I recently wrote that we began starting pepper seeds for our garden. We’re growing four types of peppers this year: Takii’s New Ace bell peppers, Gochugarju hot peppers, Jaluv an Attitude jalapenos, and West Indies habaneros. We started them on Sunday, March 22, and all varieties take 10-14 days to germinate. The jalapeno seeds were the first to germinate, doing so in nine days (March 31), while the habaneros and Gochugarju did so a few days later (April 3). All three were in the germination window. We’re now more than two weeks out since we started the seeds, and the bell peppers have yet to germinate. Additionally, not all of the cells for the other varieties have sprouted. So, that leads me to the question: When do you admit defeat and restart the seeds that haven’t germinated? I don’t have an answer to this question, but I do have some thoughts that I hope will lead me to a reasonable answer. Hopefully, it can give you some pointers too if you’re unsure of when to restart your seeds.
Our seed-starting trays, with some pepper seeds that have possibly failed to germinate.
I never admit defeat or restart a seed that hasn’t germinated until at least a few days past the days-to-germination range. That range of days is a rough estimation for when you can expect the seeds to sprout. Even in the past few days, some of the cells have sprouted even though we’re beyond the range. Because of that, I try to be careful to never quit on the seeds too fast. At the same time, you want to be careful not to wait too long. The seeds and their subsequent starts need enough time to grow so that they can be transplanted into the garden with enough time to mature and produce fruit. And with a slow-growing vegetable like peppers, it’s a delicate balance.
Another aspect that needs to be considered is how many seeds you have left. In our case, we have leftovers for all of our seeds, but unfortunately, we have the fewest Takii’s New Ace seeds of the four varieties. So, I’ll need to be extra careful with restarting seeds so that we don’t run out with no starts to show for it. Of course, we can always order more seeds, either of the same variety or something different, but I’d prefer not to. It’s another reason I want to give the Takii’s New Ace as much time as possible to germinate.
Finally, the last consideration when deciding if it’s time to restart seeds is space. Do you have enough seed cells and room in your seed-starting trays to restart seeds? This may seem like a small aspect to consider, but restarting seeds does mean using additional seed cells, moving cells around within the trays, and making sure that the newly sown seeds can be on a heat mat while the germinated starts can also be under the grow light. Thankfully, we have plenty of space if we have to restart some seeds; however, that’s not the case for everyone and is something that should be taken into account.
So, what are we going to do? I think I’ve decided to wait it out with the Takii’s New Ace until this weekend. It’s currently a Wednesday, so that’ll give the seeds almost three weeks from the date of sowing to germinate. At that point, I think we can assume that the seeds have failed to germinate. If I do have to restart some seeds, I’m only going to use one seed per cell to not waste any more of them. And of course, I’ll keep you updated on how everything goes.
In part one of this two-part series, I looked at the history of food and food systems becoming a weapon and tactic in war. This idea of writing this series came to me after I listened to a podcast episode that discussed the horrible circumstances that Palestinian olive growers found themselves in last fall and winter. That, combined with the sad news events coming out of Gaza, led me to explore the conditions people are living in. If you haven’t read part one, I encourage you to do so before moving forward.
In part two, I’m going to go over some examples I’ve found where people display incredible resilience during times of hardship and aggression. I’m also going to look at some vegetables and seeds we can easily obtain and grow in the United States that are the result of people protecting and transporting them.
Resilience in the Face of Hardship
Something that always stands out to me is human resilience in the midst of darkness and hardship. In the wake of natural disasters, people come together to meet needs and rebuild. In situations of persecution, people are able to endure so much more than we think is possible. We’re seeing that in areas where global conflict is taking place.
Circling back to seeds and the preservation of food culture, there are many examples of people going to great lengths to keep their culture alive. Sometimes, this happens when immigrants leave their homes to travel for new opportunities. This has always been the case when immigrants arrive in the United States. They bring their recipes, flavors, ingredients, and seeds to have something familiar around them in a new place. Often, people of the same ethnic backgrounds have settled in the same location, which has further helped them preserve their culture. This has resulted in amazing restaurants becoming engrained in communities as well as festivals that celebrate their culture. An example of this is Erie, PA, which is a city of fewer than 100,000 people. Annually, it hosts festivals that celebrate Greek, Italian, Polish, German, Russian, and Irish heritage. Additionally, there is a sizable Nepalese and Indian community, which is reflected in restaurants that serve their cuisine. None of these would be possible if people hadn’t kept their culture alive when moving to a small city in Northwest Pennsylvania.
Other times, groups are forced to leave their homeland with very few possessions in hand. They grab their most important things, which sometimes includes seeds, and hold non-tangible items close to their heart. Many native African vegetables came to the United States this way via the slave trade. Other situations saw Native Americans transport seeds as they were removed from their homeland, and refugees from Asia and North Africa have brought seeds common in their cuisine. As a result, it’s easy to purchase seeds native to other parts of the world, and they’re being selected to grow in a new climate. The ability for immigrants and refugees to grow familiar vegetables in order to cook their culture’s food is vitally important. And we all benefit from a culture that is being strengthened and refined through new additions. After all, the majority of Americans are immigrants in some manner. This also illustrates the importance of seeds and food to a person’s culture.
Palestine Heirloom Seed Library
One way we’re seeing seeds be saved and preserved for the future is through the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library. Earlier, I mentioned that the Palestinian Seed Bank in Hebrom had been attacked and destroyed by Israel. Thankfully, that library wasn’t the only location where Palestinian seeds were being saved. In 2014, the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library was started by a Palestinian woman named Vivien Sansour. The organization’s goal is multifaceted, but the primary work consists of collecting and conserving Palestinian seeds. The seeds are often grown, with the plant producing the next generation of seeds, further ensuring their survival. While some of the work still takes place in Palestine, the library works with partners around the world, including the Experimental Farm Network in Philadelphia to grow seeds and store them in U.S. seed banks. Seed companies within this network, including Philadelphia’s Truelove Seeds, make these seeds available for purchase, allowing refugees around the world to grow seeds they’re familiar with as well as introducing these vegetables to a new generation of people. It was from Truelove Seeds that Magz bought the Molokhia seeds for our garden this year.
An extension of the library is a project called The Traveling Kitchen. As its name suggests, it’s a traveling educational and art experience that creates engaging conversation on the topics of bio-cultural heritage and agrobiodiversity. Part of that consists of educating audience members on the realities of global conflict and its impact on food culture.
Learning About Seeds & Their Growers
I think a smart way to approach anything is to educate oneself on the subject. While it doesn’t seem like there is much an individual can do to make a huge difference when what’s occurring in Palestine is thousands of miles away. But learning about victims’ culture and finding ways to support the people is a step that can go a long way. Listening to podcasts, like Seeds & Their People and Gravy, is a really simple and helpful step.
Telling Their Stories – Seeds & Their People and Gravy
Another area of encouragement that I see is the ways people are exposing what’s going on. I listen to a number of podcasts. Some are faith-related, some cover sports, and others are more historical/social in nature. Two that fit into that last category are Seeds & Their People and Gravy. Seeds & Their People is published by Truelove Seeds and tells the stories of unique seeds and the people who have preserved them to allow them to be grown in the United States. It’s through this podcast that I first learned about Palestinian Molokhia. Magz later came across Truelove and Molokhia when she was searching for flax seeds. She didn’t know that I listened to Truelove’s podcast or that I had listened to an episode dedicated to Molokhia and its path to arriving in the U.S. Other people groups that have had their stories told on the podcast are the Karen from Burma, Iranians, Mexicans, and even people from the Deep South. It’s a fascinating podcast, and I’ve learned so much.
Gravy is a podcast published by the Southern Foodways Alliance and tells the story of the food and people living in the ever-changing South. Some episodes that stand out are the thriving Asian community in Northwest Arkansas and a series dedicated to telling the stories of black farmers who were affected by the Pigford vs. Glickman case. I can’t recommend the episodes enough. Just today, I listened to Gravy’s newest episode about a Georgian restaurant in Pensacola, Florida. The owner and head chef emigrated to the U.S. after the fall of the Soviet Union and has successfully blended Southern cuisine with elements of Georgia. Gravy isn’t solely dedicated to gardening and seeds, but the theme of preserving food culture persists.
Buying Seeds
I think that one way we can make a difference and support people groups being targeted is to learn about their food systems and grow their vegetables if they can be grown in your location. In the United States, many of the vegetables we eat on a regular basis are the result of forced relocation. From Africa, we have yams, okra, rice, peanuts, black-eyed peas, and watermelon that were transported during the African slave trade. From West Asia and the Levant, we have molokhia and many varieties of peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes. From East Asia, we have perilla, radishes, mustards, kabocha, and pepper varieties. We eat many of these in our daily life.
On many seed companies’ websites, there are categories for seeds that are native to different parts of the world. True Love Seeds, for example, has collections for the African Diaspora, East Asia, Seeds of the Levant, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Buying those seeds helps us to learn about the culture and food systems as well as to support the farmers who keep these seeds alive. In my opinion, any seed company worth its weight will give a percentage or set amount back to these farmers to help them grow or simply maintain their farm. For example, True Love Seeds gives 30 percent of its annual sales back to their growers. That’s important. Other companies that clearly communicate how they support growers are Fedco, Sow True Seeds, Southern Exposure, and High Mowing. That’s not to say that other companies don’t do this, but that these four are transparent.
You can also look for heirloom seeds and seeds that are part of Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. Ark of Taste seeds are ones considered at-risk and must be protected at all costs. Purchasing and growing these seeds helps promote biodiversity and sustainable growing practices. Although there are different definitions, heirloom seeds are ones with an origin that dates back to before hybridization took off. For some, this is at least 50 or 100 years old, and for others, the seeds must have originated before the conclusion of World War II or 1951. The majority of the seeds that we know Native Americans or African slaves transported are heirlooms. Others are the result of immigrants transporting them to the U.S. during the 19th century. Purchasing heirloom seeds as much as you can is never a bad idea.
In the past, Magz and I have bought what I call seeds of resistance because we were intrigued by the vegetable’s characteristics – taste, color, growing habit. As history majors, we’re also motivated to keep history alive, and by buying heirloom seeds with an interesting story, we were doing that. Now, we’re committed to growing these at-risk vegetables. A few seeds that we have bought for past gardens or bought for this year’s garden include the Cherokee Trail of Tears and Iroquois Skunk beans, Hopi Blue corn, Ali Baba watermelon, and Candy Roaster, Yellow Crookneck, and White Scallop squash. All of these varieties have unique histories and stories. It’s pretty fun to participate in that story by growing them.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I set out writing this post wanting to explore the tragic acts taking place in Palestine at the hands of Israel that I label genocide and ethnic cleansing. I achieved that and much more. Through history classes, including one dedicated to genocide, I was aware of the acts that add up to genocide as well as previous instances where genocide occurred, so I was confident that my research would support my take on what’s happening to the Palestinians. I didn’t expect my research to necessarily take me throughout the history of criminalizing starvation and how recently it happened. I was left with a deep sadness at how humans treat each other. When differences are realized, the first instinct is often fighting and conflict. And if that conflict isn’t resolved soon enough, or if the aggressor doesn’t feel like they’re achieving their goal efficiently, they’ll use deplorable acts to find victory. They have no problem dehumanizing other people, and oftentimes, it’s even their goal.
In the United States, we’ve been taught to support Israel no matter what. Even as a Christian raised in the U.S., Israel and the Jewish people are considered sacred. That they’re the ones being attacked and not the aggressors. Yet their acts over the past two years have changed that narrative. By committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians, they’re doing the very same thing that that happened to them in the past and led to the diaspora. And I can’t help but be sad. Warfare is a vicious act, but destroying another culture is deplorable. Targeting food systems is part of the cultural destruction. Food plays a key role in day-to-day life, both because it’s sustenance and nourishment for life and because it connects us to our past and others who share the same background.
So, where do we go from here? I’m not entirely sure. Ideally, we stop treating each other with such disrespect and hatred. Even when we disagree with others, we see them as humans worthy of respect and compassion. We don’t attempt to cleanse their culture from society. Unfortunately, humans are evil and act sinful, so it’s unlikely that we stop treating each other so poorly short of an act of God. In the meantime, I think we continue to share information when we learn it, we reach out and help people as we can, we educate ourselves, we act out of compassion instead of hatred, and we refuse to accept the status quo.
I know that this post was way out of the norm for me, and it wasn’t overly related to gardening, but I felt that it was important to discuss. Silence only continues the evil. If you were unaware or unfamiliar with the situation, I hope this was enlightening and eye-opening. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the links in this post and listen to some of the podcasts I mentioned.
In the final installment for my series highlighting the garden seeds we ordered for our 2026 garden, I’m going over tomatoes. I think we ordered more tomato varieties than any other vegetable. Below, I am including links to the previous installments of the series. Plus, here’s a post that showcases all of the seeds we ordered.
We’re changing up nearly all of our tomatoes from 2025. We had pretty good success with most of them, but we wanted to experience new varieties. In fact, the only variety that isn’t new is the Roma seeds we ordered. In choosing our tomato seeds, we wanted a large range of tomatoes, including multiple cherry tomatoes, paste tomatoes, and slicing tomatoes. One thing we didn’t want was tomatoes of unique or uncommon colors. Last year, we grew yellow pear tomatoes and found it difficult to see the ripe ones in the midst of the leaves. So this year, we’re only growing red tomatoes. I love tomatoes and want to grow as many as we can. I loved being able to make fresh pasta sauce last year and want to take that further this year by being able to can some.
Our tomato seeds for our 2026 garden.
Aichi First
A Japanese heirloom that originated in 1938 in the Aichi Prefecture, the Aichi First variety is a midseason that I would categorize as a slicing or salad tomato with fruits of around a half-pound. This tomato grows on indeterminate plants that mature in 80-90 days. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.
Early Cherry
This cherry tomato variety is one of the earliest ones to ripen in the garden. Its fruit grow in clusters of five on determinate plants. The flavor is described as “robust” and “full.” Successfully grows even in cool weather. These seeds were bought from Territorial.
Heinz
Yes, this tomato’s name is connected to the H.J. Heinz Co. This specific strand, the 1350 VF, was developed by the company in 1963. It’s a paste tomato with excellent processing attributes, making it great for canning and cooking into sauce. Grows on determinate plants, which produce 4-to-6-ounce round fruits, unlike the plum shape of Romas. These tomatoes come from Southern Exposure.
Korean Long
A Korean heirloom that is categorized as a paste tomato, the Korean Long tomato has a unique shape that is elongated (like a plum tomato) with a curved tail that comes to a point. Even though it’s a paste tomato, it has an excellent flavor when eaten fresh. A very meaty tomato that can weigh up to one pound each. Grows on indeterminate plants. These seeds came from Baker Creek.
Large Red
This is an old American heirloom that dates back to the pre-Civil War days, when it was listed in the 1843 Shaker seed company, which was based in their village in New Lebanon, New York. It quickly became one of the most popular varieties sold in the country. The indeterminate plants produce large 2×4-inch round tomatoes that have heavy ribbing rather than a smooth surface. Like most tomatoes with a storied past, the Large Red has a complex flavor that is sweet and tangy. These seeds come from Southern Exposure. And if you want to learn more about Shakers, their villages, and their businesses, check out this video from Kendra Gaylord.
Little Bing
We were drawn to this cherry tomato variety because of Chandler…Bing! As you can probably guess based on the name, Little Bing is a compact plant that will thrive in containers and top out at 24 inches tall. It produces lots of red cherry-sized tomatoes that are flavorful. It’s also an early-season variety that matures in 60 to 65 days. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
Martino’s Roma
When people think about tomatoes for making sauce, I’m confident that two varieties come to mind: San Marzano and Roma. Martino’s Roma is an Italian heirloom that is a perfect paste tomato. It’s a determinate variety, and the plants don’t need cages, just minimal staking. The plants produce 2-to-3-ounce fruits that are dry and meaty with few seeds. It’s a perfect variety for sauces, pastes, and salsas. Our seeds came from Baker Creek.
Mountaineer Pride
Although Mountaineer Pride isn’t an heirloom, it is the descendant of a variety that was developed in 1963 called West Virginia 63. Mountaineer Pride and its predecessor were developed by West Virginia University professor Mannon Gallegly. Mountaineer Pride wasn’t released until 2017, but it was now larger and with better disease resistance than the original variety. It grows on indeterminate vines with medium-sized fruits that have firm skin and store well. These seeds came from Southern Exposure.
Sub Arctic Plenty
This tomato is one of the earliest varieties to reach maturity, doing so in only 60 days. It was developed in Canada, so you can feel confident that it will grow in cool weather and late springs. It’s a determinate plant, and they can be planted close together so that staking isn’t needed. The fruit grow in clusters of two-ounce tomatoes, so bigger than a cherry but smaller than a salad tomato. These seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
Umpqua Beauty
The images of these tomatoes in the Territorial seed catalog and on their website show one of the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen. They’re perfectly round with smooth, vibrant red skin and pink flesh with few cavities. The Umpqua Beauty comes from the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon, and both were named for the Umpqua Native American tribe that has lived there for more than a thousand years. The tomato is a determinate variety with fruit that can grow up to two pounds and are versatile. It is great as a slicing tomato on sandwiches and salads and also makes a great paste tomato due to the low number of seed cavities it has. I’m very excited to grow these.
And there you have it: Our 2026 collection of seeds. Were there any that stood out? Are you growing any of the same varieties or are there any that you think we should grow?
In a continuation of my series highlighting the garden seeds we ordered for our 2026 garden, I’m going to combine two vegetables into one post. This post will go over our pumpkin and squash seeds. Below, I am including links to the previous installments of the series. Plus, here’s a post that showcases all of the seeds we ordered.
Pumpkins are one of the most enjoyable crops to grow. We had a blast with them last year. It was delightful seeing the bright orange fruit jump out from the dark green backdrop. But equally enjoyable was the success we had. We harvested multiple midsize pumpkins last year that we used to bake pies for Thanksgiving. This year, we’re growing one variety that we grew last year as well as a new one. We also have some seeds from last year that we may try to replant. Our focus on picking pumpkin seeds is flavor over everything else. It’d be great to grow the biggest pumpkin possible, but if it isn’t flavorful and can’t be used for cooking and baking, we aren’t that interested.
Our pumpkin seeds for our 2026 garden.
New England Sugar Pie
We grew this variety last year and loved it. The plants grew beautiful green vines with massive leaves and put on multiple volleyball-sized pumpkins. The pumpkins stored well, and we processed them into puree for our pies at Thanksgiving. It produced the best-tasting pumpkin pie any of us have ever had. We can’t recommend this pumpkin variety enough. Like last year, our seeds come from Baker Creek.
Winter Luxury
This heirloom variety dates back to 1893 and was improved in 1917. Grows medium-sized pumpkins that have the traditional orange skin. It’s described as being a great pumpkin for pies. This is our first year growing this variety, and we bought our seeds from Southern Exposure.
Squash
We love squash, both winter and summer. Last year, we grew zucchini and White Scallop for summer squash but didn’t do a deep dive into winter squash. We eventually started buying butternut squash (a winter variety) from the grocery store and fell in love with the flavor, so we’re growing it this year. We picked multiple zucchini, yellow squash, and winter squash varieties.
Our squash seeds for our 2026 garden.
Black Beauty
One of the standard zucchini varieties, I think we grew Black Beauty last year. If so, it was extremely productive and flavorful. We got a late start planting the seeds, but in around two months, we were harvesting zucchini. I love that the plant stays contained yet open, which makes it easy to harvest. These seeds come from Territorial.
Burgress Buttercup
An heirloom that dates back to 1925, after the Quality and Essex Hybrid varieties were crossed, Burgress Buttercup first appeared in a seed catalog in 1931. The Buttercup is a winter squash with sweet orange flesh. It can be used in savory and sweet recipes. However, it does not store as long as other winter squash. Our seeds came from Fedco.
Burpee’s Butterbush
The Burpee’s Butterbush is a butternut squash similar to the popular Waltham variety but produces smaller 2-to-3-pound fruit. The flesh is sweet and moist but not watery. It matures in only 87 days, which is early for a winter squash. Although a determinate variety, its vines can still reach 10 feet long. It stores very well. We started eating butternut squash last year and fell in love with the flavor. We’re really excited to grow these seeds this year. Our seeds come from Fedco.
Costata Romanesca
An Italian heirloom zucchini, the Costata Romanesca is renowned for its flavor. Its plants are more vigorous than other zucchinis, and the fruit are best when picked at 12 inches, larger than most zucchini varieties. Still, the fruits remain tender even at 18 inches. We’re very excited to learn how the flavor differs from the typical zucchini we eat in the U.S. Our seeds come from Southern Exposure.
Crookneck Early Golden
This heirloom yellow squash variety is one of the standards for summer squash. It has been grown in North America since before Columbus arrived and has been one of the most popular varieties ever since. Matures early at 50 to 60 days and stays contained in a bush-growing habit. We’ve never grown yellow squash, but we love eating it and are excited to have a large supply of it this summer. Our seeds come from Baker Creek.
Lebanese White Bush
We stumbled upon this summer squash variety late in our seed searching process and are intrigued by it. It’s an heirloom that is similar to a zucchini, but the skin is light green and the flesh is white. The fruit appears to be pretty small, perhaps the size of a hand. It has a bush-growing habit and is supposed to be prolific. This is a new variety for us, and we’re excited to grow it. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
Ronde De Nice
This is another variety that we haven’t grown before and found it in the catalogs. It’s a French heirloom that dates back to the 1800s. It’s a summer squash, but it has the shape of an acorn squash, which is a winter variety. The plants are compact, vigorous, and produce lots of small, 4-inch fruit. These seeds come from Pinetree Gardens.
Turk’s Turban
The Turk’s Turban winter squash first caught my attention in our 2025 seed catalogs, but I didn’t highlight it and wasn’t confident enough to grow it. This year, it caught my attention again, and we’re giving it a go. It’s bright orange with green and white stripes on the top and sides. It is shaped like a butternut squash and categorized as an Aladdin-style squash or even a gourd, but I would describe its shape as being similar to a mushroom. It is stunning and can be used for decorations but is also edible and delicious. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
White Scallop
We grew this variety last year after never eating a patty pan squash before. It immediately became our favorite type of summer squash. The White Scallop is an old heirloom that was grown by Native Americans as far back as the 16th century. The plant produces many 5-to-6-inch round, flat fruits in compact bushes. They’re also delicious. We love slicing them and roasting them in the oven with a bit of oil, Season All, and pepper. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. The seeds come from Baker Creek again.
Yellow Crookneck
Similar to the crookneck variety described above, this variety has warts on its skin that come to mind when you think of crookneck squash. It’s an heirloom that was grown by Native Americans in the Northeast/New England region before Americans started growing it in the 19th century. We’ve never grown this type before. These seeds come from Fedco.
What are your favorite types of squash to grow? Have you ever grown a patty pan squash? If not, I recommend giving it a try. It’s a game-changer.
In a continuation of my series highlighting the garden seeds we ordered for our 2026 garden, I’m going to combine two vegetables into one post. This post will go over our pepper seeds and seed potatoes. Below, I am including links to the previous installments of the series. Plus, here’s a post that showcases all of the seeds we ordered.
We love using Gochujang in our cooking, and this is the pepper it’s made from. Gochujang is a fermented red chili paste used in Korean cuisine, and while it’s spicy, it still has flavor. We’re really excited to grow these seeds. The peppers grow to four inches long and are narrow. Our seeds come from Sow True Seed.
Our pepper seeds for 2026.
Jaluv an Attitude
Each year, Fedco Seeds designates one seed as their Seed Without a Price variety. It’s usually a seed with a unique backstory, and any profit that they would normally earn for the seed goes into their Seed Farmers Resilience Fund. This money is used to help Fedco’s seed farmers who face crop and livelihood disruptions. This year’s Seed Without a Price is the Jaluv an Attitude pepper. It’s a hot pepper that was developed by a breeder named Relentless. It looks like a jalapeno with a thicker skin and the flavor of a jalapeno. Jalapenos can be hit or miss for me. I love jalapeno poppers, preserving them into cowboy candy, and throwing them into salsa. But it isn’t a pepper I reach for just to add spice to a dish. That being said, I’m still really excited to grow these.
Takii’s New Ace
For our sweet pepper for 2026, I wanted a red, orange, or yellow bell pepper that matures quickly and succeeds in cool weather. Neither of us is a big fan of green bell peppers since they are often bitter and can lead to stomach aches. We tend to have inconsistent spring and summer weather where we live, so it’s hard to trust that we’ll have a hot summer that peppers love. Takii’s New Ace seems like the perfect pepper. It sets fruit in cool weather and has high disease resistance. Our seeds come from Pinetree Gardens.
West Indies Red Habanero
I love Jamaican jerk chicken, which traditionally uses Scotch Bonnet peppers. Unfortunately, Scotch Bonnet peppers and their seeds are difficult to find. Last year, Baker Creek sold them, but this year, they weren’t on their website. The West Indies Red Habanero was the closest variety I could find and happened to also be offered by Baker Creek. I’m curious to know if we can successfully grow this variety since it requires hot weather and lots of sunshine, but I think it’s possible.
Potatoes
We had some difficulty sourcing seed potatoes this year. In 2022, we ordered from Fedco and had great success growing them in containers. Last year, we ordered from Fedco and High Mowing because Fedco had sold out of some of the varieties we wanted. We weren’t able to harvest any potatoes, and the ones we received from Fedco were moldy and rotten when they arrived.
So, this year, we weren’t sure if we wanted to give Fedco another try. There’s a chance we could receive rotten potatoes again, plus their shipping costs are very high. High Mowing didn’t have all the varieties we wanted, and their prices are high since they’re all organic. That led me to search the web for specific seed potato varieties and resulted in me finding Urban Farmer, a seed company located in Indiana. We bought all our seeds from them.
Adirondack Blue
This midseason potato has blue skin and blue flesh and retains its color through the cooking process. The Adirondack Blue potato has antioxidants that can lower the risk of heart and neurological diseases. This potato is a fresh-eating variety with a short storage life.
German Butterball
The German Butterball potato is a quintessential late-season potato. It has yellow skin and flesh and is great for roasting and frying. It also stores well.
Magic Molly
The Magic Molly potato is one of the most beautiful varieties you can grow and eat. It’s a late-season fingerling with purple skin and flesh. We recently bought a bag of these from the store, and they made wonderful smashed potatoes. We grew these in 2022 and were amazed at their flavor.
Red Norland
The Red Norland is a wonderful early-season red-skinned potato. They are delicious, uniform in size, and store fairly well. My preferred way to eat them is boiled with butter, sour cream, salt, and pepper.
What are your favorite potato varieties to grow, if you grow your own potatoes? Also, have you had success growing hot peppers? If so, please share any tips.
In a continuation of my series highlighting the garden seeds we ordered for our 2026 garden, I’m going to combine several vegetables into one post. This post will go over our melon, molokhia, and pea seeds. Below, I am including links to the previous installments of the series. Plus, here’s a post that showcases all of the seeds we ordered.
Last year, I think we grew four types of melons: one watermelon, one cantaloupe, and two specialty melons. We had moderate success and were able to harvest one cantaloupe and multiple specialty melons. Given that we didn’t know what we were doing, I was pretty happy with the outcome. This year, we’re dialing it back by only growing three varieties of melons and no watermelons, which was the only type to not produce an edible fruit last year. The three varieties we bought were also bred to grow in northern climates, so we should be in a good position to succeed even if we have a cooler summer.
Our melon, molokhia, and pea seeds for 2026.
Cream of Saskatchewan
This white-fleshed watermelon has Saskatchewan in its name, but its origins are Russian. It grows very well in northern climates that have shorter growing seasons. Despite its white flesh, it is known for its sweetness and great flavor. It has a very thin rind and does not store well. This heirloom seed was bought from Seed Savers Exchange.
Montreal Market
This muskmelon has a fascinating story. The seed dates back to early French settlers of North America (to at least the 17th century), and Burpee commercialized it in 1881, but at one point it was thought to be extinct. Thankfully, a group of Montreal seed preservationists located a few seeds in 1996 and brought it back. A green-fleshed variety, Montreal Market has a sweet and spicy flavor that is unique. Grows very well in cool climates. Our seeds came from Fedco.
Pride of Wisconsin
Fedco, who we bought this seed from, describes the Pride of Wisconsin as the “best full-size open-pollinated muskmelon.” It was introduced by the St. Louis Seed Co. in 1923 and nearly went extinct during hybridization. The taste is supposed to be divine, and the flesh is edible down to the rind.
Palestinian Molokhia
I first learned about Molokhia in a podcast from True Love Seeds called Seeds and Their People. If you haven’t listened to that podcast yet, I recommend it. Magz came across molokhia when she was looking for flax seeds, buying both from True Love Seeds despite not knowing that I listened to their podcast. Molokhia is a green that is natively grown in the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa that is rich in vitamins and minerals. It’s eaten like spinach and is also called Egyptian Spinach, while its fiber is used to make twine, rope, and rugs.
This variety comes from Palestinian refugees/immigrants living in the United States. Molokhia should be picked throughout the season for a perpetual harvest, and the leaves can be frozen or dried. Side note: I may not always love modern technology and the modern world, but the ability to learn about and purchase seeds that are vital to a culture halfway around the world is amazing. Buying and growing this seed is especially important, as the Palestinian culture, including its foodways, is being threatened. By learning about Palestinian culture and humanizing the Palestinian people, we are able to better understand them. The relationship between the Palestinian and Israeli people can be tough to understand, but one thing we should be able to agree on is that no one should have to worry about their culture being destroyed. As a Christian, I have no problem using the word “genocide” to describe what’s happening to the Palestinian people.
Peas
Peas get such a negative reputation, which is unfair. It’s probably because of people’s experience eating canned peas as children. While I also like those, fresh peas are amazing. Last year, we grew a couple of rows of snap peas and had some success, but we had issues with weeds and our corn shading the plants too much. This year, we’re growing all new varieties and picked one variety each of snap peas, snow peas, and shelling peas.
Green Arrow
Full transparency: This shelling pea variety’s name caught our attention and is the main reason we chose it. I’ve been watching the TV series Smallville over the past six months or so, and Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) is one of my favorite characters. As a seed, the Green Arrow pea is an heirloom that has been developed to have good disease resistance and high production. We got our seeds from Pinetree Gardens.
Oregon Sugar Pod II
The Oregon Sugar Pod II is a snow pea that has a contained growing habit with only 30-inch-tall vines that don’t climb. Like Green Arrow, this variety is highly disease resistant and very productive. Our seeds were bought from Territorial.
Sugar Ann
This variety is a snap pea that is known for its exceptional flavor and was named an All-American Winner in 1984. It grows in a bush habit with only 18-inch vines that don’t need to be trellised. Snap peas are my favorite, and I have a hard time not eating them fresh off the vine. Can be planted late in summer for fall harvesting. Our Sugar Ann seeds came from Southern Exposure.
Have you grown any of these varieties before, or have you grown molokhia in the past?
In a continuation of my series highlighting the garden seeds we ordered for our 2026 garden, I’m going to combine several vegetables into one post. This post will go over our cucumber, flax, and leek seeds. And if you missed the previous installments, you can read about our bean seeds and corn seeds. Plus, here’s a post that showcases all of the seeds we ordered.
I love cucumbers, so much so that I dug into the history of them in this post. They’re one of my favorite vegetables to eat during the summer heat, and I crave the coolness they provide. Last year, we planted a lot of cucumber plants, and the vines went everywhere. They intersected with each other and other plants and were difficult to navigate through. We also had more cucumbers than we knew what to do with and lost some ripe ones that were buried underneath leaves. Because of that, we’re scaling back our cucumbers in this year’s garden. We still want variety that can be eaten fresh and pickled. Plus, there’s still a specialty cucumber that I couldn’t resist.
Our cucumber, flax, and leek seeds for the 2026 garden.
Bushy
This short-season cucumber is one of the earliest varieties you can find, maturing in 45 to 50 days. This variety has a bush-growing habit, as is evident by its name, and can even be grown in containers, which we are considering. The cucumbers are excellent for fresh eating and pickling. The Bushy cucumber originated in Moscow, Russia, where plants that thrive in short summers are essential. We haven’t grown this variety in the past. The seeds come from Pinetree Gardens.
Mexican Sour Gherkin
This is a variety I’ve been interested in for a couple of years. Also called Cucamelon or Mouse Melon, the Mexican Sour Gherkin is native to Central America and has been eaten there since before the Europeans arrived. This variety grows on vines, so it needs a trellis or fence and grows many 1-inch fruits that resemble tiny watermelons. Our seeds come from Fedco.
Flax
Historically, Pennsylvania grew a lot of flax, which was milled, spun, and used to create linen for clothing, bedding, and more. Its oil is what we call linseed oil. Over time, the commonwealth stopped growing flax on a large scale, and we no longer have mills for processing. Last year, Magz learned about the PA Flax Seed Project, which has a goal of reestablishing flax as a commodity crop in Pennsylvania. As a result, we became interested in being part of the movement to see flax grown in PA once again.
Common Flax
We were originally going to participate in the Square Yard Project, which is part of the PA Flax Project, but their website for signing up was down when we were ordering seeds. So, Magz found seeds from True Love Seeds, which is based in Pennsylvania. According to their seed description, common flax is mostly grown in Europe and Central Asia. Linseed can be used medicinally for its anti-inflammatory properties. The oil and seeds can be consumed and are rich in omega-3s. Plus, the fiber can be used to create textiles. We bought a single pack of it with the goal of learning how to grow it. It’s supposed to be very easy to grow.
Leeks
We have never grown leeks and, to my knowledge, have only cooked them once or twice. But with a flavor that’s described as being similar to a green onion but sweeter, we’re confident that we’ll like them. One of my gardening goals is to grow onions in the future, but they can be finicky and can take a lot of preparation, so leeks seemed like the next best thing.
King Richard
I knew that I wanted a leek variety with the shortest time to maturity that I could find in case we have another late spring or an early frost in the fall. The King Richard Leek fits that mold, only needing 75 days to mature. Our seeds come from Fedco.
Do you have a favorite cucumber variety to grow? If so, I’d love to hear about it and possibly grow it in the future. Also, have you ever grown flax or leeks? I look forward to hearing from you.
It may still be winter with snow on the ground here in Pennsylvania, but the garden is just around the corner. What has been a harsh and frigid winter, with the temperature not getting above freezing for nearly two consecutive months and two feet of snow on the ground, is starting to break. When I started this blog post, it was bright and sunny outside, and the daily high has remained above freezing for nearly two weeks. For us, that means garden preparations, which have snuck up on me. One day, we were beginning to receive our catalogs in late November, and what felt like the next, we realized we needed to place our orders before things sold out.
In early February, we placed our orders, and the seeds have all arrived. So, now is as good of a time as ever to go over everything we ordered and what starts we’re going to purchase from our local greenhouse.
Starts We’re Buying From the Greenhouse
Before diving into the seeds we purchased, I want to go over the vegetables we’re going to buy starts for instead of seeds. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that we’ve never grown the vegetable before and want to begin with an established start that only needs to be transplanted rather than attempting to start our own seeds. My preference is to start my own seeds, but beginning with a start that only needs to be transplanted increases the chance of success. A couple of vegetables that fall into this category are broccoli and cauliflower. Technically, we tried growing broccoli last year, but they barely reached the transplanting stage and quickly failed. We’ve never tried growing cauliflower.
The second reason is that we like the options our greenhouse offers for a specific vegetable. Ground cherries and eggplant fall into this category. We bought starts for these last year and had success and will buy the same ones this year. Eventually, we’d like to buy additional eggplant varieties to grow, but we’re content with the Asian-style eggplant we got from the greenhouse last year. Finally, there are some vegetables that we will likely buy extra plants for. These will mostly be tomatoes and peppers. We bought seeds for both, but we would like to have an abundance of fruit from both, so adding extra plants is never a bad thing.
Seed Picks
Now, we move to the seeds we ordered.
Beans
Our bean seed choices are reflective of our larger approach to seed selection for this year’s garden. We wanted a variety of styles (wax, green, dry, and French), growing habits (bush and pole), and colors (green, yellow, red, black, and brown). You’ll soon see just how much we love beans.
Our 2026 bean seeds.
Beurre de Rocquen
A wax-style bean from France that descended from the first wax beans to be introduced to the country from Algeria in the mid-19th century. A bush-growing habit that should flower and produce early in the season. Supposed to be a delicious bean. It’s our first time growing it. Purchased from Baker Creek.
Black Turtle
We grew these beans last year and had moderate success. The plants generally grew well and produced pods. We were able to harvest a 1/4 cup of beans that dried on the plant. I greatly underestimated how many plants you need to have an abundant harvest. We’re growing more this year. These are the traditional black beans that are popular in Latin American cuisine. They’re intended to dry on the plant and in the pod, and the plants will stay relatively compact in a bush habit. Last year, we bought the variety from Baker Creek. This year, they came from Sow True Seeds, and the seed packet is gorgeous.
Blue Lake 274
One of the most popular bush beans grown in the United States, Blue Lake 274 has been grown since the 1940s. It’s a versatile and productive bean that is great for fresh eating, freezing, and canning. We’ve never grown this variety. Our seeds came from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.
Cherokee Trail of Tears
I’ve been curious about this variety since we started gardening and finally bought them for 2026. It’s an heirloom variety that dates back to at least the 1830s when members of the Cherokee Nation were forcefully relocated from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma by the U.S. government. That became known as the Trail of Tears, which is where the bean gets its name from. As for the bean, it grows on a pole habit with beautiful pinkish-purple flowers and develops green pods, but the bean is black. It can be eaten fresh or dried. We bought our seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.
Cherokee Wax
Not quite an heirloom, the Cherokee Wax bean was introduced by Clemson University in the 1940s and has been a favorite for gardeners ever since. Has a bush-growing habit and produces lots of yellow bean pods that are great for fresh eating and preserving. I love pickling wax beans into dilly beans. This is our first time growing this variety. Our seeds came from Pinetree Gardens.
Cranberry
An heirloom bean that can be tracked back to 1825 from England, the Cranberry bean is a horticultural style. I’ve since learned that horticultural beans have flatter pods than snap beans. The Cranberry bean produces beautiful scarlet-colored beans with lighter swirls. I’m a little unclear on what color the pods are, but some descriptions list them as green, while others list them as having pink highlights, so we’ll see. It’s very exciting. These have a bush habit. As you can probably tell, it’s our first year growing these. The seeds come from Territorial.
Grandma Nellie’s Yellow Mushroom
This is a unique heirloom variety that we’re really excited about. It’s a pole bean that requires trellising and produces yellow pods with beans that have an umami element similar to mushrooms. This variety originated in Russia and arrived in the United States via Saskatchewan. This is our first year growing these. The seeds come from Southern Exposure.
Iroquois Skunk Pole
Magz got me these as a Valentine’s Day gift this year, and they’re a fascinating bean variety. They’re an heirloom variety that has been grown by members of the Iroquois nation in the Great Lakes region for centuries. These grow on 6-foot vines with green pods. The beans can be eaten fresh as a snap bean or left to dry when the beans become beautifully speckled in black and white. These seeds come from Baker Creek.
Maxibel Haricot Vert
This is the classic French filet green bean. The pod may be green, but the bean is a speckled brown. Grows in a bush habit and is supposed to be delicious. This is our first time growing these, and we bought them from Fedco.
Missouri Bill
Missouri Bill is a shelling bean that is supposed to be great in stews or when baked. These have a compact, bush habit that develops rosy white flowers. The beans are buff-colored with scarlet-brown streaks on them and are stunning. Why they’re called Missouri Bill is a bit confusing, with one source I found claiming that the seeds were saved by a guy from Missouri named Bill. We bought ours from Territorial, and they state that their seeds originally came from the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. It’s our first year growing them.
Have you grown any of these varieties before? Let me know in the comments. In the next post, I’ll look at the corn seeds we picked.
All of our garden seeds for 2026 have been ordered and delivered, so I thought I’d share pictures of everything. This is just a short post, but I’m in the process of writing a longer post (or perhaps a series of posts) explaining all the seeds we bought.
All of our garden seeds.All of our garden seeds.Our Seed Savers Exchange Seeds bundle for 2026.Our True Love Seeds bundle for 2026.Our Southern Exposure Seeds bundle for 2026.Our Pinetree Gardens Seeds bundle for 2026.Our Fedco Seeds bundle for 2026.Our Baker Creek Seeds bundle for 2026.Our Sow True Seeds bundle for 2026.Our Territorial Seeds bundle for 2026.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on the 5 hardest seeds to grow this year. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend checking it out. In it, I went over the 5 seeds that I’ve had the most trouble with this year. It could have been the result of an error on my part, poor weather, or something else entirely, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t get them to grow.
Today, we’re going to look at the 5 seeds that I’ve had the best luck growing this year. I didn’t treat these seeds any differently from the ones listed in the previous post, yet they took off and are growing abundantly. With each seed, I’ll go over what has made them a success and why I think each was easy to grow. Let’s dive in.
5.) Queen Aliquippa Tomato
I’ve written about this seed so many times that people will get sick of it. We didn’t know this tomato variety existed until we saw it in this year’s Sow True Seeds catalog. They’ve been selling it for years, but this was the first year we requested their catalog. As a refresher, this tomato variety is named for Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca nation leader who lived in Pennsylvania during the 18th century. She is so well-known in Western Pennsylvania that a town, a school, and businesses are named in her honor. In fact, the town of Aliquippa is only 10 minutes from where Magz and I went to college.
These seeds could have been a bust, and I still would have been happy we bought them. Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case. Of the first batch of tomato seeds I started, only 3 are still alive, and 2 of them are Queen Aliquippas. I treated the Queen Aliquppas the same way as the other tomatoes; however, the others didn’t take off.
These plants have gone through a late Spring that resulted in them getting leggy at the start, multiple torrential downpours, and a week of excessive heat, but they remain our best-looking tomato plants. We have since transplanted a few more plants that I started later, and they are also looking good. The Queen Aliquippa tomato plant is unique among the others we’ve grown. It has potato leaves that aren’t serrated like a typical tomato plant. When ripe, the fruit will also mostly stay green with a bit of amber at the bottom. To this point, we’ve loved growing this variety, and assuming we like how they taste, we’ll continue to grow it in future years.
4.) Seminole Pumpkin
These pumpkins have done exceptionally well so far. We have plants that were started indoors and transplanted outside and ones that were direct sown. Regardless of how they were started, they’ve grown well. We don’t know how many of these plants we’re growing because I misplaced the labels when transplanting the ones I started from seeds, but we think there are 3 or 4 of them. The ones that were transplanted have vined out about 2 feet from the roots and are getting ready to produce flowers. The ones that were directly sown are smaller since they were started later, but all of the plants look healthy.
Even though these are called pumpkins and have pumpkin leaves, the fruit doesn’t look like a typical pumpkin. It’s buff-colored rather than bright orange and reaches about 6 inches in diameter. They can be stored for up to a year but can also be picked early as a summer squash. These have required little attention. Since transplanting or starting them, we’ve made sure they have been consistently watered, and I side-dressed the older plants with some bone meal. If you’re looking for a smaller and historical variety to grow (these were grown by the Seminole people of Florida) and you live in a hot and humid climate, you’ll love these.
3.) All Corn Varieties
Before we started gardening, a common remark I’d hear was that growing corn is hard or not worth having in the garden. I don’t remember any family members trying to grow it. Now, that could be because fresh sweet corn was plentiful and cheap where I grew up, so it may not have been worth the effort in people’s minds. Magz and I first tried growing it in containers in 2022 and had success with it. We had 3 stalks in each tote, and they produced small ears that were delicious.
This year, we bought 3 varieties: Hopi Blue, Black Iroquois/Mexican Sweet, and Butter & Sugar. The Hopi Blue is a flint corn for grinding into meal or flour, the Black Iroquois/Mexican Sweet is a dark-kernel sweet corn, and the Butter & Sugar is the common bi-color sweet corn. We planted a row of each on the same day in May after the threat of frost had passed. Immediately, we had a week of heavy rain that totaled more than 3 inches. I was nervous that the seeds had washed away because some of the soil had been relocated, exposing the seeds. We covered them over again, and within 2 weeks, nearly all of them germinated.
At this point, all 3 varieties are doing well. The Hopi Blue is more than 4 feet tall already and can grow up to 9 feet tall, while the others are about 3 feet tall and should only reach 5-6 feet tall. Yesterday, when I was checking out the plants, I noticed the tassel developing inside the leaves for the first time. Corn is an easy, low-maintenance vegetable to grow. Besides weeding and watering, the only thing I’ve done is give the plants consistent nitrogen. Corn is a heavy feeder, so it needs extra nutrients to reach full height and develop big, full ears. If you’ve been on the fence about growing corn, it’s worth a shot. It doesn’t require a lot of work, and seeing corn grow is a beautiful experience.
2.) All Cucumbers
Cucumbers are another vegetable we’ve had success growing in the past. In our container garden, we grew a pickling variety, and we were pulling multiple ripe cucumbers off it daily. This year, we bought 3 varieties to grow: Boston Pickling for pickles, Tendergreen, which can be harvested for pickles or left on for slicers, and Richmond Green Apple, an Australian heirloom. We were also gifted 2 starts of a burpless variety from our neighbor.
I started the 3 inside and transplanted 2 plants of each variety into the garden. At the time, they didn’t look good. Like other plants, they were leggy at the time, and the weather wasn’t friendly to growing cucumbers. However, within a couple of weeks, they took off and now have blossoms on them with small fruit growing. The starts we were gifted also weren’t healthy when we transplanted them, but they’ve taken off and have produced 2 fruits already. These have required little maintenance other than a side-dressing of fertilizer. We may need to trellis or stake them at some point, but up until now, they’ve grown nicely without any assistance.
Bonus: Most Melons, Squash & Pumpkins
Because I didn’t want to have a listing for all melons, squash, and pumpkins, in addition to already having all corn and cucumbers, I wanted to add an honorable mention or bonus section. In this section are all melons, squash, and pumpkins. The Seminole pumpkin deserved its own listing, but most of the things I wrote about it apply to all of these. Quickly, these are all the melons, squash, and pumpkins that we are growing:
Ali Baba Watermelon
Noir de Carmes
Tigger Melon
Hokkaido Pumpkin
Black Beauty Zucchini
Candy Roaster Melon
Golden Glory Yellow Zucchini
Queensland Blue Winter Squash
Zapallito Del Tronco Zucchini
Ping Tung Eggplant
White Scallop
Kakai Winter Squash
Jarrradale Pumpkin
Dark Green Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua
New England Sugar Pie Pumpkin
Of the above seeds, the only ones that haven’t done well are the Black Beauty Zucchini, Golden Glory Yellow Zucchini, and the Ping Tung Eggplant. I don’t know why the zucchinis didn’t do well since they were planted at the same time as the Zapallito Del Tronco, but they didn’t. Only 1 Black Beauty and none of the Golden Glory seeds germinated. The eggplants were started indoors and never got to the point where they could be transplanted outdoors. The others have all done well.
I started a lot of the squash, melons, and pumpkins indoors. They immediately took off, but we couldn’t transplant them right away due to the weather. As soon as the weather broke, they were moved outdoors, but I had little faith in them doing well. All but 3 of the plants lived and are thriving. We also directly sowed a bunch of them later in early June, and they’ve done exceptionally well. All of the plants look healthy and are growing vigorously. What’s most interesting is how all the squash, all the melons, and all the pumpkins have similar leaf structures and growing behaviors, but have subtle differences between the varieties. For example, the Seminole pumpkins have silver lines on the leaves that the other pumpkin plants don’t.
We bought additional seeds (these are the ones in orange text) in late June to have a wider variety of pumpkins and squash. To put into context how quickly and easily these grow, I started them on Saturday evening. By Tuesday morning, the Hokkaido had germinated, and by Wednesday evening, the Dark Green Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua and Sugar Pie Pumpkin seeds had as well. Consistent moisture levels, full sun, and warm temperatures are the perfect recipe for these. If you find a variety you are curious about, give it a go. Odds are that it will do well.
1.) Provider Bush Bean
I love beans. In the United States, we’ve done a horrible job of educating people on how many bean varieties there are and all the ways we can use them in food. In most grocery stores, the only fresh beans you’ll find are green beans, and you may find some edamame or snap peas, which aren’t beans but are similar enough to include them here. I think that a lot of Americans picture canned beans when they think of beans. Whether these are green beans, black beans, pinto beans, or kidney beans, the average American doesn’t envision bags of dried beans or fresh varieties that are a color other than green. I’ve grown bush beans in the past, but this year, we found ourselves interested in growing other varieties.
American history is filled with people of the past growing bean varieties that were vitally important to their culture and heritage. Baker Creek sells a variety that was found in a New Mexico cave and dates back 1,500 years. In the South, Southern peas (also known as asparagus beans or Cowpeas) were preserved by slaves as a way to save their heritage. It’s the same in Latin America, South America, and Asia – beans (and all seeds) tell stories.
We attempted to grow 5 varieties this year: Kebarika, Jamapa, Red Bush, Provider, and Chinese Red Noodle. We’ve had moderate success with the Kebarika and Jamapa and nearly no success with the Red Bush beans. However, the Provider and Chinese Red Noodle beans have excelled. I planted the Chinese Red Noodle beans in a planter box I built, and they are currently climbing the trellis to a height of 7 feet.
I planted the Provider beans in our bed with the Kebarika and Jamapa, and they’ve done pretty well. They’re not real tall yet (about 18 inches), but are still growing and have started to flower. But when our Red Bush beans failed (only 1 successful plant among a full row of seeds), I planted more Provider beans in the same row around the lone Red Bush bean plant. So, it was the same growing conditions. Within 2 days, almost all the seeds germinated, and at the time of writing this, the plants are nearly the height of the Red Bush bean plant, which is more than 2 weeks older. As Magz pointed out, the name Provider is pretty on point. These plants provide.
So, there it is. These are the (more than) 5 plants that I’ve had the easiest time growing this year. All have a few things in common: they grow in spite of the weather, my mistakes, and questionable soil quality. They’ve all required little maintenance and make you believe in yourself as a gardener. Have you tried any of these varieties? If not, I recommend giving them a go. Do you have any favorite seeds to grow?
One Rabbit Riot 