Produce > Edible Plants

Seed saving cataolgue -ONLY!! 2017 onwards

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pumkinlover:
Hopefully jayb will be able and willing to add this years seeds to the List she has maintained for previous years ( hope you are able to join us again soon x)
To make it easier until then it has been suggested that we have a catalogue of what we send in therefore I am starting this thread. PLEASE ONLY POST WHAT YOU HAVE SENT IN TO THE CIRCLE AND A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OR LINK. This will
 make it easier to read for everyone. So if any other posts along the lines of "oh that looks interesting!" appear I will put my bossy mod hat on a delete them.  :glasses9:
Also please only post on here when you have actually posted them off.

pumkinlover:
 Gigandes originally from Chris Cross, sadly no longer posts. A nice fat butter bean type.
Painted Lady runner bean.
Giant Stringless dwarf bean from last years HSL (only ten packets sorry)
Xenia Field dwarf bean also HSL. I think that this is the nicest pencil bean I have grown, it was a torment not to pick and eat it.

Plot 18:
Blauwschokkers Purple Podded Peas aka Tall Dutch Grey. Description here
https://www.dobies.co.uk/Garden/Vegetables/Rob+Smith+Heritage+Veg+Seeds/Pea+Seeds+-+Blauwschokker_430214.htm
I first got these seeds in a seed swap a few years ago, and have grown them ever since. Very pretty in flower you can eat them when small and skinny as mangetout, but mostly I freeze them for winter, making soup or 'mushy peas' as they are a bit more starchy.

Mila's Bulgarian is an early red pepper, originally from Irish Seed Savers. http://www.irishseedsavers.ie/supporters/tomatoes-and-peppers.php  As long as you pinch out the growing point, so that they branch, they will produce lots of flowers/fruit. I grow mine in supermarket flower pots in the greenhouse.

galina:
Winter Squash ‘Todo el Año’

A cucurbita maxima squash originally from Real Seeds when they were still in Spain and called Vida Verde.  A traditional Spanish Squash.  The name  translates to ‘all year round’, because it stores so well.  This was the only c maxima squash in the garden and the neighbours  only grow lawns, so fingers crossed it hasn’t crossed.  I have handpollinated one fruit but that had barely a dozen seeds.  Nice dark yellow fleshed squash, good for cutting into wedges and baking in the oven, but equally good cut into smaller pieces, steamed and mashed or just fried in olive oil with a bit of chili and a clove of garlic.  This is a medium large squash.   No need to peel, the skin cooks soft which is just as well because of its bumps.

Winter Squash ‘Figleaf Pumpkin aka Sharkfin Melon’
My seeds came from this seed circle.  It is a winter squash also, but the longest storing of all, up to two years.  Cucurbita ficifolia as the leaves look a little like fig leaves.  This one is rampant and does need space, but produces generously.  The pumpkins are large, egg shaped and look pretty much like an oblong water melon.  The white flesh has a curious ‘thready’ consistency, which is why a classic use for this squash is making jam – angel hair jam.  A bit like the shredded orange bits in marmalade.  My preferred use is in chutneys with raisins.  Can be substituted for apples, for cucumbers in pickles etc.  Recently somebody on A4A mentioned using it in soup.  We tried that and it is really good as mock sharkfin flesh.   
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita_ficifolia

Walking Onion  ‘Catawissa’
Walking onions grow from these little bulbs into large spring onion type plants.  The second year they send up flower scapes with one or two tiers of top bulbils.  At the same time (a bit like shallots) the original bulb also divides.  Eventually when the top bulbs have matured, the the scape dries up and falls over.  And the topset onions root where the stem came to rest, a little way off the parent plant.  The new onions appear to have ‘walked’ away from the parent plant.  There are many uses for this plant.  Like spring onion, the multiplied onions like shallots and the top sets for pickling onions or for stews, also good in salads.  They are propagated from the smaller top set bulbs, I have never seen true seeds although there are flowers among the developing top set onions. 

Walking Onion ‘ Moritz’
This variety is very similar to Catawissa, but the top bulbil clusters are a little larger with more little onions and they are more purple red at the base.  I got this variety from Hector on A4A and it is doing well.  I mentioned before, these need to be planted up pronto indoors and setting out when a good rootball has developed.  It is getting very late in the year for them, but I hope everybody will get at least a few plants.
 
Pea Carter’s ‘Daffodil’
My source was a swap with a gardener, who in turn swapped these from the USA, where a chap, who called himself ‘the American Gardener’ intended to start a seed shop for old heritage varieties.  He ‘liberated’ the variety from a seed bank in USA.  Yet this is a quintessentially English pea from the famous Carter’s seeds in Raynes.   And it definitely warrants being grown today, as it is still a good variety.
This is Carter’s own catalogue description: (Wrinkled Marrowfat, 18 inches)  A  dwarf and very prolific Marrowfat Pea with the highest possible commendations, being of the rich deep colour of the Stratagem type, and a decided improvement upon British Wonder and the new types of English Wonder.  It is a first early of bushy habit, and about 18 inches, obviating the necessity for sticks and rendering it serviceable for borders.  Its pods are larger than most of the well-known Peas of the early dwarf class, while the quality of flavour of the Pea is delicious.   More reading here:  https://archive.org/stream/JamesCarterComa00JameAM#page/82/mode/2up/search/daffodil

Tomato ‘Roughwood Golden Plum’
This is a bright golden yellow sauce tomato with thick flesh, which was bred by food and garden historian and chef William Woys Weaver.   He crossed Yellow Brandyvine with San Marzano.  This one is a superior cooking tomato, but can also be used for salads and sandwiches.  Almost round, not quite plum shaped.  It isn’t quite a determinate and not quite an indeterminate either.  I grow it on a support stick, but don’t prune the side shoots.   My seed source was that magic seed parcel from Jeannine and Jayb that did the rounds a few years ago.
https://store.tomatofest.com/Roughwood_Golden_Plum_p/tf-0431.htm

Melon ‘Petit Gris de Rennes’
Little grey melon from Rennes.  A small greenish netted melon with very sweet flesh if left to ripen fully.  After so many years of trying and trying again to grow melons in the greenhouse, this variety finally worked and I hope it works for you as well.  These are large grapefruit sized fruits, just enough for two. 

Chilli ‘Trepadeira Werner’
We had this in the seed circle already from Goodlife, who was my seed source.  Very nice little chilli, not too hot but excellent flavour and the plants were loaded with these little pepper ‘cherries’.
http://seedsaverscircle.org/seed-circle/a4a-seed-saver-group-2014/

Achocha ‘Giant Bolivian’
Also a seed circle repeat.  My seed source was Jayb who in turn got them from Real Seeds.  Both Real Seeds and Jayb recommended growing in a greenhouse or poly, but as the plants are big and vigorous I started them off indoors and planted out later.  Which only just worked in the first year, but Clumsy, who also grew them had much better success.  From those seeds that were only just emergency ripened, I again grew them outdoors.  And also in the greenhouse, but as soon as the weather got warmer, I directed the plant out of the door.  An alternative would be to give cloche protection initially.  Last year’s fruit was just huge and it was earlier too.  Maybe we are acclimatising these achochas to the UK.  And hopefully in just a few more generations they will be as easy to grow as the more familiar achochas Fat Baby and Lady’s Slipper. 
We were also wondering about the seed shape.  This achocha has two shapes, the jagged type and a round type.  Both Clumsy and I started with round seeds and have only seen round seeds for two generations.  It may be a true-breeding characteristic. 

Climbing French Bean ‘Mennonite Stripe’
My source for these beans also was Chris Cross from A4A.  This is a giant of a bean.  Huge pods and very thick too.  Light green with purple stripes.  Does not take many to fill a pot for dinner.  We love them as green beans, but Chris mainly uses the large seeds as drying beans.  As the name suggests these hail from the Mennonite communities in the USA. 
http://secretseedcartel.com/product/waterloo-county-mennonite-pole-bean/

galina:
Apologies for the tiny pictures.  Won't let me edit any more.  Let's try again.    :BangHead:   :sunny:

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