Thursday 11 February 2016

Seed Order: Heritage Harvest Seed


I'm quite excited about the seed order I received a week or two ago from Heritage Harvest Seed.  It is my first year ordering from this company, based in Carman Manitoba, that describes itself as "specializing in rare and endangered heirloom varieties of vegetables, flowers and herbs".  They have no GMOs, no hybrids and all seeds are untreated.

I found this seed company as a result of a specific search I was making ... "seeds cheese pumpkin canada".  And it was the first listing!  The search reference to Canada was, as mentioned in a previous post, because buying from the U.S. is pricey with the low Canadian dollar plus I also like to buy from climates that are more likely to be like mine.

I was looking for "cheese pumpkin" because I had read that C. moschata types were better at resisting the damage from bugs.  I also read that they are more tolerant of the type of weather I get here in the summer (hot and usually quite humid).  So that is exactly what I ordered, a cheese pumpkin.


The Long Island Cheese Pumpkin gets its shape because it's shaped like a wheel of cheese (round but flattened).  I also bought seeds for the Japanese Pie pumpkin.  This is a cushaw style (also C. moschata).  The Japanese Pie dates back to 1884 (according to their pamphlet) and, not surprisingly, originated in Japan then introduced in this part of the world in Pennsylvania.

And while flipping through the catalogue, I saw these!


What a great selection of beans!  I had quite a time picking just four types, although I was able to reduce my selection by focusing on bush types as my preferred plant type to grow.  The photo is a bit dark so here are the ones that I ordered with more details from the pamphlet:

Canadian Wild Goose: Small seed, white with grayish green speckles.  Great for baking or soup.

Jacob's Cattle: Another bean good for baking, white with purple splashes and dots.

Thibodeau De Comte Beauce: I've never been to Beauce County but I thought it would be fun to grow a bean from my neighbouring province of Quebec.  This is a snap pea with straight green pods splashed with purple.

Vermont Cranberry: These date to pre-1800's from New Englad area.  These can be grown as either a dry bean or shell bean, with seeds that are small and pink, with darker red stripes. 

And then there were these ...


I bought the King of the North pepper seeds after growing them for the first time last year.  I did not have spectacular results but they were worth another try.  Those plants had been purchased at a plant sale so this year I'll start my own from seed.

And the Feher Ozon Pepper ... described as "one of the best paprika peppers available, originally from Hungary".  Dave at Our Happy Acres makes his own homemade paprika and both Michelle and SFG Dave also grow paprika type peppers.  I thought it would be fun to make some paprika spice myself if they grow well enough.

And I always love a freebie ... they threw in some seeds for Summer Savoury which I don't happen to have on the go.

I don't plan to go through all of my seed order in this much detail as most of it is "the usual".  But I'll likely outline at least one more of my seed orders as I have a few new things I'm trying out this year.

Despite the okay winter we've been having, I am still very much looking forward to spring weather!

6 comments:

  1. Wonderful selections! I went on a bit of a dried bean buying spree too. I ordered them from Cottage Gardener, my "extra" company this year (if you recall I have my "go to" companies and then I choose one "extra" each year). Since beans are normally good for a few years, in terms of germination, I took the opportunity to pick up a few more than I was planning on growing this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey...I was just going over the seeds I received from Cottage Gardener and realized that I ordered Feher Ozon too! It will be fun to compare notes as the season progresses.

      Delete
    2. Oh that's perfect! That will be great to see what methods work best ...

      Delete
  2. Gee, I didn't put a paprika pepper on my planting list. I still have seeds for the Hungarian Paprika I grew and will have to add it to my list. I bought some Autumn Crown (a small version of Long Island) pumpkins from a local farmer and they were good roasted whole and sliced into wedges for serving. I think you will like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great, I'm looking forward to trying the pumpkin (assuming I'm successful at growing at least one!).

      Delete
  3. Looks like Heritage Harvest has some interesting varieties! Last year was my first year growing Feher Ozon and it made some tasty paprika. The plants are quite compact, and I'm going to try one in a container this year as well as one (or two) in the ground.

    ReplyDelete