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Vegetable Seeds

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Roots and Tubers

Carrots

If you're like me, root crops are the mainstay of a home-grown winter diet.  Having good storage conditions are important, but having healthy and tasty crops to store away is key.  Hope Seeds is working on improving our techniques for producing seed for these crops - most of them are biennials and require overwintering for seed set.  

Mmmm...carrots!  Get your seed in the ground as soon as it can be worked, but make sure you keep soil evenly moist for up to 14 days as seedlings start to emerge.  One trick is to mix a little radish seed in while planting the row, as radish pops up in no time both marking the row and breaking through the soil's crust to let those delicate little carrots through later on.    

Moving from the little farm to the big farm in summer 2008 gave me a good appreciation for how soil structure affects carrot growth.  The sandy soil of the Miramichi headwater region of the little farm made it typical to get 8-10" roots that pulled out of the ground as if the worms were pushing them out from the bottom.  My favourite Danvers 126 took on a whole new shape when grown in the rich but heavier soils in the Saint John watershed of Upper Knowlesville.  Take a look at your soil type - the heavier, the harder for those roots to push down, and the thicker/stubbier your carrots will be.  Rocky ground?  More odd-shapes and twisters.  Sandy?  You're off to the races!

Approx.  750 seeds/g.

NEW!  JAUNE DU DOUBS                                                                  
75-80 days.A beautiful, delicately flavoured yellow carrot (skin and core) that brightens any kitchen or market display.  Tall tops, slightly green-tinted shoulders, and pointed root.  Combine this with Atomic Red (1105-CO) and Danvers 126 (1101-CO) for rainbow bunches!  Flavour heightened when cooked.  Heritage variety from the eastern town of Doubs, France near the Swiss border.
Product code: 1107
Price:   A=$2.75 (2g)     B=$5.00 (10g)
DANVERS 126                                                                                                Certified Organic
70 days. Danvers 126 is still my favourite fresh and storage carrot.  Lovely sweet roots grow to about 7" on average, smooth-skinned (so not so many dirt-filled crevices), with blunt ends in sandy soils (pointy ends in heavier soil).  Tops are firm for easy hand-harvesting.  Doesn't get woody as roots mature.
Product code: 1101-CO
Price:   A=$2.75 (2g)     B=$6.00 (10g)
SCARLET NANTES                                                                                   Certified Organic
65 days. A classic among carrot-growers, Scarlet Nantes grows 6-7" roots with blunt ends, almost no core, and with sweet tender taste.  Good keeper.
Product code: 1103-CO
Price:   A=$2.75 (2g)     B=$6.00 (10g)
 CHANTENAY RED CORED                                                                 Certified Organic 
60-75 days. An old variety that came to this continent in late 1800's, although popularized around 1929.  Suitable for growing on heavier soils.  Roots have wide shoulders, deep red-orange colour, and the sweetest flavour of all the chantenay types.
Product code: 1104-CO
Price:   A=$2.75 (2g)     B=$6.00 (10g)
 ATOMIC RED                                                                                                 Certified Organic

SORRY...Sold out by 19-Apr-2010!

75 days. Different coloured carrots seem to be becoming all the rage!  Atomic Red is not only a beautiful deep red colour throughout, but flavour is surprizingly good for a "forgotten OP".  I shared these raw samples with visitors to the Falls Brook Centre Fair last fall and barely had time to sell any garlic for the line-up at the carrot-tasting bin!  Cooking tends to bring out a bit more sweetness, and the colour lasts even when canned.