PLANT STARTS FOR THE 2019 GROW SEASON
Tired of growing the same old varieties of plants in your garden? Wish you didn’t have to worry about your onions drying out too much before you plant them? Are you terribly sad when the items you were hoping to purchase aren’t available?
Yeah, I was too.
That’s why I started growing the bulk of my plant starts from seed. I am beyond excited to finally have the space to expand the amount of seedlings I can start for the upcoming season! I have always shared my plant starts with close friends and family but this expansion gives me the ability to share them with you as well.
This year I will be offering a selection of onion, sweet pepper, chili pepper, tomatoes and eggplant. Many of them I have grown in the past and are staples in my garden. Some of them are new to me and we’ll have the joy of trying something new together! You will not find varieties here that you’ll find at our local nurseries.
Would you like to eat an eggplant that actually tastes amazing instead of those bitter things you’ve had in the past? Maybe it’s time to try something different, expanding the flavor profile of your dinner plate and those delicious sauces your preserving for winter.
I’m telling you, there’s an abundance of plant varieties out there that you have yet to discover.Â
Contact me today if you have a specific amount you’d like to pre-order. Due to my desire for plants to be in the best condition possible, I will not ship. You must be able to pick up your order or make other arrangements with me ahead of time.
Ping Tung Eggplant
This has become my absolute favorite eggplant. It will always have a place in my garden. Never have I been sad about eggplant season being over until this beauty came along. A prolific producer of long, thin, deep lavendar colored fruits, this is the eggplant for those who don’t think they like eggplant. Smooth, creamy texture, never seedy, never bitter I could eat and did eat this eggplant raw. I truly can’t saw enough good things about this beauty. A must try.
Mitoyo Eggplant
This eggplant is native to Japan and is another standout variety. I started growing this the same year as Ping Tung and it habors the same amazing qualities. Slightly less productive than the Ping Tung but well worth growing. Not to mention it is absolutely beautiful, as shown in the picture above. Pick frequently to improve the production.
Rosa Bianca Eggplant
Another great variety originating from Italy. This eggplant is a marbled white and lavendar color. Good sized eggplant, rarely bitter and full flavored. This was my favorite before I discovered Ping Tung and Mitoyo. Definitely worth growing.
Little Fingers Eggplant
This is a new variety for me this year. As it’s name suggests it is a small finger sized to slightly larger deep purple-black fruit. They are suppose to be sweet and mild in flavor. Hoping this is an eggplant I can simply pick and stir-fry or roast whole.
TOMATOES | CHERRY
Toronjina F1 | 55 day Indeterminate
This is a fantastic cherry tomato. If there were to be a variety to rival everyone’s beloved Sungold, this comes close. I know what you’re wondering…why don’t I just grow Sungold? I guess my only answer is because I choose not to. The fruit of this tomato is sweet, juicy and flavor packed. Like many cherries, this does need regular picking to avoid splitting. The only down side to this variety is that it’s a hybrid so I can’t save the seeds.
Cherry Roma | 75 day Indeterminate
This is an incredible cherry tomato. The cherry version of everyone’s favorite Roma, this plum-shaped fruit is about one inch in length, fantastic flavor and produces in massive amounts. If all that wasn’t enough, it holds well on the plant as well so you don’t have to worry about picking everyday.
Brad’s Atomic Grape | 75 day Indeterminate
This is a very interesting cherry tomato. Slightly larger than your typical cherry I was quite inpressed by this one. Their color is almost metallic in marbled olive-green, purple, red, orange and yellow. The interior is an olive green that can blush with red. Flavor is fantastic and slightly different than your typical tomato. Highly productive and held well on the plant without splitting.
Supernova Cherry | 63 day Indeterminate
NEW | This tomato also has mini Roma shaped fruit. It’s red and yellow marbling continues through the whole tomato. It is said to have great flavor and holding ability after picking.
Isis Candy Cherry | 65 day Indeterminate
NEW | These unfortunately named one inch round fruits in marbled shades of red and yellow that tend to have golden flesh. They are said to have outstanding sweet fruity flavor that kids really enjoy.
Blue Gold Berries | 80 day Indeterminate
NEW | I am hoping these will ripen before the said 80 days and as a cherry I would expect them to do so. These are a fun half inch cherry tomato that is black-purple and gold in color. Rich in the antioxidant anthocyanin these carry a ton of nutrition and are said to have very rich, sweet flavor. Fruit grows in long clusters and is suppose to hold well on the vine or in storage. Very excited to try this variety!
Black Cherry | 75 day Indeterminate
NEW | A unique dusty brick red with purple undertones, this is said to be an abundantly producing low acid cherry tomato with fantastic flavor. Seriously, people were simply raving over this one.
Barry’s Crazy Cherry | 75 day Indeterminate
NEW | Okay, I have to be honest. While this yellow cherry tomato has great review for flavor, I am mostly growing this one for the interesting way it grows. Up until now, I thought my cherry tomatoes grew in amazingly large clusters, but this guy produces clusters of 40-60 fruit. I’ll I can say is, wow. This may be the cherry I am most curious about this year.
TOMATOES | PASTE | BEEFSTEAK | SLICER
This is one area where I am trying a lot of new varieities this year. I always plant 12-15 different types but there are simply too many different ones I would like to try. So note that many of these are new to me but are tried and true heirlooms that are loved by many.
Amish Paste | 80 days Indeterminate
This is by far my favorite paste tomato. Often at least three times the size of your standard roma tomato and highly productive, I would recommend this tomato to anyone looking for a paste tomato.
Italian Heirloom | 70-80 days Indeterminate
This is another large paste like tomato. I know some are keen to growing Romas but I would really encourage you to branch out into some of these other varieties and then use every bit of whatever is ripe when you make your preserves. Italian Heirloom produces and abundance of one poundish fruit that have great flavor and can also make a nice slicer. My experience is that these will continue to produce large amounts of fruit even if they become diseased.
Amana Orange | 75-80 days Indeterminate
This has quickly become my absolute favorite tomato. Amazing flavor, very meaty beefsteak tomato that is superb add into sauces, salsa, or eaten fresh. Last year during the wettest growing season I have ever experienced, these tomatoes were the last to succumb to disease and produced heavily all the way through our first heavy frost. I truly can’t say enough good things about this variety. If you haven’t tried an orange tomato or didn’t care for the one you did, I would highly recommend you give this one a go.
Ananas Noire “Black Pineapple” | Indeterminate
This is a very unique tomato. Bright green in color giving way to a molten mixture of deep red and yellow, the fruit of this variety have incredible flavor. It didn’t seem to have a high disease resistance but the flavor alone is enough for me to give it a place in the garden every year. It is discribed as both sweet and smoky with a hint of citrus. I can’t say if that’s accurate or not but it was a very uniquely flavored tomato that produced very high yields.
Brandywine | 82 days Indeterminate
This may be the only variety I grow that you will find at your local nursery. However, in my experience, this strain of Brandywine has superb disease resistance. Which is why I will continue to start my own seeds for this rather than buying plants somewhere else. For those who haven’t grown Brandywine, it is a beautiful large reddish pink beefsteak tomato with all the flavor you would expect from a home grown tomato.
German Johnson | 80-90 days Inderterminate
NEW | I am excited to try this red beefsteak tomato. Said to have amazing flavor, firm flesh, good resistance to cracking, and large fruit with very few seeds. I’m hopeful this will be yet another great canning variety that will also be great for fresh eating.
Hungarian Heart | 80 days Indeterminate
NEW | This very large heirloom is suppose to be an excelent paste tomato that is firm and meaty. It’s also known for not developing a large core making it just as good for fresh eating. Very few seeds, crack resistant and heavy production make this red heirloom a winner.
Dad’s Sunset | 90 day Indeterminate
NEW | This is a slightly later producing orange tomato but is said to keep well, a quality that would be quick welcome towards the end of the season. Baseball sized fruit are meaty with small seed cavities making it a great slicer and equally as good for canning.
Cherokee Purple | 80 days Indeterminate
NEW | An old Cherokee Indian variety it produces large deep red fruit with hints of purple. Said to have delicious sweet old-time tomato flavor.
Hillbilly Potato Leaf | 80-85 day Indeterminate
NEW | A flavorful red and yellow marbled large slicer tomato. I’m mostly trying this because the reviews said that it does very well in dry conditions yet will push through times of very heavy rainfall. Seemed to be just about perfect for the conditions I often see in my specific growing area. It is said to have great flavor and is native to Virginia.
Raspberry Lyanna | Indeterminate
NEW | This is a medium uniformly shaped Russian tomato that is suppose to have firm, very sweet and rich flesh. Sounds like another high production variety that will preform well when canning.
Blue Beauty | 80 day Indeterminate
NEW | This deep-blue black shouldered tomato is very rich in antioxidants! Tasty medium sized beefsteak tomatoes are also said to hold well on the vine as well as being suburn and crack resistant. All great qualities when your kitchen is already over run with harvests that need to be preserved. I’m very excited to try this variety.
Paul Robeson | 90 days Indeterminate
NEW | This slightly later ripening variety Paul Robeson receives rave reviews described as an almost cult following. We shall see if it holds up to all the hype. The tomato itself is a deep brick red color and said to have a very distinctly delicious sweet and smoky flavor.
Abe Lincoln Original | Indeterminate
NEW | This is the original strain of the Abe Lincoln tomato and is rather rare. Said to produce medium to large fruit with great old-fashioned tomato flavor, thick flesh and a small seed cavity. I’m excited to grow this rather unavailable tomato.
Dr. Whyche’s Yellow | 80 day Indeterminate
NEW | This tomato in looks and description reminded me a lot of the Amana Orange variety I spoke about above. As of right now I’m having a hard time sourcing more Amana Orange seeds and have decided to grow these so I can compare the two this year. I am hopeful that it will deliever with it’s smooth texture and tropical sweet taste.
Lucid Gem | 80 days Indeterminate
NEW | A sister to Blue Beauty, an above mentioned tomato, Lucid Gem is absolutely gorgeous with Deep Purple-Black shoulders and yellow, orange and red marbles flesh. Described as a beefsteak but the size of a small slicer it was voted sweetest tomato at the 2017 National Heirloom Festival. Very meaty with few seeds. Another variety I’m very excited about for the coming growing season.
SWEET PEPPERS
King of the North | 68 days red
One of the earliest full-sized red peppers to ripen. I LOVE these and grow them every year. Fantastic pepper. Pick green to use as a great pepper throughout the growing season and leave some to ripen up.
Alma Paprika | 70-80 days red
Productive, thick walled small red pepper. Great for smaller stuffed peppers, drying into homemade smoked paprika, and eating fresh. These are one of my favorite.
Lipstick | 70 days red
I think this pepper is new to me however I may have grown it in the past. Supposedly a highly productive, extremely sweet, four inch snacking pepper. If it’s what I grew a few years back, it will be what they say it is!
King Crimson | 70 days red
Medium sized, blocky, thick walled pepper that I have had good luck with ripening here in Minnesota.
Paradicsum Alaku Sarga Szentes | 80 days yellow
This one is NEW to me and a mouth full to say. This pepper should be comparible in size to the Alma Paprika so I’m expecting it to be a smaller pepper. It has amazing reviews and sound like it should be delicious even when green. Which is good because I’m unsure if it will have time to ripen here in MN.
Quadrato D’Asti Rosso | 80 days red
This Italian pepper is another NEW one for me. It is said to be a very large pepper with delicious flavor.
CHILI PEPPERS
Serrano Tampequino
I love serrano chilis. They produce massive amounts of peppers for me every year, ripening to red quickly. I’ve had these make it through an early hard frost and still go on producing. Definitely a winner.
Poblano
I love this strain of Poblano pepper. Very high production, flawless, good sized fruit. They are quick to size up compared to other poblanoes I’ve grown.
Lemon Drop
A lemon yellow, citrusy chili pepper. This is a new variety to me that I’ve been looking forward to trying for a few years now. Somehow I always lost the seeds. They are supposedly abundant producing plants but they ripen later so not sure if they will ripen here. That being said, I’ve never grown a chili pepper that didn’t ripen. Very excited to try this one.
Seven Pot Yellow
One of the world’s hottest peppers. I am excited to grow these! I am always looking for a chili to make hot sauce out of that stays extrememly spicy. Hopefully this is a winner. I’ve never been disappointed in the productivity of a chilli pepper so I expect good results with this one.
Pasilla Bajio
I grew these last year for the first time and absolutely loved them. Highly productive right through the first couple of frosts, great flavor. I smoked and dried these to use in cooking through the winter. Traditionally used in Mole sauces it’s a very mild chili pepper.
Cayenne Long Thin
Great cayenne pepper. I string these together in ristras and hang to dry.
Fish
This chili is new to me and I’m mostly growing it for fun. Suppose to be moderately hot with good flavor. Would be great for edible landscaping as the foliage is variegated and the peppers are yellow/green striped maturing to red. Very excited about this variety!
Tabasco
The pepper traditionally used to make, you guessed it, tabasco sauce. This is my first year growing these. Plants produce large quanities of rather small peppers.
Caribbean Red Habanero
This is a highly productive variety of habanero that ripens bright red instead of orange. They are also larger than other habaneros I’ve grown which was nice when processing. Last year, these plants were almost six feet tall!
Santa Fe Grande
I am planting this one instead of a hot banana pepper this year. They produce 4″ golden peppers that ripen red and I’m hoping to use them as pickling peppers. I LOVE spicy pickled peppers and I’m stoked to try a new variety.
BROCCOLI | BRUSSELS | CABBAGE
Belstar Broccoli | 65-70 days
Tight heads, lightly sooner maturity and produces good side shoots after the main head is harvested.
Waltham 29 Broccoli | 80 days
This is one of my favorite broccoli varieties. Fairly well know, and produces large side shoots. I plant my broccoli in the spring and harvest all the way through the hard freezes in the fall. Cover with mesh if you wish to keep the little green caters away.
Covina F1 Broccoli | 75 days
This is a new variety to me that is suppose to produce great in extreme heat as well as the cold. Regardless of the variety, I like to plant my broccoli in partial sun so it’s more shaded from the afternoon sun.
Long Island Improved | 100 days
Brussels need a long season to produce but we have plenty of time to do that here in Minnesota. They are a little tricky but give them full sun and a good layer of grass as mulch and you should be good to go. High yields.
Red Rubine Brussels Sprouts
This hard to find heirloom is not new to me but I’ve only grown it one other year. Look forward to being able to try this one for the 2020 growing season.
Brunswick Cabbage
Wonderfully large heirloom cabbage, very cold hardy and stores well in cold storage.
ONIONS ARE SOLD OUT FOR 2019Â
Contact me to be added to the list for the 2020 growing season. Most of these varieties will be available.
Walla Walla | Long Day
This onion you may be able to find at a local nursery depending on the year. We all know this well loved sweet spanish onion. While it is a great large sweet onion, perfect for using throughout the summer and early fall, it is not the best storage onion.
Rossa di Milano | Long Day
This is, as of now, my favorite red onion. Beautiful, sweet flavor and excellent for storage. It is currently March as I type this and I still have some in my porch.
Dakota Tears | Long Day
This yellow medium sized onion is yet another of my favorites for storage. It is said to have good disease resistance but I have never had a problem with disease in my onions so I cannot attest to that.
Sedona F1 | Long Day
This variety produces large bubls with a long storage life. This along with the Rossa di Milano and Dakota Tears are my go to varieties every single year. I will have a rater limited availablity of Sedona F1 this year do to seed being backordered, so contact me quickly for this one.
Ailsa Craig | Long Day
NEW | Named after my brother-in-law, just kidding haha, this well known yellow sweet onion is suppose to reach massive size. They state that 5 pound onions are rather common! That is just crazy to me. So obviously I have to test them out to see if the stories reign true.
Tandorna Leek | 110 day
NEW | This leek produces vigorously and should have good resistance to disease including leaf blights.
Alto Leek | 60-80 day
NEW | This leek is meant to be harvest early as a bunching leek or as a full size leek. Which honestly I think you could do with any leek just as you can with onions. That being said. Even at full size, this leek takes significantly less time to reach maturity.
Giant Musselburgh | ?
NEW | This leek is said to grow well in most areas to giant sizes and is also suppose to hold well through the winter. Now here in Minnesota not much will survive our 40 below temps but you sure could try. However, this does mean you could probably leave these in the ground until December to harvest them. Hooray!
Bandit Leek | 100 day
NEW | Another great leek that overwinters well which again, in Minnesota, means you can extend your season of harvest by a couple of months.
Autumn Giant | ?
NEW | This large leek is ready for harvest by the fall but once again will hold some in the field. Recommend that you harvest by December.
