Bulk Me Up
Thanks to membership evaluations since 2003, the Sanctuary has come to know many of the most tasty, hardy, reliable, nourishing and useful crop cultivars. It is quickly becoming crucial to have lots of seeds of them not just a small container’s worth. These, after all and possibly very soon, could be the seeds of our survival.
We are asking you to help us multiply some of the varieties that really stand out.
If you could grow out one or more of them, keep some seed for yourself and send the rest back to us, you could really help us in getting these great foods popularized and available for large plantings.
The following are the Bulk Me Up seeds for 2012:
Hi Yield Quinoa (Chenopdium quinoa)
Quinoa ("keen-wa") has been cultivated for at least 5000 years. It will germinate in fairly cool conditions and prefers light, well-drained soil. It looks like lambs-quarters and has nutritious flavourful greens. By midsummer, a large seedhead develops, loaded with millet-like seeds. In dry autumns, seeds can be harvested after the leaves have dried and fallen by simply stripping them from the stalk between thumb and forefinger. Ripe seeds can sprout right on the plant in wet conditions; it¹s often best to safeguard the quinoa harvest by cutting the stalks and allowing them to completely mature under protection.
Quinoa is 15-16% protein and is high in E and B vitamins, calcium, iron and phosphorous. It is easy to digest and has a delicious flavour. It must be thoroughly rinsed before cooking and is then prepared like rice. (Less rinsing is required if mixed with other grains.) Simmer it for 15 minutes in an equal volume of water. Quinoa can cross with its weedy relatives, so it's best to weed out the much more branching lambs-quarters if you wish to save seed for next year.
Cossack Pineapple Ground Cherry (Physalis pubescens)
A cousin of Tomatillos from Eastern Europe. Delicious lemon-yellow berries are encased in a papery husk. Eaten out of hand, they make a wonderful garden snack. They give a pineapple flavor to preserves, desserts and other dishes. Start and grow like tomatoes but the plants don't need to be staked. Gather the Ground Cherries when they have fallen to the ground.
Calendula (Calendula officinalis)
Sometimes called Pot Marigold, Calendula is an annual with light-yellow-to-orange blossoms that brings sunshiny brightness to gardens for most of the year. Usually about two feet high, it has coarse surfaces and many branches. The flower heads are from two to three inches across and have several rows of ray florets and a central cluster of tubular flowers.
Calendula blossoms appear about six weeks after planting and will keep blooming until the first snows. This is an electric mix of yellows and oranges. An extremely hardy plant that flowers here on the coast even in winter.
Calendula petals are often used in skin lotions and are a special salad addition. Stagger plantings for continuous display. Calendula self-sows readily.
Golden Flax (Linum usitatissimum)
The seeds of this variety are very high in Omega-3 fatty acids. They are not as mucilaginous as other varieties and are scrumptious eaten out of hand or added directly to breads, muffins or cereals. The plants have very pretty blue flowers about knee high that appear daily only to disappear until the next day¹s glorious display.
Seeds can be sown in mid-spring and harvested in late summer by rubbing the seedheads between the hands into a bucket.
Laurel¹s Frilly Kale (Brassica napus)
Gorgeous frilly kale from Laurel of Laurel¹s Kitchen cookbook fame. This is
a long standing, heat and cold tolerant, delicious tight frilled kale that
over winters readily on the coast.
The Bulk Me Up seeds for 2011 are listed below. Many thanks to all of you who grew them out for us last year! If you or your local seed sanctuary are interested in maintaining these cultivars for your community, please let us know.
Blue Tinge Ethiopian Wheat
This dark wheat sometimes matures in only 90 days here on the west coast and has a delicious flavour as a cooked whole grain. Both seeds and seed heads have a blue tinge in the right light. It is an emmer wheat although, unlike most emmers, the hulls are easily threshed. The protein content is 16 per cent.
Darlaine Pea
A creamy/tan round seed that makes an excellent legume for soups and stews. Huge yields of up to a pound per ten square feet. Self-supporting and makes a great cover crop.
Black Turtle Dry Bush Bean
One of the very best flavoured dry beans. Makes a good snap bean too and is extremely productive.
Wild Cherry Tomato
Super sweet, small red fruit with cherry-like flavour. Outstanding blight resistance. Produces 100s of fruit on each plant. Spreads to form a dense mass to 7 feet in every direction. Self-sows readily. Extremely high in vitamin C.
Pollock Tomato
Selected for over 3 decades by Andy Pollock in Houston, northern BC. These are early, rich-flavoured 4-10 ounce tomatoes that keep coming and coming. Good blight resistance. The plants need staking to carry the weight of all their tomatoes.
Exhibition Longpod Fava
Pam Gordon, of Hornby Island, BC, has been growing this variety for 40 years. It is a tall heavy-yielding cultivar with light greenish white seeds that was first introduced in 1845. Could cross with other fava varieties so needs to be grown by itself.
