2011 Variety Reviews: Part II

Aside from reviewing some of the new varieties we grew this year, I also put out a call to the organic community for variety reviews. The echos of silence were deafening . . . well, almost. Adam from Sundog Vegetables in Delta (who also worked for us last year) provided notes from his experience this year. 

2011 Variety Reviews: Part I

In his book The Winter Harvest Handbook Eliot Coleman states that farmers have a responsibility to share their knowledge and experiments with each other to improve organic growing. In this spirit, I offer the following variety reviews from our trials this season. This is the first installment of reviews -- I have other varieties to note, plus reviews shared by other growers.

Variety reviews wanted

I'm looking for feedback on varieties everyone grew this year for a blog post. Since we (farmers, gardeners, lovers of food) all trial new varieties every season, it would seem to make sense to share some of our experiences. Did the new carrot a catalogue promised would be a winner end up being a stinker? Did someone find the organic alternative to Big Beef? Are you sticking to tried and true varieties? If you're willing to share, I would love to pool together our experiences and share online. 

Interested? Write to me, making sure to include the variety name, whether the seed was organic or conventional, whether it was open pollinated or a hybrid, where you purchased the seed from, any observations from growing and the region where you farm. Also, indicate if you're growing commercially or for your own use (and anything else of note about your growing: field or coldframe, etc). What did you like about the variety (vigour, colour, flavour, yield, etc.) or what wasn't up to par? Did the variety mature in the number of days suggested by the catalogue?

You can send your reviews to me at glenvalleychris (at) gmail (dot) com. Everything will be posted here when I have finished compiling responses.