One of my favorite things about these guys is how they go out of their way to preserve biodiversity amongst the food crops. This day and age its all about growing only the "best" breed, which means a lot of other varieties get left behind or even lost entirely. We need to keep all of the old, diverse, and sometimes downright weird stuff alive. Because once its gone, its gone.

Helen, I was just amazed at this catalog. It must have cost a fortune to print. I loved the pictures. They don't have much op corn seed but seem to have everything else. I don't think they have ever sent me a catalog before.

Ilene, I don't think that is what you are looking for. That squash is more like zuchinni. The neck has NO seeds at all and only the bulb contains the seed. When pulled young you can't see any seeds at all in the entire squash. The flesh is very firm and is a buttery yellow color although the rind is light green. I had three plants in one huge tub and that provided all we could eat. I also made 11 quarts of squash pickles using my extras and a few yellow squash. It is perfect for squash pickles because it is uniform size all the way down the length of the neck of the squash, much like a cucumber. The vine is huge. It went up a 5 foot tomato cage, then down again, and across the yard about 15 feet in each direction. It was already a couple of feet above ground level. I found one squash bug on it and the next day found a few clusters of eggs which I destroyed. Nothing else bothered it all year. The early squash were a little slow to pollinate, but they are so obviously decernable that they are easily hand polinated. I know that some people say that if left on the vine they can be used like winter squash, but I don't think I would like that, and they would be impossible for me to store. In fact, I was beginning to get tired of cooking them. I stir-fried them, boiled them, steamed them, and made squash pickles. I only have a few more commercial seed, but I did make an attempt to save some. I really kind of forgot about saving seeds until it was almost too late, but I let one stay on the vine a little longer, then cut it and saved the seed. Much of the seed looked too immature to me so I just destroyed it, but I did save a few. I haven't tested them, but they look like they will be OK. I promised some to another friend and I don't have many, but I can send you a few if you want to try them. You only need a few plants to feed the neighborhood anyway. Send me your address if you want a few. Carol

Tracy, I've wondered for years if we could grow quinoa the way we grow winter rye and oats. Maybe I'll try that in 2013. I do grow Armenian cucumber every now and then, though not always every year. In 2012, I grew huge numbers of these cukes so that I could give them to the chickens on hot days. Our chickens love them, and when I began walking to their coop area with a big Armenian cucumber in my hands, no matter how far they were away from the coop free-ranging, they came running like little maniacs so they could devour the cukes. I always let the ones for the chickens grow huge before I harvest them. For kitchen use, I harvest them while they are much smaller. Now that the chickens are used to having them, I'll likely have to grow some for them every summer. I grew Armenian cukes this year in two locations. The main crop was on the fence on the western end of the garden, where they had full sun until about noon and then heavily dappled shade thereafter. I grew a smaller crop on a portion of the southern garden fence, with the driveway just outside that fence. They produced more heavily, but also were more heat-stressed since they were in full sun from sunrise to sunset and were attacked more by spider mites late in the season and by blister beetles in late July or early August. I did plant a huge number of Armenian cucumber plants for a small family, but that's because I intended to use the extras for the chickens. It worked out really well. Once the blister beetles had decimated the Armenian cukes, we had an extreme number of cantaloupes (muskmelons) and watermelons as well, so I gave the chickens a watermelon or a muskmelon just about every day. It was a great way to ensure they were getting enough moisture on those extremely hot July and August days. I made pickles from some of the smaller Armenian cukes, but since I made tons of pickles from regular cukes as well, I have not yet opened one of the jars made from Armenian cukes. I love Native Seeds/SEARCH and at the rate things are going in terms of summer heat and drought, I want to start growing more of the varieties they carry that are from hot, dry areas that have hot nights. Some of their beans have grown really well for me in precious drought years earlier in the 2000s. Those of you who are new to Native Seeds/SEARCH, be sure you read the descriptions and choose varieties that would match your climate. Some of Native Seed's varieties were collected from high altitude areas that have cool nights even when their days are very hot. Those varieties might not perform as well here as the ones from areas that have hot days and hot nights. For anyone looking for seeds of Devil's Claw, they carry several different ones. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Native Seeds/SEARCH