Alas, No More....

Varieties we will not be planting in 2011.

Arikara Yellow Dry Bean - Seed supply issue.  Guess we'll have to grab a bunch next time they are available and raise our own seed.

Ireland Creek Annie's Dry Bean - Seed supply issue.

Brussels - Long Island Improved - we haven't seen the improvement we wanted.  Still searching to replace Bubbles, the last Brussels sprout that was exceptional on our farm.

Cool Breeze Cucumber - this one makes Tammy very sad.  It was her favorite cucumber - and after last year's production - it makes Rob very sad too.  But, when the industry decides to stop offering a hybrid, you are stuck.  So - you were wondering why we prefer open pollinated seed when we can get it - here's one reason.  But, it is also an argument for F1 hybrids....

Dusky Eggplant - also terminated by industry.

Lacinato Kale - Perhaps this is a mistake - and if we determine that it is - we will bring it back.  But, we have two kales that produce higher volumes of salable leaves.  This one attracts more insect depredation, the others handle wider ranges of weather.  If we don't like what happens we can order some seed for fall.  This is a good reminder to everyone that terminating a variety at the farm doesn't mean we heartily dislike it.  There are just realities that can cause it to be cut from the list.  In this case, Dwarf Blue Scotch and Red Russian tend to make us happier and there isn't room for three in the current plans.

Eder Kohlrabi - expensive seed, didn't perform any better than other cheaper seed and didn't have outstanding taste.  Good bye.

Cyklon Pepper - loses the battle to Hot Portugal and Maule's Red Hot.

Thai Hot - nice container plant.  A pain for us to pick and not that many people wanting it.  We'll use up our seeds to sell plants to those who want them.  You can keep one alive in a pot well into December or later.

All Blue Potato - hard to pick as they tend to spread the tubers out all over the place.  Skin color is similar to our soil cover -which makes it hard to see them.  Production tends towards a large number of smaller potatoes.  This isn't all bad, but again is an efficiency issue for us at the farm.

Kennebec Potato - sometimes you give up on a variety because it would require having to make an order with yet another seed company.  If we had a decent potato year last year, we would have our own seed potato.  Alas, we did not.

Boston Marrow Winter Squash - flashy, colorful and rewarding to grow.  They tended to be more watery and stringy than the descriptions led us to believe they would be.  Maybe it was the year(s).  Maybe it was our soil.  Other growers like these, but we can grow other things better on our farm.

John Baer Tomato - 6 oz round red tomatoes.  They tend to produce earlier on smaller plants.  Nothing at all bad to say about them, but they didn't do anything to make us want to keep them as opposed to other intermediate red tomatoes we have.

Power's Heirloom Tomato - when the seed supply disappears, you stop growing the plants.  It is that simple.  And, we weren't so sold on these that we will work hard to track them down.

Blondkopfchen Yellow Cherry Tomato - lots of little yellow tomatoes.  They tasted fine.  The plants did fine.  But we just won't (or can't) spend the time required to keep them picked.  If we were going to fight that battle, we'd use Lemon Drop anyway.

Velvet Red Tomato - a cherry tomato with silvery hairs on the leaves.  A nice curiosity.  But, the plants tended to be brittle, the tomatoes were not exception in taste and production was average.  We like curious and different tomatoes, but not enough to stay on the list with the likes of Tommy Toe. 

Long Tom Tomato - can't find the seed and other roma's do as well or better for us.