Hello! I have a question, do you trade for SASE or just other seeds? You are the first person I have came across that has heirloom seeds. I have been doing research about heirlooms and would like to grow a small garden of them. Please let me know! Thank you Ruth

Like Llaz, I had a challenging year; a few of my perennial favorites had to take a year off, to be replaced by shorter season alternatives. I'll list them all anyway. Snap beans: "Fortex". I also grow at least one other pole snap, including: "Emerite", "Pole 191" (a.k.a. white-seeded Kentucky Wonder), "Rattlesnake", or "Garafal Oro". Shell beans: "Ma Williams" (early pole) and/or "Bird Egg #3" (late pole) and/or "PI 507984" (very early bush). At least one of these, depending upon the weather. "PI 507984" proved itself this year, in a very short season. Dry beans: "Brita's Foot Long" or "Soissons Vert" (high yield, outstanding flavor) Sweet corn: "Miracle" hybrid (highly disease resistant, very large ears w/tight tip cover, great flavor) Summer squash: "Zucchetta Rampicante" (borer & disease resistant, excellent frozen quality) Eggplant: "Casper" and "Diamond" (cold & Verticillium resistant, high-yielding) Okra: "Pentagreen" (cold & Verticillium resistant, the only okra I can grow reliably this far North). Proved itself this year, with a short, cool Summer. Swiss chard: "Special Large White Ribbed" (flat leaves, easy to clean, very wide stalks) Other greens: Water spinach, Egyptian spinach, Moringa oleifera (tree grown as annual, high-protein leaves) Cucumber: "WI 5207" (highly disease resistant, parthenocarpic, good climber, great flavor) Tomatoes: "Sojourner South American" (very large red oxheart, prolific), "Elfin" (OP grape tomato, extremely prolific) Peppers: "Greygo" (very large cheese type, sweet, tender skin), "Beaver Dam" (large pointed Hungarian type, very early, medium hot), "Pizza" (highly prolific, gourmet green peppers just before frost, outstanding keeper) Soybeans: "Sapporo Midori" (edamame, early, very large seed) Pea: "Purple Podded Parsley" (table pea, purple pods) Watermelon: "Blacktail Mountain" (very early, high Brix, good keeper) Garlic: 10 varieties (mostly hardneck), plus Elephant Garlic & Pearl Onions (which are really bulbing leeks) Since I am a seed saver, many other vegetables are grown in a rotation... I never have the same garden twice. But I do grow varieties each year from the categories below: - one adzuki bean - one mung bean - Runner beans: 2 - Limas: 2 - Yardlongs: 3-4 (will include the bush yardlong grown this year) - Cowpeas: 2-3 - one C. maxima squash (buttercup, hubbard, banana, kabocha) - one C. pepo squash (acorn, naked-seeded pumpkin, spaghetti) - one hot pepper for drying - Tomatoes: one banana-type paste, 1-4 red paste types, one non-red paste, one potato-leaf, one non-red slicer - one basil - soybeans: 3-4 additional edamame In addition, there will be many other trials each year for pole beans, soybeans, peas, tomatoes, and peppers.

We have two major gardens--the spring garden and the fall. Fall is more productive for us (fewer bugs and more rain). Right now we have in garlic, onions, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, corn salad, rocket and carrots. Our fall carrots don't get very large, but they sure are sweet! Since we now have more space, we are experimenting with a seasonal garden (smaller) for in-and-out crops, a larger garden for the long season plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. and a dedicated garden for onions and garlic. We also have an asparagus patch to be planted this coming February. Thanks to a wonderful neighbor down the road who has a tractor and tiller, we aren't breaking our backs digging and tilling!

Ray, the late summer/autumn pea crop has suffered from a massively wet autumn. The broad beans have suffered too. They hate wet feet. It was so wet that even the flavour of this season's oil was affected. Less peppery than usual. We were meant to have a bona fide glass glasshouse well before now. Hold ups with the work on the house delayed it. The house took priority. For some reason. It will be in place next year. In the meantime, before spring, I'll create a temporary structure at the top of the new garden to give the spring plantings a flying start. Last night we took some visitors up to our local trattoria in the hills above the town. Great food, as always, including my usual pici with cinghiale ragu and a glorious marscapone dessert that I've had before. It verges on tiramisu but stops short. All in front of a roaring log fire. Had to scrape the ice off the windscreen before we could drive home.