Testing New Vegetable Varieties

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The author and her gardening crew.
The author and her gardening crew.
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An assortment of the new vegetable varieties that underwent real world garden tests by the author.
An assortment of the new vegetable varieties that underwent real world garden tests by the author.
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McGregor's Favorite Beets are carrots-shaped.
McGregor's Favorite Beets are carrots-shaped.
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Gold Nugget and Sweet Million cherry tomatoes were both tasty and productive.
Gold Nugget and Sweet Million cherry tomatoes were both tasty and productive.
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Viroflay (right) and Sputnik spinach
Viroflay (right) and Sputnik spinach
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Chile-Espanola Improved ripened early and was mildly hot and delicious.
Chile-Espanola Improved ripened early and was mildly hot and delicious.
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Greenpeace kale is a decorative and delicious green
Greenpeace kale is a decorative and delicious green
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Orobelle golden peppers, set off with red chilies, are pretty enough for a centerpiece.
Orobelle golden peppers, set off with red chilies, are pretty enough for a centerpiece.

I love the ritual of ordering seed — it’s probably the most decadent part of my job. First, the citrus crate, crammed to overflowing with catalogues, is hauled next to my favorite chair. Then the fire is stoked, a red pen is found in the desk clutter, and enough food is gathered to last several hours. As I settle in and conform to the well-worn contours of the antique wing chair’s stuffing, the normal restrictions of time, space, and cost seem as far away as next year’s tomatoes.

This past gardening season, though, I had the extra job of testing new vegetable varieties for 1988 (and a few of ’89’s), so things weren’t quite so simple. I had sent letters to just over 100 seed companies, asking what they considered to be their best introductions for the new year. The results were overwhelming — a bushel basket of samples arrived by spring. And they kept coming. Indeed, long after every last inch of the garden had been planted, seeds were still falling out of my mailbox — many with long personal letters attached.

I couldn’t grow them all (who could?). So I tried my best to chose varieties that sounded like they had that quintessential difference. Take beans, for instance. It took more than a description like “Flat green pods, 6 to 7 inches long, good for freezing” to entice me to give up precious garden space. But Dragon’s Langerie, a wax bean that promised the works — high yields, earliness and tender, long pods, all wrapped in a colorful “package” — was irresistible, and thus was included in my trials.

So before you put your feet up and daydream through your own stack of catalogues, you might like to see how some of ’88’s newest performed in my garden — both the pick of the crop and a few of the “pans.” (Most are available from seed companies other than the ones specifically mentioned here.)

Cherry Tomatoes

  • Published on Mar 1, 1989
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