Vegetable Seeds

Dating back to 1830, this heirloom is the oldest American lettuce still in cultivation, which speaks to its charms. Plant Tom Thumb lettuce seeds for the smallest lettuce of all – a tennis ball-sized Bibb that will fit in the palm of your hand. The small heads have creamy yellow centers with medium green, slightly crumpled wrapper leaves. This variety works well in containers – even window boxes! It’s a good candidate for indoor growing under lights and does not need a large container to grow well. Try growing some Tom Thumb lettuce seeds in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse in the winter.

Matures in 50-70 days.

This red-spotted, open romaine lettuce is sure to turn some heads. The mid-sized plant is open with glossy, green leaves flecked with maroon; making it a delightful and colourful addition to salad mixes. As the leaves get larger, the markings become even more prominent. The leaves of Freckles lettuce are speckled, not blotchy, so they have quite an elegant look. And the flavour is excellent. Freckles lettuce seeds, also known as Forellenschluss are an heirloom variety of Austrian lineage. Be sure to plant some Freckles lettuce seeds in your organic vegetable garden this spring.

Matures in 55-70 days.

Fragaria vesca. Yellow Wonder Alpine strawberry seeds are a bit easier to start than some others. Start the seeds indoors as early as December, and transplant outdoors one week after your last average frost date. That’s around the first or second week in April. With this kind of head start, the plants will produce fruit in the first year. Yellow Wonder has the lovely oblong shape of alpine types, but with yellow skin and flesh and incredible sweetness. The plants are low growing, but very productive, even in containers. The seeds can also be sown later in the year, but plan on harvesting berries from the second year of growth forward.

Matures in 150 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)

Named for Ping Tung, Taiwan, the town of its origin. The fruits are light purple, from 30-45cm (12-18”) long, and only 3cm (1¼”) in diameter. Hardy, disease resistant plants bear heavy yields of sweet and tender fruits — as many as twenty per plant. Be sure to stake the bushy plants for the straightest fruits. Eggplants thrive in containers, but the trick is to keep the soil evenly moist, particularly during the hot weather of mid-summer, when the plants are most productive. The plants work equally well in the open field, but benefit from full sun and some protection from harsh wind.

Matures in 65-90 days.

Sometimes listed as Fingerling or Long Purple Italian, Long Purple Eggplant seeds produce stocky, productive plants that bear four or more fruits per plant. The fruits are dark purple and club shaped 20-25cm (8-10″) long and around 6cm (2.5″) in diameter. The flesh is firm and mild in flavour, and it’s lovely when cooked, taking on the flavours it is cooked with. This old heirloom variety arrived in American gardens back in the 1850s. Try growing this eggplant in a three to five gallon pot on your patio. Eggplants thrive in hot weather, and this variety does particularly well in northern areas.

Matures in 60 days

These blimp shaped cucumbers are medium green with small white spines and a crisp interior. You can pick them at 4cm (1″) for baby sweet pickles or wait for bigger ones. In time, they can grow to around 13cm (5″) long, but maintain their appealing pickle shape. Homemade Pickles cucumber seeds produce plants that are vigorous with excellent disease resistance and high yields. Provide a sturdy trellis for this rampant climber, and keep plants picked to keep more fruits coming over a long period. This cucumber can be eaten raw, but it is a little drier and crunchier than regular slicing cucumbers. These are the traits that make such high quality dill pickles.

Matures in 60 days.

Green Dragon cucumber seeds produce vines with substantial fruits to 28cm (11″) long. The fruits have linear indentations and tiny white spines that can easily be brushed off using a tea towel or similar cloth. Thin, dark green skins cover really tasty flesh that is burpless and never bitter. Green Dragon performs well both outdoors and in the greenhouse, but provide a trellis in either case so that the fruits can hang as they grow for better straightness. This variety is hybrid resistance to Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV), powdery mildew, downy mildew, and scab. For container growing, choose pots at least three to five gallons per plant, with fertile soil and good drainage.

Matures in 60 days.

Tasty Green cucumber seeds produce vigorous vines bearing long English cucumber fruits up to 30cm (12″) in length. Allow the sweet tasting, burpless fruits to hang as they grow by providing a strong trellis for each plant. Tasty Green is productive in raised beds or in containers in the greenhouse, but keep the plants picked to extend the harvest period. This was the first long English hybrid slicing cucumber to be bred for “burplessness,” meaning that it is easy to digest. Many sources refer to it as Burpless Tasty Green F1. For containers, use three to five gallons with fertile soil and excellent drainage.

Matures in 65 days.

Pale green, heavily ribbed fruit has the fresh flavour, texture, and shape of a long slender cucumber but is genetically a melon. These 30-45cm (12-18”) fruit will likely curl when grown on the ground but will grow straighter if trellised. Monoecious plants bear both male and female flowers.

Patio Snacker cucumber seeds produce compact little plants that grow to only 90-150cm (36-60″), but producing numerous full-sized slicing cucumbers from mid-summer on. Trellis the little plants, or try them in a hanging basket and allow the short vines to spill over the sides. Patio Snacker is a parthenocarpic variety, bred with the small-space gardener in mind, so it’s ideal for balcony growing. Be sure to keep the plants picked so that new flowers and fruits continue to come.

Matures in 50-55 days

The very straight, tapered roots of Deep Purple carrot grow 17-20cm (7-8”) long. These carrots are named for the fact that the purple characteristic runs right to the core, and they keep their colour when lightly cooked. The tops are strong for easy harvests, and the storage potential is great. This is a fine fall harvest carrot that is good for juicing and it looks amazing in salads. The sweet, smooth-skinned roots were a staff favourite from our field trials. This is a high yielding, very uniform variety for the market grower or home gardener.

These seeds are coated with an inert, organically certified layer which helps to minimize clumping in storage and seed sowing machines. The coating is approved by organic certifiers in Canada, the US, EU, and Japan.

Matures in 75 days.

Imperator type. Versatility and long storage ability makes this variety a good choice for growers and homesteaders alike. Neptune carrot seeds produce large, handsome, medium-orange roots grow 20-25cm (8-10″) long, with outstanding flavour and crisp, crunchy texture. The roots are very straight with a slight taper to a pointed tip. Tops are abundant for tying market bundles. Grow these carrots in deeply dug soil with fluffy texture – raised beds work really well. Apply carrot fertilizer or the All Purpose 4-4-4 organic fertilizer at planting time for the largest, most uniform roots.

Matures in 65 days.

Apium graveolens secalinum. This cutting leaf celery is like the European cousin to our Chinese Yellow Stem . Both are grown for their leaves, not the crunchy stalks. Amsterdam Cutting Leaf Celery is a Dutch heirloom that is used traditionally to flavour soups and stews. It has larger leaves than stalk celery, and these can be harvested a handful at a time, as needed, rather than cutting the whole plant. The flavour is also more pronounced, a little bit similar to Italian parsley. The stems are hollow and can be quite fibrous, but they are excellent for making stock. This annual plant deserves a place in the herb garden.

Matures in 80 days.

An early and disease resistant celery that’s slow to bolt, Tall Utah 52-70 celery seeds produce really tall plants. Utah 52-70 is a tall, medium dark green celery with long, thick stalks that are sweet and crunchy. Overall plant height can be up to 75cm (30″), with the first joint appearing 26-28cm (10-11″) up on the plants. This variety develops strong roots with good heart development. It holds its form and colour in the field well, and is strongly flavoured for use in the kitchen. Tall Utah 53-70 is recommended for home garden as well as commercial farm use, and produces impressive stalks with good market potential. It first appeared on the market in 1953, so technically it’s an heirloom variety.

Matures in 100 days.

This early maturing purple cauliflower is so fast to produce its violet crowns that you may miss them if you don’t keep an eye out! Purple Moon is widely adaptable to many growing regions yielding a concentrated harvest a full two weeks before Graffiti. Make succession plantings spring through mid-summer to extend the harvest.

Matures in 62 days

This cauliflower lives up to its name with its amazing holding ability in the garden. Some cauliflower varieties develop heads that are open and exposed to sunlight, but Amazing has large outer wrapper leaves that grow upright, sheltering the head from the sun. As a result, the heads do not need to be harvested with any great urgency and you can pick them as you need them. The plants are medium sized, with domed, tightly packed curds, and they’re not particularly fussy about temperature stress, either cold or hot. If you’ve had trouble in the past growing cauliflower, try some Amazing cauliflower seeds – it’s an excellent choice for cauliflower newbies.

Matures in 75 days.

This is the ultimate golden beet. Its roots are smooth and orange/red on the outside with intensely golden flesh beneath and subtle banding. The green tops are tall and strong — not to mention sweet and delicious. This gorgeous beet looks amazing when pickled.

Matures in 53 days.