Saturday, December 26, 2015

New Resource... American Heritage Vegetables

I have been busy working on another hobby blog lately but the siren song of seeds lured me back today.  Exploring popular veg for 1850 I was looking through T. Bridgeman's The young gardener's assistant: containing a catalogue of garden & flower seeds, with practical directions under each head for the cultivation of culinary vegetables and flowers ; also directions for cultivating fruit trees, the grape vine, &c., to which is added a calendar, showing the work necessary to be done in the various departments of gardening in every month of the year. 

Next thing you know I was looking up Thousand-headed Cabbage!  That led me to the new resource... American Heritage Vegetables.

Then I was looking for a supplier for the heritage netted pumpkin Winter Luxury to grow next year because they liked it.  (Johnny's Selected Seeds has it.)   

I love pumpkin.  Next year I thought I'd use it more as a side dish with meals, baked.  

This year I discovered Buttercup...YUM!!!!!!!!! Sadly, everyone says it is not a good keeper. That won't keep me from growing it, but my dreams of feasting all winter on it have been dashed.
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(Oh, no! I was just looking again at Winter Luxury.  It is not a keeper either.)
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Next year is my first vegetable garden in 30+ years.  Tree removal and bulldozing a small flat-ish area into a hill have given me the opportunity.  I have been building stone walls to hold in improved soil as I hand shovel it truly flat and mix in organic matter.  Our dump is a source of great compost from the leaf drop-off area!  This winter is a winter of seed hunting and dreaming.