It's cold, its snowy, but it's time. After a solid two months of drooling over Baker's Creek seed catalog, it's time to place an order. This is my second year ordering from Bakers. It's owned by a young guy that started his own seed business when he was 17. Now he's probably in his mid to late twenties and he has two seed stores and his own litttle town, lol. I like their seeds for a number of reasons. They are heirloom varieties, he avoids GMO seeds and purchases seed from a small group of proven farmers. He also grows a fair amount of it at his own place, has a huge selection and shipping is cheap! $3, that's it! His website has a few planting forums that have a lot of very smart growers on them and it that makes deciding between varieties a lot easier.
This year, when choosing seed, I was drawn once again to the odd, ornamental and unusual. I tried to do a little better in balancing the stuff that probably doesn't have a prayer of doing well(asian melons), with varieties where my climate should be perfect. My tomato choices numbered 20 with a heavy emphasis on black varieties. I'll be regrowing three varieties from last year as well. Chocolate Stripes, San Marzano and Dr. Carolyn.
Here's the 2010 list. They are all heirlooms with the exception of Fat and Sassy Pepper. A 61 day pepper was just too hard to resist for this zone 5 girl. I'll probably begin planting some items as soon as my order comes in, but this year I want to avoid starting too much too soon. My plants were bigger than they needed to be last April and it made for a lot of extra work.
| Molten Fire | BC 2010 | Amarynth |
| Cream of Saskatchewan | BC 2010 | Watermelon |
| Stupice | BC 2010 | Tomato (early) |
| Illini Star | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Gajo De Melon | BC 2010 | Tomato(Cherry) |
| Vorlon | BC 2010 | Tomato (PL) |
| Black from Tula | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Black Cherry | BC 2010 | Tomato(Cherry) |
| Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Chocolate Stripes | BC 2009 | Tomato |
| Kellogg's Breakfast | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Violet Jasper or Tzi Bi U | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Dr. Carolyn | BC 2009 | Tomato(Cherry) |
| San Marzano | BI 2009 | Tomato(Paste) |
| Brave General | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Amerikanskiy Sladkiy | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Japanese Black Trifele | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Crnkovic Yugoslavian | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Striped Roman | BC 2010 | Tomato(Paste) |
| Copia | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Big White Pink Stripes | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Big Rainbow | BC 2010 | Tomato |
| Five Color Silverbeet | BC 2010 | Chard |
| Red Cheese | BC 2010 | Sweet pepper |
| Odessa Market | BC 2010 | Sweet pepper |
| Corbaci | BC 2010 | Sweet pepper |
| Sweet Chocolate | BC 2009 | Sweet pepper |
| Red Belgian | BC 2009 | Sweet pepper |
| King of the North | BC 2009 | Sweet pepper |
| Fat and Sassy Hybrid | Totally Tomatoes | Sweet pepper |
| Early Silver Line | BC 2010 | Asian Melon |
| Far North | BC 2010 | American Melon |
| Red Wing | BC 2010 | Lettuce mix |
| Rocky Top | BC 2010 | Lettuce mix |
| Giant Musselburgh | BC 2010 | Leek |
| Violette Longue Hativ | BC 2010 | Eggplant |
| Thai Round Purple | BC 2010 | Eggplant |
| Applegreen | BC 2010 | Eggplant |
| Japanese Long | BC 2010 | Cucumber |
| Lemon Cuke | BC 2009 | Cucumber |
| Strawberry Popcorn | BC 2010 | Popcorn |
| Lunar White Carrot | BC 2010 | Carrot |
| Cosmic Purple Carrot | BC 2010 | Carrot |
| Chioggia | BC 2010 | Beet |
| Cylindra or Formanova | BC 2010 | Beet |
| Chinese Red Noodle | BC 2010 | Bean |
| Purple Podded Pole | BC 2010 | Bean |
7 comments:
Great list .. thank you for sharing. I was just thinking today I better get organized and start ordering some seeds while some are still left. I was also sort of interested in where people were ordering from and Baker Seeds sounds like a nice operation.
Wow - I bought 67 varieties from Baker Creek, and NONE of them are the same as your rather extensive list! That is pretty cool!
Cool list.
I met the Baker Creek people last summer and thought they were really nice and generous folks. They were wearing these funny costumes that I had to take a picture of and post to my blog.
I too purchased all of mine thru Baker Creek, about 60 varieties and not too many of the ones you picked! We should compare notes. I started many in the South window today, bracing for 6-12" inches today, so watch out! Im staying in! check out my blog for my garden plan for this year www.sproutbabysprout.blogspot.com
~Jes
That's a lot of tomatoes! Great blog. I made my husband come and look at what you made to plant your purple potatoes in. He's going to try that this year. Since he's a landscaper we already have all the materials :-)
Cindy
Knoxville, Maryland
Have you ordered yet Erin? Tick tock tick tock. ;)
Wow Cooter, I can't believe we don't have a single duplication! You clearly are not as drawn to the weird looking stuff as I am.
MBT Good to hear! I like buying from nice people.
Jez I started mine tomatoes the day after you did. I'm glad I'm not the only one in the land of never ending snow kicking things off. We can commiserate with each other when the freaky April storms hit and we have to find a place for a few dozen overgrown tomato plants.
Good luck Annonymous! I'm going to do it again with potatoes and I'm going to try a shorter version for asian melons as well.
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