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Apples
  • Liberty: Crisp red apple with a nice tart flavor, ripens in September.

Arugula
We use arugula in salad mix when it's young and braising mix when it is older.
  • Cultivata: Traditional Italian cultivated Arugula. Nutty, Spicy, Delicious.
  • Selvetica: A wild Arugula with smaller leaves and a concentrated intense flavor.
  • Wasabi: A selection of arugula for the most intense spiciness. Limited availability in 2013, as we will be producing out own seeded and, we hope, establishing a self-seeding patch

Basil

Our secret growing method produces intensely flavored basil. OK, here's the secret: we grow our basil outside, without extra fertilizer. Struggle and stress is the secret to the best flavor for basil and most other herbs.

  • Genovese: The classic basil, best for pesto. We use Italian seed.
  • Napolitano: A little spicier and more complex than Genovese.
  • Thai: Strong overtones of clove and cinnamon, used in many Asian cuisines

Bean, Haricot Vert
We love Fortex pole beans, which are a tender haricot vert at its immature stage. Being immature, the quality of the beans picked at this stage fades very quickly. They have to be delivered and used within a few hours of picking. And because it takes quite a while to pick a pound, the cost is rather high.
  • Fortex: A slender and delicious french style bean. When they are 14 inches long or so, they no longer qualify as a refined french bean, but they are still tender and excellent for making dilly beans.

Beans, Bush
Snap beans are earlier than our favorite pole beans, so we harvest them just until the pole beans are ready.
  • Montreal Early Yellow: Substantial and tasty yellow bean. We got our original seed at a farmers market in Montreal.
  • Provider: Straightforward good green bean.

Beans, Pole
Once a major crop in Oregon, pole beans have been replaced by bush beans which can be harvested mechanically. Oregonians of a certain age all have stories of making a little money by picking pole beans when they were children. The switch is our loss since pole beans have much more flavor than bush beans
  • Fasold
  • Golden Nectar: We have been searching for a yellow pole bean with outstanding flavor. This one it it, sweet and intensely beany.
  • Oregon Giant: Oregon Giant is listed in "Renewing Salmon Nations' Food Traditions" by Gary Paul Nabham. We found some seed last year and grew enough so that we will have a crop to sell this year. In appearance, Oregon Giant is similar to Rattlesnake, only bigger and very tender at a large size.
  • Rattlesnake: Our favorite green bean, although the green is beautifully streaked with purple. It has the quintessential bean flavor.

Beans, Romano
  • Goldmarie: A yellow Romano, by far the best we have grown or tasted.
  • Musica: The best green Romano. Excellent flavor, stays tender to quite a large size.

Beans, Shelling and Dry
Shelling beans are mature but not dry bean seeds. We usually cook them in a quarter inch of water with a little olive oil and a sprig of thyme or sage. Depending on their size and maturity, they can take 20 to 30 minutes to become tender. Cooked shell beans are a great salad ingredient or side dish. We grow a number of bush and pole shelling bean varieties, which ripen in succession. In any given week from September through the first frost in mid-October, we have several varieties to choose from; each variety lasts 2-3 weeks.
  • Borlotto Piemontese: A bush borlotto in a lovely pink and white streaked pod, with a pretty bean to match. The seed is originally from a farmers market in Padua.
  • Frye's: The seed for this variety was given to me by a Gales Creek neighbor. It looks like the bush variety Brown Swedish, but it's a pole bean. No pretty colored markings like some other shelling beans, but excellent flavor.
  • Rattlesnake: Our favorite snap bean also makes a nice shelling bean. The beans are pretty dull in color, but make up for that in taste and ease of shelling.
  • Scozzesi di Montagna: The latest of the shelling beans - round and fat.
  • Volga German: In spite of its german and Russian name, this ai like a borlotto. It's earlier than the others, so we can start the shelling bean season in August

Beets
We grow a variety of beets from dark red Bull's Blood to Touchstone Yellow and Golden Specialty, plus Chioggia, with its bullseye pattern. Beets are available from spring through early winter.
  • Beet Mix: A generous mix of beets starts to transplant and enjoy
  • Bulls Blood: A delicious globe-shaped beet. Deep red in coloration. Especially sweet when cooked.
  • Chioggia: an Italian Heirloom beet with white and purple to pink to red rings of alternating color. They have a a sweet peppery flavor and are smooth and mild tasting. They are beautiful in a salad.
  • Detroit Dark Red: An old fashioned classic with the best beet flavor
  • Rote Kugel: This beet has a noticeable similarity to Detroit in color and flesh with a sweet, fresh flavor. It will act as a good baby variety but with it's resistance to bolting, can grow to be a nice large beet.
  • Touchstone: When cut, these gold-orange beets reveal striking gold flesh inside. Excellent taste and sweeter than most red beets.

Blackberries
  • Himalayan: A weed, but as you know, delicious. Special order only

Broccoli
Thanks to the Organic Seed partnership, we have a hybrid variety which resists all the usual pests and produces lovely, fine tasting small to medium-sized heads of broccoli.
  • Diplomat: A wonderfully productive dark green Broccoli. Large flavorful heads develop, followed by abundant side shoot florets.
  • Purple Peacock: This cross between Kale and Broccoli gives beautiful purple edible leaves and loose florets topped with beads of green.
  • Spigarillo: A leaf broccoli from southern Italy. Slender leaves like ribbons, used for braising, soups, and with pasta

Brussels Sprouts
We have two kinds - green and red (like red cabbage). We don't sell them until after we have had a sharp freeze in the fall, because they just don't taste as good until frost has sweetened them. We sell them on the stalk, so they stay fresh and alive.
  • Falstaff
  • Roodnerf: One of last open pollinated varieties around. Plump brussels sprouts with great flavor.
  • Rubine: Purple green sprouts that have a wonderful nutty flavor.

Cabbage
  • Copenhagen: A sweet cabbage excellent for coleslaw, salad, or sauerkraut. Copenhagen has become the standard of excellence for many store-bought varieties and will fit in nearly any garden with it's medium size. This Danish heirloom boasts solid, compact heads that rarely burst.
  • Derby Day: Very good ballhead summer cabbage. Extremely sweet and tender.
  • Marner Lagerrot: Red-headed European variety known for it's versatility as it can be picked from 2 to 10 lbs and will prove delicious cooked or fresh.
  • Portuguese Cabbage (panca pocoa verde): This open-leaf green cabbage produces a small inner-head. it's tender leaves are versatile, but used primarily for stuffing.
  • Red Express: A tight, uniform cabbage with amazing color. This medium sized cabbage grows 2 - 4 pound heads that are great for slaw, stir-fry and salads.
  • Verza Montovano: An Italian Green savoy type cabbage. It's thin crinkled leaves boast a sweet texture.

Catnip
  • Catnip: This strain has been endorse by cats from coast to coast including Mr. Kitters, Gabriel, the late lamented Jasmine, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Fluffy, Lillian, and so many others

Celery
  • Redventure: A cross between the Giant Red variety and a popular green variety. This Celery has dark red stems topped with green foliage. Wonderful flavor. So strong, it is for seasoning, not for snacks.

Chard
The best summer green
  • Prismatic Chard: A selection of the heirloom "Five Color Silverbeet." From Seven Seeds Farm in the Applegate Valley. Red, yellow, pink, and white stems, green and red leaves, great flavor.

Chicory
  • Green Frisee Endive: Very Finely cut curly leaves
  • "mistacanza": a mix of endive and escarole

Chives
We have both garlic and onion chives. Both are nice additions to salad or make a lovely garnish on many dishes.

Collards
  • Yellow Cabbage Collards: These Collard greens are a beautiful light green-yellow with a more tender texture and milder flavor than other traditional varieties.

Corn
Sweet corn is available only for a few weeks, it's a highlight of the summer. The proper Mid-Western way to buy fresh sweet corn for your family is to get a dozen or two dozen ears. Everyone should plan to eat at least three. You can skip seconds on the potato salad and the barbecued chicken.
  • Luscious: A bi-color corn with extra large, blunt, 8" ears. Luscious offers a buttery-sweetness in taste and a pleasant tenderness in texture.
  • Painted Mountain: These beautiful multicolor ears average 6"-7" and make great fall decorations. This Montana corn is easy for grinding, and for eating fresh, parched (roasted), or in hominy grits.
  • Sugarpearl: Tightly wrapped in evergreen husks, these 8" husks produce creamy white kernels that are ever so sweet.

Cress
Tasty, little, unassuming green. Great in salad mixes.

Cucumber
  • Green Finger: Middle eastern style with smooth bright green skin, and mild flavor
  • Lemon: Little round white-yellow heirloom cucumbers. It sort of looks like a lemon. There is no lemon taste, unless you add it.
  • Little Leaf: A pickling cucumber suitable for container growing
  • Lungo Verde Ortolani: Italian "Farmers Market" cucumber. Very delicious
  • Piccoli di Parigi: wonderful little pickling cukes, also good for salads

Edible Flowers
  • Calendula: Wonderful orange little flower. Easy way to dress up any salad or cake. Good for the skin too.

Eggplant
We have tried more than 50 varieties of eggplant over the last 10 years, in search of varieties which are delicious and tender (we will not sell an eggplant which has to be peeled) and which will grow and produce well in our challenging micro-climate.
  • Asian Eggplant: Long, slim Asian-style eggplant.
  • Balaroi
  • Galine: Glossy black fruit with a green calyx. Fairly early and productive
  • Korean Long Early Black
  • Machiaw: Long and skinny, very tender, brilliant fuschia colored.
  • Mangan: Glossy black with a dark calyx.
  • Millionaire: New this year. Asian-style with a black calyx
  • Prosperoso: A fat purple Italian heirloom. Not particularly productive in out climate, but so delicious it is worth growing anyway.
  • Purple Fingerling: Elongated fruits with a tender texture and mild flavor. An Asian variety eggplant.

Elephant Garlic
Elephant Garlic is not garlic at all; it is a leek with a mild garlic flavor. Mature elephant garlic is not good raw, and it should only be cooked gently and never get brown. It's a fine addition to a beef or vegetable stew. The flower buds of elephant garlic, with their tender stems, are a fleeting delight in June. They have the texture of asparagus and can be prepared the same ways. In spring, we sell immature elephant garlic as elephant leeks.

Favas
These beans have been part of Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean diets for thousands of years. A pound yields only enough for two small side dishes, and those that need to be shelled and popped out of their inner skins are time consuming. It's all worth it.
  • Casine (Italian Farm House): Big, fat favas with wonderful flavor. They are available fresh in June, and dry from September until they are sold out
  • Sweet Lorane: A small fava with tightly packed pods. It's later than the larger favas, and is available fresh for just a few weeks in July. Available dry from September until sold out

Fennel
We like Italian fennel the best. We plan to have fennel available from June through frost this year.
  • Finale: a Swiss variety that produces fat, succulent bulbs that are perfect for shaving into salads.
  • Parma Sel Prado: Small, round head with outstanding taste and texture.
  • Wild: Headless Fennel that is more like an herb. Use to flavor soups, fish, salads, etc.

Garlic
We have almost thirty kinds of hardneck and softneck garlic. In addition to fine mature garlic, we offer: - Garlic scallions - immature garlic which looks like spring onions but tastes like fresh garlic. Garlic scallions are available from May to mid-June. - Fresh garlic - only available from mid-June to early July - Garlic scapes - spearlike stems with pointed bundles of tiny garlic "seeds" - available from early June to mid-July. Our customers often ask us to describe the differences in the flavors of the garlic varieties. We will make a stab at it. However, the best way is to try two or three kinds at a time and come to your own conclusions.
  • Artichoke
  • Asian Tempest
  • Bangkok
  • Belarus
  • California Late
  • Croatia Makarska
  • Czech Kyjovice
  • Far East
  • German White
  • Gudani
  • Incheleum Red
  • Italian Late
  • Italian Purple
  • Italian Red
  • Kaleng
  • Killarney
  • Matechi
  • Mur-Akuc
  • Oregon Blue
  • Persian Star
  • Polish
  • Purple Stripe
  • Red Toch
  • Romanian Red
  • RoseWood
  • SilverSkin
  • Spanish Roja

Gourds
We have a colorful collection of small and medium sized gourds and decorative pumpkins. These are available in October and November

Greens, Cima di Rapa
More closely related to turnips than broccoli, leaves, stems, and florets, for stir-fry, braising, or soup. An important Italian ingredient.

Ground Cherry
Similar in growth habit to Tomatillos, but a different species. Small, very sweet yellow fruit in husks, with a flavor of citrus, pineapple and almonds. People get addicted to ground cherries. They are available from late July through frost.
  • Aunt Molly's
  • Hornings Farm

Herbs
  • Bronze Fennel: A beautiful addition to the herb garden, does not form a bulb. The foliage, flowers, pollen and seeds can be used for seasoning. It is an excellent insectory plant
  • Chives: We have both garlic and onion chives. Both are nice additions to salad or make a lovely garnish on many dishes.
  • Dill: We grow flavorful dill that is perfect for pickling. We sell the fresh stalks, the flower heads and the dried seeds.
  • Epazote: Strong flavored herb used in Mexican cooking
  • Huacatay: A Marigold. The foliage is used in South American cuisine. Also a great insectory and companion plant
  • Lavender
  • Lovage: A perennial herb with a celery flavor
  • Marjoram: Similar to Oregano, with more refined flavor. Used often in French cooking. A tender perennial which may survive light frost.
  • Sage: An essential culinary herb, which is also a beautiful perennial landscape plant.
  • Sweet Woodruff: A beautiful and fragrant ground cover. In Germany, Woodruff is infused in white wine, which is poured over strawberries to make May Wine
  • Thyme: Another essential culinary herb. We have several varieties available as starts
  • Wild Fennel: This non-bulbing fennel is grown for the intensely flavored leaves, flowers, and seeds.

Kale
  • Baltic Red: Deep purple, finely curled leaves. Turns deep green when cooked.
  • Lacinato: Vigorous and flavorful, beautifully savoyed leaves are light and fresh.
  • Mixed Kale
  • Rainbow Lacinato: Wonderful color variety, vigorous and hardy. Deliciously crisp, sweet and savory.
  • Red Ursa: Leaves are sweet with a hint of a mustard flavor. This kale is a cross between a Red Russian and a Siberian kale, giving the leaves a unique ruffled edge. Like most kales, the flavors improve with light frost. Very productive and hardy.
  • Russian Hunger Gap : Red Russian Kale with jagged leaves. Very hardy. Last to bolt in spring.
  • White Russian: Very hardy and water tolerant. Dissected leaves are delicious and flavorful.

Kohlrabi
The veggie from another planet or the most basic European peasant food. Almost everyone who is familiar with kohlrabi loves it raw or cooked.
  • Early Purple Vienna
  • Early White Vienna

Lavender
We sell our lavender fresh and dried. It has a wonderful flavor and calming smell.

Lettuce
We sell most of our lettuce in salad mix, which is not babyish. It contains hand-sized leaves of up to twenty kinds of lettuce and similarly grown-up leaves of other tender seasonal greens. We like baby salad greens, but we like our salad mix more, because it has more flavor and a nice crunch to it. In early summer, we also sell heads of lettuce

Lovage
A perennial herb with a celery flavor
  • Lovage

Marjoram
Similar to Oregano, with more refined flavor. Used often in French cooking.

Melon
  • Charentais: A French heirloom with super sweet bright orange flesh

Mint
Four varieties of mint, all of which are delicious.

Mizuna
Wonderful Japanese salad green. Light, crisp and refreshing leaves with a subtle mustard flavor.

Mustard
Mustard is must have for both braising mix and salads. All of our varieties carry a delicious spice.
  • Green Wave: Curled frilly edges. Great flavor with a kick.
  • Ruby Streaks: A very serrated, small, open leaf with a beautiful dark maroon color and a crisp spice.

Onions, Early
We have a variety of onions, ranging from sweet to savory and everything in between. We sell both fresh and dried onions and choose our varieties based on flavor.
  • Bianco di Maggio: Planted in September, they over-winter and are harvested in June and July as sensational fresh cippolini.
  • Brown Multiplier: a little later than Catawissa, more robust flavor. In the early part of their season, they are like fat scallions. At the end, they are more like little round mature onions.
  • Catawissa Top-setting: Heirloom topsetting and multiplying red onion, harvested as a spring onion.

Onions, Full Season
We have a variety of onions, ranging from sweet to savory and everything in between. We sell both fresh and dried onions and choose our varieties based on flavor.
  • Ailsa Craig: A big sweet white onion
  • Onion Mix: A generous pot of mixed onion varieties, for transplanting
  • Piatta di Bergamo: A small reddish-brown cipollini
  • Savona: A sweet red onion from the Italian Riviera
  • Tropea Rossa: Red Italian sweet onions.
  • Yellow Cippolini: A flat white onion

Oregano
Robust flavor perfect for cooking. Later in the season our oregano has beautiful purple flower heads which can be used for cooking or decoration
  • Greek Oregano: Slightly more Refined
  • Italian Oregano: Definitely more robust

Parsley
  • Italian

Peas, English
We grow several varieties, not because they taste very different, but to extend the season.
  • Alderman
  • British Wonder
  • Little Marvel
  • Mr. Big

Peas, Snap
  • Oregon Sugar Pod II: Developed at OSU, this is the best tasting and most prolific edible pod pea.
  • Sugar Sprint: Replaces Dwarf Gray Sugar. We belieive it is shorter, earlier and more tender.

Peppers, Hot
We grow a number of varieties, all of which have undergone a rigorous taste test by all of us here at the farm. In addition to the varieties listed below, we are working on some pepper breeding projects. We are selecting out the best offspring from a spontaneous cross of Black Hungarian and Orange Thai, and we are trying to reproduce a pepper which showed up in the jalapeno bed: a little cream colored beauty with violet streaks, held upright on the plants.
  • Aci Sivri: A centuries old Turkish heirloom, moderately hot
  • Aji Amarillo: Peppers turn from mildly hot green to yellow and finally to hot ivory/yellow at maturity. 1000 scovilles at maturity.Ideal for pickling and sauces, Spicy, fruity flavor is valued in Peruvian and SW cuisine.
  • Basque Espelette: New in 2012, when it quickly became one of our favorites. An iconic pepper of the French Basque region. A tall productive plant with moderately hot peppers which are also sweet, aromatic, and slightly smoky in flavor. We used it for pepper sauce, and we dried and powdered it. our friend Caroline Lewis made a sensational Espellete jam. She also learned that it is the traditional pepper used in Tunisian Harissa, and is called Piment Fort in North Africa.
  • Beaver Dam: Beaver Dam: Shaped like a hefty bull's horn pepper, with rich flavor. Not as hot as a jalapeno. Great for spaghetti sauce or roasting. The grower (in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin) who preserved this variety says it's good on bologna and cheese sandwiches. You have to understand that bologna in Wisconsin comes in a ring, tastes great, and has no relationship to that stuff in the blister package at the grocery store.
  • Black Hungarian: Beautiful plants with dark foliage ad pale lavender flowers produce the finest tasting gleaming black hot peppers, which ripen to a brick red color. At that stage, they are sweet as well as hot.
  • Black Thai: Apparerntly a cross between Black Hungarian and Orange Thai, dicovered by David Knaus at Fresh Earth Gardens. We are sorting out the diverse descendents of David's original peppers, looking for an earlier, larger (but just as hot and delicious) Orange Thai, and other delightful new peppers. 2013 update: we have settled on two fine strains, earlier and bigger version of Orage Thai, and lovely hot black to red.
  • Boldog: A delicious dark red spicy paprika.
  • Cayenne: Bright red, long pepper. Classic cayenne flavor. In 2013, we are trying three strains.
  • Chilaca or Pasilla: Wrinkly dark green peppers finally ripen to chocolate brown. These are great dried and ground for chili powder. in 2013, we are using our saved seed and also trying a Pasilla Bajio.
  • Chilhaucole Negro: Dark brown Oaxacan pepper used in Mole. New in 2013.
  • Criolla Sella (Capsicum Baccatum): A Yellow, pointed pepper, hot, but not too hot, ripens early. A flavor similar to habanero, but nowhere near as hot.
  • Fish: African American heirloom pepper. The secret ingredient used around Chesapeake Bay for crab feasts and spiced shrimp.
  • Ghost: The hottest pepper, or maybe second to a Jamaican pepper we just heard about. We have a few seeds and hope to offer a few starts and try to ripen some seed that will be successful in growing conditions decidely unsuitable for this plant adapted to the climate and growing conditions of India.
  • Guajillo: Shaped like a giant cayenne, red at maturity, dries to a deep burgundy.
  • Hot Lemon: An Ecuadorian pepper, small and neon yellow with a great spice, and subtle sweetness and citrus undertones.
  • Jalapeno Grande: This is a big plant with very big peppers, the true Jalapeno flavor, and plenty of heat, especially when the fruit turns red. This is a new strain, since we fLund the Jalapeño seed we had been getting has declined in quality: not true to type and many puny plants.
  • Leutschauer: A Hungarian paprika pepper. New in 2010, now a huge favorite. Medium hot, good for drying, our most successful paprika powder pepper.
  • Maria Nagy: A long thin hot pepper from the Transylvania region of Romania. Produces early and dries easily for a spicy paprika.
  • Maya Habanero: It's orange, not red, but at least two weeks earlier than the other habaneros we have tried. And plenty hot . . . although perhaps not "twice as hot."
  • Moraccan: A large horn shaped spicy pepper. New in 2011, quickly became one of our favorites. original seed came from a pepper purchased by Adam Baratta at a market in Tangier.
  • Orange Thai: Inch long, hotter than Red Rocket, fine flavor. We sell them dried in hanging garlands and in small packages.
  • Padron: Early on they are sweet with nice texture but they become quite hot when they mature.
  • Purple Cayenne: A Cayenne with lovely dark foliage, purple until very ripe, when it turns a darker red than regular cayennes. New in 2011
  • Purple Glow in the Dark: A spectacular looking plant with almost luminescent lime green and purple foliage. Produces tasty, pretty small hot purple peppers which ripen to red. One of our hottest peppers
  • Serrano: Great for salsa, this pepper is hotter than a jalapeno with thicker flesh. No need to remove the seeds.
  • Shishito: This pepper is great pickled or roasted. They have a tiny bit of heat and are good for people trying to build up a tolerance for hot peppers.
  • Szentesi Cherry: Inch bright red ball of heat from Hungary. Good for pickling.
  • Translvanian: An oddly shaped light green pepper with "wings". Very sweet and fruity on the outside, it gets hotter and hotter toward the middle. Wonderful for pickling.
  • Wenk's Yellow Hot: A New Mexico Pepper. Great yellow color that makes a nice addition in the pickling jar. One step down from Jalapenos.

Peppers, Sweet
  • Bacskai Feher: A Hungarian sweet pepper for fresh eating. Starts out waxy white, ripens to red.
  • Bull Nose Green Bell: Early, Productive, fine flavor.
  • Doorknob: A very compact plant producing flatbell peppers that really look like green doorknobs. Nice flavor.
  • Gypsy: Gypsy has been one of our few hybrid peppers. We love it and so do our customers. But now it is "owned" by Monsanot, so we are looking for a substitute. Three possibilities we are growing this year: Bacskai Feher, Soroksari. and White Lakes. Soroksari did very well for us in 2012, so it will be available as a start this year.
  • Jimmy Nardello: The whole name is Jimmy Nardello Italian Sweet Frying Pepper. It is a gorgeous bright red, a wrinkled horn shape, and the sweetest pepper we grow.
  • Jimmy Nardello variants: A few years ago, a small % of our Jimmies were yellow. The flavor was a little less intense, but still good. Last year, some of the peppers grown from the Yellow Nardello seed were red or orange and those were hot! But still with the delightful Jimmy flavor.
  • Joeline's Red Italian
  • Liebesapfel: Flattened, lobed, very sweet red pepper with thick flesh.
  • Red Marconi: Small, bright red, very sweet. A good variety for container growing.
  • Soroksari: Prism shaped yellow peppers which ripen to orange-red. Early and productive, thick sweet flesh.
  • Sweet Paprika: We are trying five strains of sweet Hungarian paprika, hoping to find one or more as good as that little package a traveller brought me once.
  • Sweet Red Cherry: Little sweet pepper

Pumpkins
We grow several varieties of pumpkins, including edibles, minis and carving types.
  • Howden: Great, classic pumpkin that is good for carving.
  • Howden Biggie: Standard for Pumpkins over 30 pounds. Usually upright rather than round or stout.
  • Knucklehead: A great Halloween carving Pumpkin covered with large warts.
  • Rouge vif d'Etempes: This Heirloom variety is both delicious and beautiful. Also known as Cinderella, our Pumpkins are a dark orange-red with deep ridges.
  • Three in one mini: An assortment of darling little decorative pumpkins. Everybody needs at least three on there table in the fall.

Quince
Fragrant tree fruit, shaped like a small fat pear. It is very hard and somewhat astringent, so it is usually baked and used for apple-quince sauce, pies, and quince paste.

Radish
We have a mix of sweet and spicy radishes. Purples, Reds, Pinks, Black and White. Great for braising greens too.
  • Blauer Herbst und Winter: Large royal purple radish, sometimes larger than carrots, originally from Germany. Mild and delicious.
  • D'Avignon: A traditional variety from the South of France, they are long and red, with white rounded ends. Very fresh with a little spice.
  • French Breakfast: An heirloom variety that is long and skinny, with a red top and white bottom. Has a classic spicy sweetness and juicy crunch.
  • Ostergruss: A long purple-pink radish originally from Germany. Crisp, sweet and peppery flavored, they resemble rose colored carrots more than a radish.
  • Plum Purple: Meduim sized, perfectly round, sweet purple radish, with a hint of spice.
  • Round Black Winter: A German variety, traditionally grown in the fall and winter. Grows as a dense dark black globe, with mild sweet white flesh.
  • Topsi: Your perfect standard radish, with bright red, round roots and bushy dark green, leafy tops. Great flavor too.
  • Valentine's day: A festive mix of colorful radishes, with purple, red, pink and snow white round roots. All of which are crunchy and sweet.

Rhubarb

Rosemary
We took extra care of our Rosemary this winter to ensure that it would thrive in the spring and summer. A very flavorful herb, one we use in almost everything. Lends itself nicely to meat dishes.

Rutabaga
  • Joan: A sweet and crisp large, light colored root with a purple top. Its beautiful pungent leaves are also edible.

Sage
An essential culinary herb, which is also a beautiful perennial landscape plant.

Savory
Earthy, grounded herb that can be paired with thyme for flavoring a variety of dishes- especially beans.

Shallot
Shallots are a subspecies of the common onion, but what a difference. The flavor is refined, delicate, and distinctive.
  • Ambition: Larger than French shallots but with a similar delicate flavor.
  • Dutch Yellow: Large shallots with a more pungent flavor than the others.
  • French Shallots: Small shallots with a dark reddish brown skin. The most delicate flavor of any shallot we grow.
  • "Gales Meadow": A large shallot with fine flavor. We don't know the variety. We got the original bulbs at a grocery store and have been re-growing it since about 2004.

Sorrel
Garden Sorrel with a sharp flavor. We like it in soup, with fish, and in salads.
  • Garden Sorrel
  • German Sorrel: Vigorous, succulent leaves

Spigariello
A brassica, grown for tasty leaves & little brocoletto tops. Popular in Southern Italy.
  • Foglia Riccia: Curly leaf variety.

Spinach
  • Bloomsdale: One of the most flavorful classic American varieties. This dark green savoy leaved spinach variety has been in production since the 1920s.
  • Galilee: A vigourous heirloom variety with tender triangular bright green leaves.
  • Gigante d'Inverno: Winter Giant - with large, pointed dark green leaves, this late season variety is productive, flavorful and sweet.
  • Tyee: A semi-savoyed variety with dark green leaves. Highly productive, widely adaptable, and vigorous growth year round.

Squash, Summer
  • Costata Romanesco: By far the best zucchini. More flavor than dark green varieties, not astringent, denser than other zucchini. It is light speckled green with lengthwise ridges, so it makes pretty slices.
  • Yellow Crookneck: An old-fashioned favorite. We like it sauteed in butter with a little onion.
  • Yelow and White Scallopini: These are shaped like flying saucers. Small ones can be cut crosswise and grilled; larger ones can be stuffed and baked.

Squash, Winter
  • Boston Marrow: A large, bright orange squash, easier to cut into than most, wonderful flavor.
  • Carnival: Bright orange, green, and white acorn squash, the favorite small squash
  • Delicata: Another old Oregon favorite, small torpedo shape with dark green and tan stripes
  • Marina di Chiogga: Heirloom from the region of Venice. A squat dark green pumpkin shape with a rough furrowed surface. Dry flesh, good for ravioli.
  • Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat: An Oregon classic, big light blue-green pumpkin shape, very sweet. A favorite of many customers
  • Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck: Colored like a butternut with a long curved neck and sweet dark orange flesh. Great for pies.
  • Sweet Reba: The best acorn or Danish squash
  • Uncle David: Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash. Sweet enough to make a pie without adding sugar. But not just sweet. It has an intense complex true squash flavor.

Sunflower
Bright yellow and gold flowers make beautiful decorations. Seeds can be dried and shelled for a nutritious snack.

Thyme
A woody, hearty little herb. Goes with with almost everything from vegetable dishes to flavorful meats.
  • Thyme de Provence

Tomatillo
  • Plaza Latina Giant: Twice as big as ordinary tomatillos, and not as juicy, so it makes nice thick salsa.
  • Purple: An heirloom variety, sweeter and more complex flavor than ordinary tomatillos.

Tomato, Big Heirloom
  • Anna Banana: "A bright yellow to orange version of 'Anna Russian'. The fruits are heart-shaped, delicious, up to thirteen ounces. They often have a slight pink blush on the inside." We were given a few seeds last year and loved it.
  • Black and Brown Boar: We got a few of these tomatoes from the Clackamas Community College garden, loved it, saved the seeds and added it to our line-up. It's dark, rich and earthy.
  • Black Krim: A Russian heirloom from the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea. Deep dark red, medium to large sized fruit with a full-bodied, smokey flavor.
  • Black Pear: Replaces Japanese Black Trifele. A luscious dark tomato the size and shape of a pear, ripens more evenly than JBT.
  • Brandywine, Suddoth: Large pink beef-steak type, rich, intense tomato flavor.
  • Cherokee Purple: Unique dusky rose color, flavor rivals Brandywine.
  • Fifty Years Ago: This seed is a gift from a Hollywood Farmers Market customer, who wrote, " An Italian family was responsible fro bringing this great plum/heart shape tomato to the USA fifty years ago, hence the name. Indeterminate with a hint of sweetness."
  • Greek Domato
  • Marmande: French heirloom. Produces dependable heavy, clusters of 6-ounce deep red, slightly flattened, oblate fruits that are meaty, lightly lobed and contain an excellent, complex, slightly tart taste.
  • Nostrano: A perfect round red tomato. Seeds came from a tomato purchased at a farmers market in Turino.
  • Paul Robeson: A Russian Heirloom named in admiration for the artist and activist. A large, deep red, intensly flavorful and juicy tomato.
  • Petrillo: Ruffled red tomato; an Ark of Taste variety. Productive and resistant to cracking. From the new Oregon seed company, Adaptive Seeds http://adaptiveseeds.com/
  • Victoria: Originally from Salt Spring Seeds in BC, but not currently in their catalog. Too bad, because this is a great tomato. Delicious, moderately productive, and seemingly resistant to blemishes. We got a package of two year old seeds in 2011; they germinated fairly well; the seeds from last year's tomatoes must have germinated at a rate of close to 100%, so we have a lot of them.

Tomato, Cherry
  • Bi-Color: Yellow and red stripes, 1-2", superb taste like "Big Rainbow."
  • Black Cherry: It is not a plum, but a perfectly round cherry with classic black tomato flavor, sweet yet rich and complex. Fruit picks clean from the stem and is produced in abundance on vigorous, tall plants.
  • Brown Berry: Warm reddish brown color and great taste, like all dark tomatoes. Heirloom.
  • Chocolate Pear: A dark tomato the same size and shape as Yellow pear and red fig.
  • Galina: A Siberian heirloom. We have been saving and replanting this seed (originally from a seed exchange at an Oregon Tilth meeting) for five years. Productive, sweet, sunshine yellow fruit. This plant keeps going well into fall and can even stand a light frost.
  • Gobstopper: Early yellow cherry with green interior, fruity and sweet.
  • Green Doctors: A tasty green cherry tomato. A spontaneous mutation of the variety Dr. Carolyn that occurred in the garden of Amy Goldman of New York. Named Green Doctors for both Carolyn and Amy and it's also the name of a well known trout fly.
  • Green Grape: This old-fashioned tomato is an heirloom originally developed by crossing the Yellow Pear with Evergreen.The clusters of tomatoes resemble muscat grapes.
  • Green Pear: A yellow-green tomato the same size and shape as Yellow pear and red fig.
  • Isis Candy: These precious little morsels of red and gold garden candy have a dazzling starburst pattern on the blossom end when ripe. Sweet and fruity, Isis Candy has become a top 10 winner at tomato tastings, rivaling Sun Gold's flavor as a best-of-show cherry. Crack-resistant
  • Ivory Pear: A white tomato the same size and shape as Yellow pear and red fig. A great addition to a new mix of colorful pear-shaped tomatoes.
  • Peacevine: Rampant indeterminant. Selected by Peace Seeds from Sweet 100 cherry tomato and almost identical in fruit size and growth habit. Bears gazillions of sweet clusters each with 8 or so 1" fruits.
  • Pearly Pink: Crisp, incredibly flavorful cherry tomatoes that are bright pink and perfect for snacking. The vines produce very well.
  • Pomodoro Dattero: "Date Tomato." We got this seed from tomatoes we bought at a farmers market in Padua, Italy in 2004. Although it was January, the tomatoes were delicious. The plants can be pulled right before frost and hung in a sheltered place and the tomatoes will continue to ripen. We have been saving and regrowing the seed since then. A vigorous plant with abundant bright red fruit. The Italians think they are shaped like dates, but if you want to call this a grape tomato, it's ok with us.
  • Purple Cherry: Another gift seed from a Tilth meeting. This is the most rambunctious plant, which is why a little pruning and sucker pinching is recommended. The fruit is a dusky pink, a little larger than most cherry tomatoes. It has an excellent true tomato taste. It makes a great fresh sauce - no need to peel, just put them in a food processor. The foliage has a distinctive, pleasant aroma.
  • Red Fig: Red pear shaped tomato. Used as a substitute for figs years ago by gardeners who would pack away crates of dried tomatoes for winter use
  • San Marzano Piccolo: Another gift, this one brought from the Salon de Gusto by Nana Cardoon Farm. It is about the size of two little finger joints, sweet and solid, with few seeds
  • Snowberry: The only white-fleshed Cherry Tomato I know of, Snowberry offers an exciting new look for the plate. These 1-inch fruits are creamy yellow on the outside, pure white within, and boast a full-bodied, sweet Tomato tang that everyone in the family will love.
  • Sungold: Everyone's favorite - intensely flavored bright, golden orange color. Hybrid. From John Scheeper's blog: "Coveted Sungold was an amazing breakthrough by a Japanese breeder in the early 1990s. There still isn't a variety that comes close to its flavor, beauty and long-lasting production. This exquisite gem ripens from green to dark gold, but isn't fully mature until it becomes pale apricot-orange. Watch carefully for the subtle color change, then savor the intensified taste: uniquely rich and sugary, with a hint of tropical fruitiness."
  • Yellow Pear: We chose it because it beat out 25 other strains of yellow pear in a taste testing at Seed Savers. "Endless supply of 1 1/2" pear tomatoes with great taste."

Tomato, container varieties
Many of our customers need to grow their gardens in pots, so we have tested a number of determinate varieties and added a few good ones to the line-up
  • Bloody Butcher: Rich deep red inside and out. Medium sized fruits. Strong full-bodied tomato flavor. Moderately high yielding, early ripening.
  • Fakel: Kate Gessert brought Fakel to Nichols Garden Nursery from a Moscow seed store many years ago. The productive compact bush makes a good stand of flame red, slightly oblong tomatoes with an excellent flavor and texture. Heartland: Compact 30" plants produce delicious 8 oz. tomatoes until frost.
  • Italian Red Cherry: This is a terrific strain of the classic cherry tomato characterized by small, round, cherry-sized, very sweet fruit. Vigorous production. Determinate
  • Nebraska Wedding: Small golden slicer, moderately early
  • New Big Dwarf: Bred in 1919 by S. M. Isbell & Co. bred this variety by selecting crosses from crosses of 'Ponderosa' with 'Dwarf Champion'. Lots of large 1-lb. deep pink fruits on 2' bushy plants. Perfect for patio gardening in pots. Very flavorful.
  • Polish Dwarf: 1-4 oz red fruit, early and productive, keeps producing throughout the season.
  • Saucy: A determinate Roma, suitable for container growing. The tomatoes ripen mostly at once, but the plant continues to produce sparsely afterwards.
  • Sophie's Choice: Extra early, flavorful fruit with an orange-red exterior and deep red flesh. Small plants. Can stand cooler weather.
  • Tiny Tim: A heavy yielder with clusters of fine flavored, red fruit that are about ½ inch in diameter. When grown in pots, this variety only grows ten to twelve inches tall and 14 inches across.
  • Uralskiy Ranniy: The name translates as "early from the Urals." This was the first tomato to ripen last year, beating out Sungold by almost a week. Good flavor, unusual in a super early tomato.

Tomato, Paste
  • Black Icicle: A companion to Yellow Icicle, which we grew last year and liked a lot. A long skinny tomato with a pointed end, dark purple brown in color, rich flavor typical of dark tomatoes
  • Black Plum: The size and shape of ordinary Roma tomatoes, but very dark in color and with a fantastic rich flavor.
  • Italian Heart: A Gales Meadow Farm exclusive in our area. The seeds come from an Italian family who settled in the Shenandoah Valley. Pink, good size, pointy blossom end, true Italian flavor.
  • Polish Linguisa: The best red paste tomato, large fruit with great flavor. Heirloom.
  • Pomodorini di Pianello: We don't know much about the background of this tomato. We were given a plant in 2011; the seeds were originally from the Slow Food 2010 Salone del Gusto. It was tasty and did well, so we saved the seeds.
  • San Marzano: For canning, paste, and a killer spaghetti sauce, it's hard to beat 'San Marzano', a sought-after heirloom from the Campania region of southern Italy.
  • Striped Roman: Long and pointed, red with orange stripes, meaty substance, and great flavor. Good for sauces or slicing.
  • Yellow Icicle: Light, creamy-yellow, almost white fruit have superb taste and texture. The taste is complex, with a spicy, sweet, and very fruity flavor.

Tomato, small
Large Cherries to medium-sized slicing tomatoes
  • Black Prince: A small siberian tomato with rich flavor, suitable for garden or container growing
  • Early Girl: An Oregon classic. Easy to grow, fairly early, very productive. There are those who think that the taste is inferior, but I think they must be growing them in poor soil or picking them unripe. It's a good tasting tomato.
  • Garden Peach: A medium sized yellow. A great color and flavor combination with Green Zebra and Early Girl or Stupice.
  • Green Zebra: Medium -sized, light green with bright yellow stripes when ripe. This tomato won over seven others in a tomato tasting at Gales Meadow Farm in 2006.
  • Indigo Rose: For a couple of years, we had a tomato representing a breeding work in progress. We called it Dr. Myers' Purple Smudge. Now the seed has been released with the name Indigo Rose. It's parentage includes wild tomatoes. It is black on top and red on the bottom, and has a lovely flavor.
  • Red Peach: A two inch sweet tomato with a slighlty fuzzy skin like the old favorite Garden Peach.
  • Stupice: Stoo-PEECH-ka. Compact plants with potato leaf foliage loaded with clusters of 2? fruits. Quite early, great flavor. Heavy yields all season.The best extra-early tomato in our lineup; this year we are trying Moskvich and Siberia for comparison.
  • Violet Jasper: They have pretty violet-purple fruit with iridescent green streaks. Fruit weigh 1-3 ounces, are smooth and have good tasting, dark purplish-red flesh. Very high yield.
  • Wapsipinicon Peach: Heavy producer of 2" peach-shaped fuzzy yellow fruits. Sweet excellent flavor. Named after the Wapsipinicon River in northeast Iowa. Winner of Seed Saver's 2006 Heirloom Tomato Tasting. Indeterminate, 80 days from transplant.
  • Yellow Perfection: This heirloom from the British Isles produces 2 inch thin skinned delicious yellow tomatoes.

Turnip
  • Golden Ball: A round, deep yellow variety. Juicy, sweet and an excellent keeper.
  • Long White and Red: 4" or so long turnip, red on top, white on tip. Good taste. Nice for slicing.
  • Mixed Turnips: A combination of our turnip varieties sold as starts at markets.
  • Petrowski: A nice yellow turnip with sweet, flat roots that mature quickly.
  • Rapa di Milano: The most popular turnip in Italy. Flat, red/purple top above soil line, white bottoms. Nice tops. Excellent taste and texture. Very sweet taste. Grow year round.
  • Scarlet Ohno: A delicious turnip with equally delicious greens with beautiful red stem.