8th Annual Seed Catalogue Review

I'm finding this year a big temptation on the seed ordering front! We are supposed to be cutting back and consolidating but I see sooo many new things I want to try. Mr Fredzy and I are just going to have to fight it out!

There are more seed companies listed here than ever before. I don't know that any of them are just hatched; it's more I managed to miss them before.

I'm not really seeing any distinctive new trends emerging, but the directions of the last few years continue. If anything, I am noticing a lot of herbs this year but I'm not sure if that's a trend or if I am just noticing them. My attention certainly does bounce around.

As ever, don't forget to check Seeds of Diversity's  Seed Catalogue Index if you are looking for something specific (and, in fact, if you are just browsing too).


A'Bunadh Seeds: Situated an hour from Edmonton, they supply seeds for short (zone 2a) Alberta seasons; 90 to 110 days. Some items listed as new include Kabouli Black garbanzos, O'Dricoll's pole bean, Leanne's Pioneer Pickling cucumber, Prince onion, Lower Salmon River squash, Ampus Polish pepper, and Fuer Kugel beets. They have a lot of peas (not surprising) and a lot of corn which is more surprising. They also have a very large selection of garlic, as well as some rhubarb, comfrey and asparagus roots.

AgroHaitai: The only Canadian source I know of for mostly Asian vegetables; they have a good reputation but most of their offerings are F1 hybrids. Still, some very interesting things there. I cannot tell if their site is updated for 2018 or not, so I will just mention some of the things that look interesting to me - mostly not hybrids.

Look for Bao Tah nappa cabbage, Late Green choy sum, Small Gai Choi mustard (35 days to maturity!), Ho Tau Bok (choy), Petch Siam eggplant, Chuan pole green bean, Oregon Sugar Pod II snow pea - recommended for dau miu but treated seed, Noodle King yardlong beans, Peking Strain kohlrabi, White Ball radish, and Leisure slow-bolting coriander.

Annapolis Seeds: This is their 10th year in business, and they now list over 500 varieties. New things for this year include what Owen is calling Inca Berry (I have written about it as Golden Berry), Zapotec Pink Ribbed tomato, Fortna White Pumpkins (so cute!), Fort Portal Jade bean, Lebanese Za'atar (which term gets used for a few different herbs; here it is a form of summer savory), Bear Necessities kale (a Tim Peters variety), Sapporo Express and Juno peas, and Dragon's Claw millet.

Burt's Greenhouses: Mostly a nursery with ornamentals, Burt's also sells a good range of sweet potato slips at reasonable prices. We got our Toka Toka Gold, Owairaka, and Purple sweet potatoes from them. They have Beauregard, a classic orange fleshed sweet potato that does well in Ontario. They also have Cuban, Covington, Georgia Jet, and Tainung 65.

The Cottage Gardener: They have a note up that they are experiencing technical difficulties with their 2018 catalogue, but the 2017 catalogue is still up and things won't change too much, I expect. I'll update this post once the 2018 listings are up.

Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes: Potatoes don't tend to come and go like seeds, but I note Bellanita fingerling as one I have not seen previously. Also new; Alta Blush early. I don't know if they are new but I note Citadel and Roko as sounding interesting. I think I will need to order some German Butterball as we seem to have eaten most of ours. If you are interested in potato breeding, Rebsie Fairholm suggests Pink Fir Apple as a mother. And as ever, if you can't decide, they have some really good mixed packages.

Edible Antiques: Grown in Prince Edward county. New this year, Acoma Light melons should be drought tolerant. Drew's Dandy beans look really charming. Iroquois Cornbread beans would be great to grow with some Iroquois corn. If you want black turtle beans, Mandan Black are probably a good choice for the north. Ordono peppers are drought tolerant, amazingly purple, and hot. If you want your purple peppers sweet, try Violet Sparkle. I've kind of skipped over the tomatoes, but there are lots.

Greta's Organic Gardens: Greta doesn't indicate what's new, so a selection of things that catch my attention out of her very large list of offerings: Baklout Tunisian and Korean Kim Chi hot peppers, Long White bitter melon, Bourguignonne and Red Butter Romaine lettuces, British Wonder, Karina and San Cristoforo peas, Carminat pole beans, Green Luobo radish, H-19 Little Leaf cucumber (excellent and hard to find!), Iko Iko sweet pepper, Jagallo Nero and Portuguese Tronchuda kales, Scarlet Ohno Revivial turnips, and Yellow purslane. Lots more; a good selection of tomatoes in particular.

Harmonic Herbs: Not updated for 2018 as I post this. They specialize in medicinal herbs but have a good selection of short season vegetables including their own earliest Norwesterlee tomato, Pink Beauty radish, Canoncito pepper, Margaret's Sugar Snap pea, Perfection fennel, and Gaucho beans (a Carol Deppe variety). They have sea-buckthorn seeds, and Mexican Tarragon (I know it as Anisón and it's actually a kind of marigold).

Hawthorn Farm: Also not updated for 2018. Since this is, so far as I am concerned, a key source of seeds for southern Ontario, I will update once their new listings are up.

Heritage Harvest Seed: One of Canada's best heirloom seed companies, located in Manitoba. I have found a number of our favourite varieties here, including Gnadenfeld melon, January King cabbage, and a lot of our favourite peas. New this year is American Wonder pea (sounds like a must-try for us). Black Canterbury bush bean, Chickpea of Spello, Green Delicious and Sibley squashes, Le Puy green lentils; all sound really interesting. I also see Provenzano tomato - an Italian heirloom grown for many years in northern British Columbia, so already well adapted to Canadian conditions.

Hope Seeds: This Nova Scotian company specializes in east-coast heirlooms. New this year they have Iannetti Slicer beans, Filderkraut (whoa, pointy!) and Perfection Savoy cabbages, Kincho green onions, Amish Butter popcorn, Dorata di Parma yellow onions, Kalocsai Paprika pepper, and strawberry crown pumpkins. I have my eye on that paprika in particular!

Ferme Tournesol: A fascinating list from a fascinating place! New this year includes Duborskian hardy RICE! Their new tomatoes are already kind of picked over, but there are some interesting lettuces - Sucrine, Red Butter Romaine, Pirat, Crispino Iceberg, and Reine des Glaces. There's also Ancienne d'Acadie savory, and Stella Blue squash. Furthermore, there are seeds for plants of Ferme Tournesol's own breeding: Rainbow Tatsoi, Big Fat Jalapeño, Carrot Bomb pepper, and Kale and Mustard mixes. In addition to a good general selection of vegetables, they have quite a few cover crops.

Jardins de l'Écoumène: Site is in French and a little awkward to manoeuvre, but new offerings (nouveautés) include Pasquier lettuce, Barry's Crazy cherry tomato, Curly cress (alénois frisé), Shimonita Negi green onions, Oseille perpetual spinach (actually a sorrel I would say), and Tom Thumb popcorn - a selection from Elwyn Meader. Sounds like good stuff!

Mapple Farm: Very little changes here from year to year, although I see they have Butterbush and Potimarron squashes new this year. They have good selection of Sweet Potato slips, as well as Ken Allen's sweet potato book - a must-have for the Canadian sweet potato grower. Crosnes, gobo, scorzonera, and Turkish Rocket are things you are not too likely to find elsewhere. They have small but finely curated collections of tomatoes, squash, soybeans, and melons

Matchbox Garden Seed Co: have apparently been around for a decade; making this list for the first time. Another Ontario company growing most of their own seed! Selection is not huge, and leans more to well-known standards than the rare and exotic. I don't see items marked as new, but a few of their more unusual listings include Tadorna (Lyon) leek, Cracoviensis lettuce, Nebuka scallions, Capriglio Red peppers, Lemon summer squash (very cute!), and Rumii Banjaan tomato.

Naramata Seed Company: A note at the site indicated they will be updated by the end of January, but that most varieties will be returning. So, existing listings that strike me as interesting - Long Winter leek and Piata di Bergamo onion, Baladi romaine, Gulley's Favourite, and May Queen lettuce. That last one is hard to find, but I grow it and recommend it highly. Greek Sweet Red and Silver Bell squash are appealing, and Gill's Golden Pippin is recommended. There's a good selection of peppers and tomatoes, including popular items as well as some quite unusual ones.

Norton Naturals: Not a seed company; they sell a selection of roots, mostly native but also crosnes, edible daylilies, and double Tiger lilies. Native plants include: Arrowhead, Camas (Quamash), Groundnuts, Hog Peanuts, 3 different Jerusalem artichokes, Spring Beauty, Meadow Garlic, and Ramps (Wild Leeks). In my experience, if you do not have the necessary fungus in the soil those last will not grow. Worth trying if you have a typical Ontario woodlot though. They sell Prairie Turnip as seeds - this is actually a tap-rooted legume, and it looks like it would also make an excellent ornamental. It's currently out of stock, unfortunately. They ship twice a year - next up in April.

OSC (Ontario Seed Company): They continue to be a very good source for open-pollinated classics at very reasonable prices but most of their new offerings lean towards F1 hybrids. I'm noting that in particular most of their corn is treated, as far as I can tell with the notorious bee-killing neonicotinoids, so DO NOT GROW. (If you are a large enough grower you can request untreated seed.) Also they do not always identify F1 hybrids so do some research before you order.

Potager Ornemental de Catherine: Site is in French. New offerings include Sanjaku Kiuru cucumbers, Willow Leaf White lima bean, Moonlight "Spanish" (Runner) bean, quite a few climbing beans, the very early Edouard tomato, and the gently nippy Sucette de Provence pepper. The selection in general is not the largest out there, but well-considered with some interesting looking things. I'd have a go at Misato Rose radishes, Sucrine du Berry squash, Iona peas, and d'Espelette pepper.

Prairie Garden Seeds: Just before posting time I received notice that the site is updated for 2018, with 30 new items and some returning ones as well. As they note, they don't tend to change their listings much from year to year, and the new offerings aren't labelled as such. However, they are the go-to source for many Canadian heirloom vegetables, and are particularly strong in tomatoes and beans, but also in grains - if you want small amounts of many historic Canadian wheats, or indeed all kinds of grains from all over the world, check here. If you want open-pollinated, untreated corn this is probably the place. Prices are very reasonable and amounts generous, but you cannot order online - you must send them an order form and a cheque. It's been well worth the trouble in my experience.

Richter's Herbs: When it comes to herbs if they don't have it, good luck finding it. (Not impossible, necessarily. But good luck.) They have more basils than I have seen anywhere, and you could even grow bay (leaves) from seed. In a pot indoors in the winter, alas; but still. They also have a reasonable selection of vegetables, including quite a lot of peppers from the sublime (Ancho Poblano) to the ridiculous (the very vulgar Peter pepper). Patient growers can try Prickly Pear cactus. I have ordered some Agretti (Barba di Frate) and Okahijiki to try this year. I was also finally able to get some French shallots last fall, so I will be checking them with interest this summer. They list 2 za'atars, but theirs are forms of oregano. Black Nebula carrots are very eye-catching.

Salt Spring Seeds: These guys are now one of the older of the newer Canadian seed houses and yes, that totally makes sense. Also, a lot of things that pop up at other seed houses started out here. This year I'm seeing Calvert, Galina, Gold Harvest, and Osayo Endo peas. Black Beluga lentils, Winnifred's garbanzos, Pisterzo pole beans, Nine-Star Perennial broccoli, Candystick Delicata and Gill's Golden Pippin squash, Yellow Capriglio peppers, Candy Mountain sweet corn and Cascade-Ruby Gold flint corn, from breeder Carol Deppe - not all of those are new; some of them just catch my interest.

Semences du Portage: Site is in French. Nouveautés for this year include Goodman cauliflower, Maxibel beans, Black Kabouli chick peas, Lancer parsnip, Pink Thai poppy, Lemon catnip, and Green Zebra tomato. There are some excellent older listings too: look for Savignac and Noire du Portage tomatoes bred in Quebec, Raxe radish, Palla Rossa radicchio, Scarlet Ohno Revival turnips, Oka melons, Fisher's Earliest corn, Jericho romaine lettuce, Tante Alice cucumber and Dragon carrots and more. Strong in herbs.

la Société des Plantes: Site is in French. Herbs, native plants, ornamentals and vegetables presented higglety-pigglety (though you can sort them), but some surprising things can be sifted out. Eye-catching to me are Watanabe Early gobo (bardane japonaise), Jaune Ovoïde Des Barres (Yellow Intermediate) beet, Redventure celery, de Crosno rutabaga, Gaspé flint corn, Noir Long de Pardailhan turnip, Val-aux-Vents leek, Charlevoix soup pea, Raiponce (Rapunzel to you), and Fiori Blu salsify. In the fall look for Échalotte de Ste-Anne and Egyptian Walking onions.

Solana Seeds:  This little Quebec seed house is strong on peppers and tomatoes, and with the exception of Purple Epazote, all the new offerings are one or the other. There is Bulgarian Carrot pepper, Chimayo pepper, and Orange Sweet Hungarian Cheese pepper. New tomatoes include Beauty Queen, Federle, Galina, Old German, Nyagous, Blue Pear, and Green Pear. Seed packets tend to be on the small side but prices are commensurately low. 

Stellar Seeds:  Out of business as of this year.

Sunshine Farm: Located in Kelowna, BC. Not updated for 2018 at time of posting. I see a good selection of fairly standard items, although they have quite a few herbs and greens, including Red-Veined sorrel. I haven't seed Petrowski turnips anywhere else. They have Hilds Blauer radish, Golden Egg eggplant, Sette Lune Romaine lettuce, and Kiss of Satan peppers! Quite a few tomatoes.

Tatiana's TOMATObase: As ever with Tatiana's, I'm not going to mention any varieties here because where even to start? But if you are looking for unusual tomatoes this is a GOOD place to check. Tatiana has added 82 new tomato varieties to the list this year, total available now being 1273. She seems to have fewer of other things, although there are 37 lettuces, 15 melons, 22 squash, and I think 45 peppers. Still the only Canadian source of Grover Delaney watermelon.

Tatiana has moved to a larger and more rural farm this year and warns that shipping will be a bit slower as she will not get to the post more than once a week.

Terra Edibles: Celebrating 25 years in business this year, they were the first of the new wave of small seed houses we ordered from back when we still had an allotment garden. They are very solid on beans and tomatoes, but it looks like their selection has expanded a bit. The only things they mention as new are Jade and Ugandan Bantu beans, but I'm sure there's more. Things I haven't noticed before include Anna Aasa red cherry, Tappy's Heritage, and Southern Night, all tomatoes. In beans, Helda Romano, Monte Gusto wax, and Sequoia. Yellow Carrot Shaped radishes are intriguing, as is Wachichu Flint corn. They have many of our tried and true varieties, including the hard-to-find Spanish Skyscraper pea. Also the hard-to-find legume inoculant, available for a fairly short season in the spring, so check.

Terre Promise: Site is in French. Last year, to my great excitement, they listed Rose de Roscoff onions. They sold out rapidly, and are still listed as out of stock, but they are at least still listed - I will be watching! While you wait, check out (wild) garlic from la maison des Jésuites de Sillery, available as bulbils. Also I am INTRIGUED by Sea Parsley, also known as Scottish Lovage (although it isn't lovage). Salt and shade tolerant! How about the Laliberté Pea bean, skirrets (chervis in French), chufa, Green Finger Lebanese cucumbers, and Canadien Blanc corn.  Cressonnette Marocaine is, in fact, an Italian lettuce. There are other more mundane things, but this is a place worth taking a look.

Urban Harvest: I'm seeing things that weren't there last year, so I assume updated for 2018. How about Fiariello frying peppers, Jimi's Purple Haze poppy, Tom Thumb lettuce, Scarlet kale, and Sunrise Bumblebee cherry tomato? In general, a good and comprehensive listing of vegetables.

Urban Tomato: Has a small selection of other seeds, but is mostly about the tomatoes. Newness is not indicated, but interesting ones (names, at least) include German Red Strawberry, Golden Delight, Moonglow, Sweet Angora and Striped Cavern.

Wild Rose Heritage Seed Company: New this year, they have Green Brooks (I've always known it as Old Brooks) tomato, Rani cilantro, Marconi red peppers, Howden pumpkin, French Breakfast radish and Purple Peacock beans. In general, they have a solid if fairly conservative list of the better-known open pollinated varieties, and if you are just starting gardening you could do worse than to start with most of these.

William Dam Seeds: The same story applies here as last  year. Their new introductions lean so heavily on F1 hybrids that I am hard pressed to find anything of interest. Their few new introductions in open pollinated vegetables (I think - they are not always clear) are Cabot bean, Scarlet Greshen runner beans, Vates kale, Miz America mustard, and Midnight Snacks tomato. THAT'S IT. They still seem to have many of the old open pollinated varieties they used to carry, but the herd definitely seems to be thinning.

Still a good place for other gardening equipment that can be hard to find - trays, netting and row covers, organic fertilizer, etc, and a very large selection of ornamentals. 

Posted in: Ontario Food