Category Archives: Heirlooms
Eggplant Turkish Orange
Native to Turkey this heirloom variety is a favorite of Italian gardeners and chefs. The petite 18-22″ plants produce abundant yields of round red-orange 3″ fruit. Eat when the fruits are young and in the green stage. Once orange the
Salad Greens Purslane Goldgelber
Purslane has an honored place in the European repertoire of greens. Mildly acerbic purslane’s tasty leaves have a pleasant lemony fragrance and make for a sparkly salad offering a nutritious bonus of high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.
Squash Ronde de Nice
An heirloom prized by generations of French squash connoisseurs for its mild nutty flavor and ever-so-tender flesh and skin. Harvest when fruits are young when they are merely 2-3″ in diameter and steam or saute. Ready in about 45-52 days.
Cleome Queen Mixed Colors
Also known as Spider flower this plant will make the back of your border a focal point. Colors includes Helen Campbell (white) Rose Queen and Violet Queen. Airy 5-6″ flower clusters on strong sturdy stems. GARDEN HINTS: Grows best in
Cucumber Suyo Long
Suyo Long is a traditional variety from China that offers an abundance of delicious burpless crispy cucumbers. Growing to 16″ long on vigorous vines the sweet ribbed fruits can be picked at any stage from very young to fully mature.
Cucumber Mexican Sour Gherkin
Cook’s Garden Favorite. Get ready for an extravaganza of tiny sweet treats. Mini fruits sweet cucumber flavor is combined with a tangy sourness: as if pickled already. Yields a bounty of tiny cukes for salads snacks and pickling. Gorgeous when
Moonflower Giant White
These old fashioned flowers as the name implies open in the evening. As evening falls you can actually watch them open. For added interest mix them with morning bloomers such as morning glories. Grown as an annual but perennial in
Strawberry Mignonette
Mignonette is a French type strawberry that has smaller berries and a distinct flavor and aroma. Excellent edging border or container variety. Grow as an annual or perennial. GARDEN HINTS: Strawberries grow best in a sunny area with rich moist
Pumpkin Jarrahdale
Lovely and decorative this pumpkin with stunning blue-green skin comes to us from the town of Jarrahdale in New Zealand. Weighing in the 8-10 lb. range and 10″ tall the flattened firm-ribbed fruits have mild slightly sweet almost fruity golden-yellow
Spinach Bloomsdale Long Standing
Popeye’s favorite heirloom variety! Bloomsdale Long Standing is an old standard. It’s a large spreading spinach has dark green savoyed curled leaves. The yield is good and it is slow to bolt. For first crop sow in spring. Plant again
Strawberry Alpine Fragola di Bosco
Fragola di Bosco is an Italian alpine strawberry that enjoys popularity in gourmet salads. Plants are everbearing and productive. As with other woodland strawberries fruits are delicately sweet and best eaten straight freshly picked. Early to flower and fruit plants
Swiss Chard Burpee’s Rhubarb
Another excellent and nutritious Burpee-bred chard with crimson stalks with glossy green crinkled leaves. Easy to grow; eat it like spinach or beet greens. Pick from late spring till winter. Proven tops for performance flavor and wide adaptability. 100 seeds
Squash Delicata
Introduced in 1891 Delicata’s taste is remarkably similar to that of sweet potatoes but it’s much easier to grow. The vines produce plentiful cream-colored green-striped oblong fruits about 3″ in diameter and 6″ long.
Melon Collective Farm Woman
Cook’s Garden Favorite. This is one delicious melon in a hurry ripening in just 60 days. With a flavor residing in the delectable peach-pineapple continuum Ukrainian heirloom grows to 10 with a yellow-gold rind with and super-sweet white flesh. Harvest when
Pea Thomas Laxton
Thomas Laxton is considered the greatest pea breeder ever and this century-old variety is his masterpiece. Try it and see why. Pods contain 8 peas and often up to 10; vines at 3′ are easy to trellis.
Tomato Riesentraube
Originating in Germany this heirloom cherry tomato was grown by the Pennsylvania Dutch (who were in fact German) as early as the 1850s. The variety’s name fittingly enough translates from the German as “giant bunch of grapes”. The compact indeterminate
Gourd Extra Long Handle Dipper
This is one ornamental gourd that’s worth watching. Leave it on the ground and marvel as the long swooping curved handle-up to 6′ long-twists and turns. If a straight handle is your thing training it on a trellis will do
Squash True Hubbard
True Hubbard has appeared in American gardens and been served on American tables since at least the 1780s. Weighing about 12 lb. each the squash has delicious yellow-gold flesh and deep green skin. The long-storing fruits are excellent in pies
Basil Leaf Green
Cook’s Garden Favorite. Basil found its way into American hearts gardens and kitchens only in the 1970s. Our national love affair with basil has lost none of its passion. We certainly cannot live without this magical herb. We love the
Lettuce Rouge d’Hiver
In 1885 this variety made its debut in the French company Vilmorin’s The Vegetable Garden. A compact romaine type the heads grow to 10-12″ tall producing large smooth leaves that are green at the heart and brownish-red throughout the body.
