This has been the best season ever for my garden! I am growing Beans-Rattlesnake, Cherokee Trail of Tears, Mennonite Purple Stripe, Cherokee Wax, Kentucky Wonder, Kentucky Wonder Wax, and Long Beans. Not alot of all the varieties trying to get my seed stash resupplied on some. Tomatoes-Mr Stripey, Brandywines, Cherokee Purple, Juliet, Sweet 100, Roma, Parks Whopper, Better Boy Watermelon- Moon and Stars and Tenderweet Orange Squash- Grey striped zuke and Trombocinno Pumpkins- Musqee de Provence Melons-Charentais Bright Lights Swiss Chard Collard Greens Cucumbers-Lemon, National Pickling, Armenian, and some other pickling kind Onions-1015s, Red onions, and some other sweet white Peppers-Jalapenos, Big Bertha Bells, Sweet Cherry, Habanero Eggplant-Black Beauty and Japanese Broccoli Cabbage-Red and Green Corn-Country Gentleman Okra-Emerald Flowers-Sunflowers, Nastursiums, Morning Glories, Asters, Petunias, Moonflowers, Black-eyed susan vine I just can't believe how amazing everything is doing this year, it's soooo awesome!!!

The Cherokee Squaw Corn I'm growing has some variation in the size of kernels, though all are much larger and flatter than say, the corn one gets at the feed store. I'd say that it behaves a lot like flour corn when being ground. I'm pleased with how easy it is to shell and grind. After working with it, the contrast with Mesquakie is very noticeable. Mesquakie Indian corn has a lot more flint-like qualities. It even pops (poorly) when parched in the oven. When we lived in Hidalgo, Mexico my favorite corn for meal and grits was the really large kernel flour corn which one sometimes sees up here, sold as corn nuts. It came in either red or white. In Mexico they make it into hominy and use the kernels in a soup called Pozole. This flour corn was extremely easy to grind and we enjoyed it, both for grits and corn meal. So, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from trying a flour corn. They are very nice. As an aside, let me tell you an anecdote on our life in Mexico. The first two years was characterized by frustration and hardship. We were grappling with the language and also with the environment. Our family suffered a good many illnesses until we adjusted to the new environment. After two years we were fluent. So the language problem was much relieved. Every six months to a year we'd go to Texas, for car parts and supplies, etc. While there, we'd stock up on some things we couldn't get in Mexico. Two items on our list were always grits and cornmeal. Mexico is the land of corn. But they hardly use cornmeal as we know it and grits are unheard of. So, we'd stock up and then ration until the next border trip. After 5 or 6 years in Mexico, I got to thinking about our love of these two items and the fact that we were surrounded by corn! That's how we learned to grind our own. We experimented! Suddenly we didn't need to ration these items! I often thought that this was taking adaptation to a new level! Blueflint, I'm going to try that recipe. It looks good! George

IMO, there are a lot of improvements you can make. The bean selections are decent, you will like Emerite and Fortex. Rattlesnake is a heat tolerant workhorse. Ky blue and Asparagus are IMO, overkill. Silver Queen corn is still preferred by millions, but you might consider Silver King which is an se variety with most of the good traits of SQ. I would grow Breeders Choice or Early Choice instead of Early Sunglow. While some people love the extra sweetness of the sh2 varieties, you might consider a synergistic variety instead. They combine the sweetness of an sh2 with other traits that improve flavor and texture. Peppers get personal. Orange Bell is the best flavored bell pepper I've grown. If you like a sweet Italian type, look at Stocky Red Roaster from wildgardenseed.com For hot peppers, choose them by use instead of by quantity. Here are a few mixed varieties worth looking at: Poblano, Italian Frying, Chapeau de Frade (wonderful flavor!), and Trinidad Seasoning. The pepperoncini's are good peppers so include them. I won't mess with the squash, there are lots of good varieties, but you might as well grow what you have listed and see if you like them. Tomatoes like Supersweet 100, Better Boy, and Early Girl are somewhat limited. Better Boy is decent, but you could easily get seed of Ramapo and Big Beef which will outperform in your climate and have excellent flavor. Fourth of July is an early variety, don't grow more than 1 or 2 plants. I would suggest Bear Creek, Kellogg's Breakfast, Black From Tula, and Eva Purple Ball to expand your flavor potential. DarJones

Paula, All southern peas are true heat-lovers and perform best if planted in really warm soil and after daytime and nighttime air temperatures are staying consistently warm. (i.e. not in the upper 30s with frost on the blades of grass! lol) Technically, you can plant them anytime your soil temperature at planting depth is at about 65 degrees for at least 3 straight days. I like to wait for it to hit 70 though. Seed planted early tends to just sit there and germinate slowly, and seed planted in cool soil tends to give you weak plants that are prone to damping off. Because all southern peas (crowders, blackeyes, pinkeye puprplehulls, lady, cream, etc.) love heat, I use them as a succession planting for cool-season veggies like broccoli or lettuce or onions. I don't think I've ever planted them in April, and only rarely in May because my garden is too full of cool-season stuff then. Spacing depends on how you grow them. If you are growing them in single rows, space the peas 2" apart and the rows 24" apart. If you want to waste less space on pathways, plant a double or triple row, with 1' between rows and maybe 4" to 6" (last year I used 12" and could have halved it) in between the plants. Some southern peas are bush types, some are vining and some are semi-vining. There are many types of pinkeye purplehulls and some of them are semivining and some are bushy. If your seed envelope from the swap says pinkeye purplehull and doesn't say 'knuckle' or 'BVR', then they probably are the semivining ones because they're probably the plain old every day pinkeye purplehull. They grow like half runners...upward 12-18" or so and then sometimes they go off on a wild, horiontal tangent. Sometimes they sort of vine and wrap around one another a little bit. However, if there is a row of tomato cages in the adjacent row or raised bed, they've been known to reach across the pathway, grab hold of a cage, and climb it to the top. It is odd how they do that. This year I might plant them right next to our 7' tall fence just to see if they would climb it. I bet they would. Plant lots of them. Lots and lots and lots. No matter how many you plant, they are so good fresh that you'll wish you had planted more. If you've never grown purplehulls, here's a tip: pick them when the hulls are purple. Not a little purple, not kind of purple, but fully purple. I'm going to link the Pinkeye Purplehull Festival website. On that site you'll find all sorts of cool stuff, including growing information and recipes. If you've ever wanted to make purplehull jelly, the recipe is on this website. Disclaimer: I am not responsible if your DH or anyone else's DH sees this website and decides they want to enter the rotary tiller races. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Purplehull Festival and Rotary Tiller Race