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A food from the desert. One of the most arid-adapted crops in the world. Small and somewhat wrinkled, it looks like a food for hard times, but as soon as you cook it you’ll realize that this bean is as plump and filling as any other. To know the tepary is to love the tepary, and I think more people should know about tepary beans! I started growing tepary beans after meeting plant breeder Joseph Lofthouse in northern Utah. Joseph was breeding a landrace of bush tepary beans that would mature extra early in short season climates. Traditional tepary bean varieties differ widely and...

10 Steps to Great Garlic Early fall is the time to plant garlic and shallots!  Some of our garlic varieties sell out fast, so preorder soon!Growing great garlic is a relatively simple, follow these few steps will have you turning out beautiful heads next summer.1.  Plant individual cloves with the root side down 2-3 inches deep and 12" apart September through the end of November, depending on your climate.  Wait until after your first frost, but before the ground freezes.  It's a pretty forgiving time frame compared to other crops, but garlic that has had a little time to get...

Not today, weeds, tilling, or herbicides! Maybe you’ve been here before too- you create the perfect little seed beds for your carrots, lettuce, or corn only to find them germinating alongside a sea of weeds. Turns out the soil was full of weed seeds just waiting for the perfect conditions to burst to life as well. As a seed farm, we always have seeds adding themselves to the soil, both from weeds and from the seed crops we grow. It can be so discouraging to see my teeny tiny seedlings coming up with weeds, knowing that weeding them out before...

We are always looking for hardy perennials we can add to our little home orchard. One way to get free perennials that are adapted to your climate and growing conditions is to take cuttings from thriving perennials already growing near you. Last fall, Tyler began the process of trying to bring some amazing hardy table grapes to our place from a untended grape planting in the landscaping of his office building. Enter: Tyler’s unsuspecting office building- He began the process by marking the vines of the best tasting grapes so he would know which ones to take cuttings from in...

Gardeners and farmers are an adaptable lot. We adapt to changing weather, insect populations, soil health and fertility, markets and more. To a certain extent this is an expected part of growing food. But the difficulties that loom over this growing season seem to have the potential for creating a perfect storm that will hit growers and the global food system particularly hard. After an historically dry winter, some gardeners and farmers here in the western United States are dealing with the probability of shortened irrigation seasons, unusual dryness of the soil at the start of the growing season, and...