Danish Ballhead
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This heirloom variety dates from 1887 and is still an excellent cabbage. Makes an delicious winter green as it keeps well without splitting and lasts through winter into spring. Heads are about 7 lbs, round and blue-green. Excellent in stir-fries, cole slaw & sauerkraut.
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Cabbage - Early Jersey Wakefield
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American heirloom cabbage from about 1840. Tight green cone-shaped heads up to 3 lb. One of the earliest cabbages of the season. Sweet and tender.
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Cabbage - Red Acre
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Beautiful deep red cabbage with hard compact heads and great flavor. Direct sowing seeds for later fall harvest produces smaller heads that store well through winter. Leaves make a pretty blue dye.
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Carrot - Nantes
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This handsome scarlet sweet-tasting heirloom carrot dates from about 1870 although it has been often improved. This variety is a core-less variety. It is our favorite for eating and juicing, due to its flavor, crispness and juiciness. 6-7” cylindrical and blunt-shaped roots. It is a good keeper and retains its flavor in storage.
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Carrot - Royal Chantenary
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These carrots are famous for their sweet flavor which holds up well in cooking. An heirloom introduced to the US from France in the 1800’s these large, thick, blunt carrots pull easily, store well in the root cellar, and grow well in heavy soils.,We think they the best over-all choice for a homestead.
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Cauliflower - Early Snowball
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This tasty heirloom dates from 1888. Solid packed, white, a very early producer with good head quality. In our opinion, it’s the best open-pollinated cauliflower variety for our climate! Tolerates light frosts at the beginning and end of season. Doesn't do well in prolonged hot weather.
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Chard - Golden
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A beautiful heirloom strain originally curated by the Abundant Life Seed Foundation. Emerald green baby leaves with yellow stems are especially mild and sweet. Stem color intensifies with age to a rich gold at maturity. Wonderful in salads and soups. Grows to about 20-24 inches tall.
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Chard - Rhubarb
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A beautiful old world vegetable closely related to the beet. Treasured for its juicy red stems and flavorful, nutritious dark green leaves. One sowing can provide greens all season, even in the heat of summer. Also known as Ruby Chard.
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Collards (Vates)
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This “Southern” green actually does very well in our northern climate. The large, open succulent dark green leaves have a distinctive hearty flavor and are full of vitamins. Leaf green make an excellent wrapper for raw sandwiches.
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Cucumber - Armenian
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This productive heirloom grey-green cucumber is actually related to the muskmelon and well deserves its Latin name "Cucumis melo". Although it can grow quite large, it does not get bitter; it is aromatic and has a mild and delicious flavor. No need to peel. Excellent salad cucumber, and pickles well. Best tasting fruit are about 12” in length.
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Eggplant - Diamond
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This beautiful deep purple eggplant comes from the Ukraine. It is a prolific early producer with a compact structure and does well in our cool, short season climate. The 6-9” long slender fruit have firm texture, a sweet, mild flavor and are rarely bitter.
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Greens - Arugula - Roquette
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A wonderful variety for arugula lovers. Native to the Mediterranean, arugula has been cultivated since Roman times, both for its flavor and its health and medicinal value. Sharp, spicy and peppery tasting leaves add flavor to any dish. One of the earliest to appear in the spring, this plant also tolerates hot weather.
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Greens - Cress - Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled
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Ridiculously easy, fast-growing, bolt-resistant salad green for the garden or a flat on your window sill. Grow it all year-round. Pretty leaves on easy to harvest erect stems, with delightful delicate flavor. Released through Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). Bred by Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds.
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Greens - French Sorrel
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(Rumex acetosa) This old-world perennial is an early spring green with crisp, arrow-shaped leaves and a lightly tart, lemony flavor. Moreover, it is fabulously nutritious, as the deep roots pull nutrients up into the leaves. Makes a great edible pasture cover crop. Plant it once and you’ll have it each spring. Roots also make a good fabric dye. A favorite for the permaculture, polyculture and homestead garden.
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Greens - Mustard - Mizuna
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This mustard is a very fast growing, mild-flavored, slightly spicy, attractive Japanese green. It produces a rosette of deeply lobed, tender greens. Vigorous and cold-tolerant, you can start it in the very early cool days of spring.
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Greens - Mustard - Red
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Mild, purple-veined bright green baby leaves that turn a gorgeous burgundy as they grow. Spicy mustard flavor increases with maturity. Excellent kimchi/pickling/vegetable fermenting ingredient. Cold-tolerant, you can start it in the early cool days of spring.
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Greens - Pak Choi
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This delicious, highly nutritious and mild-tasting vegetable comes to us from Asia where it is a classic, treasured heirloom. Thick succulent white stems and emerald green leaves. Harvest the whole plant or just the outer leaves for a continual harvest.
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Greens - Tatsoi
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A wonderful early, frost-hardy Asian green. Lots of greens on small sweet, flavorful white stalks. It does well in our cool springs; or plant it in the fall for a really early spring green. Harvest whole or cut leaves like a "cut and come again" green.
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Ground Cherry - Cape Gooseberry
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Also known as Cape Gooseberry and Golden Berry, this relative of the tomato and the tomatillo is a tender perennial producing a delicious vitamin and fiber-rich gold colored fruit that stores well and is enjoyed eaten raw or preserved. Each fruit, about the size of a cherry tomato, comes wrapped in its own husk. Leaves and fruit have medicinal properties valued by herbalists. Permaculture, polyculture and homestead favorite.
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Kale - Blue Scotch Curled
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Extremely hardy and productive heirloom dating back to at least 1860’s. Delicious curly blue-green leaves on a compact, frost-resistant plant. Plant in fall for early spring crop.
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Kale - Red Russian
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This frost-hardy, vigorous heirloom came from Siberia via Russian traders in the late 1800’s. It thrives in all kinds of weather and the red and purple tones of its deeply lobed leaves deepen with the first frost. Sweet and tender, the leaves pack a vitamin and mineral-rich punch.
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Kale - Wild Garden Lacinato
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A reinvigorated strain of the traditional lacinato, selected by Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds for its hardiness, vigor and flavor. Possibly the best flavored kale for light cooking. Released through Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI).This is an OSSI-pledged seed, see below.
OSSI-Pledged Seed: A portion of sales from this variety goes back to the breeder. By purchasing this seed you agree to the OSSI pledge:
You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.
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Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson
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A beloved loose leaf heirloom that has been producing the first green of spring for a long time. This leaf variety is the earliest lettuce, producing large, tender light green crumpled leaves.
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Lettuce - Buttercrunch
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This is our current favorite. Traditional butterhead lettuce with thick leaves and excellent sweet buttery taste. Simply delicious. The modern standard by which other varieties are measured. Large well-packed hearts on compact plants.
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Lettuce - Deer Tongue
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This compact heirloom lettuce has tongue shaped succulent outer leaves with a crisp bright flavor. Handed down through generations as a lettuce that is slow to bolt and does not get bitter.
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Lettuce - Heirloom Baby Lettuce Blend
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A blend of our favorite heirloom lettuces. These varieties do well in cool weather, mature within ten days of each other and provide a delightful mix of greens and reds, leaf shapes and flavors, all of which make for beautiful and tasty salads. "Cut and come again" greens, so you can harvest them continually. There’s a reason why these seeds have been treasured through generations!
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Lettuce - Romaine - Parris Island
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This sweet tasting lettuce features long upright dark green leaves with thick crisp white stems. Parris Island romaine is a good keeper and is popular for market gardeners. Wonderful alone in traditional “Caesar” salads or blended with other lettuces.
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Lettuce - Rouge d'Hiver
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This treasured European heirloom romaine dates back to the 1880‘s. Sweet, flavorful, broad, crisp green leaves with red tips. Very attractive. Produces large heads and is slow to bolt. Does well in cool weather.
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Lettuce - Salad Bowl
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This fast-growing and delicious buttery lettuce comes on later than Black-Seeded Simpson, with beautiful serrated, savoy-type lime green leaves. Plant is slow to bolt and stands heat well. An All-American favorite selection.
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Melon - Chanterais
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Just so you know, in our climate these luxurious little heirloom melons from France need a greenhouse and a trellis (they’re space hogs). Still, they are the best we’ve ever eaten and worth the effort, we think. The fragrance is intoxicating, and the flavor, juice and texture sublime.
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Melon - Minnesota Midget
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Minnesota midget is a smaller cantaloupe melon that is the easiest to grow in our northern location. Its short vines make it a compact heavy producer of 4” rounds with sweet, juicy flesh. It's the most reliable melon we know of for our area...and we are grateful!
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Melon - Sweet Granite
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A great melon for our northern climate with limited hot weather. The earliest melon in the North. These oblong, sweet, orange-fleshed cantaloupe melons get to 3 lbs and have a netted skin.
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Pea - Green Arrow
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An old-timer told us about this variety 30 years ago, and while we’ve tried lots of shelling peas since then, we have not found anything better than these. A high yield flavorful shelling pea with strong vines to 28” and masses of 4" pods loaded with peas (11 peas per pod).
Nitrogen-fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant (included).
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Pea - Sugar Snap
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One of the world’s best snacks right off of the vine and a great hit with kids. These plump sweet peas are eaten pod and all. The vines grow 5-6’ tall and need support.
Nitrogen-fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant (included).
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Pea - Sugar Snow
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We love this heirloom, first described in the 1890‘s. Plants are Vigorous and prolific heirloom, producing large, deliciously sweet tender pods you can eat right off the vine. Also wonderful steamed or stir-fried. Nitrogen fixing legume. Benefits from bacterial inoculant (included). .
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Pepper, Hot - Cayenne
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This classic heirloom hot chili pepper has been in circulation for over 7,000 years. An abundant producer of pretty bright red 5” slender pods, with plenty of heat and a zesty pungent flavor. Hang them in your kitchen for easy access. Also used as a traditional healing herb by many herbalists.
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Pepper, Hot - Christmas Tree
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A long season tiny bright red hot chili pepper, about 1 inch long, that packs a punch. Plant in pots for peppers all winter, or dry them and string a bunch to hang in your kitchen. Great in dishes where you want color, zest and heat. They keep us healthy in the winter and if we’re feeling under the weather, these guys (along with garlic) are the perfect remedy for us.
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Pepper, Hot - Habanero
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This is the hottest pepper we’ve eaten, and in addition has a fabulous slightly sweet flavor. And, beware: this pepper is for folks who like them HOT! Not easy to grow outdoors in our cool climate, however it does well with some protection, and worth the effort for that eye-watering heat.
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Pepper, Hot - Jalapeno
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These prolific hot Jalapeno peppers are on a sturdy bush and make masses of 2-3” sharp, spicy fruit with real jalapeno flavor. Reliably sets fruit in northern climates. These peppers are good raw, cooked, or for pickling.
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Pepper, Sweet - Lipstick
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A classic cone-shaped sweet pepper, and one of our favorites. Thick-fleshed, sweet and juicy, you’ll love them raw or cooked. A compact heavy-producing plant that does well in our cool climate. We freeze a lot and use in dishes all winter.
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Pepper, Sweet - Paprika Hungarian Boldog
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True Hungarian paprika, with a spicy sweet robust flavor and touch of heat. Makes a beautiful red spice when ground, great for cooking or in a shaker on the table. Loaded with carotenoid antioxidants and vitamin A for enhancing healthy cell development and eyesight. Chopped fresh paprika also makes a pretty yellow fabric dye.
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Radish - Cherry Belle
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This classic red radish - round, crisp, crunchy and peppery, comes to us from Holland. It’s one of the fastest foods you can grow, and has great flavor. Fun for kids to grow since they give such quick results, and they eat them right out of the garden! The greens are full of nutrients, thanks to the long tap root, and are tasty in sautés, stir-fries, soups and stews. They also make a pretty yellow fabric dye.
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Radish - Watermelon
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This daikon-type radish is a treasured heirloom in China. White skin with green shoulders and a gorgeous burst of magenta colored flesh that is mild, crisp, and slightly sweet. Guaranteed to brighten up salads and stir-fries. Longer to mature than European radishes, it does best sown in early spring or late summer for a fall harvest.
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Squash, Summer - Cocozelle Zucchini
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Famously easy to grow, this beautiful Italian heirloom provides masses of long cylindrical green and cream fruit with firm flavorful greenish-cream flesh and does well in short and cool summers. Best eaten when small (1” diameter). Harvest daily. Bonus: edible squash blossoms!
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Squash, Summer - Yellow Crookneck
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This highly-productive, early-maturing, pollinator-friendly summer squash is easy to grow and makes beautiful buttery-yellow gracefully arched squash all season. Tender flavorful flesh. Harvest at about 5” long and you’ll have them until the first frost. Bonus: edible squash blossoms!
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Squash, Winter - Burgess Buttercup
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This yummy turban-shaped squash does really well in cool climates. For some folks it’s the only one they can grow. The 4-lb fruit has sweet and custard-y orange flesh and is just the right size for dinner. Toast the seeds for future snacking. Bonus: edible squash blossoms!
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Squash, Winter - Delicata
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This heirloom from the 1890’s just might be our favorite. Cylindrical 1-2 lb fruit, with cream-colored, green striped edible skin and dark sweet meat inside with a buttery nut flavor. Plus, it’s a great storage squash. Bonus: edible squash blossoms!
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Squash, Winter - Pumpkin - Connecticut Field/"Monster"
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This productive heirloom,"Connecticut Field", dating to the 1700‘s (at least), is the classic "jack-o-lantern" pumpkin: big round, orange flat-bottom globes weighing 15-20 lbs. Around here we call it the "Monster Pumpkin". Flesh inside is thick, orange-yellow, and stringy. Grow extra for your farm animals -they love this nutritious food. Bonus: edible squash blossoms!
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Squash, Winter - Pumpkin - Small Sugar
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The classic pie pumpkin: orange skin with thick, fine-grained flesh and a deep sugary flavor. Fruit are small, weighing 6-8 lbs, and their round, bottom-flattened shape make wonderful mini jack-o-lanterns. Fabulous keepers, too. Bonus: edible squash blossoms!
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Tomatillo - De Milpa
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This easy to grow Mexican heirloom, also known as a “ground cherry”, "Mexican Husk Tomato", or "Mexican Tomato", is a main ingredient in salsa verde. De Milpa is a heavy producer of 1-inch flavorful fruit with greenish-purple skin and a paper coat giving the impression of little paper lanterns on the bush. Plant often volunteers in subsequent years. Valued folk medicinal for treating myriad complaints.
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Tomato - Black Krim
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One of the oldest heirloom black tomato varieties, native to the southern Ukraine and bred for its ability to absorb maximum heat and light in short, unpredictable summers. A rare beefsteak blessed with thick crisp skin, rich meaty texture and a deep, luscious earthy flavor. May induce an heirloom tomato obsession. Indeterminate (produces all season).
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Tomato - Early Rouge
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This old-time variety is a consistently reliable, productive, and early ripening tomato with fabulous flavor and blemish-free skin. A great market tomato. Determinate (fruit sets all at once.)
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Tomato - Moskovitch
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This Russian heirloom is early producer that does well in cool, northern climates. Medium-sized on a compact plant, with deep red skin and rich, succulent flavor. Excellent right off the vine, or processed for canning. Semi-determinate (produces a main crop and smaller amounts until frost; benefits from staking).
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Tomato - Principe Borghese
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A Good Seed FAVORITE! Highly productive, small Italian grape-shaped heirloom with BIG beefsteak flavor, and firm, deep red fruit. Sublime eaten off the vine. Dries well for winter soups and sauces. No canning! Determinate (fruit sets substantially at once.)
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Tomato - Sasha's Altai
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The world’s best tasting early tomato (and Organic Garden magazine agrees!) Curated by Sasha in his home garden in the Altai Mountains, this exquisite heirloom is a gift to the west, courtesy of Bill McDorman (Rocky Mtn Seed Alliance), to whom Sasha gifted the seeds in Irkutsk, Siberia in 1989. Excellent for cool summers, and high latitudes and altitudes. Determinate (fruit sets all at once).
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Tomato - Siberian Patio
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Treasured heirloom from Siberia (where they know cold!), selected for its good flavor, early maturation (55 days!), and cold-tolerance. Small tomatoes on a stocky compact plant that does well in a pot and needs no staking. Sweet, juicy fruit and amazingly cold-tolerant. Determinate (fruit sets all at once.)
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Tomato - Stupice
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This Czechoslovakian heirloom is a vigorous producer of incredibly early beautiful red round luscious fruit. Wins prizes everywhere. Indeterminate (produces throughout the season).
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Watermelon - Blacktail Mountain
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This watermelon is the one we’ve been searching for to grow in our cool northern climate. A fast growing, short season variety with masses of fruit. 8" to 9" rounds of thin dark green skin encasing crisp scarlet sweet juicy flesh. Yum!! Keeps well.
Released through Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). This is an OSSI-pledged seed, see below.
OSSI-Pledged Seed: A portion of sales from this variety goes back to the breeder. By purchasing this seed you agree to the OSSI pledge: You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.
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