I am growing two eggplants that have done well for me, Casper (white) and Diamond (purple). Both are elongated Asian types. Since Casper does well in cool weather & Diamond prefers heat, one or the other is always bearing, regardless of the weather. Diamond is bearing now.

For cucumbers, I am growing Japanese Climbing this year... but last year I grew WI 5207, developed here in Wisconsin. It is a rare thing, a parthenocarpic open-pollinated cucumber. It does not need bees to set fruit; in fact, without them, the cukes are seedless. Makes it hard to save seed, though. ;-) Only the pollinated cukes have seed, and you can't tell the difference until you cut them open. It is also, incidentally, one of the best-tasting slicers that I have ever grown, nearly bitter-free.

Have you ever eaten "shellies", or green-shelled beans? "Butterbeans" are green-shelled limas; "edamame" are green-shelled soybeans. Other beans can be eaten in shelly stage too. Most green "snap" beans, in fact, can be used that way if they are allowed to get fat.

I grow an heirloom pole bean called Ma Williams; it is a very vigorous climber that can be used as either snap or shelly. When the beans are "ripe" as shellies, the pods turn a beautiful bright rose-pink. The beans inside are _very_ fat, thin-skinned, and tasty; and very easy to shell. I freeze many quarts of these each year for the winter.

I am a member of the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), and I could go on at length, as could many others on GW. But if you want to understand what all the fuss is about concerning heirlooms, perhaps the best way is to visit a place where hundreds of them are being grown, and judge for yourself.

Where do you live in Wisconsin? Because the Mother of All Heirloom Tomato Tastings will be at SSE's Heritage Farm, just across the Iowa border in Decorah, Iowa. It is the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, September 2nd. They will have about 50 tomato varieties for tasting, mostly varieties from their catalog... so if you find one you like, you can buy seed for it on the spot.

The farm itself is 890 acres in rolling countryside. There are miles of walking trails through field & forest, some fairly challenging. There are also fields where SSE grows nearly 1000 varieties for seed - you can view them "in the field" and get more information in a day, first-hand, than from years of reading catalogs. For instance, you can compare varieties side-by-side, to see which have resistance to drought or disease, and which bear earliest & most heavily.

There are tags next to each variety, so if you see something promising, write it down for future reference. And since their soil & climate are so similar to our own, what does well there should perform well here.

Think of it as the largest publicly-accessible "trial garden" in the U.S. We in Wisconsin are fortunate to have it so close by.

It is a beautiful place, you can easily make a day of it (I usually take 2-3). You don't have to be an SSE member to visit, although you may want to join after seeing what they do (and donations are appreciated).

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Savers Tomato Tasting

zeedman,

Wow, I had the SeedSavers website open in the other window when I read your reply. We'd received a catalog from them and I was planning on ordering seeds from them for next year. My wife wants some Japanese Climbing cukes for next year and some eggplants (Casper sound about right). I've narrowed the tomato list down to 7: Amish Paste, Beam's Yellow Pear, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Italian Heirloom and Stupice (probably 2-3 plants each). And a few varieties of garlic. I may have to break some new ground on the garden so that I don't grow tomatoes again where I have them now.

We live in Sheboygan, so we're a bit of a drive from Iowa. However, we'd talked about taking a weekend in August and drive out to their farm. It sounds pretty incredible, and we could save on the postage for the seeds. Unfortunately, we already have plans for the Labor day weekend, so we'll miss the tasting. That's really too bad.

We have a variety of family heirloom pole beans that I grow which sounds like your shellies. Supposedly great-grandma brought them over from the old country (Slovenia) and we've always grown them in the family, and always ate them fresh and whole with the pods. I steam them up and eat them with a little butter, mmmmmmm. I wonder if Seed Savers has them, too. They sound like a couple of their varieties from the website. Here's a few pictures of the beans, if you're interested.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54205113@N00/203994471/in/set-72157594220259761/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54205113@N00/203990579/in/set-72157594220259761/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54205113@N00/203990578/in/set-72157594220259761/

Yep, that's them going up the rain gutter in the last picture. ;) They reached the top of the 6 ft poles, so I ran twine for them between the poles, and back to the rain gutter. Fortunately, they seem more interested in flowering and producing beans than growing lately. Your Ma Williams sound cool. I may try some of those next year, too.

Thanks for all the info!

Mike

Mike, I live just above you in Oshkosh.

You're actually better off visiting Heritage Farm in August; I usually go the last weekend _before_ Labor Day, but I will try to make it for the taste-testing this year. The university in Decorah (Luther College) has their admissions Labor Day weekend, and most of the local hotels are usually booked; so I usually try to avoid that week.

I looked at the photos you posted of your beans. It was hard to tell, but they do look similar to mine. I have already found what appear to be identical varieties under several different names. Not surprising, given its productivity. What color / shape are the dry seeds of your bean?

Chris

The beans are tan with some black markings. Almost exactly like the beans at http://www.seedsavers.org/prodinfo.asp?number=37 . The bean pods develop some red markings as they age on the vine, but never turn very red, maybe 1/2 at the most. They look kind of like the beans shown in the link above, except red instead of black. It might be interesting to get them indentified sometime, since we only know it as "the family bean".

Mike

The address above is for Rattlesnake, which is a round-podded bean. In the photo, yours appeared to be flat-podded; if so, you have something else, possibly unique. Mine is flat-podded, but the seed is olive-green.

Chris

Hi-
I live in sheboygan also. I am growing for the first time two heirloom tomato plants, cherokee purple and brandywine. CP is doing awesome, with large fruit (1 that will be my fair entry in 3 weeks at about 1 1/2 lbs!)
brandywine was planted really late on purpose to be ready for a harvest fest at my childs school in October. So no report for growth yet ( planted end of june - just a bunch of foilage) next year i plan to plant a green strain along with the purple again since i have had luck with them this year. I might try to do a seed save on it, and not have to buy a new plant.

Tina

Tina,

Wow, another Sheboyganite. Excellent! Glad to hear your heirlooms are doing so well! And you enter them at the fair? That's cool. Do they get lots of heirlooms entered there? Those are both varieties on my list to try next year, as well as Beams Yellow Pears, Italian Heirloom, Amish Paste, Stupice, and Green Zebras. Where did you get your plants this year? I don't think any of the local greenhouses grow heirlooms, although there's a farm out by West Bend which does quite a few. I'm keeping my eyes open at the farmer's market in Fountain Park every Saturday to see if any show up there, too. And I like scoping out the neighbors plant to see if they grown anything interesting when I go for walks around the neighborhood (NE side, by Memorial Hospital). Haven't seen anything unusual, but most of the gardens are in the back yard, so I can't really seem them from the sidewalk. ;)

Mike

Hi-
this year all my plants came from "stein garden and gifts" - my dad bought me the CP, and cherry toms from the store off i-43 ( near milwaukee) and i bought the remainder at the store in appleton...( sister lives up there) I have 1 patio tomato i bought at wal-mart that the other plants give shame to in size, but it has a TON of tiny fruits on it.
I do enter in the fair - judging is on thursday the 31st of aug if you want to watch, It takes most of the day but very informative listening to the judges comments.
I just picked on really big Cherokee that was spose to be my fair entry....it's beautiful :) I wished it would have not been ready so early, but such is life. i have one more "fair size" fruit on the plant that i hope will be ready for delivery on the 30th! I am not sure about how many people grow them, I know my dad said alot of growers dont like them( that he knows) beacsue of the problems with cracking and the strange colors ( public does not like change?) but the fair entry form had sign up areas for hierlooms, so some people must grow them . this year i am entering a lot of veggies..carrots, gourds, beans ( if i have few left, heat got them pretty good) 3 classes of toms, and largest fruits, zuchinni + Tomato. So take a peek at the winners if you are out at the fair I hope to win a few ribbons :)

have a great week!
Tina

I also wanted to add that at both stein stores, they had a ton - i mean a TON i am guessing 100's of hierloom plants that were still sitting there at the end of june.....so i am guessing that not too many people grow them around here. And if you want to check out stien next year i am am pretty sure i saw all the strains you are looking for there - they had a ton a green strains also.

Tina

Add a plum Grany Melon to your list! They are a vrey interesting little number which look great and smell wonderful when ripe!

You could try a wisconsin 55 tomato. Developed by the university of wisconsin madison in the 1940's. I plan on growing them next year. I am in Cascade, but lived in Sheboygan until last year.

Lee

Wondering if you had a update?
have you found your Heirloom plants this year yet?

I just bought my plants today.......only doing Cherokee purple this year for a heirloom, well - 2 plants this time :) ( the rest are normal run-of-the-mill ~ Peppers, an intresting Large cherry tomato, this year i changed up the garden bed and going to try my hand at " Bush sugar baby watermelon" And "Minnesota Midget" Catalope :) - nothing in the ground as of yet.....as soon as mother nature gives us some HEAT i will move them out :) LOL

Tina

Hi! Yes, I have an update.

I decided to got native this year and raise my own seedlings. I bought some heirloom seeds from seedsavers.com and started them in the basement under florescent light. I have 9 kinds of tomatoes, Black Krim, Brandywine, Czech's Excellent Yellow, Green Zebra, Red Zebra, Opalka, Stupice, Italian Heirloom, and Gold Medal. I started 5 of each, expecting a few to die off so that I'd get 2-3 each. Well they all did great, so now I have 45 seedlings. Yikes. I've started offering some to relatives, neighbors, people at work, etc, so I think I can narrow them down to about 3 plants each. They are doing great, about 6 inches high and bushy. My only worry is the crowding. I leave them in boxes so they are easy to haul outside for the hardening and they are just growing all over each other.

I just started hardening them off this week, and I should be putting some in the ground by next week some time depending on what the weather forcast looks like. I still get some nights in the 40s when the wind is off of Lake Michigan (I'm about 1/4 mile from the lake) so I'm better off waiting a bit when planting and getting the days back in October when the lake is keeping me warmer than the inland areas. The current forcast for this coming Friday night here is 43 degrees.

I'm planning on getting a few other tomato seedlings from various sources. They have some Cherokee Purple down at the West Allis Farmers Market and I plan to pick up a few this weekend. I'm also going to get a few Sweet 100 and Sungold from the local greenhouse. Oh, we picked up a nice heirloom lettuce mix that's already growing well. We also have a couple of heirloom cucumber types that I'm going to seed directly soon. Japanese Climber was one, I can't remember the other. And 3 or 4 of the family pole beans that great-granny smuggled out of Slovenia. And spinach and broccoli.

Yup, I had to dig up some lawn to expand the garden this year. ;) Grass is boring, anyway. 8^)

Mike

Glad to read your update....you know LOL If you want to get rid of some more seedings, I live in Sheboygan too.....:)
I was just looking at forecast, and i thought mabye this weekend would be the time ( forecasting upper 70's + 80's the next 2 days) but i was wrong again....back down to 60's the rest of the weekend ~drats.
I did put out some melons seedling's yesterday, my yard is fully closed in and about 15 degrees warmer without the breeze blowing threw, - plenty warm for them.
good luck with your garden this year, sounds like you will have a great one!

Tina

I need to chime in here. As I started reading this thread I was shocked that you had tomatoes already, until I read that your comment was from 2006!
I didn't realize that the West Allis farmers market and Steins had any heirlooms, will need to look into that. I've been germinating with grow lights for so long that I don't even look at tomato plants for sale any more.

I'm growing Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Earls Faux, Mortgage Lifter, Kellogs Breakfast, Opalka, Celebrity (hybrid), Pineapple, and a few others. I could live on Cherokee Purple and Opalka. Planted them outside yesterday, half of them in Wall-O-Water, and experimenting with the other half in fiberglass cones that a friend just gave me. I started a little late this year, I usually plant out earlier.

Have you guys tried any type of protection to enable you to transplant outside earlier?

"Have you guys tried any type of protection to enable you to transplant outside earlier?"

I haven't, but his is only my second year of growing tomatoes seriously and my first starting them myself. I figure that the season is long enough for me to get more tomatoes than I can possibly eat already. The Wall-O-Water sounds interesting, since Lake Michigan is the biggest limiting factor to an early start here. I might look into that next year. My garden it right up against my house and the furnace vent is right there, so that might be keeping my toms warmer on cold nights.

When did you start your seeds? I started April 2nd and I think that might have been a bit early. My seedlings are BIG. I wasn't planning on planting until around Memorial Day, but I was running out of space under my lights as they got big, so I figured I'd harden them off and plant some of them a few weeks early and see how they do.

FYI, there were some Cherokee Purples at the West Allis Farmer's Market last Saturday and lots of hybrids, but I didn't see any other heirlooms. There may be more as the weather warms up and more people are thinking about tomatoes. I'm heading down there again this Saturday to get my 2-3 Purples and will let you know if I see anything interesting. I haven't been able to check out Stein's yet. I'd like to see if they have any Caspian Pink or anything else like that before June, at least.

Mike

The Steins by me (West Allis) has Caspian Pink along with a host of others (Cherokee purple, Black Krim, Wis 55, etc). They have made great strides in their selections over the last few years.

tj

Another update:

I bought 1 each of Morgage Lifter, Mr. Stripey, and Arkansaw Traveller at the West Allis Farmer's Market on Saturday. I'm still in the process of hardening them off. And we did swing by the Stein's in Mequon on the way home and they have tons of heirloom tomatoes. At least 15 - 20 different kinds as well as any just about any hybrid you can think of. We're heading back that way next weekend so I can finally pick up my Cherokee Purples and Caspian Pinks.

On Sunday I planted 2 each of the ones I started myself. I would have preferred to wait another week or two, but they were just too big to stay in a holding pattern. Next year I'll start them a few weeks later. It's supposed to get down into the upper 30s here on Wednesday night. I hope they make it! I think they'll be fine since they are right where the furnace vents and that will be running all night.

Mike