Growing Guide: 135 Rare Heirlooms from Jardin Seed Co. - Gardenista
Photography by Michelle Slatalla. I would like more Self-Blanching Snowball Cauliflower in my diet. And you cannot buy them in your chain supermarket. All are heirloom seeds which means they have been passed on for generation to generation for their traits they... ...have exceptional flavor or they re very hardy and unlike hybrids they will reproduce exactly like their parents says Lizardi Lizardi sells Boxed Seed Collections ($29.95 each), each of which has at least 12 packages of different varieties. In the Chef’s Garden Collection, which I bought last month, there are packets of seeds with names like Imperial Star Artichoke, Red Express Cabbage, Sweet Marketmore Cucumber, and Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce (Shown). Lizardi also sells memberships in a Seed-of-the-Month Club (prices range from $60 to $99, depending on whether you get a six- or a nine-month subscription). Lizardi’s personal favorites? Each boxed collection comes with an exhaustive Growing Guide, with suggestions for when and how to plant each variety as well as historical facts. It might interest you to learn that the Self Blanching Snowball Cauliflower a variety developed in the 1700s in Germany has self wrapping leaves which shield the snow white curds from sun If this does not interest... ...you then stop reading before you learn that cauliflowers are a venerable ancient food mentioned in the first cookbook written in early Roman times De Re Coquinaria On the Subject of Cooking fourth or fifth century A D The Italian Arugula seeds I bought should be sown outdoors one month before the last frost date (“Arugula grows quickly, so we recommending sowing rather than transplanting,” the Growing Guide advises).