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The seed catalogs are arriving!

Our annual seed selection meeting is scheduled for Saturday, January 11 from 10am to 1pm. The meeting will be held virtually. Please contact us to get info to join the meeting.

Everyone interested in the crops and varieties we will grow at Robbins Farm Garden this season is welcome. Prospective new members of the garden group are especially encouraged to attend and join in the discussion. This is the start of our great expectations for the upcoming gardening season!

We’re excited to be collecting seed from the garden in earnest this year. There was a steep learning curve, beginning with understanding the factors making some plants we grow unsuitable for seed saving, followed by learning the techniques to employ on the suitable plants.

For the 22 crops/varieties we selected, our seed saving progress will be tracked on the table below. We’ll continue to add information as it becomes available. Seed viability will be tested before our seed ordering in 2025. Wish us luck!

Crop	Variety	Collected	Quantity	Comments	Viability
Arugula	standard organic	Sep-Oct	>500	Seed matures slowly, delicate to process.	100%
Bachelor’s Buttons	Black Magic	October	@50	Dried seed from mature flower heads.	did not test
Beans, Fava	Vroma	July	40-50	Left to mature on plant, easy to collect.	100%
Beans, Lima	Christmas Pole	Aug-Oct	~	Decided not to save this variety.	~
Beans, Runner	Black Coat	Aug-Oct	20	Process same as dried beans.	100%
Beans, Soy	Tankuro	August	~	Critters got to seed first. Pull early or cage to protect?	~
Calendula	Orange Flash	October	@50	Dried seed from mature flower heads.	did not test
Cilantro	Caribe	Aug-Sep	>100	Seed matures slowly, plants are fragile.	70%
Corn	Early Pink popcorn	September	100	Harvest same for saving as for popping.	100%
Ground Cherries	Aunt Molly’s	September	@100	Processed with water.	100%
Malabar Spinach	(Burpee)	September	30-40	Trying simple drying (no fermentation).	50%
Marigolds	Red Gem	Sep-Oct	@250	Dried seed from mature flower heads.	40%
Nasturtiums	Orchid Flame	October	@100	Dried capers.	did not test
Okra	Jing Orange	October	150	Left to mature on plant; takes months.	90%
Sesame	Black & Tan	September	60-70	Harvest same for saving as for eating.	100%
Stock	Stox Champagne	~	~	Decided not to save this variety.	~
Sunflowers	Mammoth Grey Stripe	September	~	Critters got to seed first. Cut a section early for drying?	~
Tomato	4th of July	September	>100	Processed through fermentation.	80%
Tomato	Black Cherry	September	50-60	Processed through fermentation.	80%
Tomato	Green Zebra	September	50-60	Processed through fermentation.	70%
Tomato	Plum Regal	September	40-50	Processed through fermentation.	80%
Watermelon	Sugar Baby	August	60-70	Easy to collect seed when eating.	90%

One of the goals of the garden is to move toward self-sufficiency. We’ve learned to keep over our garlic and sweet potatoes, and are taking steps toward seed saving. Yet, a significant hurdle has been our standard potatoes. Because we only grow a spring crop and don’t have the luxury of giving them time to fully mature in the soil, keeping our own potatoes over isn’t an option. However, there may be a work around.

We are fortunate to have some great organic farms nearby, LexFarm in Lexington and Hutchins Farm in Concord. Last October, we purchased a 50-pound bag of Peter Wilcox potatoes for $50 from Hutchins to divide amongst the gardeners. As an experiment, we set aside 4 of them in our refrigerator. They started out in simply a brown paper bag, but when they began drying out, we added a plastic bag inside.

When our seed potatoes arrived from our usual Fedco order in mid-April, I was surprised to find that our refrigerated potatoes looked better. And the Fedco potatoes arrived just the day before we needed to plant, giving us no chance to green sprout them beforehand.

We planted the Fedco potatoes in the garden as usual; the Hutchins potatoes went in a Rubbermaid tub beside our driveway. (So not exactly an equal situation.) Nevertheless, the yield ratio (harvested/planted) was a respectable 4.5 for the kept over Peter Wilcox potatoes from Hutchins. The Fedco varieties yielded 6.8 for Adirondack Blue, 3.8 for Yukon Gem, and 3.4 for Purple Viking.

Then there’s the cost comparison. For the 50-pound bag from Hutchins, the cost would have been $2 for the 2lb we need for each variety. (Their farm stand price was $3/lb or $6 for the 2lb needed.) The organic varieties from Fedco were $11.50 plus 1/3 of the $23 shipping charge or $19 for the 2lb needed for each variety.

The only potentially-irreplaceable potato variety we grow is Adirondak Blue. (They’re a real favorite of the group, and highly productive.) If we’re able to source them locally, we should be able to substitute for the other two varieties we grow now. Then we can untether from ordering seed potatoes online.