Spring Prep and Seed Sourcing

Spring is just peeking over the horizon here at the trial garden, but signs of the new season are sharing time with much-needed torrential rains. During a break in last week's storms, I caught this quick snapshot of trial garden manager Lindsey happily bringing in the first big bundle of beautiful daffodils. Right now, late winter/early spring's reliable hellebores and dozens of jaunty daffodils that are beginning the spring season for us. I planted hundreds of daffodil varieties around our irrigation pond several seasons ago and am really beginning to reap the looming rewards. I look forward to the luxury of having armfuls of these bright beauties to enjoy and give away for the next several months. We will have a big vase of them to greet everyone who walks in the office starting next week.

Lindsay has been hard at work pruning our fruit trees and beginning to sow seeds in our greenhouse. Assistant trial garden manager Mila has, at long last, reluctantly decided to take out roses that are not disease-resistant and replace them with newer cultivars that just don't get the black spot and other rose diseases we have been plagued with in the landscape. Lindsay is going to turn her capable horticultural hands to grafting some new European pear varieties onto our vigorous Asian pear tree. We are planting yet another supposedly rain and cold tolerant apricot tree variety even though this will be our fifth attempt to grow apricots ; our cold nights and late, heavy rains make us less than ideal candidates for these delicious fruits. Trying yet another variety demonstrates once more how even experienced gardeners always try to push the envelope. Or simply that I am exceptionally stubborn and greedy for apricots!

Seed Sourcing:

Many of our customers are curious where we get our seeds. We offer varieties grown by seed producers both large and small, and early spring every year is when I work hard at finding new varieties and setting up growing contracts for the coming year for varieties we currently offer.

I have just returned from the annual conference of the American Seed Trade Association, held in Tampa, Florida this year. This meeting is my opportunity to sit down with many of the seed producers we work with, and it's especially important because our best European and Asian suppliers attend regularly. There's nothing like sitting down face-to-face with the folks who you ordinarily work with over long-distance most of the year.

I come prepared with a wish list of things we are looking for and unbounded enthusiasm, because I love to talk about seeds. I also try to be well prepared because I usually have ten meetings per day for three days straight and that takes some organization to make the most of each one.

I use my meetings first to review our trial garden results, because most of our suppliers really appreciate the feedback on how their varieties do in our trials. The main part of each meeting is devoted to hearing about and discussing their new introductions and individual variety suggestions for Renee's Garden.

These days, I get to see videos of plants growing in vendors' trials because everybody carries a laptop. I look forward to seeing my friends at our favorite French, English, Japanese, Italian and Dutch suppliers because I've known some of them for many years. They know the kinds of vegetables, herbs and flowers we'd like to offer at Renee's Garden, so I can count on their suggestions.

We also contract to buy seeds regularly from small organic farmers who have the expertise to grow high quality seeds for us. While these seed growers often don't travel to the Seed Association annual meeting, this is the time of year I contact them individually to see which crops they have room for and make formal agreements for growing out seeds we will need for next year. All our heirloom tomato varieties, for instance, are grown by these knowledgeable small seed producers, most located in the agricultural valleys of northern California and Oregon.

Generally the arrangement I make with them is that we supply the basic " stock seed", and they multiply these seeds for us, according to agreed on standards of germination and purity, subject to independent seed lab tests.

The Great Sunflower Project

Over the last week or so, I've been working to source good quality seeds and create sunflower growing instructions and graphics for The Great Sunflower Project. This fascinating and ambitious "citizen science" project was founded and is directed by Dr. Gretchen LeBuhn, a conservation biologist and associate professor at San Francisco State University. She is particularly interested in the effects of climate change on bee communities and this project is creating data to help understand what is happening to the bee pollinators in all the different bee species, focusing on urban and semi-urban areas.

Here's how Dr. LeBuhn describes the background of the project for participants:
"We know that pollinators are declining in certain wild and many agricultural landscapes. However, little is known about urban pollinators. Because natural habitats are uncommon in urban landscapes, they may not provide enough resources to support viable pollinator communities. However, if other habitats, such as urban gardens and restored areas, are sufficiently connected to natural habitat, then native populations may thrive.
By finding a way to track and value the goods and services provided by natural ecosystems, we will find a future in which conservation is not a luxury but a guiding principle of daily decision-making throughout the world. The data you collect from your sunflower will be a start. It will provide an insight into how our green spaces in the urban, suburban and rural landscapes are connected as well as shedding light on how to help pollinators. The Great Sunflower Project is the first step."
The Project works by sending a sunflower seed packet to all the individual volunteers who sign up on The Great Sunflower Website to get one and agree to collect data on the bees attracted by the flowers. I'm pleased and proud to have been selected to write the packet to ensure growing success and provide the sunflower seeds for The Sunflower Project' s 2009 seed packet. When the these seeds are sown, grow and flower, the volunteers will be observing and reporting on the bees that visit them, using standardized data sheets that are then sent back to the Project for analysis.
Currently, 40,000 American and Canadian volunteers ranging from preschoolers to master gardeners and from rural, suburban and metropolitan locations are participating.
With the help of her students Fern Canton and Shannon Messerly, Dr. LeBuhn is looking forward to getting a wide range of data about urban bee populations that would not otherwise be available: "We have grown a ‘virtual’ community of teachers, community gardeners, nature center staff, beekeepers, pollinator enthusiasts, retirees, home schooling groups and parents interested in participating in a project with their children. If everyone plants seeds this year, we will have sunflower samples from the Arctic Circle to the tip of Florida and west to Hawaii and east to Puerto Rico!"

You can see a map with about 25,000 of the locations on the Great Sunflower Project Website http://www.greatsunflower.org/

Last year, the project had the misfortune to use a sunflower species from another seed company that didn't germinate at all well and was very disappointing. This season, Dr. LeBuhn came to me looking for a sunflower that was produces pollen, has multiple flower heads and was easy to grow and attractive. I settled on a wonderful old-fashioned variety called "Lemon Queen" and have written the packet back expressly for beginning gardeners since many of the folks who are participating in the project haven't had much garden experience. Today I finally sent the packets off to the printer to start things rolling and ordered the seeds to be shipped for filling the packets once they are produced.

In addition to personally contributing in building an important database about bees, participants can really learn about both honey bees and lesser-known native species. Besides, it's really fun to be part of a big effort like this! I'd like to encourage everybody to go to their website and sign up to do this project! We will plan to have a great big row of Lemon Queen in our trial gardens this year. This is an interesting and serendipitous way to find a new variety, but if all goes well, we'll probably also add Lemon Queen to Renee's Garden in 2010.

New Year's celebration and salad

Here is my New Year's portrait -- I expect it needs a little explaination: I belong to a group of 10 friends who have been getting together to celebrate New Year's Eve together at each other's houses for at least the last decade or so.
We have a fine dinner together and then spend the evening playing everyone's favorite board games and occasionally, even old-fashioned ones like charades. (My favorite!) Our website photographer Karen and her husband Bob are part of the group and instituted a costume theme every year because that gives them an excuse to take pictures of everyone.

This year the theme was masks and I'm afraid mine was the least elaborate and store-bought at the last minute. My only excuse is that I don't consider myself particularly artistic or crafty -- but I'm fortunate that many of my friends have both of those talents, and their masks were homemade and really fun. Here are a few of my favorites taken by photographer Kevin Osborn.

As always, I brought the salad for our meal. Despite the fact that we've had lots of frost with temperatures well below freezing at night, my lettuce beds are in a protected spot and my Blush Batavian lettuces and Escarole look great and are especially crisp. I also have the most incredible deep, deep dark red new lettuce variety that I will be introducing next year. I really want to call it "Blood Lust” - but I think that might be a little over the top. Maybe "Passion" would do. We'll be growing it again in spring, so I'll see what inspires me then.

In a large stainless steel bowl I bought from the restaurant supply, I combined 2 heads of the light green and deep green leaves with 2 heads of the gorgeous deep red ones. Then I put in a hefty handful of finely chopped chives and approx. 2 cups of chopped Italian plain leaf parsley from the garden (the cold weather really makes the parsley sweet , it's SO good for you). From the store, I had a long English cucumber to slice thinly into the bowl and then peeled and cut 2 blood oranges and 2 regular Navel oranges into small 2 inch chunks. Finally, I added about 2 1/2 cups of freshly toasted walnut pieces and sprinkled 2 pomegranates' yields of ruby- colored sweet/ tart pomegranate seeds over the top. This New Year's salad was as colorful as the holiday, tasted seasonally perfect and served 10 big eaters comfortably.

I can recommend my standard homemade vinaigrette to go with it: 3/4 of a cup of good-quality, fruity extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup (not too sweet) good quality balsamic or unseasoned rice vinegar, 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 smashed garlic clove, a good pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and several good grindings of fresh pepper. This time, I also added approx. 1/3 cup of fresh orange juice and a little orange zest. Cover container and shake well and allow to blend for at least 15 minutes at room temperature. Freshly made vinaigrette is so much better than any kind of bottled dressing that once you try it you won't go back.

Last post, I profiled three of my favorite things to give his garden gifts but I forgot to mention one of my favorite garden supplies catalog companies - Gardeners Supply Company (http://www.gardeners.com/). It’s important to know about if you don't have a good source of seed starting supplies anywhere nearby or aren't sure what's available. They carry a variety of all the critical equipment needed (as well as all kinds of gadgets) for folks who garden from seed. I particularly recommend looking at their indoor seed starting equipment which is often hard to find. They've been in business a good long time and know their stuff. If you ever are in Burlington, Vermont, they have a great retail store there as well.

This company was started by Will Rapp, I think in the mid-80s. When I first was getting started in the catalog business, I called him up out of the blue (he was on a different side of the country and didn't have any idea of who the voice on the other end of the phone was) and asked for his help in how to design and mail catalogs effectively. He was most generous with excellent advice and played an important role in getting me started. I have always been very grateful to him and had a soft spot for his business.

Will has also been instrumental in developing many innovative demonstration projects in ecological farming and gardening in the area next to his business. One of the most fascinating I remember seeing at his location in Burlington was a demonstration of how energy can be derived from methane produced by dairy cows!

Three Favorite Garden Gifts

Here are three really useful, practical and functional tools that I truly appreciate and use with pleasure and satisfaction throughout the gardening season. I think all three make wonderful holiday gifts, so I wanted to share why I really like them and tell you where to get them as well. I really don't have any association with these companies, these are just my personal faves!

Sunday Afternoons Hat's "Sport hat" model
Great for comfort, looks, convenience and sun protection. I have always had a hard time finding a good garden hat because I find most hats to be uncomfortable and annoying. Several years ago, I discovered this one and everything changed. I actually own 3 of these hats so that I can have one stashed in the house, in the garden shed and in my car. The hat is so lightweight (2.2 ounces) that you forget you have it on. The design features a full crescent 4 inch sun protection brim that extends around the sides of the head, tapers over the ears, and includes an extension you can tuck up or wear down to cover your neck and it even accommodates a ponytail. I think it's still pretty good-looking even with all of this protection. The mesh air vents keep my head from getting too hot and the hat is adjustable for all head sizes and easily washed in the machine. I buy them right from the company's website, while not cheap at $34, they are often available for $19 on their sale page, although in more limited colors. Look for these hats at: http://www.sundayafternoons.com/

Joyce Chen "Never Dull" Scissors
My favorite go everywhere scissors for kitchen and garden.I carry these little handy all-purpose scissors when I go out in the garden. At 6 1/4 inches, they are especially well sized to work for a woman's hand and great for everything: trimming dead leaves, cutting bouquets, snipping lettuce and herbs and as a main workhorse tool for cutting bouquets and harvesting vegetables. The bright red scissor handles are made from soft vinyl, making them freely comfortable for heavy use. The well-balanced high carbon steel blades give excellent leverage and easily cut even woody stems. They "never dull" as their blades are electronically hardened and don't require sharpening over a lifetime of use. They fit easily in my jeans pocket and I think they're essential for every working gardener. I also keep another pair in the house to use for kitchen chores -- these well-made small scissors are truly multipurpose. Usually available for about $21-$25 from many websites -- just google Joyce Chen scissors and take your choice.

Bloomsaver Flower Harvest Caddy
Every Flower Gardener Should Have One
The idea for the Bloomsaver began in the garden when two good gardening friends decided to design a tool making it easier to collect flowers for bouquets. The Bloomsaver Flower Caddy they came up with is a lightweight, three section container with a detachable handle. It allows you to harvest and collect large quantities of blooming flowers without wilting, crushing or bruising them and carry them around the garden as you harvest. With three different sections, you can sort your flowers by size color or type as you harvest them if you like. The base unit is molded of high-quality plastic and the detachable Lexan handle is shatterproof. I find the Bloomsaver easy to carry and very stable.

I found out about the Bloomsaver from one of my rose loving friends and now I wouldn't be without it. For flowers like sweet peas or zinnias are roses which can crush and bruise easily if you pack them together tightly, it really is a wonderful solution. Sometimes I just fill it up with flowers and don't even bother to transfer them to individual vases because it looks quite lovely as a casual arrangement. The Bloomsaver sells for about $28.95, but it's worth it and I've had mine for years. Still made by its original developers, it is only available on their small company website: http://www.bloomsaver.com/

Receiving the Seed Harvest

At this time of year, our warehouse is getting filled to overflowing with new crops of seed that were just harvested this fall, carefully winnowed, sorted, cleaned, tested for germination and purity and finally shipped to us from all over the world. The warehouse floor is filled with the sweetly pungent odor of carrot seeds, the spicy scent of very fresh dill seed, and the simple physical beauty of dozens and dozens of different seed shapes, colors and sizes. In the old days, just 10 years ago, seeds were routinely shipped in muslin or linen sacks, but nowadays they come in airtight buckets or foil packages; not as romantic but probably much more moisture proof. When they arrive, we take out a sample and send it off to the seed lab to be sure that the germination rate has stayed as high as when we first arranged to purchase the crop.

Many of these purchase agreements were made long before the seed was planted last spring, so getting the seed into the warehouse means we finally can relax, knowing that variety has been successfully grown and we will have plenty of seed to fill our packets all season long. When we place our purchase orders to growers, there is no guarantee that a crop that meets our standards will result nine months later. Too much or too little rain; disease or pests; harvesting too early or too late; improper postharvest handling; all of these factors can mean we will get no crop that season and we never know for sure until the harvest is complete and the seed is inside our doors.

All of this involves lots of communications throughout the growing season with growers in very far-flung places. It reminds me again that in today's world, planting a garden can be a truly ecumenical act because we enable gardeners to grow vegetables and herbs from all the world's regional cuisines, and flowers from every continent. The seeds we are offering have been grown by producers both large and small in the US, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, England, Israel, China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. All have their histories and stories in their home countries.

I think one of the most enjoyable parts of my job is the annual process of connecting with our growers to hear about their varieties and how they are used. When I first started in this business, I really had to travel to far away places to find new varieties, but now the Internet has meant that I can more easily find out about new introductions and track down the varieties that we need from among the world community of seed producers. I have been working with many of these folks for over many years. The next step is getting and beginning the long process of growing them out and evaluating, first in our California trial garden and then in our other regional gardens. The end result is where I began -- the seeds coming to our warehouse so I can share them with all of you!

The Slowest Performing Art

Here's a quote I read this week that I want to share:

"Gardening Is the Slowest Performing Art"

...the more you think about it, the more it seems to unfold in your brain...

--------------------------------------------------

This week I wanted to share a few of my favorite seed variety requests:

We heard from a family in New Jersey who had just bought a horse and wanted to know if they could buy some grass mix to grow in the windowsill to take to their new horse for winter treats. I explained that it probably is much more practical to rely on carrots and apples, which are perennial horse favorites. In actual fact, unless you have some additional artificial light boost, it's really pretty hard to grow things on your windowsill in the winter, let alone enough grass to satisfy a horse' s treat tooth. But what a charming image this makes anyway!

Then we got a request for dandelion greens to feed tortoises from a woman in Southern California who is an avid tortoise hobbyist. I suggested that I could buy some seed for edible dandelions and her tortoise hobby group could distribute it to other members if they liked. Edible dandelions are a popular salad in France and that's where I would go for the seed if she is interested.

I would love to hear from other customers who have nontraditional pets they would like to grow food or treats for. I'm hoping that our blend of 4 different organic grain seeds for "cat grass" will meet most needs, but I'd be interested to know what folks need for other pets like hamsters and lizards, etc. Getting these kinds of questions and requests is what makes this job fun and makes me feel like we are connected to the everyday lives of so many of our customers.

Here's my latest answer to that perennial question: What to make for lunch:? It's a really delicious and vitamin- rich salad dressing that's a scrumptious way to use up any parsley that might still be available in the garden:

Creamy Parsley Dressing:
1- 1/2 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 green onions chopped
1/4 cup fruity olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
generous pinch of salt
generous grinds of fresh black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fish sauce or use 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 cup fresh plain yogurt -- whole milk is best but low-fat is fine
Blend all together well and enjoy on crunchy greens with sliced cucumber and colored bell peppers strips or over leftover cooked vegetables. A whole meal if you add cold sliced chicken or chilled salmon or shrimp.

Cover crops and fall salads

The last few weeks have been busy as we finish removing and building new compost piles with all the vegetation from our summer crops and generally cleaning up. We clean, sharpen and oil our garden tools before storing them, and tackle the inevitable task of organizing our garden storage shed after a busy summer of pulling things out without putting them away properly. (Now if I could only be as organized about all the CDs piling up around my stereo or at least act on my last year's resolution to get them onto my computer so I can listen to them when I work! )
Trial garden manager Lindsay and her assistant Mila are busy sowing fava beans as a "green manure" crop in many of our biggest garden beds that grew heavy feeders this summer and will lie fallow over the cold season. Although we get hard frost here, the sturdy fava beans will grow through the winter and both fix nitrogen in the soil and produce lots of top growth. When they begin to bloom in spring, we will pull them and compost all the green material so they end up being entirely recycled. ( Of course we always save a little patch to grow the beans to the shelling stage and harvest them. I particularly like to quickly steam young ones to make fava bean pâté with fruity olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice and salt-and-pepper!)
In our upper garden beds, we are enjoying looking at and eating a late crop of our "Summer Bouquet lettuce" trio. Alongside is a small bed of Merveille de Quatre Saisons butterheads, one of my other favorite late-season lettuces for their bronzy color and sweet flavor.
These tasty lettuces make really appetizing fall salads combined with a few fresh chives, a big handful of Italian parsley and slices of golden orange persimmon with a sprinkle ruby red pomegranate seeds and toasted sliced almonds over the top. New harvests of fall fruits like these are in the markets now as we head for Thanksgiving.

I've been lucky to have had a persimmon tree for years but it got split by lightning last fall and what remains of it has taken a year off from fruiting. Our local farmers market continues weekly through the end of November and I've been going regularly to buy persimmons, artichokes, new crop walnuts, almonds and raisins.
Finally, we've grown out our King Midas carrots. They are ready to harvest now although we'll probably keep some in the ground to sweet up even more with the frosts. Little Pepper, the adorable ( but feisty) dog that Lindsay takes care of when his owners are away, has been a regular trial garden visitor and love his carrots. Here's a picture of him guarding them and another of my harvest basket yesterday afternoon.

Northeast Trial Garden Journal

-by Jay Leshinsky

For the past six years I've been running the Renee's Garden's northeast seed trials at the Middlebury College Organic Garden in Vermont where I serve as "farmer/advisor". The garden is located about a half mile from campus on a 2 acre knoll with sweeping views of the campus and the Green Mountains. During the spring and fall student volunteers do the planting and harvesting at the garden. Over the summer four student interns work with me to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers for the college's dining venues and for local restaurants. This gives them lots of opportunity to trial Renee's Garden varieties against those from other seed companies and to do a lot of taste testing!

This summer was a most challenging one for the student gardeners. Almost no rain from mid April to Mid June, twenty inches of rain from mid June to mid August and back to very little rainfall to end the season. The Middlebury College student interns were up to the challenges and we managed to produce bumper crops of most vegetables, spectacular flower blooms and abundant herbs.
Most of our trial vegetables and herbs go to the Middlebury College Dining Services and some local restaurants. Raven zucchini and Baby Persian cucumbers were two favorites of our customers. Although there were the heavy rains during harvest, we consistently harvested the fruits when they were small and kept the plants well picked. Despite the spate of wet weather neither the cucumbers nor zucchinis had any mildew and the usual challenges from cucumber beetles and squash bugs were almost non existent. I think this was a benefit of the ample rain on our well drained soils. As an extra gift from this abundant harvest we consistently brought large amounts of zucchini and cucumbers to our local Food Shelf program where they disappeared not long after we delivered them. Middlebury College runs its own dining program and takes the extra effort to buy local whenever possible.

Our favorite chef in Dining Service appreciates our fresh, flavorful offerings. Since he serves our produce to an international array of students at the College's summer language school, he has a ready audience for the stunning colors and sweet flavor of sautéed Bright Lights, Scarlet Charlotte and Neon Glow Swiss chard, or the full tomato tastes of Summer Feast heirloom tomatoes with our Pesto Basil in a Caprese salad.

Each garden bed has an insectary planting of flowers and herbs to attract insect pollinators and beneficials. Many of our insectary plants are annuals and this year we planted all varieties of Renee's Garden zinnias, nigella, and nasturtiums to enhance the insectary rows and provide swaths of color throughout the vegetable plantings. It gave the students great pleasure to cut bouquets of zinnias and deliver them as gifts to offices all over campus. As a bonus the Catering staff bought our nasturtiums as a garnish for many of their offerings.
Now that we've had several frosts it is time to review the summer planting data and begin plans for next year's trials.

Three Sister Harvest and Bean Recipes

We had our first frost in the trial garden at the beginning of this week, a full three weeks earlier than I can ever remember it coming. It was a reminder to get everything in that needed harvesting. One of the prettiest things we grew this summer was this coxcomb celosia sourced from a Japanese seed company. I really loved its vibrant color, but the plants were quite short and I want to see if there is a variety that will grow a little taller for garden use to grow in our trials next spring.

I had Lindsay harvest the stalks of bloom to hang up and air dry in the cool dry air of the garage. If they keep their striking color , I'll substitute them for the more faded flowers I have in the big arrangement of dried blossoms I keep in our living room.

One of the true treats of closing the garden down was to bring in the little sugar pie pumpkins pumpkins and the beautiful ornamental corn we grew out in our Three Sisters Garden, one of our larger sized themed bonus packets. This dent corn, which can be ground for cornmeal, is called Earth Tones, and as you can see, it has the most marvelous shades of blue and green as well as the traditional reds and oranges -- I've never seen anything like it! I've been thinking about whether we should offer it as a separate individual packet and would love to hear if our customers are interested. We get Earth Tones from a fine family farm called Bisek Gardens in Minnesota who specialize in an amazing array of different shades of ornamental corns as well as broom corn and other unique varieties.

Just a follow-up on last week's post, I did make up recipes for both the dried Christmas lima beans and Rattlesnake beans. I found that the freshly harvested dried beans didn't need a very long preliminary water soak -- just about 3-4 hours. For the Christmas limas, I sautéed onions and garlic, added salt and pepper and a couple of bay leaves, dried lemon thyme, finely chopped celery and a few big handfuls of chopped Italian parsley. Then I added the drained, soaked beans and covered them generously with chicken broth. The beans which are beautiful and big and striped white and burgundy cooked up in just about a half an hour.

For the dried Rattlesnake beans, I sautéed up onions and garlic, added lots of sliced carrots, six chopped up tomatoes, a couple of bay leaves, a generous amount of dried marjoram, salt and pepper and a pungent dried chile and three pieces of smoked ham hock. I added a generous amount of chicken broth, brought to a boil and then turned the heat down so the covered pot cooked at a very slow simmer. The Rattlesnake beans took much longer to cook -- a couple of hours. The cooked beans have a delicious firm texture and the addition of the carrots and ham hock gave it a bit of savory sweetness. Truly delicious -- Lindsay and Milo and Miguel from the trial garden and Sarah from the office came over to feast with me and I still had enough to take to a last of the season picnic potluck with the folks in my swim class.

Battle of the Giants

Well, the battle of the Garden Giants is finally over for this year. We grew and compared four tall sunflowers to see which was the tallest, most sturdy and had the nicest, biggest heads. I was in love with the cool -sounding name of the variety "Mongolian Giant", which we got from Seed Savers, but it turned out the weakest in germination and growth and sadly uneven in height.
Our own proud Sunzilla shared the first-place ribbon for tallest variety with heirloom Titan, but Sunzilla proved its hybrid vigor in that the stalks were thicker and stood up better to heavy winds. Our soil here at the trial garden is super sandy, so it's a good test for sturdy sunflowers, although
we don't have too many really bad windy days. One useful trick that I just learned at our meeting of the Home Garden Seed Association last month was that if it really gets windy where you garden, you plant 3-5 sunflower seeds in a circle about 4 inches apart, then space these little planting circles about 3-4 feet apart. The sunflowers grow up into amazing tall clumps that help support each other in high winds -- what a great idea! I'm going to try it in our own trials next season for sure and check it out.

Mila just finished shelling all the dry Rattlesnake beans , Christmas lima beans and Scarlet Runners out of their dried pods and storing them in 1 quart glass Mason jars. They are so beautiful with their rich colors and they make me feel quite proud and self reliant to have them
stored away.

Next week, Lindsay and I are going to make some slow cooked bean recipes with them to prove to ourselves that both of these varieties are really good eating.
I've had lots of requests for Christmas limas in the last two years but have never trialed or cooked with them before. They bore well, but were ready to harvest somewhat later than I would like, so we'll try them again next season and grow them in our trial garden in Vermont too see how they do.

My plan is to offer the Rattlesnake pole beans paired with Purple Podded pole beans as a mixed packet. At the fresh pod stage, Rattlesnake pods are deep green handsomely streaked with purple and in combination with the purple pods it's really a pretty mix to eat the fresh pods as snap beans. Once I know how the mature, dry rattlesnake beans taste in the pot, I'll know if we can recommend leaving some to mature their beans inside the pods to the dry stage to shell out in use in cooked bean recipes. I'm thinking to make them by sautéing some garlic and onions in olive oil, then adding the soaked beans, dried oregano or maybe marjoram, a bay leaf or two and maybe some of my freshly canned tomatoes, plus salt and lots of fresh ground pepper. While adding a ham hock would be nice, I think I will leave the meat out the first time so I get a good sense of what the beans themselves taste like.