This page is for descriptions, growing instructions, propagation, seed saving and other notes and information on plants that I sell or recommend.

Bulgarian Giant Leek: The best overall leek I’ve found so far. I sprinkle seeds in flats as early as February in an unheated greenhouse for spring planting. Sift about 1/4 inch of soil over the seeds. When planting out, choose the largest plants first. It makes a difference, I’ve tested it. They can be planted deep, but it is not necessary and I don’t. The long stems are self blanching. I like to plant them a close as a 6 inch staggered grid and pull the weakest growers to eat as young leeks through the summer. Here they do just ok in the hot summer and really take off when it starts raining and cooling off. This is not the hardiest leek and it can sustain some winter damage in hard freezes. Leeks are actually a decent calorie crop. I recommend treating them as a vegetable rather than a flavoring most of the time. If you don’t know what to do with leeks, use them in dishes where you would use an onion, but cook them for a long time when possible. Perfect for soups, excellent for stir frying. Large pieces of stem long cooked in vegetable stew, in risotto, or stems just baked slowly for a few hours in a shallow covered pan with chicken broth, butter and pepper. To save seed, save at least 6 of the very best plants. I select for combined height and girth. You can move them to the end of a bed in the spring to go to seed to save space. Seeds form in the fall. They will not cross with other onions or garlic, but may cross with elephant garlic and of course other leeks.

Ruby Streaks, red mizuna mustard: A beautiful cut leaved mustard. These I typically broadcast in beds in the late winter or spring. Also good under cover for winter. When the plants are still small, but big enough to bother eating, I start pulling most of them out for salad or sautes, leaving single large plants about every 6 to 8 inches. By the time they are well underway, I’ve pulled most of them and am starting to harvest individual leaves off of the remaining best, large plants. You can also start in flats and transplant out. When it goes to flower, let it, but harvest the flowering stalk tips when the flowers are still closed. These are as good or better than the greens! Saute greens or flower tops quickly in butter with salt and pepper. Or drop flower tops into boiling salted water until just cooked. Leaves are spicy, but great in salad in measured doses. They will keep trying to flower. If allowed to run to seed, they produce a lot of easy to clean seed that can be planted or ground up for mustard powder or prepared mustard. They will cross with other mustards, so if you want to keep the strain, don’t let other mustards flower at the same time. They also reseed prolifically if allowed to run all the way to seed.

Bronze Beauty Lettuce: This is a great oak leaf lettuce. Seems a bit more cold tolerant than many, beautiful and tasty. I usually start lettuce in flats to start and transplant at about 2 to 3 inches high. To save seed, let one to three of the best looking and last to bolt plants do their thing. Lettuce rarely cross out, even in close proximity, but it’s best to have some distance from other varieties just in case. I think the usual recommendation is 25 feet.

Zapotec Tomato: A delicious, practical, richly flavored Mexican tomato, with less watery pulp than most. It is good for salsa, cooking and fresh eating. It may also be late blight resistant, I’m still observing for that. To save seed, just squish some seeds onto a piece of paper and allow to dry. If you want clean seed, ferment in a bowl with a little water for 2 or 3 days and rinse repeatedly, pouring the water off the top, then dry on paper.

Paul Robeson: An amazing juicy slicer type! It’s hard to beat PR’s smoky, complex flavor with excellent sugar / acid balance. Seems susceptible to late blight. To save seed, just squish some seeds onto a piece of paper and allow to dry. If you want clean seed, ferment in a bowl with a little water for 2 or 3 days and rinse repeatedly, pouring the water off the top, then dry on paper.

Peshwar White Poppy: A breadseed poppy acquired from a market in Peshwar. The pods remain completely closed, so none of the white seeds ever fall out. You can keep a vase on the counter full of them and just sprinkle them right out of the pods. They are best sown in place early enough to get chill. Broadcasting is easiest, but thin them. Well spaced plants can produce huge pods with larger seeds than crowded plants. It should only cross with other varieties of the same species, Papaver somniferum.

Miner’s Lettuce: This is a wild green native to California and southern Oregon. It is prolific here as a colonizer plant, covering disturbed soils quickly. It is usually outcompeted once other plants move in and establish themselves. It can however dominate or continue for years in shady spots, especially where trees meet open ground, or in semi shaded forest openings. The flavor is much like chickweed, which is very often found growing with it, because it fills the same niche. Seed can be broadcast on the ground in fall in mild areas to sprout with fall rains, or in the spring with the thaw in colder climes. It can naturalize, and that would be it’s really value to most people, but I’m not sure where it will or won’t naturalize though. It can also be grown in garden beds where it can get much larger if given room and care. Seeds are broadcast by the plant for at least 6 feet as the seeds ripen. Put a mesh bag over the plant to save seed, or pick the whole plant when quite a bit of seed is ripe and dry covered or in a mesh bag.

Haogen Melon: Delicious little melons in the honeydew vein. Very productive when happy. To save seeds, just make sure it is the only melon growing.

Burgess’ Buttercup: My favorite winter squash after trialing many. Dry sweet flesh and a great keeper. I usually direct sow them by june 1st here. They will not cross with either butternut or summer squash, so you can grow all three and save seed from all of them without any crossing, as long as you only grow one of each. Makes saving squash seed a lot easier.

Yellow Crookneck: There are various strains of this squash, but the one I’ve grown most is Golden Summer Crookneck. They are richer in flavor than any other summer squash I’ve grown. If more mature you can still eat them by removing the seed cavity and peeling, then cooking in stews and soups. But they are best young and tender. They will cross with zucchinis and other summer squashes, so isolate if saving seeds. The seeds last for years, so you can save seed from it one year and then from say a zucchini the next year, then grow both together for years until you need to save seed again. You can also tape the flowers shut the night before, open to pollinate in the morning, then bag them so insects can’t pollinate it.

Burpees Butterbush: I know, it doesn’t sound very appealing, but it is I promise. This is a small butternut, about two person sized usually. The really cool thing is it’s a dwarf variety, so it can fit in a regular garden bed easily if you just guide the vines back inward. Good keeper. Typical of butternuts, it’s not the richest and sweetest squash, but it’s still pretty good, especially if long baked with spices, butter and honey.

Oregano: I went through a couple of oreganos before finding seed for this one. I love it. Potent flavor and the flowers are pollinator magnets. Sow on top of the soil, press lightly, water and cover with plastic wrap until they germinate. If you plant several 10 or 12 inches apart, they will fill in the area faster, but one plant will eventually become quite large as it creeps slowly out by runners.

Grandpa Ott’s Morning Glory: This is a great Ipomoea purpurea variety with deep purple flowers and white throats. Here it reseeds readily. I had it at my last place, but only had to bring seeds here and plant it once. Seed coats are hard and resist soaking up. Nick each seed with a knife or nail file, just through the outer coat a little, then soak overnight before planting. They like to germinate in warm summer conditions. Best plant several together and give them something to grow on, either stakes, trellises or other tall plants. Daily flushes of flowers all summer.

Tuchon Carrot: This carrot is my favorite all around for homestead use and holding in the ground all winter. It never gets woody and maintains high quality through until it flowers in the spring. It is not the most uniform carrot, so I usually grow something else, like Shin Kuroda for market sales. I may have seed for sale someday, but you can find it online in the meantime.

San Pedro Cactus: especially when young, San Pedro can be treated more like a regular plant than a cactus. They need adequate food and water to grow and if given enough, will grow very fast. Young plants can be kept damp constantly, just not soggy. Use well drained potting mix, about 50/50 potting mix to aggregate. I use charcoal, but you can use pearlite, pumice, coarse sand, broken pottery etc. They are pretty heavy feeders when growing fast. Compost tea with some nitrogen source works well. Plants in the ground respond well to peeing around them a few times a month or more, or any other high nitrogen fertilizer. The biggest mistake with SP is thinking they need to be dry more than not. They survive drying out fine, but prefer to have access to adequate water to keep growing. Second year seedlings can reach 10 or 12 inches and 3rd year 20+ inches.