The sweet and delicious fruit can be eaten fresh, in jams, soups and pies. Like Chinese lanterns, it is encased in a papery husk. Amish heirloom.

The ground cherry, also called physalis or cape gooseberry) is a unique fruit. With its papery husk, it looks like a small, orange tomatillo, but its flavor is uniquely sweet: to our palate, a mixture of pineapple, strawberry and green grapes — sweet, tart and tropical.

Yellow ground cherries are small, edible fruits that grow in a papery husk. They have a sweet flavor and are often used in desserts. 

Yellow or orange in color

Grow in a papery husk that turns dry and brown when ripe

Some varieties have a nickel-sized fruit

Flavor Sweet and acidic and Similar to pineapple. 

Can be eaten fresh, baked into jams or crisps, or used as a garnish 

Can be added to fruit salads, ice cream, yogurt, or cereal 

Pair well with goat cheese, nuts, and grains like farro 

Slim long purple 8" fruits. 

Harvested when longer than your finger. If left to grow, the sweeter it gets!

68 Days.

100 Days.

Open Pollinated

Sweet and mild flavor

Excellent for salads.

Italian heirloom with an elongated, torpedo, or globe shape, featuring a mild, sweet flavor perfect for salads, pickling, or fresh eating, and is known for its vibrant rosy-pink to deep red color and excellent storage qualities. 

Appearance: Elongated (torpedo/bottle) or globe-shaped bulbs with lovely rosy-pink to deep red skin.

Flavor: Mild and sweet, less pungent than typical red onions, with a delightful crispness.

Uses: Excellent raw in salads, pickled, or cooked fresh; cures well for short-term storage.

Origin: An old Italian heirloom variety, also related to Tropea onions. 

"Mary Washington" asparagus (Asparagus officinalis "Mary Washington") is one of the older and most common asparagus varieties. This perennial vegetable is harvested in spring, producing a high yield of tender spears from a rhizome crown.

Tender asparagus spears are snapped or cut close to the ground to harvest.

Rich in essential vitamins and minerals. Perk up floral arrangements with the plant’s graceful, feathery fern-like leaves. Harvest scrumptious homegrown spears from mature plants and enjoy fresh, grilled, and steamed. Disease-resistant to rust. Cold-hardy and heat-tolerant. Harvest in April or May. Self-pollinating. 

Daikon Summer F1 (like Minowase Summer Cross F1) refers to heat-tolerant, fast-growing, Japanese hybrid daikon radishes ideal for summer planting, producing long, white, mild, sweet, juicy roots with firm flesh, good for salads, pickling, and stir-fries, often maturing quickly (around 50-60 days) with strong disease resistance. They need deep, light soil and consistent water to prevent bitterness, offering a crisp texture and a milder, less spicy flavor than smaller radishes, making them versatile for summer-to-fall harvests. 

Type: F1 Hybrid Daikon (Japanese radish).

Appearance: Long, conical, pure white roots, sometimes with a pale green shoulder.

Flavor/Texture: Mild, sweet, juicy, crisp, firm flesh, less pungent than red radishes.

Maturity: Fast-growing, around 50-65 days.

Uses: Excellent for salads, stir-fries, cooking, and pickling (especially kimchi).

Heat/Disease: Tolerant to heat and resistant to common diseases like Fusarium. 

Soil: Requires deep, loose, well-drained soil to allow roots to grow long.

Water: Consistent moisture is key for mild flavor; avoid drying out.

Planting: Best sown in summer for late summer/fall harvest. 

Minowase Summer Cross F1: A classic for summer crops, known for its mildness and vigor.

Japana F1: Another summer-sowing option with fine, dense flesh. 

This "beauty heart" type Chinese radish is the most popular variety grown in the middle and northern parts of China. It is also call watermelon radish. This variety is globe-shape, green shoulder with dark pink flesh. Because of their color, they are the perfect radishes to carve into flower shapes as garnish. It has a crisp texture and is mild and sweet flavored. Try eating fresh. Just thinly slice, top with fresh squeezed lime and a little salt and pepper or with sugar. For fall season sowing only.

Chinese celery is an aromatic plant with a strong, peppery flavor, thin, hollow, crisp stems, and delicate leaves. It is smaller than Western celery and is often used in soups, stir-fries, and other dishes for its potent taste, which becomes milder when cooked. Also known as kintsai or leaf celery, it is commonly used in Asian cuisines. 

Appearance: It features long, narrow, hollow stems that can be white to dark green, or even pink depending on the variety. The leaves are delicate and wispy.

Flavor: It has a pungent and peppery flavor that is more intense than standard celery. The taste softens and sweetens when cooked.

Usage: It is rarely eaten raw and is primarily used for flavoring in cooked dishes. It is excellent in stir-fries, soups, and fried rice. Both the stems and leaves are edible.

Growing: Chinese celery is often easier to grow than its Western counterparts and can be cultivated in smaller spaces like pots. It is typically grown as an annual, though it is technically a biennial. 

Kintsai Chinese Yellow Stem Celery, Boly, Cutting Celery, Nan Ling, Gin Cai, Kun Choy, Kan Tsoi

Round Zucchini have been popular in Europe for years. The Italians have their dark green Tondo di Piacenza, the French have the light green speckled Ronde de Nice, the Dutch have the "Roly Poly" (a loose translation from Burpee's marketers) and the British have their single serve striped marrow, Tender and True. There is even chinese produced seed of an almost white round zucchini. The common thread is that these zucchini are actually rather nice; solid, nutty, sweet, and as a bonus they are extremely early producers and are prolific if you keep harvesting the fruit. The compact plants are real workhorses of efficiency. They laughed at the limited nutrients and water of our sand lot trials!

These round zucchini from the above plants have matured to form a tough pumpkin-like or gourd-like rind. You must leave them on the plant until their colors have changed and they develop that hard skin. It takes several weeks beyond the immature stage that we usually consume summer squash at for the squash to mature. These are on the porch where they will "after ripen", for an additional month. The after ripening gives the seeds an extra amount of time to gain food reserves which will allow for healthier, more vigorous seedlings and better germination. Then they will be split with a sledge hammer (yes, the can be tough), seeds will be scooped out, washed in a mild soap solution and thoroughly dried to the "breaking" stage before storage. We used to spread out the seed on newspaper to dry but now we use drying screens which provide better air circulation.

Packet: 9-10 grams of seed

This Swiss Chard looks almost like rhubarb with it's red stalks and green leaves. It has a nice mild flavor, and is less bitter than other swiss chards. And it cooks up beautifully, with deep green leaves and beautiful red stalks and veins.

Packet: 9-10 grams of seed