Dry, Cure, Bubble, and Brew

'Tis the season for seed saving. 

 

Freezing Temps and New Seeds

Happy New Year!

   The last two weeks have been very cold.  This past week, we had several days of -35 to -40 C temps with ice fog and periodic light snow.  Suffice to say, we stuck close to home and only ventured out to run necessary errands.

   Last night, it began to flurry.  By this morning, we had another 6 inches of snow.  Fortunately, it had "warmed up" to -20 by this morning, so R. was able to start the snowblower (it wouldn't start last week).  He managed to clear the driveway and I was able to do some shoveling without the risk of frostbite.  What a difference 10 or 15 degrees in the right direction makes.

Pictures taken around 3:00PM this afternoon.

 

   With several months to go before I can start seeds for transplants, I have been scratching the gardening itch by researching heirloom varieties that are new to me and doing trades with other gardeners.  In December, I did a trade with a fellow in Vancouver for some dwarf and indeterminate tomatoes. I also connected with a woman in Sweden through an online dwarf tomato group (I'm chucking at how niche that sounds).  We did a seed trade and had a great chat online about uncommon varieties.  Some of the varieties she sent me were rare and/or relatively new crosses, ones I just couldn’t find online in Canadian or American groups or even for sale from seed businesses in North America.   You have to love the whimsical names some tomatoes have: Delta Moss Dwarf, Dwarf Saucy Mary, Favorie de Bretagne, Long Tall Sally,  Summer Cider Apricot, Evil Olive, Brad's Atomic Grape, Blaue Zimmertomate (“Blue Tomato Room”), etc.    

   Seeds of Diversity's annual member seed exchange launched yesterday.  I managed to find two tomato varieties I'd been hunting for (Clear Pink and Reinhard's Chocolate Heart), as well as two dry bush bean varieties (Goose Gullet, an Acadian heirloom dating back to the late 1700s, and Weiner Treib, a Dutch variety that is early for a dry bean).  There were many unusual and interesting varieties listed by other members, and I could have gone nuts acquiring them if I'd let myself.  Limited funds and limited garden space helped keep me focused enough to chose a few and leave the rest!

 

Gold-Plated Grow-Light

   Okay, not literally gold-plated.  I just experienced a wee bit of sticker shock this week when I ordered a replacement bulb for the Lee Valley Grow-Light Kit I received for Christmas in 2015. This grow-light has worked out really well, and I have relied on it for starting my transplants in the Spring.  The replacement bulbs are not listed for sale on the website, and instead have to be purchased through Lee Valley's Special Orders department.  In any case, a new 18" Sunblaster LED strip light is on the way!

   A few weeks ago, a dear friend shared some of her Maglia Rosa tomato seeds with me. She enclosed them in this lovely card, which I have kept where I can see it every day.

 

    Check out this detailed list of Canadian small seed businesses that includes vendors of seed potatoes, garlic, and berries, fruit trees and nut trees. The blogger did a great job putting this resource together!

Just In Time For Christmas

 

My package of seeds from the Annual Canadian Autumn Seed Exchange arrived right before Christmas.  Perfect timing!  The host of the seed exchange, Nicky North, is very organized and somehow always manages to grant several items from each participant's wish list as well as sending unique surprises.  From my wishlist this year, I received Lemon Bergamot, edible Chrysanthemum, Kalibos cabbage, Scarlet kale, and a few tomato varieties.  In the "surprise" department were sorghum, Pigeon peas, and several varieties of corn, including Floriani and Painted Mountain (both flint, both beautiful).

 

In addition to receiving the ACASE seeds, a generous soul in a seed-trading group online offered to send me some Mémé de Beauce tomato seeds.  A bit about this variety (description from Terre Promise): 

 

In 1995, a carpenter found a bag of about 200 seeds in the attic of an abandoned house, where no one had lived for several years already, in Saint-Joseph-de-Beauce. The neighbors claimed that this house hadn’t had any garden in well over 60 years. Mrs. Gérard Parent, to whom they were given, tried to get them to grow; only three germinated. From those three initial plants originate all the current Mémé de Beauce plants found in Quebec.

 

The following are varieties received from this year's ACASE exchange:

 

Flowers 

Bachelor Buttons – “Chocolate” and “Tall Mix” 

Calendula – Festiva Gitana 

Chrysanthemum – Edible Shungiku 

Sunflower – "Little Becka/Elegance" and "Teddy Bear" 

Verbascum – "Milkshake" 

Zinnia - orange

 

Shungiku Chrysanthemum - West Coast Seeds

 

Herbs

Feverfew

Lemon Bergamot

 

Miscellaneous

Cowpea – Blue Goose

Garlic – Georgian Fire

Pigeon Pea

Sorghum – Broomcorn (Technically edible, but apparently better used as an ornamental or a pollen barrier between crops.)

 

Georgian Fire garlic - Garlic Brothers

 

VEGETABLES

Beans 

The Prince (bush)

Velour (bush)

Blue Lake (snap/pole)

 

Cabbage 

Earliana (green) 

Kalibos (red)

 

Kalibos cabbage - BC Eco Seed Co-op

 

Cauliflower

Snowball

 

Corn

Butter and Sugar

Early Sunglow

Floriani (flint)

Painted Mountain (primarily flint)

 

Floriani fint corn - Great Lakes Staple Seeds

 

Greens/Leafy

Kale – "Scarlet" and "Red Russian"

Orach – Purple Leaf

 

Squash  

Hubbard

Pink Hubbard

Table King Acorn

 

Tomatoes

Azoycka

Big Mama (hybrid/red paste)

Blush

Cherokee Purple

Dad’s Sunset

Delicious Beefsteak

Dwarf Champion

Dwarf Golden Heart

Green Giant

Green Pineapple

Lemon Drop

Lucky Tiger

 

Lucky Tiger - Baker Creek Seeds

Pantano Romanesco

Pink Passion (dwarf)

San Marzano

Savignac/Dufresne (Canadian heirloom)

 

Savignac/Dufresne - Ark of Taste

Sicilian Saucer

Speckled Roman

Sungold (orange cherry, hybrid)

Sunrise Bumblebee

White Wonder

Yellow Canary

 

Canada Geese, Hazy Skies - Wrapping Things Up

 

   The days are noticeably shorter and I have been sleeping more deeply at night.  It feels strange to wake up early and find that it's still dark.  I miss waking up to bright sunshine and birds singing at 5:00am.  Time to transition into cozy mode.

   We have had the furnace on in the mornings a few times to take the chill out of the air.  Overall, though, it has been a mild September, with no killing frosts yet (as of September 24th - that's unsual) and none forecast for the next two weeks.

   Flocks of Canada geese have been making their way overhead almost daily.  There have been some large groups - you can hear them coming long before you spot them.

   I gradually started bringing in the dry bush bean plants to hang in the second week of September.  Most are inside now, except for a Ruckle bean plant. 

   On the 15th (a very cool, cloudy, damp day), I picked most the tomatoes that were in the East garden and in containers along the driveway because the first frost was forecast for that night.  Harvested on - or just before - the 15th were Jewish, Candy Sweet Icicle, Black Krim, Wentzell, Emerald Evergreen, and Black Sea Man.  I left the tomatoes growing along the south side of the house in-ground and covered them that night.  I also pulled the remainder of the Gaspe Flint corn and a few of the Agate Pinto bean pods to bring inside to dry in case the frost zapped those plants.  Most of the Agate Pinto beans on the plants are still green and not ready to harvest.

(Click on pictures to enlarge.)

 

   On the morning of the 16, there were signs outside of a light frost.  The only things that got zapped were the winter squash (Galeux D'Eysines) plants.  Arhg.  Some of those squash weren't fully mature yet, so I left them on the vines for a few more days.

 

   There are little boxes, plates, and long, flat cardboard trays of bean pods, nasturtium seeds, tomato seeds, and garlic bulbils set all around the plant room and living room to dry.  Several buckets of green tomatoes are in the laundry room, waiting to be boxed up in newspaper so they can ripen.

Tene's beans (dry/bush)

 Beka Brown (dry/bush)

Agate pinto beans (dry bush w/runners)

Nasturtium seeds

 

   The Red Swan and Calima beans that grew were picked late in the season and are drying down indoors.  These varieties were not eaten fresh or processed for freezing this year (small plants, lots of slug damage); I am saving seed from them instead.

   The Early Prolific Summer Squash plants produced 3 or 4 small squash, so I guess it's more accurate to say that they underperformed rather than counting them as a crop failure.

   The Long Pie Pumpkin, Lower Salmon River squash, and Cole tomatoes that were planted at R's family's farm were all either killed by frost damage early in the season or inhibited by the cool, wet weather this summer.  None of pumpkins produced and we only got 4 small Cole tomatoes (a variety that typically produces very well). One average-size and one tiny Lower Salmon River were harvested (both pictured below).

 

   Most of the carrots and 4 little cabbages are still in the raised beds.  They can withstand light frosts, so should be fine outside for a while longer. 

   September 17th was a carrot processing day.  It's easy to forget how much time it consumes to pull, wash, peel, chop, blanch, and then dehydrate them.  Hours.  Thank goodness for podcasts.  By the time I'm through processing the second batch of carrots, I am wondering what the hell I was thinking planting them in the first place. Mid-winter, though, when you can just open a jar and add dehydrated carrots to a soup or stew, I'm glad I put in the effort.

   September 18 & 19 - I picked the Bellestar and half the Principe Borghese tomatoes.  The Galeux D'Eysines squash were harvested as well as a few of the Work Release Paste tomatoes that were best for seed saving.  I processed another batch of carrots.  The air was hazy these two days and smelled like a giant campfire.  Smoke from the massive wildfires throughout the US west coast had reached northern BC.  

 

September 23 - Picked the remainder of the Principe Borghese tomatoes.  Pulled the Agate pinto beans and hung the plants to dry.

September 24 - Picked the Hungarian Heart tomatoes.

Setpember 26 - Picked the Striped German and Work Release Paste tomatoes.

   The only things remaining in the garden are the sunflowers, cosmos, lemon balm, mint, sage, a bit of kale, carrots, a single Ruckle bean plant (the pods are being stubborn and are remaining green), 3 cabbage, and a few volunteer pansies.

 

   The crop failures this year were the peas (Green Arrow and Laxton's Progress), cauliflower, White Scallop summer squash, Table King Acorn squash,  Romano beans, Anaheim peppers, and Norland potatoes. 

   There are several jars of fermenting tomato seeds on the go. Black Sea Man, Cream Sausage, and Jewish (left to right) are pictured in the jars below.  The problem with using the cat tree as the platform for pictures (the best light is in the plant room) is that curious kitties are irresistibly drawn to things that are fragile or carefully arranged.  Case in point...