The Great and Amazing Grow Appalachia Seed Sort!

Howdy Grow Appalachians! Whew. We sure did get some wild storms here earlier this week: hail, pitch black skies, strong winds, pouring rain. But it’s back to normal now (whatever that means), and today I’m sharing a brief story on a recent goings-on here at Grow Appalachia HQ.

Back at our 2017 All-Hands Gathering last month, we had a very special visitor: David Mauro from Mauro Seed Company drove all the way up from just outside of Nashville to join us for part of the gathering. He brought along with him a very generous donation of more than 500 pounds of vegetable seeds for our program!

Here’s our “Thank You” picture…We’re an excited bunch.

Anyway, the bulk seeds sat happily in our new high tunnel shop (!) for a few weeks. Until yesterday. For most of the afternoon, a team consisting of myself, our fearless leader director David, high tunnel manufacturing and constructing extraordinaire Kayla, and writing wizard(ess?)/foodlorist VISTA Alix weighed, measured, sorted, and packaged LOTS of seeds.

And I mean LOTS. Of seeds.

As in, we got most of them done, but not all. We packaged Top Crop Bush Beans, Little Marvel Peas, and Golden Acre Cabbage. Fun fact: I had no idea cabbage seeds were as small as they are. We knocked out those in about 2.5 hours, but will wait next week to finish the summer squash, corn, and watermelon…oh, and more cabbage! There is a lot of cabbage.

Just for fun, I looked into these varieties and I’ve posted a few facts/tidbits below:

Top Crop Bush Beans

• An heirloom variety
• Meaty and stringless pods produce great flavor. Can be consumed fresh, but also can and freeze well
• 55-65 days to maturity
• Germinate in about 1-2 weeks

Little Marvel Peas

• AAS Winner in 1934
• An heirloom and open-pollinated variety
• 63 days to maturity
• Easy to shell by hand and is a great producer
• Disease resistant

Golden Acre Cabbage

• Heirloom and open-pollinated
• 65 days to maturity
• 3-4 pound heads when fully mature
• Produces quickly and earlier than most cabbages

Some of the seeds we packaged yesterday are on their way to Greenhouse 17 to go to a few sites as they have their regional group meeting later today! Otherwise, as I mentioned earlier, we’ll be happily back at it next week finishing up. We had a great time and hope that these seeds produce yummy, good-quality vegetables for our families for years to come!

Until next time, folks, stay warm (it’s chilly today). And if you’re a Grow Appalachia site– check your post office boxes or mailboxes soon! 🙂 (P.S. Aren’t those bean seeds in the feature image beautiful?)

Many hands make light work

I scream, you scream, we all scream for…peas?

Peas? Peas!!