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Our ‘Struttgarter’ onions have an incredible shelf life! Not only are they deeply golden, with a tremendous flavor and oniony bite- they’re one of the longest keepers we’ve tried. Treat them right and you’ll have onions from harvest until April!Many onion varieties store quite well given the right conditions. Optimal onion storage can be achieved with just a few simple considerations.1. Preharvest dry down- Planning for onion storage begins at the end of the previous summer. Cut-off watering as soon as the outer four leaves begin to dry down after the onion has completed bulbing. Drying down starts at the...

Paper seed catalogs and seed packets are necessarily brief in their descriptions of crop varieties. I appreciate these descriptions when I need something quick and dirty, and there is a poetry to succinctly conveying the most important things about a variety in a short space. I'm surprised, though, that even with the advent of web-based seed catalogs and theoretically unlimited space, seed growers still don't provide more than a few sentences of description on the growing and eating particularities of varieties they sell. There could be a lot of reasons for this, a main one being that they simply don't...

Drying corn for storage If you live in a dry climate like mine, corn can be air-dried for use as popcorn, flour corn, or seed. Allow the corn to dry down on the stock for as long as possible. I usually harvest mine before the first fall rain. The corn itself can be dried on the ear, but the husk can hold and attract moisture so much be removed before drying or risk the corn molding. Place on a wire or slatted table in a ventilated, preferably sunny area with enough space between the ears to allow about airflow. Check...

Two New Turkish VarietiesThis past season we were so excited to team up with Two Seeds in a Pod to grow two exciting Turkish cucurbits:Badem MelonKilis CucumberTwo Seeds in a Pod is a unique seed company specializing in both Turkish/Anatolian and Appalachain seed varieties. Many of the Turkish varieties they grow, including these two,were commercially introduced to the U.S. by them!  'Badem' melon is a stuffing/pickling melon from Turkey, and we just loved it growing it! It's not a sweet melon, but has a lovely, fresh cucumber taste.  It's very juicy and produces early in the season.  When pickling, pick them young.  When...

We love growing dry peas!  Dry peas are such a great staple food for the winter months, they're relatively easy to grow and clean, and many varieties- such a 'Wild Pea of Umbria' - don't require much in the way of fertilizer.  Eat them split or whole, cooked in soups or stews.   One of the few difficulties with growing a successful dry pea crop is pea weevils.  Adult pea weevils feed on pollen in the pea flowers. They mate and lay their eggs on the developing pea pod.  Larva emerge from the eggs and bore into the pod and feed on the...