Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year

I'm so ashamed of myself. I have been neglecting this blog badly. I have thought about hiring someone to keep it updated!!
I've been working  already on my 2016 growlist and as usual, I think it's the best one by far!! (I think this every year).

Fondanello
I was in France in October and picked up some very cool seeds there. A few peppers and a cool French Basil. Also, I was in a farmers market in Geneva and they had this very sweet looking tomato called Fondanello. The photos don't do it justice. It was goldl/green with red striped skin and bi-color interior.  Of course I had to swipe one for seeds. I have no idea if it's a hybrid or not but willing to let a grower/breeder experiment with it.Terry@secretseedcartel.com

Fondanello
Just shoot me an email: I will post better photos of it once I upload them to my laptop. sigh. 
Owen's Purple
So let's do a review of the 2015 garden. Winners and losers. Of course, the stand-out tomato for this year was Owen's Purple. Black/Purple tomatoes are my favorite and this is the best one I've ever eaten!! Very sweet and juicy. Carbon has always been my benchmark for dark tomatoes but this is my new standard. If you haven't grown it, it's a MUST GROW!!The Marmande Garnier Rouge did exceptionally well this year. Tons of perfectly fluted red beauties. Of course, my La Vie en Rose and Moonshiners Ball produced beautifully. The Moonshiner's seed will not be released until 2016 so stay tuned for that.
I was very proud to finally obtain the seed and growout West Virginia Penitentiary. It was a standard smooth red old timey tomato from the prison farms of W.V. back in the day.
Some of the losers for last season: my Judia de la Granja bean. It produced but being a runner bean, it didn't produce the seed volume I needed to offer it for sale. I will probably have a grower do this next season that can grow large amounts.
I swear to myself every year I am going to cut back on the amount of new varieties and every year it's to insane. I grew so many seedlings last season I was giving away plants and had to decide not to grow a few. That is like torture for me. A real Sophie's choice.
Hope you all had a great season and I wish you all a healthy happy New Year. My New Year's resolution is to keep this blog updated more often. LOL

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