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Home | Plants | Vegetables

Vegetables

Some Like it Hot!

Marconi Rosso

Peppers have really thrived in this summer’s high heat. I’ve had my best yields ever of Marconi Rosso, Lanterna Piccante, Alma Paprika and Habanada peppers., and they continue to produce more fruits.

Marconi Rosso, like other Italian ‘frying’ peppers make an easy and incredibly delicious side-dish for a Mediterranean-style dinner: simply remove seeds, cut into strips vertically, sprinkle with sea salt and saute in good olive oil over medium heat, turning occasionally until softened (about 7 minutes). Serve as-is, or garnish with toasted pine-nuts or shredded Pecorino cheese.

Lanterna picante

Lanterna Piccante is a unique pepper that you won’t find in stores or even at farmers Markets. The large plants are graceful and bear large numbers of stunning pendant scarlet fruits, 1.5” to 2.5” across, shaped like succulent nodding bells. These are thin-walled, with the flesh having a delicious fruity flavor, and the seeds and ribs packing significant heat. The heat dissipates very quickly and doesn’t linger long on the tongue. To avoid the heat, cut the peppers in half vertically and cut out the seed cluster and ribs. Save a few seeds to add a little spark back to dishes that contain the flesh. I love to chop Lanterna Piccante peppers into 1/4” ‘confetti’ and add to omelettes, stir-fries, chicken or tuna salad, for its flavor and beauty. With the seeds, or some of them, it makes a great salsa ingredient. Like other peppers, they freeze well.

Alma paprika

I love growing Alma Paprika for the fun of watching the fruits change color as they mature, starting out creamy white, becoming marbled and flushed with rosy shades, and finally ripening to vibrant solid red. The distinctive flavor is a little spicy but not hot, perfect for making your own sweet paprika seasoning. I but the fruits into ½” squares and slowly dry them in my dehydrator. I grind the pieces in an electric coffee grinder (that is only used for spices), and store in a glass jar.

This is the first time I’ve grown Habanada pepper, a newer hybrid that is supposed to have all the flavor of a classic Habanero pepper bit completely without heat. One fruit on my plant is approaching ripeness now, and I’m looking forward to trying it.

Storing Seeds – Four Tips to Prolong Viability

Because seeds are alive, they inevitably lose viability due to environmental factors. Leaving your seed packets outside in the sun on your potting bench, in your car, or on your kitchen table will negatively impact their viability. By keeping them in a steady environment, you will prolong their ability to grow successfully in your garden.

1. Maintain Cool Conditions. Store out of direct sunlight in a cool spot that maintains a fairly consistent temperature.

2. Maintain Dark Conditions. Sunlight is a signal that it is time to sprout, so it is important that they live in a dark room or a refrigerator.

3. Maintain Dry Conditions. Make sure that you don’t store them in a spot that is too humid where they may sprout or mold. If seeds are too wet, they can rot in the refrigerator. If you store seeds in the refrigerator or freezer, place the packets in an air-tight container and ensure the seeds are properly dried to begin with.

4. Protect the Seeds.  Critters, rodents and bugs may enjoy tasting your seeds so it is important to store them in proper containers.  This could be glass jars, ziplocks, metal containers, or plastic pill bottles. We store our seeds in paper envelopes or bags kept in critter-proof storage boxes.

Purchased seeds will store just fine in the envelope they came in, plus retail seed packets have all the information necessary for planting and caring for the seeds.

Seed saving class this weekend with Jess Harper will teach you to save your own home-grown seeds.  Sign up here!

Recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is one of my favorite summer dishes. When the tomatoes and cucumbers are coming in from the garden daily, there is no better time to enjoy this delightful dish that is bursting with the flavors of summer.  It can serve as the main dish or it can accompany falafel or baked chicken.  I have yet to find a better use for parsley as well!  This recipe is gluten-free and easy to adapt to your tastes, depending on what you like.

Ingredients:
1-2 bunches of parsley, washed and de-stemmed
1 bunch of peppermint
4-5 scallions, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2-3/4 cups EVOO
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2-4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 cup dry quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
(optional:  feta, kalamata olives, lightly toasted blanched slivered almonds)

Instructions:

Make quinoa according to package directions.
Add parsley, mint, green onions, and garlic, to a food processor (or chop by hand).  Chop until herbs are very fine.
In a bowl, first drizzle the olive oil over the cooled quinoa, mix well.  Follow with the lemon juice. Mix to combine. Then add herb mixture, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and optional additions.  Mix well.  Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy summer in a bowl!
Serves 4 (Reduce Quinoa to 1/2 cup for 2 people)

Photo by Elias Rodriguez on Unsplash

Perfect Time to Plant Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, and Annuals in Containers!

Tidy Treats tomato

Now that hot weather is here to stay for a while, we can plant outdoor containers for our balconies, porches and patios without having to worry about cold nights. We have plenty of great varieties to choose from, and superior potting soils like Ocean Forest and Coco Loco. At last count, we had just a few large decorative ceramic pots left.[Read More]

Cool-Season Vegetable Starts expected 3/26/26

Cold-Season Vegetable Starts – March

We’re very excited this week to debut spring vegetable starts that MASA has grown for us!  These bioregionally-adapted varieties are so robust and full of vitality, and so irresistible!  They are also selected for resilience in our wide weather swings. If you can water your garden, these plants will give you a bountiful head-start on home-grown, delicious, nutritious, greens! We’ll be bringing in more each week.

Arugula Astro
Broccoli Nutribud
Broccoli Umpqua
Cabbage, red Amarant
Cabbage, green Tendersweet
Cabbage, green Tiara
Chard Bali Red
Chard Bright Lights
Chard Fordhook
Collards, Flash
Kale, curly purple Redbor
Kale, lacinato Black Magic
Kale, curly DarkiborCo
Lettuce, butter Adriana
Lettuce, Romaine Forellenschluss
Lettuce, dwf Rom. Spretnak
Lettuce, red leaf Hyper Red Rumpled
Lettuce, green leaf Winter Density

First Tomatoes and Peppers!

There is nothing like a homegrown tomato!  Here they come, Harlequin’s’ fabulous and enormous selection of tomato starts, and some of the first peppers, too! We cover all the bases, including varieties of many uses, sizes, colors, flavors, days to maturity, origins and special qualities, but they are time-proven and resilient in
Colorado. 

Tomatoes:
[Read More]

Rising Grocery Costs Got you Down? Plant These Veggies for Storage, and Savings

Grocery prices are projected to rise even more this summer. You can save, by planting your own veggies for storage. These delicious, hardy varieties are some of the longest-storing, and can be  enjoyed for most of the winter, and even into spring.

Potatoes:  While all the potatoes we offer (usually available in March) are delicious and hardy, these are the best ‘keepers’: HARVEST MOON -85-100 days. Round tuber with purple skin and deep yellow flesh. Firm texture after cooking, with a nutty taste. Good for roasting, baking, soups, and chips;  NICOLA – 85 – 105 days. Early. Thin skinned, yellow inside and out. Good for winter storage; SANGRE – 80-90 days. Midseason. Beautiful red skinned variety with shallow eyes and medium-sized oblong tubers. Originally released by Colorado State University in 1982, Sangre ranks high in taste tests with creamy white flesh that is especially delicious boiled or baked.

 

[Read More]

Curing Winter Squash for Storage

butternut squash

Butternut Squash

We’ve tried a number of ways to store squash, and we’ve been informed over the years by our friends at Seed Savers. If you’ve been canning, chopping and freezing, and cooking things down into sauce this harvest season, you’ll love the ease of storing winter squash whole.

First, be sure the squash are ripe. Each variety differs regarding color and sheen as indicators of ripeness, but as a rule we harvest when the thick stem connecting the fruit to the vine has dried. Cut the stem, leaving at least 1″ and up to 3″ of the stem attached. Be sure to harvest before the first hard frost – if you can’t harvest until after a frost, don’t try to cure and store the squash. Rather, either dice and freeze for later, or bake or make soup and freeze that for later.

Curing is a process that sets up the squash for several months’ of storage by allowing the skin, or shell, to harden.  After harvest, elevate the squash off the ground, keeping room between fruits for air to circulate, and leave in a bright, sunny space that isn’t warm or hot for approximately two weeks. You’ll know when they are cured when they pass the ‘fingernail test’ – press your fingernail gently into the shell, and if the skin bruises or breaks, it’s not cured yet! A fully cured squash won’t even dent.

Storage instructions do sound a bit like the porridge in the Goldilocks story – the place you store the squash can’t be too hot or too cold. It needs to be just right! That means not colder than 50 degrees and not warmer than about 65 degrees.  The warmer the temperature, the sooner you’ll need to use the squash. Find a cool spot in a closet, the back of a cupboard, a basement, or a garage (if it is temperature controlled). Wrap each squash in paper or straw and place in a box or on a shelf, leaving room for airflow. The paper or straw protects the squash and absorbs any moisture. If the squash does freeze, keep it frozen until you’re ready to use it. Inspect once a week, and use any damaged squash first. Here’s advice from Seed Savers:

  1. “Any damaged squash should be used as soon as possible. 
  2. Delicatas, Acorns, and Buttercups should be used within a month or two.
  3. Hubbards, Pie squash, and pumpkins can last up to four months.
  4. Butternuts last the longest in storage and can take you right into spring.”

And if you don’t have the appropriate space, you can always preserve your squash by dicing and freezing the flesh.

Seed Saving – Seeds last up to a year in your squash – so whenever you use your squash you can scrape out the seeds, rinse and dry, and plant in the spring. Just be aware that squash is a notorious cross-pollinator, and if you grew several kinds you will not necessarily grow a fruit exactly like the one you harvested!

And yes, pumpkins ARE winter squashes. Save them using these same instructions.

Plant Now for Your Fall Veggie Garden

Your Fall Vegetable Garden Starts Here!

Hard to believe we’re just over 60 days from the average first frost in Boulder County! It’s the perfect time to get your fall vegetable garden in. We have the seeds, and seedlings you’ll need (seedlings expected to be available this weekend or early next week).

Choose from Botanical Interest seeds like beets, radish, greens, and more. Choose plants with 45 – 50 ‘days to harvest’ to ensure a harvest before the first hard frost. Or, be prepared to extend the season with ‘Ensulate’ row-cover fabric.

[Read More]

Tomato Starts – 2025

HARLEQUIN’S GARDENS 2025 TOMATO STARTS

for descriptions, click here

 

Anasazi
Big Rainbow
Black Ethiopian
Black from Tula
Black Krim
Black Sea Man
Burrell’s Special
California Sungold – NEW!
Carmello
Cherokee Purple
Chianti Rose
Chocolate Cherry
Chocolate Stripes
Coyote Currant
Cour de Bue
Carbon
Cosmonaut Volkov
Green Zebra
Glacier
Gold Medal
Indigo Cherry Drops
Isis Candy cherry
Juane Flamme
Koralik
Maglia Rosa
Matt’s Wild Cherry
Martino’s Roma
Magic Bullet
Market Miracle
Mountain Delight
Native Sun
Orange King
Paul Robeson
Pink Bumblebee
Pink Brandywine (Sudduth)
Pink Berkeley Tie-Die
Pinocchio
Pruden’s Purple
Rutger’s Indeterminate
San Marzano
Sasha’s Altai
Sungold
Super Souix
Tasmanian Chocolate
Taxi
Tidy Treats
Thessaloniki
Tommy Toe
Yellow Pear – Beam’s
Dwarf – Vilma (a 2024 Customer Trial Selection)
Dwarf – Awesome
Dwarf – Hundreds and Thousands (a 2024 Customer Trial Selection)
Siberian
Aurora Indeterminate
Azoychka
Italian Roma
Moskvitch
Northern Light
Siberian
Sweetie

POTATO, ONION & ASPARAGUS STARTS – 2025 Newsletter

Purple Majesty when cooked

POTATOES

  • AMA ROSSA – NEW! – 85 – 95 days. Midseason. Rosy-red fingerling with rich-colored skin and flesh and keeps its color even after cooking. High in antioxidants. Nutty-tasting. Stem or air-fry for pink chips!
  • HARVEST MOON -85-100 days. Round tuber with purple skin and deep yellow flesh. Firm texture after cooking, with a nutty taste. Good for roasting, baking, soups, and chips. Stores excellently.
  • NICOLA – 85 – 105 days. Early. Thin skinned, yellow inside and out.
  • PURPLE MAJESTY  – Uniform, high-yield, deep purple skin and flesh, very high in anthocyanins (high-potency antioxidant) Bred in & for Colorado.
  • SANGRE – 80-90 days. Midseason. Beautiful red skinned variety with shallow eyes and medium-sized oblong tubers. Originally released by Colorado State University in 1982, Sangre ranks high in taste tests with creamy white flesh that is especially delicious boiled or baked. Stores well. 
  • YUKON GOLD- 85 – 100 days. Early Midseason. Smooth, thin, yellow skin and flesh. Buttery flavored, creamy texture, slightly sweet. These popular potatoes are waxy and firm, great for stews, soups, gratins, and mashed or roast potatoes.

Heirloom Tohono O’odham Multiplier Onion plants

ONIONS – 

  • PATTERSON – (Yellow, storage) plants, 104 days, ~30 per half-bundle or ~60 per bundle
  • REDWING – (red, storage) plants, 115 days, ~30 per half-bundle or ~60 per bundle
  • WALLA WALLA – (yellow, sweet) plants, ~30 per half-bundle or ~60 per bundle
  • In pots – Ailsa Craig, Red Long of Tropea, Rosa di Milano, Walla Walla, Red Marble cipollini, Gold Coin cipollini

ALSO, Leeks and Shallots.

ASPARAGUS

JERSEY KNIGHT  (roots, 5 per bundle)

All male hybrid with big spears. Does not make seed, so doesn’t become weedy.  Best selection for dense clay soils.  Very productive and disease resistant.  Hardy to Zone 2.

PURPLE PASSION  (roots, 5 per bundle)

Beautiful deep burgundy-colored spears with high sugar content, delicious, tender, less fibrous, great in raw salads.

Summer Garden Beet Salad Recipe

from Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness

I love beets and beet greens for how grounding and nutritious they are – providing folate, dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, iron, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and more! This wonderful garden beet salad is a perfect way to utilize all parts of the beet plus it’s versatile and so incredibly satisfying.

 

[Read More]

Time to Sow for Fall Harvests

The next few weeks are the perfect time to sow arugula, beets, small carrots, lettuce, kale, radish, and more!

You’re looking to sow veggies that will be harvestable before our first big frosts – often in early October.

We’re proud to bring you seeds from Botanical Interests. They say, “Nurturing seeds in the garden slows us down to reconnect to nature and earth, develops bonds in a community, and creates family traditions and memories. We’re so happy to be a part of that!” And we are, too!

[Read More]

Q: Can I plant now?

Spinach Start

Q:  Can I plant now?

A:  It depends!

Yay! Warm days remind us that the threat of frost will soon be gone! If you’re planting hardy perennials, shrubs, vines, grasses or trees, you’re good to go now (as long as your soil isn’t too wet to work). Our stock of seeds and starts for cool-season greens like arugula, spinach, chard, kale and lettuce are in and ready to plant. And you can get a head start on tomatoes!

[Read More]

Garlic – Chesnok Red (organic, hard-neck)

Photo Credit: Irish Eyes Garden Seeds

Regularly wins acclaim and awards as one of the best tasting baking/roasting garlics!

Collected in 1985 in the Rep. of Georgia, this highly productive, easy-to-grow ‘Purple-Striped’ garlic makes beautiful, large deep-purple bulbs. Eaten raw, its intense heat quickly dissipates, but cooking and baking truly bring out its earthy, rich garlic complexities, very aromatic with a rich, smooth sweetness and just a touch of heat.

The cloves are more numerous (~8-20) and elongated than most hard-neck types and are initially hard to peel, allowing Chesnok Red to store much longer than other hard-necks – up to a year! But cloves become easier to peel the longer they store. Like other hard-neck varieties, it also produces curling, edible ‘scapes’ in June. Garlic is a  heavy feeder, so feed your soil well!

Plants are vigorous and upright, can handle a little neglect, an are great multipliers, growing large bulbs from even medium-sized cloves.

Garlic planting instructions

ARTICHOKE

  • IMPERIAL STAR
  • COLORADO IMPERIAL
  • GREEN GLOBE

ASPARAGUS

  • JERSEY KNIGHT – All-male hybrid with bigger spears. Does not make seed, so doesn’t become weedy. Best selection for dense clay soils. Very productive and disease-resistant.  Cold-hardy to Zone 2. 5 crowns per bag.
  • PURPLE PASSION – Beautiful deep burgundy-colored spears with high sugar content. Delicious, tender, less fibrous, great raw, turns green when cooked. Cold-hardy to Zone 2. 5 crowns per bag.

CABBAGE

  • GOLDEN ACRE – 55 days from transplant. Very early, round-headed cabbage, nearly 5 pounds per head. Excellent taste.
  • RED CABBAGE
  • EARLY JERSEY WAKEFIED – 70 – 75 days from transplant.  Around since the mid-1800s, this early cabbage works with our shorter growing season. Compact, conical heads are sweet, flavorful, and very crisp.
  • ALL SEASONS – 90 days from transplant. 90 days — Heat resistant, fine-flavored and produces solid 10″ heads that come in at 12 pounds each.

COLLARDS

  • GEORGIA SOUTHERN – 50 – 80 days to harvest.  This variety has been a staple in the South since the 1800s. The large leaves can be steamed, wraps, and salad greens (when young).  Sweeter after a frost.
  • VATES – Slow-bolting collard with large blue-green leaves on 32 in. tall plants. Produces high-quality frost-resistant greens.

CUCUMBERS

10  Varieties this year, including:

  • ARMENIAN – 65 days, heirloom. 12-18″ crisp, juicy, sweet, burpless, tolerates drought and heat
  • LEMON – 65 days, heirloom.  Grown since 1894 but, you’ll never find it in a grocery store! This thin-skinned, lemon-sized and colored cucumber has excellent flavor and is a great slicer or pickler. Can be eaten with the skin and all; non-bitter and burpless. Plants are more drought tolerant than other varieties.
  • MARKETMORE 76 – 70 days. Open pollinated. Highly reliable, long-bearing, very sweet fresh slicing cuke, a home-garden favorite.
  • NATIONAL PICKLING – 58 days. Produces fruit that are straight, medium green in color, black-spined, and average 1¾ by six inches in size. You can start picking at about two inches in length. The vigorous vines are very productive. Perfect for filling jars!
  • SILVER SLICER – Open pollinated, 54 days. A great slicer with excellent flavor and lovely creamy white, thin, smooth skin. Fruits are 2” wide, 5-6” long, similar to Boothby Blonde with a longer, narrower shape and better flavor. Bred by Cornell University for resistance to powdery mildew. Superb juicy, sweet and mild flavor and good crunch.

EGGPLANT

  • BLACK BEAUTY– 75-80 days, Heirloom OP, Classic
    This 1902 Burpee introduction has perfect fruits earlier than other varieties. It soon became the classic farmers market and garden standard for eggplants, delicious grilled, baked, or fried. Broad, lustrous, purplish-black, egg-shaped 4” to 6” diameter (up to 2 lb) fruits are borne well off the ground on 18 to 24” plants; the skin is tender, so no need to peel it.
  • FENGYUAN – NEW! – 65-75 days, heirloom Asian (Taiwan), OP. Slender and very long, over 12”, with beautiful thin purple skin (no peeling!) and creamy mild white flesh that’s never bitter. Easy to grow and prolific. Wonderful for grilling or stir-fries.
  • PROSPEROSA – 75 days. A gorgeous eggplant! This Italian heirloom forms a deep purple fruit with a pleated top.  4–5 inch fruit are meaty and mild flavored with a texture perfect for cooking with. tall, vigorous plants.
  • TSAKONIKI – NEW! – 65 days, Heirloom (Leonidio, Greece), OP.  7-10” long slender fruits are purple striped with white, with delicate sweet flavor, never bitter. Great for savory dishes, and locals make a dessert with it

GREENS

  • ARUGULA: Astro, Sylvetta
  • CUTTING CELERY
  • KALE: Rainbow Dinosaur/Lacinato,  Red Russian, White Russian,  Blue Curled Dwarf , Scarlet, Nero Toscana, Baltisk
  • KAN TSAI
  • MIZUNA
  • MUSTARD: Red Giant,  Miz America
  • PAK CHOI
  • JOI CHOI
  • SENPOSI
  • TATSOI
  • TOKYO BEKANA
  • PERENNIAL SPINACH (HABLITZIA)
  • SHISO
  • WATERCRESS

and More!

LETTUCE

  • ANEUNUE
  • BUTTERCRUNCH
  • GOURMET BUTTER GEM
  • JERICHO
  • MARVEL OF FOUR SEASONS
  • RED SALAD BOWL
  • SKYPHOS
  • SPECKLED AMISH
  • TOM THUMB

LEEKS

  • SAN GIOVANNI
  • KING RICHARD – 75 days from transplant.  ‘King Richard’ produces extra long white stems early.  Cold tolerant to 20°F and can be left in the garden for an extended harvest.

MELON

  • MINNESOTA MIDGET
  • NOIR DE CARMES
  • TUSCANY

 

ONIONS

  • PATTERSON – (Yellow, storage) plants, 104 days, ~30 per half-bundle or ~60 per bundle
  • REDWING – (red, storage) plants, 115 days, ~30 per half-bundle or ~60 per bundle
  • WALLA WALLA – (yellow, sweet) plants, ~30 per half-bundle or ~60 per bundle
  • In pots – Ailsa Craig, Red Long of Tropea, Rosa di Milano, Walla Walla, Red Marble cipollini, Gold Coin cipollini

POTATOES

 

  • AMA ROSSA – NEW! – 85 – 95 days. Midseason. Rosy-red fingerling with rich-colored skin and flesh and keeps its color even after cooking. High in antioxidants. Nutty-tasting. Stem or air-fry for pink chips!
  • HARVEST MOON -85-100 days. Round tuber with purple skin and deep yellow flesh. Firm texture after cooking, with a nutty taste. Good for roasting, baking, soups, and chips. Stores excellently.
  • NICOLA – 85 – 105 days. Early. Thin skinned, yellow inside and out.
  • PURPLE MAJESTY  – Uniform, high-yield, deep purple skin and flesh, very high in anthocyanins (high-potency antioxidant) Bred in & for Colorado.
  • SANGRE – 80-90 days. Midseason. Beautiful red skinned variety with shallow eyes and medium-sized oblong tubers. Originally released by Colorado State University in 1982, Sangre ranks high in taste tests with creamy white flesh that is especially delicious boiled or baked. Stores well. 
  • YUKON GOLD- 85 – 100 days. Early Midseason. Smooth, thin, yellow skin and flesh. Buttery flavored, creamy texture, slightly sweet. These popular potatoes are waxy and firm, great for stews, soups, gratins, and mashed or roast potatoes.

 

PUMPKIN and WINTER SQUASH

15, including:

  • ACORN
  • CASPER
  • CHEROKEE BUSH
  • CINDERELLA
  • DELICATA
  • JARRAHDALE
  • HONEYBOAT
  • KABOCHA
  • SILVER BELL
  • SPAGHETTI
  • UNCLE DAVID’S BUTTERCUP
  • WINTER LUXURY

RHUBARB

 

  • CANADA RED
  • GLASKINS PERPETUAL
  • VICTORIA

SHALLOT

  • CREME BRULEE 
  • ZEBRUNE

SPINACH

  • BLOOMSDALE
  • MONSTREUX de VIROFLAY
  • NOBEL
  • SPACE
  • CAUCASIAN CLIMBING PERENNIAL (Hablitzia tamnoides)

SQUASH, SUMMER

  • BLACK BEAUTY ZUCCHINI
  • COSTATA ROMANESCA ZUCCHINI – 55 days, heirloom, ranked best-tasting zucchini, vigorous, large
  • DIRANI
  • JAUNE et VERTE SCALLOP
  • SUMMER CROOKNECK
  • TROMBONCINO
  • YELLOW ZEPHYR

SWISS CHARD

 

  • ARGENTATA
  • BRIGHT LIGHTS
  • RED RHUBARB

 

TOMATILLOS

  • GRAND RIO VERDE- 85 Days – compact (24″ tall and wide) and ripens all at once, great for processing. Grow two or more plants to ensure good pollination. Heat tolerant.
  • PURPLE – 70 Days – compact (20″ tall and wide); purple fruits are much sweeter than the green types and rich in beneficial antioxidants. Let the fruit remain on the plant as long as possible until the husk splits for the best flavor and color. Grow two or more plants to ensure good pollination.

WATERMELON

6 Varieties, including:

  • BLACKTAIL MOUNTAIN
  • EARLY MOONBEAM
  • MOON AND STARS
  • SUGAR BABY

FEATURED PEPPER OFFERINGS – 2024 Newsletter

Bastan Pepper, courtesy Johnny’s Seeds

A few of our NEW PEPPERS

 

BASTAN F-1 ANCHO/POBLANO – New!
65 days green, 85 days ripe (brown) from transplant, Capsicum annuum, F-1 hybrid
An exceptionally early and adaptable poblano pepper, Bastan plants are extremely high-yielding and robust, and produce big, thick-walled, very dark green, smooth, 4-6”-long, mostly two-lobed peppers that are easy to peel.  Fruits may be used at the green unripe or chocolate brown  stages. Excellent fried, roasted, stuffed, in chile rellenos or green chile sauces. 1,000 – 2,500 SHU. Plants have an upright habit with excellent leaf cover and concentrated fruit set. Fully ripe poblano peppers are traditionally dried and called Ancho.

 

TAM JALAPENO – New! – 70-75 days from transplant, Hyb., Capsicum annuum, 3,000 – 5,000 Scoville Heat Units
If you love the flavor of Jalapenos but can’t take the heat, perhaps the Tam Jalapeno is for you.   Developed by Texas A&M, it was bred to be highly productive, disease-resistant, widely adaptable, early-maturing, thick-walled, and have great Jalapeno flavor with a lower level of heat – only 1,000-1,500 SHUs, much milder than the typical Jalapeno (3,000-5,000 SHUs). TAM Jalapeño can be made even milder by removing the thin membrane that connects the seeds to the wall of the pepper. Plants grow 2-3 feet tall and should be staked. They produce 3”- long plump dark green peppers with smooth, glossy skin. If allowed to turn red, they will be hotter. TAMs are great for mild salsas and dips, delicious added to salads, tacos or pizza, and great for pickling, jelly, and cooking. Try stuffing them with a variety of fillings for appetizers. Top of Form

 

YANKEE BELL – New Again! –60 days green, 80 days red, OP, Capsicum annuum
A dependable open-pollinated sweet bell for Northern gardeners. Born on 3’ tall plants, the blocky 3-4 lobed fruits are medium sized and a bit smaller than hybrids but have good yields and better quality and uniformity than most OP bell peppers. Great for salads, stuffing, and cooking. Plants have stronger branches than other varieties.

 

CARIBBEAN HABANERO – New! – 90 days from transplant, Heirloom OP, Capsicum chinense, 400,000 Scoville Heat Units
Twice as hot as the common habanero! Its pungent, smokey, fruity flavor makes extra spicy salsas, marinades and some very intense hot sauces. The red pods are 2″ long and 1″ wide and grow on vigorous, bushy 3 – 4’ plants. It is so productive the plant may need support when loaded with fruit. We recommend wearing latex gloves and other protection when handling these peppers. With a heat level of 400,000 SHUs, these peppers are loaded with capsaicin which can cause irritation and pain when exposed to your eyes and even to your skin.

RETURNING FAVORITES: Anaheim, Early Jalapeno, Fish,  Sheepnose Pimiento, Serrano Tampiqueno, Jimmy Nardello’s, King of the North, Marconi Red, Sweet Chocolate, Cubanelle  and more!

For our complete list of Pepper Starts, click here

AURORA

60-75 days, Open Pollinated
A brilliantly ornamental pepper from Mexico, Aurora’s compact, bushy plants are only 12” tall and wide, but they are lit up by dozens of pointy, upright, 1 ½” glossy fruits that look like colored Christmas lights! The peppers ripen from lavender to purple to orange and finally to red, creating an incredibly colorful show as they appear in all stages at once. The plant is perfect for container growing and the fruits make a beautiful salsa.

CUBANELLE Mild Pepper

70-80 Days, Open Pollinated, Heirloom, Very Mild Heat
Also known as “Cuban pepper” and “Italian frying pepper”, Cubanelle is a variety of sweet pepper with just a touch of heat (-1000 on the Scoville scale), commonly used in Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican cuisines. When unripe, the 6-8” fruit is light yellowish-green, but turns bright red if allowed to ripen. Prized for its sweet, mild flesh, rich flavor, and pretty colors. Cubanelle is thin-walled, especially suited for quick cooking and has a low water content. Best picked when yellow-green for use in roasting, stuffing, pizza topping, frying, a substitute for Anaheims, or in a yellow mole, and is one of the traditional ingredients in sofrito.

Harvest Guidelines for Vegetable Crops

Okay, you prepared your soil and planted your vegetable garden with all kinds of wonderfully flavorful, nutritious foods, you’re watering and watching them grow, and wondering ….. When can I start to eat them, how do I harvest them, and how do I get the most out of these plantings? Here are some tips on vegetable crops harvest timing and techniques that may not be self-evident. Even if you’re a seasoned gardener, you may not be aware of some of these procedures! [Read More]

COLLARD GREENS: Easy to Grow, Nutritious & Delicious

Though commonly associated with culinary traditions of the Southeastern US, collards originated in Europe, along with kale, cabbage etc., and are easy to grow in cooler climates, too.

Grow collards in full sun (for fastest growth), or part shade. Give them plenty of space, 18” apart. Collards appreciate moist, fertile soil with plenty of organic matter (compost) and applications of compost tea.  [Read More]

Welcome New Gardeners!

We are here for you! You’re in the high desert/steppe now, with short growing seasons, sudden temperature changes, unpredictable precipitation, low humidity, drying winds, alkaline soils that are low in organic matter and nitrogen, hot summers and cold winters. Despite these challenges, gardens can thrive here, and be productive, rewarding and beautiful!

Our gardens can support us by providing beauty, nutrient-dense food and plant medicine, and shelter from temperature and weather extremes. At the same time, our gardens can give us an opportunity for nurturing that goes beyond our own garden plants, supporting our entire local ecosystem, including our essential insects, birds, native plants and other wildlife. [Read More]

The Tomatoes are Coming!

The bad news is that last week’s small delivery of tomato starts froze when the wind blew open the back door of our greenhouse in the middle of the night.
The good news is that the next 38 flats will be ready for sale on Friday! (and there will be many more becoming available through April and May). This week’s tomato starts include:  [Read More]

The SEED Situation

“The less biodiverse any system is, the greater the potential for its collapse.”  Janisse Ray, from The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food.

We’ve been reading headlines stating that 93% of seed varieties available in the early 20th century had disappeared from commerce by 1980.  The biggest factor in this drastic decline in diversity is consolidation of the industry. The big multi-national corporations have systematically bought up smaller companies and in so doing have ended production of vast numbers of time-tested open-pollinated and older hybrid varieties and prioritized the production of new patented proprietary hybrids. [Read More]

All about Basil

Basil is one of the great culinary pleasures of summer, and it’s definitely NOT TOO LATE to plant Basil and enjoy a good crop! Basil plants are beautiful, grow equally well in the ground or in pots, thrive in hot weather, provide a continuous, bounteous crop, and Basil’s many different flavors are essential to a variety of distinctive cuisines. It can be used fresh, dried, or frozen in oil or as pesto. Though basil leaves lose most of the aromatic oils when dried, we have still found that basil dried from your garden is so much more flavorful than commercial dried basil.

ALL of our Basil plants are organically grown!  [Read More]

New Seeds for Fall, Winter, & Early Spring Planting!

Sow Fall Crops and be ready for the 2022 growing season!  We’re bringing in fresh seeds, packed for 2022, from our local Botanical Interests Seed Company, and should have them on display sometime this Thursday. Most of these seeds are certified organic.

Now is a great time to plant seeds for fall crops such as spinach, lettuce, mesclun, kale, swiss chard, arugula, mustard greens, and watermelon radish.  Sow seeds this fall for mache, which will provide tasty salad greens in late winter, before the more conventional spring greens are ready. Fall sowing is also ideal for hardy, drought-tolerant annual flowers like borage, California poppies, cornflower, larkspur, love-in-a-mist, breadseed poppies, and Shirley poppies.[Read More]

Hot Summer Sale!

Yes, you can still plant many vegetables and annual flowers, now at greatly reduced prices! If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse, you can grow most peppers, eggplants and tomatoes year-round. In the open garden, look for vegetable varieties that mature the fastest – cucumbers and summer squash, tomatoes, and peppers at 75 days or less. And Kale can still be planted in locations with afternoon shade.

Vegetable Starts 50% off!
Annual Flower Starts 30% off!

Tips for Root Vegetable Success

Some veggies seem to shy away from the limelight, flourishing underground to provide a surprising, beautiful, and nutritious surprise later in the season. Growing root vegetables is generally easy, and can be a fun way to engage children in gardening.  In addition, mountain gardeners often find that root veggies thrive in their cooler conditions.

Once planted, root veggies do not like to be disturbed and therefore are best planted by seed.  (We do sell Bull’s Blood Beets as a starts, but these are generally grown for their greens.)  We have Botanical Interests, Masa, and Seed Savers Exchange seeds for many root veggies including: [Read More]

Q: Can I plant now?

Q:  Can I plant now?

A:  It depends!

Yay! For those of us gardening at about a mile high, the threat of frost is nearly gone! If you’re planting hardy perennials, shrubs, vines, grasses or trees, you’re good to go now (as long as your soil isn’t too wet to work), and we have a remarkable selection! Our stock of seeds and starts for tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, summer & winter squash, melons, pumpkins, and watermelons are excellent. We also have plenty of seeds for beans – bush, pole, runner, and dry. A hint about bean seeds: white-seeded beans are more tolerant of cool soils, so they can be planted sooner. [Read More]

COOL SEASON VEGGIES & HERBS – 2022 Newsletter

COOL SEASON VEGGIES

We have a Fantastic Selection, too many to list!

 

ARUGULA
Wild Arugula, Astro, (spring), Ice-Bred (fall)

BROCCOLI
Fiesta, Nutribud, Leaf Broccoli, Spigariello di Liscia Leaf Broccoli, Aspabroc

[Read More]