Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is an herb from the mint family. The leaves, which have a mild lemon aroma, are used to make medicine and flavor foods. Lemon balm contains chemicals that seem to have a sedative and calming effect. It might also reduce the growth of some viruses and bacteria.

What Does Lemon Balm Taste Like? This aromatic member of the mint family has a bright, citrusy taste that brings together the acidity of lemon with subtle hints of mint. Both the stems and fresh leaves of lemon balm have a subtly sweet flavor and can be used in food preparation and medicine.

Scarlet kale is delicious cut in fine ribbons for kale salad and is a nutritious addition to soups and stews. Grow plenty and harvest some at baby stage, leave others to grow big and frilly, picking individual medium-sized leaves and tender stems. Add mulch for harvest into the winter months—an ornamental edible for containers, veggie gardens, and mixed borders.

Remarkably attractive dark green kale with red veined, frilly, tightly curled leaves. A vigorous performer with good cold tolerance. Leaves darken to deep scarlet in late season. Begin harvesting leaves when young, and allow plant to grow well into the early winter.

Scarlet Kale is an open-pollinated, curled variety with deep red color that intensifies in cooler weather. Multiple harvests for continued productivity. Brassica oleracea. 65 days to maturity.

The broad, frilly, purple leaves grow on 2–3' tall, upright stalks. Red color on a blue-green background, as compared to the red color on a bright green background of Redbor. Scarlet plant height is not quite as uniform as Redbor. Great for baby leaf and bunching.

Lifecycle: Biennial

Zone: 8,9,10

Hardiness: Hardy Annual

Size: 2' h x 2' w

Sun: Full sun to partial shade

Soil: Rich, moist, well-drained

Season: Summer to fall

Seed to Bloom: 50-60 days to harvest (30 baby)

Color: Dark purple red foliage

The Long Island is a compact Brussels sprout with heavy yields! This is a workhorse variety that produces very flavorful sprouts. This compact, 24" tall plant yields 75-100 dark green, 1-2" sprouts over a long period. Don't overlook this popular vegetable for your garden.

The Long Island Improved Brussels Sprout is a classic open-pollinated heirloom variety introduced in the 1890s on Long Island, New York, and prized for its reliability, cold hardiness, and excellent flavor. This semi-dwarf plant grows to about 20–24 inches tall and produces a strong central stalk lined with numerous compact, firm, dark green sprouts measuring about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Each plant yields an impressive 75–100 sprouts over a long season, making it a dependable choice for home gardens and market growing alike. The sprouts are known for their rich, nutty flavor, which becomes noticeably sweeter after exposure to frost, making them ideal for late fall and winter harvests. Highly cold tolerant, this variety can remain in the garden well into winter and performs beautifully when roasted, braised, or sautéed, while the leafy greens can also be cooked like mild collards. Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts are also well suited for storage and freezing after blanching, further adding to their versatility and appeal.

Bright orange, fine-grained roots with a crisp, juicy texture and sweet flavor make Scarlet Nantes a favorite carrot for snacking and lunch boxes. The nearly coreless, 6 in. carrots are orange throughout and grow straight and smooth with blunt ends—in just nine weeks.

Nantes carrots are small to medium in size, averaging 15-20 centimeters in length and 2-5 centimeters in diameter, and are cylindrical in shape with blunt, rounded ends on both the stem and non-stem end. The straight roots have smooth, firm skin that ranges from bright orange to orange-red and are connected to long, edible, leafy greens that bear a grassy, vegetal flavor. Underneath the surface, the flesh is also orange, fine-grained, crisp, and juicy with little to no core. Nantes carrots are crunchy and tender with a mild, sweet taste.

Applications

Nantes carrots are best suited for both raw and cooked applications such as roasting, steaming, baking, grilling, and boiling. When raw, the root does not need to be peeled before consumption and can be used on appetizer plates with dips, sliced and tossed into salads, juiced, or blended into sauces. In cooked preparations, Nantes carrots are used as a base for soups and stews, lightly sautéed in stir-fries, or roasted to enhance their sweet flavor and coated in brown butter. The roots can also be smoked as a vegetarian hot dog or shredded and baked into carrot cakes and carrot puddings. Nantes carrots pair well with orange juice, honey, herbs such as cilantro, parsley, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, coriander, and dill, spices such as cardamom, cumin, ginger, fennel, curry, and cinnamon, dried apricots, onions, celery, tomatoes, and meats such as poultry, beef, and pork. The roots will keep up to one month when stored in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator.

This heirloom beet is most notable for its striking deep pink and white spirals, and the beet adds a beautiful pop of color to salads and soups.

Eat beets raw in a fresh salad to add a bit of earthy crunch.

Roast or steam beets—this softens the beet and changes the flavor profile, making it a perfect accompaniment for barley, rice or other savory side dishes. Goats cheese is also a particularly popular addition to any roasted beet salad.

Saute beets with a mix of other veggies to add a jolt of color to any stir fry.

Pickled adds a burst of flavor ideal to accompany a main dish, or as a main salad ingredient.

A vegetable garden stalwart for decades, the Dark Green Zucchini – or Summer Squash – is a must. This variety is a very reliable producer of easy-to-grow and delicious zucchini. Harvest at around 6 to 8 inches long.

Chives Onion, Oregano Basil Latin, and Lemon Basil

High quality, small roots can be harvested at finger size for deep orange-red carrots with a sweet flavour and virtually no core. Great for growing with children's help!

Catskill Brussels Sprouts are an heirloom variety that dates back to 1941. Plants produce loads of 2″, medium-green sprouts on 2′ stalks. Great for eating fresh or freezing. Brassica oleracea var gemmifera. 100 days to maturity.

Catskill Brussels Sprouts are a traditional open-pollinated heirloom variety developed in the United States and introduced in the mid-20th century by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. Bred for improved uniformity and cold tolerance, this variety produces sturdy, upright plants with thick stalks and closely spaced, smooth, deep green sprouts that typically measure 1 to 1½ inches in diameter. Catskill Brussels Sprouts are known for their firm texture and mild, sweet, nutty flavor that becomes even better after exposure to frost, making them especially well suited for late fall and winter harvesting. Valued by home gardeners and market growers alike, this dependable variety offers good yields, excellent cold hardiness, and consistent quality, and remains a popular choice for roasting, steaming, or sautéing.

'Yellow Sweet Spanish Utah' is from that early type, producing large, 3"–6" globe-shaped bulbs with amazingly mild, sweet flavor.

They are eaten fresh or as an ingredient in salads, soups, sauces, stews, curries or processed in pickles and chutneys.