Marieke De Jong

More pics

Some of this year's successful growers; some very nice ones came out of last year's seeds.
Due to the dry weather not all of them were successful at making flowers, maybe next year!

Haven't yet collected seeds ( thanks for the reminder Steve). With a bit of luck they'll still be mostly there & viable. I'll report back once I'm sure I have some to share!

Hi everyone,

Interesting question Nancy, and I never seem to manage enough or fully functional pea sticks no matter how I vow to do it!
Anyway, I just happened to come across a Dutch website on rare seeds and they listed a pea that's been saved by one if their farmer - seed growers and they described their technique of growing the peas together with wheat (or some grain, but I think they said wheat). I'll try this one of these years once I get grain going in my garden. I can see it work even if you wanted some fresh peas, as long as you leave space you can just walk along the rows and pick some.

YES! Brilliant initiative!

Fresh seeds are so much stronger, it's incredible. Even direct sown tomatoes and chillies came up this spring. Accidental discovery by using old potting soil as a bit of mulch on a new bed 😂 but definitely worth trying intentionally.

This year has been very dry where we are, and I'm hopeful the leek mix has successfully set seed. Roots don't really like our garden much, but results seem to be improving.

Hope to have some good things to send you 🌾

Hello,

On the hunt  for Dutch red cabbage:

There's a mid 1800 heirloom that's still for sale that's Red drumhead. Which from the description is a larger keeping type, so that might work for you.
This seems to be the one that is currently available for sale in Ireland as well, so it may be developed from what you refer to as large Dutch.

The other possibility for you is Langedijker Bewaar, translates roughly to Keeper from Langedijk. Still available in the Netherlands.

If you've seen them in Australia/NZ, it might be worthwhile to find out if they are the same or related to any of the above. And if the NZ/Australia ones are the exact ones you want, you might be better off trying to get some seeds from there.

Let me know of you'd like one of the two named ones above and I'll see about getting some.

Marieke

Hello Blake,

Can you tell me more about the Dutch cabbages you are looking for?
We've got quite few red cabbages in the Netherlands. They are often named after the area they are grown and so there are several. Would any of those do?

The giant flat Dutch doesn't ring an immediate bell as to it's equivalent in the Netherlands, so it's probably lost its name along the road and been renamed "Dutch" in either UK or America. Any details you can give me and I'll keep a lookout for you.

Nice idea, a settlers veg garden

Edit: looks like marysheirloomseeds is the US has a flat dutch cabbage.

https://www.marysheirloomseeds.com/collections/heirloom-cabbage/products/late-flat-dutch-cabbage

Marieke

https://www.growildnursery.co.uk/. Just emailed a newsletter to say their seedlist is mostly full again with fresh seeds.
Not sure if they are already on Steve's list, but it seemed worth a mention since they have special seeds and limited stocks.

M.

What a list Steve, thank you!

These are maybe not technically companies, but you can get some interesting seed from them (and send some back when you save seeds!)

https://seedsaving.network/

A work in progress, at least the website. When they're open in the spring it works fine. I've saved some seed for them this year.

https://www.incredibleseedlibrary.com/

I've not used this one myself, I only discovered them when the season was in full swing and they were sold out of most of the things that would interest me.

That's disappointing! Sorry Nancy, I thought I was bringing good news 😏

We have a clump of those in the garden, I didn't know they were edible! Thanks Steve

I'm happy to send you some of the dahlia seeds if you like? So far I've harvested from the three earliest plants.

Send your address in a Moosage if you want some and I'll pop them in the post.