Delectable Wild Cherries

A trip to the foothills around lake Coeur d'Alene last week not only provided us with a sampling of wild cherries but a place for the boy to burn off some energy.


I am not exactly sure what kind of cherries these are, some of the trees had black cherries and others were red. Mostly I am interested in the stone of this fruit as I have successfully grown a number of these trees from seed in the past. Some of the trees we came across were at least 50 or 60" tall making cherry picking interesting to say the least. The trees grow extremely fast and the one in the below pictures background is four years old and may give us a cherry or two this year.


We simply plant the seeds, mark the spot, and let mother nature take it's course. In the spring, if we are lucky, there will be a few cherry trees popping up. The cherry do not germinate as readily as apple seeds so we made sure to plant enough.

Gone To Seed

Due to the dramatic fluctuations in temperature this spring a few of our biennial plants have bolted prematurely this year, fortunately it has only been a few. This has allowed me the opportunity to watch a purple kohlrabi attempt to form a seed head, a first in our garden as I have never really tried to save seed from this type of brassica before. I thought it had a most interesting flower. The rest of our summer kohlrabi are forming nice little bulbs and those for winter storage were just planted this past week.

This is easily one of our favorite vegetables, nothing beats the flavor of fresh, raw kohlrabi grated over a summer salad. They store remarkably well and can be used for forced greens as well as the bulb in the winter months.

What's Growing On?

55°! today and sunny, it was a most perfect day to get a few things planted in the garden.

I often wonder why more flower gardens don't include a few vegetables. These red Belgium endive are as pleasing to the eye as a beautiful rose and have yet to grow tall and send forth their own bright blue flowers (I think they will be blue). From what I have read this particular endive is the result of a seed irregularity that accidentally produced the red color that I am so fortunate to view in this stage of its life cycle. We were able to hold over around 25 of these delicious flowers and hope they will produce seed as I am no longer able to find a source for this particular plant.

We were able to get our red, green and multicolored chard seedlings settled in the garden along with more Russian kale, arugula, and bok choy...all of which came from my own saved seed.

Far away from the red we re-planted the regular Belgium endive amongst some spinach and will let both go to seed together. Spinach is one of the easiest seeds to save as it immediately bolts once the weather warms a bit, I think the spinach in this picture has been saved by us for over three years now.

The lovage survived another winter and is just now poking up through the mulch used to protect it. We have never saved any seeds off of this plant as it comes back so easily every spring, perhaps I will do so this year...just in case.

We have over a dozen okra seedlings taking form. I planted some really old seed just for the fun of it and every seed was viable. We grew okra a few years back and really never figured out how best to consume it? Last year it was destroyed by hail, but it looks like we will have another chance to learn how to use it this year...I hope.

As the day comes to a close, I can rest easy comforted by the satisfaction of finally being able to get my hands dirty once again in the good earth, knowing we will soon begin to be rewarded for our labors.

Biennials in the Garden

Yesterday turned out to be just about perfect, no rain, no snow, and even a little sun. I was finally able to get the Giant Red celery (an heirloom biennial) we have been saving over from last year out of the root cellar and into the garden where it can go to seed, along with a few red, yellow, and white onions.


The onions were planted in three separate areas hopefully far enough apart to keep the seed from crossing. I also replanted some carrots and consolidated a few Russian kale for seed saving purposes. Speaking of biennials going to seed, I noticed many of last years radicchio pushing up through the ice and even some French sorrel...both will provide me with seed if I manage a little self control and keep them away from the salad bowl.


A row of salsify and scorzenera have managed as well. A most fine day indeed.

The Beginning Of Anything

We ordered seeds early this year. I was afraid if the economy worsened there might be a run on seeds. Actually I bought enough for next year also...just in case. Is anyone else nervous about this?

I narrowed my choices down to three companies, Fedco, Baker Creek Heirloom, and Ed Hume. This was done from past experience regarding quality, quantity, and price. These three companies normally meet all those standards. Baker Creek and Ed Hume seeds arrived within days of ordering, both came in good packaging and the full order arrived. Fedco seeds arrived on time and were shipped in proper packaging. The package that items are shipped in is very important when you live in Idaho and sometimes find your deliveries buried in the snow. Anyway, I was not at all pleased with Fedco's individual seed packets this year. Some of the seeds had dribbled out of their packets into the bottom of the shipping box and some of the items were back ordered...not pleased at all.

We save more and more of our seeds every year but are still at the mercy of seed companies for some. Most are stored in various plastic and glass containers. I find that salad dressing bottles work well but we do save a large amount of seed. Small containers such as pill and vitamin bottles or even envelopes work good for lesser amounts. Tomato seeds are dried on small screens and then stored in individual envelopes. I don't ferment them as mine seem to last longer if the outer coating is left on the seeds and they dry more naturally.

Saved seed is kept in a cool back room in various containers that I keep in well marked boxes and totes so that they are readily available.

I won't go into details on how to save seed here as this subject can be quite complex or very simple depending upon what seeds are being saved and a variety of other conditions and factors. A good book for this information is "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy. Or you can go to one of the best free online seed saving documents I have come across at http://cityfarmer.org/Neighborgardens.html and click on "Saving Vegetable Seeds In An Urban Garden" for a 32 page document on the subject.

One thing I have noticed is that the longer we save certain seeds the better they seem to adapt to our particular environment. For example, my Black Krim tomatoes have become one of my earliest varieties and also one of the last harvested in the fall. When I received my first black Krim tomato plant many years ago (thanks Dorothy) it was a mid season tomato susceptible to blight in the fall...not anymore.

The biggest and a rather unexpected benefit of letting things go to seed has been all the kale, mustard, strawberry spinach, sunflowers, boc choy and others that come up on their own all over the garden. We have not had to plant red mustard or purslane in years.

Below is a red lettuce who's name has been long forgotten but comes up every year all over the garden, as long we allow for it's full life cycle to be completed.

The end goal is to save all of our own seeds within the next 5 years. It is a lofty goal as our environment is not conducive for seed saving. At this point I am able to save all of my "must have" crops, such as beets, parsnips, beans, peas, carrots (a work in progress),

potatoes, squash, turnips, tomatoes, various winter greens, and so on. Hopefully, I will one day reach self-sufficiency not only in food but also seed.

12/16/2010 update:

We now ferment our tomato seeds as it allows for better germination. Also, we have managed to save seeds off most everything we grow now including carrots. That said, I am still working on a good/better system that will allow us to save a diverse variety of seeds from the same plant familys using a 5 year seed saving rotation...more on this later.

Tomato To Tomato

I am down to my last three "fresh" Burpee Long Keeper tomatoes. The last couple of years I have been working on getting my tomatoes to last longer in storage. Saving the seeds of this particular tomato has helped it adapt to our climate and conditions, last year this tomato kept until my first new ripe ones appeared at the end of June. I sat down and ate it with the first ripe one, it was a triumphant moment as I had been working towards this for years.

Unfortunately most of this year's crop ended up as sauce or frozen whole due to much smaller production. We shoot for about 1500 medium to full size tomatoes off of about 45 - 50 plants, and that easily puts us in fresh, frozen, dried and sauce tomatoes for the year, the total for this year was around 600.

When hail and wind storms devastated our gardens in July it was too late to replant tomatoes as we did with many other crops. So We had to cut them back and let them regrow, most of the indeterminate ones survived but only put out half as many tomatoes as normal. Many of our determinate plants died.

Determinate tomatoes, or "bush" tomatoes, stop growing when fruit sets on the top bud. Most of their crop ripens near the same time. Indeterminate tomatoes are vining and will grow and keep producing until the first frost does them in. They will set fruit throughout the growing season, and are our favorite type of tomato plants.

Burpee Long Keeper is a semi-determinate plant. They are of small to medium size thick skinned and orange-red color when ripe. Definitely not the most tasty or beautiful tomato but if you want to have a great keeper this one gets an A+ from me.

If someone else has a good keeper, please do tell?