Grace's Garden Goods

Have to say I'm mighty pleased with my first harvest of Asian greens for supper tonight: Komatsuna and Chinese Broccoli. So fresh, tender, and sweet! (Sadly, my bok choy bolted. Must've been due to the extremity of temperatures in the month of May.)

I cut the stalks at peak timing: Just before the flower buds open. Any later, and the greens risk going woody. But, I left the bottommost pair of leaves on each plant in hopes that more would grow out for harvesting again in another 2-3 weeks!

If you bought some of these from me, and haven't yet harvested them, I suggest you check your plants. They may be ready! And, if the flower buds have started to open, when you cut off the stalks, inspect the lower portions to see how tough they might be. If necessary, just shave off any outer parts you find too thick, like you would with Caucasian broccoli, and cook away!

One thing I'm particularly surprised with is how few worm holes I see on these greens!

[I took these pics at dusk, literally minutes before harvesting, in order to keep the veggies as fresh as possible! 😋 That's why the pics are a bit dim.]

🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 Still have HOTS and SUPER HOTS left! 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Some varieties are down to only 1-2 remaining plants. And, some varieties are already flowering!

PLEASE NOTE: When you cut up super hots, you may want to consider wearing gloves and goggles. No kidding! At least, WASH YOUR HANDS AFTERWARDS. Otherwise, it'll really hurt if you accidentally touch your eyes/nose, or private parts, with even the slightest remaining hot pepper juice on your hands. You've been warned! 🤣🥵

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HOT Peppers (Scoville Heat Units 1-100,000)

Aji Lemon (30,000 SHU)
Anaheim (500-2,500 SHU)
Brazilian Starfish (10-15,000 SHU)
Buena Mulata (30-50,000 SHU)
Hot Portugal (5-50,000 SHU)
Mazzitti Round (20,000 SHU)
Pumpkin Spice Jalapeno (25, 000 SHU)
Red Jalapeno (4-8,500 SHU)
Rheza Macedonian (8,000 SHU)
Thunder Mountain Longhorn (20-40,000 SHU)

SUPER HOT Peppers (Scoville Heat Units 100,000-2,000,000)

Chocolate Bhutlah (2,000,000 SHU)
Fatalii Yellow (400,000 SHU)
Jamaican Yellow (100-300,000 SHU)
Malaysian Goronong (400,000 SHU)
Scotch Bonnet (110-350,000 SHU)
Sugar Rush Peach (50-100,000 SHU)
Thai Dragon (50-100,000 SHU)
White Thai (50-100,000 SHU)

A tomato tip:

Right around now, those of you who have planted tomatoes in the ground may be starting to prune off the suckers. This is not a "must do" practice. In fact, tomatoes don't require pruning at all in order to produce fruits. But, while some people prefer to let tomato plants go wild inside wire or wooden cages, others prefer to train their tomato plants to a certain number of leader stems, and then prune the rest of the plant. Regardless of whether you prune or not, when your tomato plants reach 3-4', I highly recommend that you remove the leaves from the bottommost portion of the plant—say, approximately the lowest 6-12"of leaves—in order to provide better airflow to your plants, and to reduce the possibility of bacterial growth on the lower leaves when rain water splashes dirt onto them. Fungal diseases on tomato plants are VERY COMMON. Any and every organic precaution taken to reduce that likelihood would be to your benefit.

Anyway, this year, I finished planting all my tomatoes in the ground on May 16. On that day, however, I accidentally chopped off part of the stem of a tomato plant ("Black Pineapple", one of my favourites) by dropping my shovel on it. At the same time, another one of my plants had produced an especially long sucker already, so I removed it as I buried that plant into the ground.

But, I kept the broken tomato stem, and the especially long sucker (of a variety I don't even remember the name of). And, left them in a vase of water. I kept that vase topped with water, daily.

On May 30, exactly two weeks later, the adventitious roots on the stems of those two cuttings had developed so well that I planted the cuttings in the ground! Today, those two cuttings have become established in the ground with new growth already showing!

You can multiply your tomato plants in the same way! And, you don't even have to start them from seed, rely on grow lights, provide shelf space, etc! The only thing to consider is the "days to harvest" of the varieties that you decide to do this with. In other words, you don't want to keep rooting your tomato suckers all the way into August if your varieties need 80-90 days to harvest. Count back 80-90 days from your fall frost date (eg. for me, it is technically Oct. 4) to know when you can multiply tomato plants until. When I root my tomato cuttings, I don't extend the practice beyond the beginning of July. It's pointless because you'll just be growing plants that won't fruit in time; that is, unless you have a greenhouse to extend the growing season! Also, don't forget (as I did!) to label the cuttings as you place them in a vase of water.

If you have space in your yard—try it out! You really have nothing to lose! ^_^

TODAY AND TOMORROW (June 3 and 4) are my last two days of driveway seedling sales for the season.

TIME: 12-6:00 P.M.
ADDRESS: 116 Old Hastings Rd., Warkworth, ON.


Happy gardening, EVERYONE! 👨‍🌾👩‍🌾✂️🌳

Send a message to learn more

I have this one, you know? Still available!

Come get the last of them at tomorrow's driveway sale (Sun., June 2):

12-6:00 P.M. at Old Hastings Rd., Warkworth, ON.

Salt & Pepper The Story of My Favorite Cucumber This is "Salt & Pepper The Story of My Favorite Cucumber" by Fruition Collective on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Hey HOT PEPPER FANS: I’ve got a long list of hot & super hot pepper plants for you! Take a look, take a risk, try out new types, and turn up the heat!

What’s even better is that hot peppers grow happily in containers! Give them full sun plus well-draining soil that’ll “keep their feet dry”, and you can enjoy yourself some hots in pots! This way, you can garden even on the balcony! In fact, when fall arrives, bring the pots inside! Overwinter them, and you’ll need to buy the plants only once!

Plus, hot peppers are easy to dry! Just harvest, string up, let them shrivel, and store! Then, use them whenever you want! Add to your sauce, stew, soup, and salsa without relying on store-bought, imported flakes that are processed and piled up for who-knows-how-long. You can even bottle some up to gift!

Hot peppers are truly a lot of fun! And, I’ve got varieties, both common and not!

See you Fri./Sun (May 31/June 2) on my driveway, OR Sat., June 1, at the Belleville Farmers' Market!

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DATES: Fri., May 31 and Sun., June 2
TIMES: 12-6:00
PLACE: 116 Old Hastings Rd., Warkworth, ON

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OR: Sat., June 1, at the Belleville Farmers' Market (9-2:00)

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Hot Peppers (Scoville Heat Units 1-99,000)

1. Anaheim (500-2,500 SHU)
2. Aji Lemon (30,000 SHU)
3. Brazilian Starfish (10-15,000 SHU)
4. Buena Mulata (30-50,000 SHU)
5. Dieghitto Jalapeno (5-10,000 SHU)
6. Hot Portugal (5-50,000 SHU)
7. Mazzitti Round (20,000 SHU)
8. Pumpkin Spice Jalapeno (25,000 SHU)
9. Rheza Macedonian (8,000 SHU)
10. Thunder Mountain Longhorn (20-40,000 SHU)
11. Tunisian Baklouti (1-5,000 SHU)

Super Hot Peppers (Scoville Heat Units 100,000-2,000,000)

1. Chocolate Bhutlah (2,000,000 SHU)
2. Chocolate Habanero (400-600,000 SHU)
3. Thai Dragon (50-100,000 SHU)
4. Faddas White (800,000 SHU)
5. Fatalii Yellow (400,000 SHU)
6. Jamaican Yellow (100-300,000 SHU)
7. Malaysian Goronong (400,000 SHU)
8. White Thai (50-100,000 SHU)
9. Scotch Bonnet (110-350,000 SHU)
10. Sugar Rush Peach (50-100,000 SHU)

Did you miss out on flowers last weekend? Still looking for cool edibles? Do you have garden space or empty pots yet to fill?

Then, head over to my driveway sale this Fri., May 31, and Sun., June 2! I’ve got plenty of plants to choose from! And, you’ve got a season’s time to grow!

Shop local, eat fresher, build a greener world, and keep your carbon footprint small. 🌱

DATES: Fri., May 31 and Sun., June 2
TIMES: 12-6:00
PLACE: 116 Old Hastings Rd., Warkworth, ON

** For more pics of available plants, please visit www.facebook.com/GracesGardenGoods

Now, I present to you: FLOWERS!

Again, as with my heirloom veggies, many of these flowers are rarer than those that you’d find at most garden centres. In fact, a lot of them are grown almost exclusively on flower farms to be ordered by florists. But, here’s your chance to grow some at home! You’ll find them for sale on my driveway this weekend (May 24-26).

Let your yard, patio, porch, and deck stand out with these beauties!

🌺🏵️🌸🌼🌺🏵️🌸🌼🌺🏵️🌸🌼🌺🏵️🌸🌼🌺🏵️🌸🌼🌺🏵️🌸🌼

DATES: Fri., Sat., Sun., May 24, 25, 26.
TIME: 12:00-6:00 P.M. (unless it rains)
PLACE: 116 Old Hastings Rd., Warkworth, ON.
PRICE RANGE: $1-6 (in most cases)

*** PLUS: All my VEGGIE PLANTS will be out, as well! 🍅🥒🌶🍆

“Mirror, Mirror on the wall: Who’s the fairest of them all?” asked the lofty, puffed-up queen, plainly green-with-envy.

And, so, I introduce to you the “Queen Lime” series of zinnias—an outstanding flower, not to be outdone by any of her counterparts. Queen Limes are showy annuals in ombre shades of pink, red, yellow, and orange. They are exceptional flowers! Sophisticated in petal formation with a beautiful antiqued, heirloom appearance and an almost perfectly spherical shape, the queen limes are in high demand for use in weddings and other special occasions.

All variants in the series have double flowers (2-3” in diameter) with lime accents and contrasting eyes. Originating from Mexico, zinnias love sunlight and thrive in heat, so give them a good spot under full sun. Then, they will grow tall and sturdy (25-36” in height) and bloom prolifically! Under the best growing conditions, each plant can spread a width of 18” and produce 10-15 stems a season—all from a single plant!

Queen Limes are specialty zinnias. Florists prize them as designer flowers. As such, you likely won’t find them in garden centres because they are almost exclusively grown by cut flower farmers. Plus, they tend to be harder to germinate than other varieties of zinnias probably because their petals are so tightly packed that a significant portion of their seeds are not properly pollinated. For that matter, I had to start them in successive batches, with a lot of patience. But, hopefully by next weekend (May 24-26), they’ll be ready for me to set out on tables for sale! Grab yours before they run out!

Coming very soon!

“Cup and admire in the palm of your hand,
then roast to a blissfully sweet, single-serving
of the next generation of squash greatness.”

Chef Dan Barber: https://www.instagram.com/chefdanbarber/p/CZsEjnrunuk/?img_index=1

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Like all ardent aficionados, we seed savers are an odd group. We’ll go to peculiar extremes to painstakingly, persistently pursue and stockpile very specific specimens of miniscule particles—called seeds—which average folks probably spit out without a second thought. Well, I won’t name names or tell their tales, here. But, ask any avid seed collector to show you his/her storage of hoarded seeds, and then to tell you where, when, and how which ones were claimed, and you might as well settle in for a long conversation, with a sleeping bag to boot. Seed savers can carry on at length about their adventures of almost not finding this one or that one or those ones, although in the end, they always manage to wangle their way to success…by which point in the story you may have fallen asleep.

Here goes one such story of my own: Years ago, an aunt of mine gifted me a Kabocha squash. “Our family loves this, and we even eat the skin!” she claimed. It was that very first Japanese pumpkin (Kabocha’s alternative name) that converted me into a winter squash fan. Kabocha is probably best-known prepared in tempuras, and it tastes superb in recipes both sweet and savoury. To date, after sampling a lot of different winter squash, I’ve not found another variety that competes with Kabocha’s superior flavour, texture, and versatility combined. Now, I say this having not only eaten but also grown many varieties. I’ve even grown variants of Kabocha, with names such as Ambercup, Stella Blue, Sweet Mama, etc. Sadly, I’ve stopped altogether because of the squash vine borer (SVB).

Believe it or not, the SVB has preferences among possible hosts and Kabocha, being a variety within the cucurbita species “maxima”—the sweetest squash species—is one of its top targets. You can read the study, here: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Attractiveness-of-cucurbit-varieties_tbl1_328823360). Lowest on the chart of this study is the “moschata” species. That’s why those who grow Butternut squash, for example—a “moschata”—have not encountered the heartache that many of us who prefer to grow “maximas” experience. Anyway, I’ve tried my uttermost to beat the SVB, but no longer want the work or disappointment. I do, however, still terribly miss harvesting my own Kabochas.

But, that’s not the end of my story. I think, I hope, I’m waiting for a happy ending THIS SUMMER!

So, amid all of my battles with the SVB, I discovered a new squash named“Honeynut”, which I’ve introduced to many of you. It’s a cross between Butternut and Buttercup squash, and anything with Butternut in parentage has the tendency to be SVB-resistant. Indeed, SVB’s don’t damage my Honeynuts. Whoo hoo! Except, as much as I like Honeynut—especially for its mini size, which is ever so cute and convenient—and Buttercup, for that matter, neither carries the unrivalled sweeteness and density of Kabocha. I mean, Buttercup, being another maxima, comes close to Kabocha, I suppose, but “cousins” don’t cut it, in this case. Regardless, until 2022, Honeynut was my go-to in the absence of Kabocha.

But, unbeknownst to me, in 2018, the company that bred Honeynut came out with yet another new squash: Koginut. This squash is a cross between Butternut and Kabocha—can you believe it? I had to get my hands on this seed! So, Honeynut and Koginut were bred by “Row 7”, a company that develops seeds for FLAVOUR! No wonder! Row 7’s cofounders consist of a trio that includes a plant breeder, a farmer, and a chef. Furthermore, in its seed breeding program, Row 7 collaborates with Cornell University—an Ivy League academia known, among other things, for its renown agricultural department. No surprise, then, re: Honeynut’s success! Then, Row 7 came out with the Koginut squash, which I grew last year! Unfortunately, Koginut has one drawback—it’s a hybrid. Its seeds don’t grow true-to-type. However, in that same year (2023), Row 7 released an OPEN-POLLINATED version of Koginut. WAIT! THEY DID?! Indeed, they did! Last year! And, they called it “Lodi” squash. You can read about it, here: https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/organic-hybrid-sweet-garleek-named-a-best-invention-of-2023/ All open-pollinated varieties produce seeds that grow true to type! Therefore, finding myself some Lodi squash seeds would be equivalent to landing a goldmine of seeds! HURRAY! I had to jump on this!

Now, how did the name “Lodi” come about? Lodi is the name of a town in the Finger Lakes region of upper New York state. It’s where the Koginut squash, Lodi’s predecessor, was first selected. You can hear about it, here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjVfdGyLoY2/ So, guess where I went in hot pursuit, earlier this year? Yes: To Finger Lakes, New York. Yes: To Cornell University. But: No—THE SEEDS WEREN’T SOLD THERE! Actually, I contacted Row 7 before crossing the border, and the company told me that their seeds are only sold online, along with a hefty shipping fee. Nonetheless, our family did make a trip to Cornell University for the March Break, and enjoyed a lovely tour of its beautiful campus, which is surrounded by multiple waterfalls, plus a phenomenal botanical garden. But, I digress.

Upon returning to Canada, I combed through the entire list of veggie seed retailers, north of the border, and found only one Canadian company that sold Lodi squash seeds. Unfortunately, they were SOLD OUT!! Ugh... Regardless, the owner of this Nova Scotian seed company and I enjoyed an extensive conversation over the trials and rewards of seed saving, and somewhere in all of that collegial discussion, she added, “I do have an expired package of Lodi squash seeds that I can send you.” I gasped. “But, I wouldn’t be able to guarantee germination. Those seeds are old. Chances are, you may still get a few sprouts.” Oh, I was willing to take my chances, all right! And, I heartily thanked her. Now, I don’t know how old “old” can be with this new variety, but maybe she was in on the experimental seasons with Row 7, when that company was growing out generations of Koginut to finally stabilize it into Lodi.

Whatever the case may be, today, I have exactly a DOZEN Lodi squash seedlings to offer. If you want it—speak up! Mention that you read this squash story to the end! After all, those who’d long quit before reading to this point would not be deserving of it, right? Mind you, I’ve also priced it a bit more than all my other plants because, truth be told, I’m probably one of very few squash-crazed Canadians who even have it! But, approach me purposefully, and I’ll hand you this prized plant! Then, afterwards, you can join me and other odd balls who belong in the club that collects cherished chattels in compost piles!

I promise: If Lodi is everything it’s touted to be, I’ll be selling it at my roadstand and market stall this fall, and featuring it among my seedlings in 2025!

In case you're in the area today, my plants are actually on the driveway, available for sale. But, I'm not posting this widescale.

It's just that we have to mow the lawn, pack up for tomorrow's market day, watch for the pending thunderstorm, etc., and won't be standing out front awaiting the masses.

But, if you want anything--and my tomatoes are down to the last plant of certain varieties--feel free to come by!

We're here! 👋

For the May Long Weekend, I'm open Sun. and Mon. Ready to plant? 🪴

Send a message to learn more

THIS WED. & THUR., 12-6:00 P.M! Save the dates and make your way here! (Address is in the post, below.)

Send a message to learn more

Now that I have finished up all the picture collages of my available edible plants for sale (veggies & fruits), I’m going to pin up this post for easier reading!

ASIAN GREENS: Bok Choy, Chinese Broccoli (G*i Lan), Komatsuna

BEANS: Dragon’s Tongue, Provider, Red Swan, Tezier Dwarf, Yardlong Red

CELERY: Utah Tall

CUCAMELONS

CUCUMBERS: Dragon’s Egg, Lemon, Salt & Pepper, Tante Alice, Vorgebirgstrauben

HERBS (no photo collage): Chives, Cilantro, Dill, Egyptian Walking Onion, Parsley

LETTUCE: Eiffel Tower, Marvel of 4 Season, Flashy Butter Oak

MELON: Minnesota Midget

PEPPERS: 12 HOT and 10 SUPER HOT varieties. I’m using 100K Skoville heat units (SHU) as the middle marker. All peppers with 1-99,000 SHU are listed as “hot” and all peppers 100,000-2 MM, as “super hot”. Thus, as of May 12, my photo collages for hot and super hot peppers have been revised.

PEPPERS SWEET: Ancient Sweet Red, Elephant Ear, Gatherer’s Gold, Gorgescu Chocolate, Gypsy Baron, Jimmy Nardello, King of the North, Lesya, Sweet Chocolate

RHUBARB

SEED POTATOES: Huckleberry Gold, Red Chieftain

SUMMER SQUASH: Lemon, Organic Green Zucchini, Sunburst pattypan, Total Eclipse pattypan, Trombetta di Albenga

TOMATOES: 50+ varieties!

WINTER SQUASH: Honeynut, KabochA, Lodi, Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash

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According to the weather forecast, several sunny days are arriving this mid-week! So, I’m aiming for driveway sales on those days (Wed. & Thur., May 15 & 16, afternoon-early evening). If cooperative weather continues, then I’m hoping to head to the Belleville Farmers’ Market on Saturday, May 18! Finally, if Sunday and Monday are nice out—I may hold yet more driveway sales over the long weekend!

Regardless, I’ll post all sale dates, times, and locations on this page.

Every summer, I try to add a fruit into my garden, and melons seems to be popular. So, my pick this year is the Minnesota Midget Melon. It’s a short 3’ vine that grows well in our cooler climate and produces 6-8 fist-size melons per compact vine. It also matures early (60-65 days) and the fruits have a high sugar content, down to the rind! Better yet, it's resistant to fusarium wilt.

Now, the Minnesota Midget is a versatile plant, in that we can successfully grow it in the ground, up a trellis, or in a pot. So, I’m thinking of doing mine in all of the above! I understand, however, that the key to melon-growing success is to ensure that the soil stays warm. I bet they’d do really well in a greenhouse! A pot might be the next best option, too, as soil above ground tends to stay warmer than soil in ground. But, root balls in pots are confined to the size of their containers. Yet, this melon plant is so relatively small that I've read that it grows well as a SINGLE plant per 5 gallon pot (or larger, of course).

So, try it with me, and let’s grow some successful summer melons, together!

For today's driveway sale (May 10), I'll be bringing out the first of the flowers—Dwarf Snapdragons (Don’t worry. A lot more will be available later, too! It's just that they're starting to bud! 🌺🌸🌼)—and the last of the hot, including super hot, peppers. 🌶

Really hope the rain holds off! 🌦

In the same way that tomatoes come in colours other than only red, did you know that cucumbers also come in several colours and not just green? If you’re curious to try “different”, I’ve got different, all right!

🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂🙃🙂

Here’s my list of 2024 CUCUMBERS. This year, I have them in green, yellow, and white!

DRAGON’S EGG: I would let my kids play with their food if they were Dragon’s Eggs cucumbers! These are so fun to grow, pick, and eat! They’re small, firm, juicy, and cute! I suggest picking them earlier than later for the best crunch!

SALT & PEPPER: This is the sweetest, creamiest cucumber I’ve ever tasted! And, it’s a good producer! In fact, it’s also early, ready to pick in just under 50 days! And, it’s remarkably resistant to powdery mildew! I’ve also read that Salt & Pepper cukes make great pickles, but to be honest, I don’t even remember putting them in salads last summer. I think I mostly cleared them out of hand ‘cause they’re so good!

LEMON: Small, round, mild, and sweet. Never bitter. Heavily producing. This cuke has a lot going for it! Also, Lemon cucumbers tolerate cold better than other cucumbers, so they produce for a longer time than many other cukes. At the market, this cucumber stands out because it looks really striking: yellow, striped, and dotted!

VORGEBIRGSTRAUBEN: I don’t know how to pronounce this name, but it’s German and means something to the effects of “like hanging grapes”, because that’s how vigorously this old, heirloom variety produces! I hear it’s very popular for pickling. But, it’s also crisp and sweet for fresh eating! Can’t wait to try this one! It’s new to me.

TANTE ALICE: This is an amazing Canadian heirloom from Quebec. I think it’s taken me a few years to appreciate it for all its worth. This one takes the longest to ripen ( approx. 70 days), is the biggest in my garden (similar to an English cuke), has the deepest flavour, grows till frost, and is the most disease-resistant. While all the other cucumbers have done their job and died off, Tante Alice still hangs around, producing!

🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒

**If you're a cucumber fan, I highly suggest you grow some that are early harvesting and some that are late harvesting. That way, you'll get cucumbers THROUGHOUT the growing season!

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Last weekend, my cucumbers weren’t entirely ready, but this weekend, I’ll be bringing them all out!

Want some unique and nutritious veggie plants? I have organically grown heirloom seedlings for sale! Check out the pics! They are just samples of some super cool food you can grow at home!

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DAY: Fri., May 10, 2024
TIME: 10:00-6:00 P.M. (or at least until the rain starts)
PLACE: 116 Old Hastings Rd., Warkworth, ON.
PRICE RANGE: $3-$12
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🌧 Please note: If the rain starts, I will post the closure of the sale on my FB page: Grace's Garden Goods.]

For this weekend, I will put out the following plants for sale:
~Apple Saplings (1st & 2nd yr.)
~Asian Greens (Bok Choy, G*i Lan, Komatsuna)
~Celery (Utah Tall)
~Cucamelons
~Cucumbers (Dragon’s Egg, Salt & Pepper, Lemon, Tante Alice, Vorgebirgstrauben)
~Herbs (Chives, Egyptian Walking Onion, Parsley,Thyme)
~Lettuce (Eiffel Tower, Flashy Butter Oak, Marvel of Four Seasons)
~Melons (Minnesota Midget)
~Pepper (many varieties of sweet, hot, and super hots!)
~Rhubarb
~Seed Potatoes (Red Chieftain, Huckleberry Gold)
~Summer Squash (Cosmic Eclipse and Sunburst pattypans, Trombetta di Albenga/Tromboncino, Lemon, organic green zucchini)
~Winter Squash (Honeynut, Kabocha, Lodi, Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato)
~Tomatoes (over 50 varieties) 🍅🍅🍅

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*Flowers (annuals/perennials) will be available LATER!
**Please bring your own container to carry the plants home.
***If the rain holds off on Sat., May 11, I will extend the sale to that day, too! I’ll update the news on my FB page. (See link above, just under “price range”.)

[A gentle note: ⏰ Please approach my driveway only as I open it up for sales. Last year, shoppers started to browse around almost an hour early. But, I really need to reserve that time and space to set up. Thank you!]

I don’t give up easily. Especially not when it comes to something I fancy—like winter squash!

If you’ve been following my page for a while, you may remember my chronicles of garden battles with the squash vine borer (SVB). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, feel free to scroll back to the past (summer 2022). You’ll find it. In fact, you might even have this pest in your own yard, but just never knew that it was the culprit that caused your summer/winter squash to collapse, unannounced.

Last year, I met another avid gardener and winter squash fan. We both had the same problem of owning more seeds than we can grow! Nice problem, I know, but it’s still a problem characteristic of garden nerds, particularly those who value heirloom veggies. If you’re not already aware, agribusiness has been trying to control consumers in their purchase of vegetables, by limiting the types available commercially, just as it has been trying to control farmers to grow specific varieties through a limited number of available seeds, which, in many cases, are highly controlled, down to genetics. [Watch this, for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H3VhsnyCdI] I don’t want to get into a long discussion on the politics of agribusiness, but I do want to say that, at least in part, this is why heirloom veggie growers, like myself, so highly value our seeds. Ours are natural, untouched by genetic tampering, copiously variable, and often, rather rare.

Anyway, as much as this other seed collector and I love our winter squash, our gardens are also mutual combat zones against the dreaded SVB.

“Grace, you should try Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash, anyway,” my friend suggested. “It’s sweet and delicious, produces prolifically, and stores for a long time!”

“But, it’s not SVB-resistant!” I replied.

“Maybe not technically. I mean, the SVB may attack it, but by then, the plant will have developed an extensive vine, putting down roots wherever it touches soil. That’s how Thelma wins: Her vine is widespread and robust! So, even if she gets attacked, by the end of the season, the amount of fruits she produces will outweigh the losses brought on by the SVB!”

“Really?” I hummed and hawed. “I don’t want the SVB overwintering in my soil, though. Like, once it comes, it stays.”

“Just try it! I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t really good.”

I believed my friend, but still didn’t want the SVB to have stake on my property! So, I thought I would outsmart it by starting my Thelmas in big pots, sheltered inside a screened-in structure (which doubled as my cold frame). This way, the SVB moth would be kept outside, unable to lay eggs on the plants.

I grew two plants. Everything was going fine until Thelma started to outgrow my pots and the height of the top screen! That’s when she started yellowing. Yikes! When I could no longer risk losing them altogether, I transplanted the pair into the ground where I’d cleared out my garlic. That was late July 2023.

“I stuck my Thelmas in the ground!” I hollered over to my friend. “Think they’ll live? Ugh! I even saw one fruit coming, but SVB season isn’t over yet! ”

“Not sure. But Thelma is very resilient. Can’t hurt to try.”

Sure enough, by fall, I harvested 14 Thelma fruits, all told! And, this is after I’d cramped the plants in pots, disturbed their roots mid-season via transplanting, and snapped off a section busted by the SVB! NOT BAD, I SAY! Even more, Thelma is a great keeper! I still have two fruits left that I brought out last weekend, during the drive way sale! Very few truly sweet winter squash store that well for that long! In fact, a few days ago, my daughter used one to bake pumpkin bread with and the outcome was scrumptious! I mean, have you seen the price of winter squash, lately?!

Let me add: Thelmas are hard to find, even at farmers’ markets! I was a vendor at the Belleville Farmers’ Market last summer—this is a big and busy city market with two, full rows of tightly-knitted vendor stalls—and no one had them! Now, I did sell some out by my roadside stand, but decided to hold back on the rest because they’re so delicious and hard to find, just like my friend said! Best of all, my family found Thelma’s flavour akin to my favourite squash—Kabocha (AKA “Japanese Pumpkin”)—which I can’t grow anymore because it’s also one of the SVB’s favourites.

Thanks, Melody Cameron, my fellow, nerdy, seed-saving, squash-fanatic friend! What squash shall we try next? 🥰 …Oh, did I tell you about Lodi? I’ll save that for another story!

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So, if you like a lot of sweet, long-storing winter squash, but don’t like their retail prices, and have enough space to let a squash vine sprawl (even if it’s on the lawn)—then Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Squash is definitely worth trying! It’s cost-effective, delicious, and hard to find, but I HAVE THE SEEDLINGS! 🏆