The Pick of the Crop
Farmer reviews the best new vegetable varieties for 1988, including lettuce, spinach and other greens, radishes, onions and potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots and parsnips, cole crops, corn.
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There's nothing Brent likes better,than a good mess of greens, unless it's the rich flavor of a golden Kushaw squash.
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Brent Elswick on
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A roundup of the best new vegetable varieties for '88
There are literally hundreds of new vegetable varieties on
the market this season, and—to save you both time and
potential disappointment—I've already tested many of
them in my garden. Here are some of my winners for 1988.
Addresses for the seed companies I mention can be found on
page 126.
Lettuce
Though 1987's weather wasn't as bad as that of '86, an
unusual 18-inch April snowfall here in the Appalachian
Mountains, followed by several rainless weeks, didn't
exactly provide optimum growing conditions for early,
cool-weather crops. Even so, some of my trials thrived. For
example, Lollo Biondo from Le Marche Seeds proved to be a
sensational new looseleaf lettuce. Maturing in around 55
days, it's akin to last year's highly recommended Lollo
Rosso, and its bright, frilly, yellow-green leaves, tinged
with red, are as prettyto look at as they are tender and
tasty.
Biondo a Foglie Lisce (don't try to pronounce it, just grow
it) is another wonderful leaf lettuce, from The Cook's
Garden. Its smooth, pale green leaves can be picked as
early as a month after seeding.
This year, Shepherd's Garden Seeds has one of the best
Batavian-type lettuces—so esteemed by the
French—that I've ever grown. Called Antina, its
pretty, medium-green leaves edged with red are juicy yet
crunchy. Left to grow to maturity, they form crisp
rosettes; immature leaves can serve as a most acceptable
loose-leaf lettuce. Antina stands up well to warm weather.
There are three fine new butterhead types on the market.
Cobham Green, introduced by Bountiful Gardens, matures in
65 days and stands up to heat well. Musette, a similar
variety from Garden Import, matures at the same time and
has large, medium-green hearts that remain in good eating
condition longer than those of most lettuces on the market.
Musette is also resistant to lettuce virus. Fisher's Garden
Store specializes in early maturing and midget types, and I
especially like its Green Mignonette; the small heads are
extremely crisp and tender.
The most unusual crisphead lettuce I've found is The Cook's
Garden's superb La Brillante, which combines the shiny leaf
of a crisphead with the unmatched tenderness of a fine
butterhead. And though Stokes' South Bay is fairly late to
mature, the taste of its deeply cut, dark green foliage is
worth the wait. It can also claim the best disease
resistance of any crisphead I've grown.
Spinach and Other Greens
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