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| Good morning :) I am interested in heirloom veggie seeds. This will be my first year growing a garden and I am strongly against using hybrid seeds. I would like to start gardening seriously as my daughter is three and gardening would make a wonderful activity for both us to do together. This is something I would like to pass along to her, but I'm still taking baby steps at this point when it comes to gardening.
Any info would be helpful. Thanks :) |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by SubruralGirl (My Page) on Sun, Mar 4, 12 at 12:12
| Hi SISwope, If you post to the newbie thread to be adopted, I would be happy to adopt you. The newbie thread is on the seed exchange forum. See ya there! |
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- Posted by spacetogrow 4 MN (My Page) on Sun, Mar 4, 12 at 12:36
| Beans are one of the very easiest vegetables to grow, and I don't know of any hybrid snap or string beans that are sold commercially. Any of the ones at the store are likely to be at least open pollinated. You can also get most snap or string beans to produce seed that isn't accidentally hybridized (cross pollinated) as long as you don't plant any one variety close to another. That way, you can avoid buying new seed every year. Arguably, the world's most tasty beans are those string beans that have long been grown in the Kentucky area. String beans are a little more bother to prepare for cooking but, if you snip off each end of the bean anyway, it takes almost no more time to strip the string off each side of the bean at the same time, once you get a little practice. If you have some money to spare (haha), Bill Best sells a wonderful selection of old timey Appalachian string beans. Even if you can't afford his prices, you can get information about the varieties and maybe find older friends, neighbors, church members, etc. who have some of those beans and would be willing to share some seed with you. They might have more than beans to share as well. Growing heirlooms and open pollinated plants is an adventure. It's much more challenging to save seed for next year from some species than from others. I recommend checking your library for the book Seed to Seed by Susan Ashworth if you want to save your own heirloom seeds. Look for the Adopt a Newbie 3 thread in the Exchange forum if you would like to request some free seeds. Read the instructions and let them know what types of heirlooms you are interested in. bakemom sometimes also has packs of flower seeds and occasionally veggies for newbies to request. Also trudy_d at wintersown.org (see also the Wintersown forum) gives out lots of tomato and other seeds for an SASE. Not all of them are heirlooms but a lot of them are - or are at least open pollinated. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Sustainable Mountain Appalachian Beans
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