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Swiss Chard (Beta vulgaris) Chard is actually the same species as beets, but these varieties are grown for leaves rather than roots. The plants put all their energy into making large, tender leaves, with succulent mid-ribs massive enough to be a vegetable in their own right. The range of colors comes as a spectacular bonus! Chard is usually direct-seeded into the garden as early as a couple of weeks before the last frost, and it can be sown anytime until midsummer, since the plants tolerate both heat and moderate cold of late fall, and even grow into the winter in milder climates. Prefers rich soil, full sun and ample moisture. 100 per pkt FIVE COLOR SILVERBEET #SC101 (Rainbow Chard) 60 days. A beautiful chard, its colors are brilliant (pink, yellow, orange, red and white). This chard originated in Australia. Very mild, ornamental, and tasty. Great for market growers and specialty markets. Pretty enough to plant in the flower garden; so delicious; one of our favorite greens! (Sold in stores as “Bright Lights”) Pkt $2.50 or 1/4lb $12.75 FLAMINGO PINK CHARD #SC104 60 days. Neon hot-pink chard is so pretty and is perfect picked small for salads or larger for braising. Pkt $2.50 FORDHOOK GIANT CHARD #SC102 60 days. Introduced in 1924 by W. Atlee Burpee, large green leaves and white stems. Tasty. Pkt $2.00 or 1 oz $4.50 ORIOLE ORANGE CHARD #SC103 60 days. A stunning all-orange selection, perfect for home and markets. Orange chard is just delicious. Pkt $2.50 PERPETUAL SPINACH #SC107 (Beta vulgaris var cicla) 50 days. Belongs to the same species as chard and beets, but it has distinctive differences. The taste is more like a true spinach than ordinary chard, and the leaves look like spinach too—flatter and more pointed than chard, with slimmer stems. Very longstanding in the garden, yielding from late spring through autumn if planted early. Seldom bolts during its first year. Pkt $2.00 VERDE DE TAGLIO #SC109 (Green Cutting Chard) Very thin stems support large leaves of unusual substance. Outstandingly sweet and tender variety. Excellent for “cut and come again” style harvesting. One of the best-tasting chards. A delightful, traditional Italian variety. Pkt $3.00 VULCAN CHARD #SC106 60 days. An improved rhubarb chard developed in Switzerland. Very attractive and uniform red chard, this variety has great flavor and is perfect for marketing. Pkt $2.00 or 1 oz $6.50 “Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.” —congressman ron Paul Five Color Silverbeet 126 www.rareseeds.com Photo: David Cavagnaro
The Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum) Tomatillo Purple appear, which can take up to fourteen days. Once sprouted, the seedlings need good light—putting them on a sunny windowsill is best (though some gardeners grow them under fluorescents or grow lights). Other than regular watering and a little feeding of TomaToes are The mosT popular crop that people grow around the world, and the undisputed queen of the garden. Every summer, gar- diluted fish emulsion or other organic fertilizer, little care is necessary until it’s time to transplant to the garden. Be sure to harden off your plants prior to setting deners vie with their neighbors in good-natured compe- them outside. tition to see who will produce the earliest ripe tomato. Tomatoes are heavy feeders, so you should amend And when that day comes, you know summer has really their soil heavily with compost or manure. Seedlings arrived. Not bad for a fruit that was once believed to be grown indoors are apt to be leggy (tall and sometimes poisonous! a little stretched-looking), so bury them deeply, all First discovered in the Andes more than two thou- the way up to where the leaves start. This allows the sand years ago, the tomato was quickly traded north, buried stems to strike more roots and strengthen the and the Aztecs enjoyed it in the sixteenth century. Even- plant. Apply a layer of mulch around the plants imtually it reached Europe, where it was greeted with dismediately to thwart any weeds. As they grow, you’ll dain, as it was a member of the nightshade family and notice right away that tomatoes are big plants. was thought to be poisonous back then (indeed, many And they need something to grow on. As you put nightshades, such as belladonna or henbane, are poi- them into the ground, or if you’re a city gardener, sonous). Instead of being a major food crop, the tomato plant them in a large container, put a wire trellis or was grown as an ornamental, and often referred to as cage in at the same time. In the garden, tomatoes a “love apple.” The Italians, of course, were the first should be two or three feet apart, in rows that are six Tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa) Also called “husk tomato,” for the paper-like calyx or husk that encloses each fruit. They are grown about like tomatoes, except that they are seldom staked; they do tend to be a bit faster from seed than most tomatoes, and a little more tolerant to cold weather. Tomatillos are used in fresh salsas, and cooked in any number of sauces, including Mexican-style chili verde. 30 seeds per packet. TOMATILLO PURPLE #TL101 (Physalis ixocarpa) 68 days. Beautiful purple fruit, large size. Many are a bright violet color throughout their flesh. Much sweeter than the green types, it can be eaten right off the plant. Turns purple when ripe; rare! Pkt $2.50 or 1/4 oz $8.50 TOMATILLO VERDE #TL102 Deep green fruit; a standard, richly-flavored type. Huge yields as with most tomatillos. Pkt $2.50 or 1/4 oz $7.00 RIO GRANDE VERDE #TL104 New! 83 days. This special selection of Tomatillo yields large, apple-green fruits. The mediumsized, determinate plants need no staking. The globe shaped fruits reach 3-4 ounces, very large for a tomatillo, and the yields are very high. Recommended for fresh market. Pkt $2.25 Europeans to introduce it into their cuisine, and from there people started to realize that tomatoes weren’t poisonous. Slowly they became an unstoppably popular fruit throughout Europe, and with the colonists of the New World. The first cookbook recipe featuring tomatoes appeared in 1692. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello, and French and Italian immigrants grew them from San Francisco to Poughkeepsie. There is a famous story of a Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson eating tomatoes on the courthouse steps in Salem County, New Jersey, to prove their safety as a food crop in 1820, even after receiving warning from his doctor that if he proceeded to eat this fruit he would “foam at the mouth” and die. It is said that two thousand people watched as he consumed a full basket, the crowd believing they were about to see Johnson commit tomato suicide, which of course didn’t happen. Nonetheless, some folks remained skeptical, and it took many years for tomatoes to be finally accepted in the United States, in the late nineteenth century. Tomatoes are so important to me. My first experience in growing them inspired me to grow and save seeds for the rest of my life. When I was just three years old, I planted Yellow Pear—a miniature tomato variety that dates to the eighteenth century—and I’ve been hooked ever since. A year or so later, even though I still couldn’t read, I gathered up all my parents’ seed catalogs in the winter and pored over them, staring at the colorful, exciting varieties and pictures of tomatoes. By the time I was ten, I was ordering all the catalogs I could find to learn about every variety they listed, from the tiny little Currant tomatoes, which are only the size of a pea, to colossal varieties like the Giant Belgium, which can get up to four pounds, and every size and shape in between. The color spectrum of tomatoes is dazzling: Besides every shade of red, there are purple, green, pink, orange, yellow, white, brown, and even multicolored varieties, like Green Zebra, which is lime-green with bright yellow stripes. Each color has its own unique taste. Some are sweet and fruity; others are rich, complex, and acidic. to seven feet apart. Tomatoes are ripe when they have reached their final color. Another sign of ripeness is that the fruits become soft. (Too soft to ship, of course, which is why commercial tomatoes are picked and shipped while green and hard. That is why store-bought can never compare to vine-ripened, fresh-picked tomatoes. Unripe tomatoes will ripen off the vine, but they are never as sweet or rich-tasting as those vine-ripened ones.) Pick the ripe tomatoes carefully to avoid bruising them by rough handling. Pests and Disease Not many insects bother tomatoes, but the tomato hornworm is a spectacular exception. Really the larva of a moth, it can grow as big as a man’s finger and strip even a large plant of its leaves in a matter of days. If leaves are missing on your plants, with only short stumps of their stems remaining, suspect the hornworm. Their green camouflage can make them hard to find while they’re nestled in the plants, but they are usually near the base of the plants by day. The most effective way to get them off is to handpick them. Wear gloves if you are squeamish, and dispose of them in a bucket of soapy water. Usually they occur only here and there, but if you encounter a major infestation of more than a dozen or so in a few plants, spray with Bt or spinosad right away and regularly. Tomatoes are also susceptible to a number of diseases, most of which have no reliable organic cure. Proper crop rotation is vital—never grow tomatoes or other nightshade family crops on the same ground more than once within four years. And instead of tilling or composting spent tomato plants, dispose of them by burning or throwing them away. This keeps diseases from building up in your garden. It’s also best to avoid using sprinklers in the tomato patch, because moisture on the leaves is an invitation to the fungi and bacteria that cause most problems. Finally, don’t crowd tomato plants. They need plenty of air circulation and sunshine to keep them disease-free. Organic sprays such as fish emulsion and vegetable oil-based preparations may inhibit the Growing Tips growth of diseases, but they aren’t really a cure, espe- Tomatoes take a long time to grow. Start them indoors cially where blights are a problem, though a weekly eight to ten weeks before the last frost. They’re frosttender, so you need to be 100 percent sure that frost is spray of these products may keep diseases at bay. Rio Grande gone before you transplant them into the garden. Sow seeds a quarter inch deep in pots, with a fine From the book THE HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER. Used by permission. Available from Hyperion, wherever books layer of soil. Keep them warm and moist until sprouts are sold. 127 www.rareseeds.com 127
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Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds uwww.rar
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foods” are already labeled in Chi
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www.rareseeds.com 5
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visit ComstoCk, ferre & Company, ll
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THE 3RD ANNUAL NATIONAL heirloom ex
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Visit our Petaluma, California Stor
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11 million acres, they’ve outsmar
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MERCADO #AM131 Traditional grain ty
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Hyacinth Bean “Moonshadow” Wing
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MISSOURI WONDER #BN112 Pole, 70 day
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Broad Windsor Fava Bean Scarlet Run
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Beetroot (Beta vulgaris) 250 seeds
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Photo: David Cavagnaro Long Island
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Broccoli (B. oleracea) 300 seeds pe
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www.rareseeds.com Mammoth Red Rock
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Carrot (Daucus carota) 800 seeds pe
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LUNAR WHITE #CR113 75 days. Here is
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Photo: David Cavagnaro Edna Bedwell
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Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) 25-35 se
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Hmong Red GELE TROS or LARGE DUTCH
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Eggplant (Solanum melongena and oth
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Turkish Orange Rosita Bangladeshi L
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Thai Purple Egg Thai Yellow Egg Rou
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Apple Green Japanese White Egg Jade
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THAI YELLOW EGG #EG122 Famous in Th
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Litchi Tomato Pink Banana Chinese L
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Gourds (Lagenaria siceraria unless
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CAMELINA OR FALSE FLAX #GS131 (Came
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MICHIHLI CABBAGE #OR108 (B. rapa) 7
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scurvy. Enjoy it in salads or light
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Blue Curled Scotch Kale Kale & Coll
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Cimmaron Amish Deer Tongue Forellen
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Sasha and the “Gaucho” melon ww
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BIDWELL CASABA #AML147 95 days. Thi
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Casaba Golden Beauty Golden Jenny
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MANGO MELON OR VINE PEACH #OML115 T
Page 75 and 76: Melon Pie Made with Mother Mary’s
Page 77 and 78: PLUM GRANNY or QUEEN ANNE’S POCKE
Page 79 and 80: Rich Sweetness 132 Vert Grimpant Va
Page 81 and 82: African Wild Melons Jelly Melon Jel
Page 83 and 84: Vidrine’s Midget Cowhorn Okra (Ab
Page 85 and 86: Emerald Jing Orange
Page 87 and 88: Onion (Allium cepa) 300+ seeds per
Page 89 and 90: Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) Northern
Page 91 and 92: Snow & Snap Peas CAROUBY DE MAUSSAN
Page 93 and 94: India Jwala Mustard Habanero
Page 95 and 96: GOAT HORN HOT #HPP139 This variety
Page 97 and 98: Scotch Bonnet Yellow Bhut Jolokia C
Page 99 and 100: GOLDEN MARCONI #PP127 80 days. A la
Page 101 and 102: Sweet Chocolate Purple Beauty Golde
Page 103 and 104: Radish (Rhaphanus sativus) Cabbage
Page 105 and 106: Violet de Gournay China Rose Rat’
Page 107 and 108: Rutabagas (Brassica napus) Cabbage
Page 109 and 110: Summer Squash Many of these are als
Page 111 and 112: Benning’s Green Tint Scallop Ford
Page 113 and 114: STRIATA D’ITALIA #SSQ110 50 days.
Page 115 and 116: Squash & Pumpkins 20-35 seeds per p
Page 117 and 118: Hubbard Squash in a local, Ozark ja
Page 119 and 120: Ute Indian Galeux d’Eysines HONEY
Page 121 and 122: Chiriman 121 www.rareseeds.com
Page 123 and 124: Triamble Golden Delicious Sibley PE
Page 125: Tennessee Sweet Potato Butternut Ro
Page 129 and 130: Green Tomatoes AUNT RUBY’S GERMAN
Page 131 and 132: Orange Tomatoes AMANA ORANGE #TO106
Page 133 and 134: Pink Tomatoes ANNA RUSSIAN #TK139 6
Page 135 and 136: OMAR’S LEBANESE #TK118 80 days. H
Page 137 and 138: Purple Tomatoes AMAZON CHOCOLATE #T
Page 139 and 140: BLACK PLUM #TP129 70 days. Indeterm
Page 141 and 142: PURPLE CALABASH #TP125 85 days. May
Page 143 and 144: Red Tomatoes A GRAPPOLI D’INVERNO
Page 145 and 146: EGG TOMATO #TM114 75-80 days. This
Page 147 and 148: SAN MARZANO LUNGO NO. 2 #TM213 This
Page 149 and 150: Striped Tomatoes ANANAS NOIRE #TS11
Page 151 and 152: PINEAPPLE #TS103 75-95 days. Very l
Page 153 and 154: Solar Flare Pork Chop Large Barred
Page 155 and 156: Fantome du Laos Cream Sausage Ivory
Page 157 and 158: MORNING SUN #TY124 60 days. Fairly
Page 159 and 160: Boule d’Or “Ideal” Purple Top
Page 161 and 162: Orangeglo 161 www.rareseeds.com www
Page 163 and 164: CHARLESTON GRAY #WM117 87 days. Thi
Page 165 and 166: Melitopolski Texas Golden White Won
Page 167 and 168: Cream of Saskatchewan Crimson Sweet
Page 169 and 170: Herb Seed We offer a great selectio
Page 171 and 172: ECHINACEA PARADOXA OR OZARK YELLOW
Page 173 and 174: Flower Seed We are glad to be able
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Dwarf Coral Garden Mix Cockcomb Sen
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Dianthus, Sweet William, Tall Singl
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Zebrina Hollyhock Majorette Double
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MOONLIGHT #FL478 Single, very pale
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TALL MIXED #FL444 A colorful old-fa
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MASK FLOWER CORAL BEAUTY #FL479 (Al
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PETUNIA Annual. Early start indoors
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SALVIA Annual. (150 seeds per Pkt)
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Giant Primrose Sunflower Teddy Bear
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BUTTERFLY OLD SPICE #SW105 The Old
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Burpee Giant Rose Canary Bird Lilli
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California Poppy California Poppy,
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THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO GROWING H
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COBRAHEAD HAND HOE #CDT101 The Cobr
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Cut on line Cut on line ORDER FORM
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207 www.rareseeds.com
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Lodging Spring is a beautiful time
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Seeds For Peace Our Seed Donation P
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2013catalog

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