 Cleaning
Seed With Will Bonsall |
Delicious Potluck Lunch and Squash Tasting
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Singing Harvest Rounds with the Adamah Folks
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Annual Seed Exchange of heirloom traditions and 'vintage
vegetables'- selective saving of the seed of the finest plants
of the season's harvest.
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Bryan Connolly displayed sixty-five rare heirloom
squashes to discover and taste. We are thrilled to announce that
Bryan is establishing a 'Seed
Conservancy' to restore populations of rare northeast-adapted
vegetables, and develop new delicious, disease-resistant lines.
A focus this year is restoring
heirloom squash.
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Fascinating workshops with Bryan O'Hara, Jeremy Barker-Plotkin
and seed-savers New England-wide.
Bryan reported that his winter-hardy brassica are
not infested by flea beetles in the spring, although spring-planted
greens in adjacent beds are innundated! He notices that the beneficial
insects that feed on the vegetable flower nectar are the predators
of that vegetables' insect pests.
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Dr. Mark Hutton, Maine Cooperative Extension, admires
Bryan's amazing squash collection. Mark presented workshops on
crop improvement and cucurbits.
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 Jeremy in
his field of winter-hardy greens - breeding projects. Jeremy
taught us how he selects seed crops. |
Last year Dr. Raoul Robinson taught us how to breed
potatos for durable resistance. We crossed Cornell's Prince Hairy
(prickly leaves that repel insects but mediocure
flavor) with richly flavored landrace potatoes: Blossom
(the maternal plant), Caribe, Island Sunshine, Green Mountain
and Purple Peruvian. Will we find a succulant tasting potato
with prickly leaves in this harvest?
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