Congratulations to the amazing volunteer team who took a bunch of our seeds and turned them into something beautiful and accessible. All the stewards, contributors, @Lowell_McCampbell and especially @anna who will be packing hundreds of orders and printing labels for the foreseeable future.
There’s a lot of new things. What are you excited about?
I’m excited to see the hullless pumpkins, cold summer sweet corn and that fantastic broccoli grex by Clint Freund.
Anybody who contributed seeds or made the mix, packed envelopes, or read something cool, tell us something special about those mixes.
I’m excited to receive my packets! Mostly beans and squash. They are always my favorites. I’m also looking forward to see what the Canadian GTS will have!
Happy to become a steward this year! As a bit of warm weather sweeps over the central Blue Ridge, my body is already waking up to the feelings of the approaching spring. Looking forward to transforming my chest full of seeds into a landscape full of delicious vegetables! Yum.
Gratitude for the plants that live alongside us, and for the people who love them
Yes, I’m excited to get my seed packets! Its time to start some seeds for my central texas area, and others will be saved for later. OOOO, its gonna be fun!
My only regret was I didn’t have a big enough envelope to send in more seed than I had, I really stuffed it haha. This fall I’ll definitely be getting some boxes together, but I’m glad to know some of the seed I grew will be planted all over.
I contributed some shorter season cowpeas that were grown in pretty tough conditions so if anyone lives in a shorter growing season area, something in the mix will grow and mature in time (probably - Michigan is pretty far north). It’s a mix of heirloom varieties that I grew mixed up together in the rows. I really like growing cowpeas with corn. I grew the GTS Cowpea mix this last year but didn’t get much because the deer ate down some of them and others just didn’t mature in time. I’ll plant what did survive and bear seeds and contribute them next time around.
Very excited about the hulless pepo squash to add to our mix from 2 varieties we already have going. I’m also interested in the idea of combining the hulless trait with a tastier flesh. Thinking about planting them with Winter Luxury pie pumpkins and seeing what happens.
Also excited about our big barley experiment for 2025, we’ve tracked down some amazing diversity of hulless barley and I’m excited to include the GTS genetics. We’ve come to feel that many grains are not worthwhile in our context, but I’m excited about the potential for small-scale barley.
We’re also beginning a grant-supported trial of melons in our cool and damp climate. Excited to combine the GTS seeds with some other local favorites as well as a big collection of seeds from the multi-year Oregon State dry-farmed melon trial. I feel there might be something special from this project, since quite a lot of effort went into evaluating the seeds from the OSU program.
It’ll be my first time dipping my toes into diverse tomato genetics, so that’s fun! First time growing potato onions as well!
Got my seeds in the mail a few days ago. The corn! Wow, this year’s grain corn mix has some mesmerizingly beautiful kernels. The beans are also so pretty. I’m excited to turn this handful of seeds into many handfuls of seeds
I found some of my fall garlic plantings coming up in the warm weather window we’ve had recently here in the Virginia blue ridge. Today, nearly a foot of powdery snow and still coming. I mulched the beds just yesterday, so I hope the little sprouts are happy.
