Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company is excited to be a part of the quickly expanding heirloom revolution. The movement is growing by leaps and bounds as more and more people understand the importance of preserving our plant heritage and diversity.

Baker Creek has teamed up with YourGardenShow.com to provide gardeners a chance to grow great gardens and win great prizes in the Grow It Forward contest. YourGardenShow.com is a social network for gardeners by gardeners. It provides a place for gardeners to share their garden photos, tips, and more.

First of all, 1,000 gardeners across the USA will receive free packets of Baker Creek heirloom seeds to plant in their gardens. Participants will then photograph the progress of their gardens and post the photos on YourGardenShow.com.

Enter the contest for multiple chances to win monthly prizes of garden tools, supplies and more. The GRAND PRIZE winner will receive accommodations and air travel to attend The National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, California, in September. Go to http://www.yourgardenshow.com/grow-it-forward to enter the contest and your chance to win.

The United States Department of Agriculture has recently released an updated version of the Plant Hardiness Zone Map. The color-coded maps can often be found printed on the backs of many seed packets, in many garden magazines and catalogs, as well as on the internet. Gardeners use the maps to determine appropriate growing zones for plants.

See a detailed map of your area at: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

The new version of the map came out of a joint effort of the USDA and Oregon State University, and has much greater detail than the previously used 1990 version.

Press releases by the USDA and other sources indicate that the several zone changes reflect warming temperatures, based on a 30-year study of cumulative weather data (1976-2005). It is important to note that the zone designations represent the average annual extreme low temperatures at a given location during a particular time period. They do not reflect the record coldest it has ever been or ever will be at a specific location, but simply the average lowest winter temperature for the location over a specified time. Low temperature during the winters is usually considered a crucial factor in the survival of plants at a given location.

Compared to the 1990 map, zone boundaries on the new map have shifted by about 5 degrees F throughout much of the nation. The new map includes two new zones in hotter climates: zone 12 (50-60 degrees F) and zone 13 (60-70 degrees F). The higher the zone number, the warmer is the average low temperature during wintertime. Each zone is a 10-degree Fahrenheit band, further divided into A and B 5-degree Fahrenheit zones. The new map also takes into account changes in elevations and closeness to large bodies of water that can influence temperature, something the old map did not address. As a result, there is a slight northward warming trend indicated on the map, but also a few colder areas in mountainous regions. It is significant to note that no geographic location experienced a change of more than one-half zone designation.

The design of the new Plant Hardiness Zone Map is particularly useful on the internet. An interactive version can be found at http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb and allows the user to enter a zip code to obtain the plant hardiness zone for a particular area, or use a drop-down menu to highlight a particular state and its plant hardiness zones. The zones offer important guidelines for all growers, whether they garden small plots, farm large acreages, or grow orchards or forests.

Everyone knows that an oil spill is not good for the environment. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser has been traveling the world for years, spreading the word that GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are just as detrimental—to the land, wildlife, farmers, our food supply, and to us.

Percy’s story is a famous one. He’s the canola farmer who battled the chemical company Monsanto for a decade and received, with his wife, Louise, the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for fighting to defend biodiversity, the rights of farmers, and the future of seeds.

Initially, in 1998, Monsanto took the Schmeisers to court for patent infringement, claiming that they were growing the biotech giant’s patented GMO canola. It didn’t matter, according to Canadian patent law, that Monsanto’s GMO canola, freshly cut on a nearby farmer’s land, had drifted onto the couple’s farm and that they had no control over the ensuing GMO canola plants sprouting there. Nor did it matter that Percy and Louise had spent 50 years growing non-GMO canola crops on their land, working as seed developers and researching disease control. According to Canadian patent law, Monsanto could take the couple’s entire crop from them or make them destroy it. According to patent law, Monsanto now owned the crop.

For 10 years, the Schmeisers were in and out of court with Monsanto, fighting to keep their farmland, farm equipment and home as well as fending off a million-dollar lawsuit Monsanto filed against them claiming punitive damages. According to Percy, during the course of these legal battles, he and his wife were subjected to threats by the biotech giant and asked to sign release forms stating that they could never take Monsanto to court, no matter how much the company’s GMO plants contaminated their farm. These release forms also stated that—if the Schmeisers signed them—they would lose their freedom of speech, they would not be permitted to talk about the terms of their settlement with Monsanto. (For more details, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/17/percy_schmeiser_vs_monsanto_the_story.)

All told, the couple endured four legal battles with Monsanto. The fourth battle brought a victory for conventional and organic farmers, setting a precedent that if a farmer’s land is contaminated with GMO seed or plants, that farmer can seek retribution in court, which is what the Schmeisers did. They got Monsanto to pay for the removal of GMO plants from their land. (This was not for the initial contamination of their land but for a later contamination.)

The hard-earned personal victories for the Schmeisers included getting to keep their home and farm and not having to pay Monsanto a million dollars in punitive damages. The couple did not sign any release forms barring them from filing additional lawsuits against Monsanto or silencing them from talking about their settlement with the chemical giant. And, they are far from being quiet about their personal struggles with Monsanto. Percy talks at roughly 100 locations a year about his battle with Monsanto, the ill effects of GMOs on the environment, on farmers’ rights, on our food supply, and on our health. (He’ll be speaking in Northern California at the National Heirloom Exposition, which will be held Sept. 11-13, 2012, at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.)

Pollen Doesn’t Read Signs

One of the most important points Percy is hoping to stress these days is that once GMO seeds or plants are introduced into an environment there’s no containment. “You can’t contain pollen flying in the wind or spread by bees, or seeds dispersing, whether by wind or transportation by farmers’ processing,” he says.

This does not only affect the conventional farmers, Percy stresses, but also the organic farmers. Crops that have become predominately GMO crops, such as corn, canola, soy and cotton can no longer be raised organically, he says, “so their (the farmers’) freedom of choice is taken away. They cannot continue on as an organic farmer in those crops. Organic farmers should become aware of the dangers, that they could lose their organic certification overnight if their neighbor happens to grow a GMO crop similar to the conventional organic crop that they’re growing,” says Percy.

Another potentially dangerous process, Percy would like consumers and non-GMO farmers to know about is “gene stacking.” This process creates GMO seeds or plants that can have as many as eight genes in them, he explains. “What are the effects on health? We don’t know at this time. But you have to remember that every time you transfer a gene from one higher life form to another, you can never do it by itself, you have to use a virus or bacteria, and in the case of canola, you have to use an antibiotic-resistant marker gene. Those items are all in your food now that you never had before.

“One of the biggest concerns also by the population now is the massive increase in the use of chemicals. With GMOs, you’re now using at least four times more powerful, more toxic, more dangerous chemicals than we’ve ever seen on the face of the earth before in the growing of our food. What about the effects on our health in regards to our water, our soil, our air, and, as I said before, on our food?”

On Farmers’ Rights

“Farmers should always have the right to use their seeds from year to year, develop them and plant them from year to year,” says Percy. “Farmers should never lose their rights to their own seed and plants if it’s grown on their own soil and farm property, because when you lose that right, you’re going to lose biodiversity, which we have already, because, as I mentioned before, you cannot stop the contamination of GMOs into other crops.

“Farmers should have the opportunity to purchase seeds that they want. That it’s not only GMO seeds. . .those rights should not be taken away. Basically, now if a farmer wants to grow canola here (in Canada), they can only buy GMO canola seed.

“The biggest issue that I’m concerned about is the whole new fear culture amongst farmers,” Percy shares, “in regard to the contracts and what happens to a farmer if he (his property) is contaminated (with GMO plants), his loss of rights, and not only that, but Monsanto’s investigators coming out to a farmer’s farm and going out into his field and taking samples to see if he’s growing Monsanto’s seed, in this case soy beans or corn or canola, without a license from them.

“It’s very difficult for a farmer to stand up to a corporation,” adds Percy, who can most certainly attest to this.

“These companies call themselves ‘life science’,” he adds, “but to me, it’s not anything about ‘life science,’ it’s ‘death science’.” The chemical companies attempted to introduce what has been dubbed “the terminator” gene in Canada a few years ago, he explains. “This is how it works. The terminator gene is put into a seed. When the seed is planted and becomes a plant, all the seeds from that plant are sterile, in other words, it will not germinate, so that would definitely force a farmer to buy seed from year to year.

“But there’s a greater danger to that,” he adds, “in that the terminator gene, if it’s in a plant in the pollination stage, can cross-pollinate with cousins in its own plant variety, in other words, in your organic farmer’s crop, in your conventional farmer’s crop, and render all those seeds sterile also. But it doesn’t really stop with plants. Terminator gene, if it’s inserted in any higher life form can cross-pollinate or enter into any higher life form, whether it’s a bird, a bee, an animal or ultimately a human being. That’s the greatest danger we have now on the face of the earth, the termination of the future of life, where corporations would own the control of seeds and plants with the terminator gene.”

Even more ominous is the development of what is called the “cheater gene,” Percy reveals, and how the terminator gene and the cheater gene could be used together (neither has been approved for use as of yet). A possible use, if approved, could involve inserting both genes into a seed, according to Percy. This seed would grow a plant that “will not produce a seed unless you spray a chemical on the cheater gene. So when you spray a chemical on this plant with the cheater gene in it, it will produce seed. Then the terminator gene will kick in on the seed and render that seed sterile. That would give the corporations total control of all our future seed supply.”

This would not only affect commercial farmers, Percy stresses, but farmers’ market growers—everybody. “When GMOs first came out, a lot of consumers thought, well, that’s a farmer’s issue, that really doesn’t effect us. Believe me the patents on genes effect everybody.”

What can we do?

As consumers, our power is in educating ourselves about GMOs, according to Percy, and in persisting in getting foods containing GMOs labeled as such. Also, we can “cast our vote” for a non-GMO food supply by purchasing non-GMO foods.

“That’s why there’s a new movement afoot in Canada and the United States, and it’s called ‘The Right to Know’,” the right to know what’s in our food. In other words, we should have labeling,” Percy stresses. In Europe, foods containing GMOs are labeled as such. “We are about the only two first world nations in the world that do not have labeling, and we think that it’s absolutely criminal that we don’t know what’s in our food, one of the most important things in our life.”

For more information regarding “The Right to Know” in California, visit www.labelgmos.org. At the national level, visit http://www.opencongress.org/people/representatives to find contact information for your local congressman or congresswoman to urge their support of the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (H.R. 3553).

Here at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, we love stories of seeds. We print as much information as we can gather about the different seed varieties that we offer in our catalog. Sometimes a variety will come to us with a story, and other times we have to search out the story to the best of our ability.

We also like stories about the seeds that have left our warehouse and have gone out into the hands and gardens of our customers. When this photo of the Pink Brandywine came across my desk, I was astonished at how much it looked so much like the one on our 2011 catalog cover, also depicted in the photograph sent in by a customer. I went searching for the story that would go with it.

Kirby and Dee Stafford of Brooksville, Florida, are dedicated backyard gardeners that grow plants in raised beds and a few 40-feet rows along the fence lines. That is impressive coming from someone who says, “Our garden size is limited to our hectic work schedules, and lots of deer/rabbits.”

The Staffords garden because they get a lot of satisfaction when they grow, cook, eat, and share the products of their garden. They both grew up with families who had gardens, and they remember that the best meals had fresh veggies in them. They also recognize that gardening helps them save on grocery bills and keeps them active as they get a bit older. When asked for their favorite tomato recipe, Dee answered, “Nothing beats a fresh tomato sandwich! White bread, Dukes Mayo, salt, pepper, and a fresh piece of lettuce! UMMM!”

Dee and Kirby turned to Baker Creek Seeds a couple of years ago when they read an article in their local newspaper about the “absolutely dysfunctional” tomato-growing business in Florida: poor soil being pumped with chemical fertilizers, gassing to create color, etc. The author of the article recommended Baker Creek Seeds as a real alternative source for Floridians who wanted to grow tomatoes the old-fashioned way and get a better product. The Staffords promptly went online, ordered a catalog, and the accompanying photo is the result of their first test of Baker Creek seeds.

The Staffords normally grow two or three varieties of tomatoes, always including at least one cherry tomato plant. In fact, they share their favorite gardening story that involves cherry tomatoes: “About 10 years ago, we planted a 10-feet by 20-feet stand of cherry tomatoes—fortifying the soil with donkey manure—and these plants just took off! By the time they finally quit producing, they were over 10 feet tall. The only thing that was unusual was that these particular plants seemed to not have any tomatoes for the first three or four feet of growth. We chalked it up to the fact that they were so tall, and so healthy, all the blooms were high up. Besides, we were getting hundreds of tomatoes, so it wasn’t a ‘problem.’ Then one day, looking out our window, we discovered why this was happening. Our dog, a 100-pound Labrador retriever, was weaving her way around the plants, gracefully pulling off all the red, ripe cherries she could reach! Following behind her was our German shepherd, getting the ones she would reach! Mystery solved!”

Kirby and Dee Stafford are typical examples of gardeners who use Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and have a story to tell. We appreciate their sharing their story.

Kathy McFarland is a Baker Creek employee and a life-long gardener.

Now that we truly are into our busiest season of the year, we are working long days to fill the many hundreds to thousands of orders that come in daily and get them out to our customers as quickly as possible. In fact, our goal is to fill orders the same day received, and we can usually accomplish that. Here is a little insight into the process of filling a seed order at Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.

First of all, we have two warehouses, both managed by Chris. The first is where the seeds are extracted, sorted, and processed during our harvest season. It is also where we receive seeds from our contracted growers. Chris’s competent staff packs the seeds into their respective packets, either by hand or with our one seed packing machine. We now have about 85 percent of our seeds packed into colorful custom packets, with only a few still being placed into generic seed envelopes. Once the seeds are packed for sale, they are either stored in the second warehouse till they are needed or are taken immediately to the seed store where they are sold directly to walk-in customers or pulled to fill orders.

The order-processing part of the procedure begins with our customer service department. Headed by Lisa, this fine group of employees does more than just answer the telephones. Though the bulk of our orders are computer-generated and are electronically transmitted to the system for printing, we still have a surprising number of folks who prefer to send orders via postal mail. Lisa’s team inputs all of the mail orders into the computer system. They do that in the rare slow moments that they have between answering the phones to take orders, dispense growing advice, or to deal with a multitude of customer needs and requests.

Orders are then printed and filled by Angie’s floor crew. Our order fulfillment process requires a triple check for quality. Each order is first checked for accuracy of billing vs. shipping address and any special request notes by the customer before being filled. The “picker” then marks off each invoice item as he/she pulls the packet(s) from the shelf. Once the seeds are picked, a “checker” double checks to affirm that the quantity and variety of all packs is correct before sending the filled (but still unclosed) orders to the shipping department.

Danielle and her shippers take a final look at the filled orders. While they don’t verify each seed packet enclosed, they do look for special circumstances such as any refunds that are owed, invoices that need to be sent separately from the billing address, and any special shipping instructions from the customer. They take great care to bubble wrap books that are ordered and to secure the packages for transit. They are responsible for enclosing the invoice, sealing the packages, and printing shipping labels.

Seed orders under 14 ounces are put into padded envelopes and mailed first class. The USPS requires anything over 13 ounces to mailed Priority. Danielle’s crew determines if those Priority orders are better packaged in the bubble mailers, USPS Priority boxes, or in some cases for very large orders—packed in boxes and shipped by FedEx. Our domestic shipping fees are very simple. We charge the customer one price: $3.50! In most cases that is a real bargain because the very least that we can ship a priority package is $4.95, and we ship a lot of packages over 13 ounces! Shipping costs for international orders are automatically calculated by the on-line ordering system.

Finally, our huge canvas mail carts are filled with mailer envelopes and boxes. We have four daily scheduled package pickups during the busy season The USPS regular mail route carrier brings the daily mail from the post office and picks up the regular out-going mail. Toward the end of the day, the contracted USPS truck comes to pick up our multiple carts of packages. The FedEx ground driver comes around noon to pick up the packages being shipped by that company, while the FedEx Express driver comes in the later afternoon to pick any express packages. In addition, we occasionally have packages for the UPS driver to pick up.

In most cases, this entire process is completed during the course of one day—barring snow or ice storms, electric or electronic outages, postal holidays, or other unforeseen circumstances—and our customers get their seeds in a timely manner.

Kathy McFarland is a Baker Creek employee and a life-long gardener.

The labeling of foods containing GMOs (genetically modified organisms) is a wish of 93 percent of Americans who believe they have a right to know if the food they are purchasing contains GMOs. GMO labeling is also a top concern for organic farmers and food producers across the nation, and getting GMOs out of our food supply is a passionate cause lead by non-GMO advocates throughout the world.

“The best effort today for regulation (of GMOs) is the California Ballot Initiative, which bypasses the corporate driven politics and legislators, giving consumers the direct ability to require mandatory labeling of GMOs,” says Jeffrey Smith, America’s most prominent non-GMO advocate, GMO expert, and author of The Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating.

At the national level, there is the opportunity to support the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (H.R. 3553) introduced by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich by writing to your state representative. The act is currently sitting in two committees—the House of Agriculture committee and the House of Energy and Commerce committee.

What You Can Do As a Consumer

The top three things we as consumers can do in the push to stop the use of GMOs in our foods is to learn more about them, avoid them, and get involved in helping others become aware of them, says Smith.

A great way to get involved in California is to volunteer to gather signatures on petitions to get the California Label GMOs Initiative on this November’s ballot. Volunteers are needed to gather petition signatures now through April. (Visit www.labelgmos.org to see how you can help.)

At the national level, visit http://www.opencongress.org/people/representatives to find contact information for your local congressman or congresswoman to urge their support of the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (H.R. 3553). The passing of this bill would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, and the Poultry Products Inspection Act to require that food that contains a genetically engineered material or that is produced with a genetically engineered material, be labeled accordingly.

Jeffrey Smith also urges concerned consumers to visit www.responsibletechnology.org (the Website for The Institute for Responsible Technology of which Smith is executive director) and sign up for a free Spilling the Beans newsletter and join The Tipping Point Network, which provides the opportunity to connect with others, locally or nationally, interested in doing outreach for the cause.

“The FDA does not actually approve any GMOs,” says Smith. “In 1992, their policy claimed that they were not aware of any information showing that GMOs were substantially different, and therefore, they said no testing was necessary, no labeling was necessary. In fact, companies like Monsanto, who told us that PCBs, Agent Orange, and DDT were safe, can make the full determination that their own GMOs are safe and put them on the market without telling consumers or the FDA.

“The policy turned out to be a lie,” stresses Smith. “In fact, the overwhelming consensus among the FDA’s own scientists was that GMOs were not only different but inherently dangerous and could lead to toxins, allergies, diseases and nutritional problems.”

These same FDA scientists have been urging their superiors to do something about this, but have been ignored, partly, according to Smith, because higher ups in the administration are former Monsanto employees. These scientists’ findings have even been validated by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, adds Smith, with the outcome being a recommendation to doctors that they should prescribe non-GMO diets to every patient.

The bottom line, Smith stresses, is that we should not trust the powers that be to safeguard us from the ill effects of GMOs.

Some Background on GMO’s

The Institute for Responsible Technology provides the following information on foods containing GMOs: “GM foods were made possible by a technology developed in the 1970s whereby genes from one species are forced into the DNA of other species. Genes produce proteins, which in turn can generate characteristics or traits. The promised traits associated with GMOs have been sky high—vegetables growing in the desert, Vitamin-fortified grains, and highly productive crops feeding the starving millions. None of these are available. In fact, the only two traits that are found in nearly all commercialized GM plants are herbicide tolerance and/or pesticide production.”

What has also been found in many studies done over the years are adverse health effects in animals, and this past summer, in pregnant women and their fetuses. Animal studies have shown a five-fold increase in infant mortality, says Smith, as well as smaller babies and sterile babies. This is information that has been available for awhile, yet more recently in humans, a study conducted in Canada revealed that BT toxin, the insecticide produced from Monsanto BT Mon810 corn (which is genetically modified to resist corn borers by producing its own insecticide) was found in 93 percent of the pregnant women tested and 80 percent of their unborn fetuses, according to Smith. This nullifies the claim by regulators that BT toxin was destroyed in the digestive process, he adds.

Those doing the study proposed that the BT toxin, the protein, may have come from milk and meat from animals fed the corn. However, another theory with a more direct correlation, which Smith feels carries more weight, comes from the only human feeding study ever published, which shows that genes inserted into soybeans to make the soy Roundup-ready transferred into the DNA of bacteria living inside of our intestines and probably continued to function.

“If the same transfer were to occur from corn by eating, for example, corn chips or tortillas,” says Smith, “then it may turn our intestinal floor into living pesticide factories where our own gut bacteria produces the BT toxin on a continuous basis.”

Non-GMO Project Verification in Action

In October, Northern California dairyman Albert Straus participated and spoke before hundreds of attendants from throughout the world at the Right2Know Rally in Washington D.C., spreading the word on the importance of labeling genetically modified foods on behalf of the national Just Label It: We Have a Right to Know campaign, which his dairy sponsors.

As an organic farmer, Straus favors a “proactive versus a reactive” stance in the push to get foods containing GMOs labeled, and he has been very proactive in preserving the “organic integrity” of his certified organic dairy farm on the coast of West Marin, raising his dairy herd without antibiotics, hormones or pesticides. To ensure that the feed he gives his cows and the ingredients he uses in his products are GMO-free, Straus and his suppliers test all the ingredients in their products, including the feeds for his dairy cows and the seeds he uses to grow his forage crops.

“We have a verification system,” explains Straus, who began testing for GMOs in 2006. “We use a PCR (Protein Chain Reaction) test to test for GMOs in our products.” In April 2010, Straus Family Creamery became the first creamery to achieve Non-GMO Project Verification for all its products. (Albert Straus also offers information on the running of his certified organic farm and on his GMO testing process to interested organic farmers. He can be reached at family@strausmilk.com.)

Albert and other organic farmers are disheartened by the USDA’s full deregulation of genetically modified alfalfa last January, which allows unrestricted planting of Roundup Ready crop. Alfalfa is an essential feed for his dairy cows, and the potential contamination of organic alfalfa from genetically modified alfalfa poses a significant threat to his company and the organic dairy industry. The organic alfalfa growing industry needs to start testing and verifying its crops are GMO-free, he adds.

“Consumers need to be aware,” he stresses. “They need to get information and educated about the effects of GMOs on the environment and our food supply.” Straus also urges consumers to share their GMO knowledge with others and to get involved in GMO labeling initiatives both locally and federally.

“Sustainability, family farms, organic, non-GMO are the future,” says Straus, “and GMOs cannot be in our food system.” Currently, he adds, “70 to 80 percent of our food is contaminated with GMOs. We’re just the guinea pigs.”

Baker Creek co-owner and heirloom girl Emilee Gettle is featured on the front cover of Country Woman magazine. Check out the February/March issue published by Reiman Publications.

Visit Emilee’s blog at www.heirloomgirl.com

At Baker Creek, we’re always on the lookout for interesting “new” varieties, meaning not new breeding, but old varieties that may not have received the attention they deserve in today’s heirloom- and pure-foods community. These varieties turn up just about anywhere: in the annual Seed Savers’ Yearbook, in the commercial listings from foreign countries, and quite often, proudly sent in as donations from our customers’ own gardens and seed collections!

Once suitable candidates are located and foundation seed obtained, it then becomes a matter of getting the varieties grown, either on our own farm or within our ever-widening network of contract growers. Crops don’t always succeed; the seed we receive might be crossed (not true-to-type) or it might prove to be non-viable. And of course, all the usual problems of pests and poor weather may take their toll. So sometimes it takes several years from the time we first identify a promising variety until it actually appears in our catalog!

The 2011 season saw some successful pepper grow-outs, and we’re proud to be offering several new varieties in the 2012 listings:

Sweet Peppers:

Criolla de Cocina–Here is one we have been trying to include for a number of years. Of the type generally known as “seasoning peppers” and used throughout the Caribbean region, this great little sweet pepper hails from Nicaragua. Criolla de Cocina is long on rich, complex pepper flavor and especially aroma, but without any heat. The four-inch fruits ripen from green to a final rich red color. Their name refers, in Spanish, to the peppers’ widespread use in “Creole” cooking.

White Lakes--Russian varieties are usually quite productive and hardy, and due to the idiosyncracies of the often brutal climate there, these varieties are frequently rather early as well. White Lakes lives up to all these expectations. The variety produces loads of dainty, somewhat pointed fruits. These abundant gems early take on an antique ivory or cream color, and ripen quickly to a rich, intense reddish orange. Suitable for any typical sweet-pepper use, we favor them for use in stuffed peppers, where, stuffed with your family’s favorite savory stuffing recipe, their smallish size makes them a charmer on hors-d’oeuvres trays.

Hot Peppers:

Mustard Habanero–This is a typical habanero with the exception of its color: the pleated, lantern-shaped fruits run the full pepper spectrum, from green blushed with purple, through yellow, orange and an intriguing gold color reminscent of the color of brown prepared mustard. James Weaver originally found this one growing in a field of regular habaneros, and selected and stabilized it into a fascinating new variety.

Lemon Drop– Another seasoning pepper that comes from the South American country of Peru. This little pepper ripens to a bright lemon yellow and may sometimes have a purplish blush later in the season. The flavor is a very clean, uncomplicated, slightly citrus-y heat. Two-foot-tall plants are rather bushy and covered with the thin-walled, conical fruits which reach two to three inches in length and have very few seeds.

Growing Peppers:

Peppers are easy to grow and reliable in most areas of the country, provided the seeds are started early enough to allow time for a harvest. In most of the country (except in the Deep South, Zones 8 and 9, where peppers may be direct-seeded outdoors after frost) the seeds are started indoors 10 to 12 weeks before the last frost date of spring. Pepper seeds usually sprout within about a week to 10 days when they are kept moist and held at a temperature around 85 degrees. At ordinary room temperature, sprouting takes longer, and at temps below 70 degrees the seeds sprout sporadically, if at all.

Any ordinary seed-starting medium suits peppers, to minimize disease problems (like damping-off disease, which causes tender young seedlings to topple over and die), it’s best to use a mix that has been pasteurized and to soak any recycled pots in a 10 percent solution of bleach for 15 minutes. The seeds may be sprinkled right on the surface or planted no more than 1/4 inch deep and kept moist and warm until sprouting occurs.

Once the plants are growing, they need adequate light, at least 6 hours of bright sunshine per day; artificial lights may also be used. An occasional feeding of dilute organic fertilizer helps the plants grow.

Set sturdy young transplants outdoors after last frost of spring. Amend soil for peppers, but go easy on the nitrogen, as the plants produce more flowers, and therefore more fruit, when the soil isn’t super high in nitrogen. Mature compost is a fine amendment. A mulch of hay or grass clippings can be spread at the base of the plants to discourage weeds and stabilize soil moisture.

The plants begin to bloom and set on fruits, sometimes at quite a small size. Around 70 days or so from transplanting, the first fruits begin to ripen. Most peppers, whether of the sweet or the hot variety, may be used either immature (which usually means green) or fully ripe, which usually means red but may be yellow or orange as well.Except in the hottest regions, the pepper plants will yield all summer long, and into the autumn as well, until hard frost destroys the plants.

The Christmas season typically provides a chance for folks to reflect on the happenings of the year just past and and to dream of things to come in the new year ahead. As Christmas quickly approaches, the staff at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds hopes that all of you can look back with satisfaction over the past year and can look forward to the new year with hopes and dreams of something even better. As for us here at Bakersville, we are thankful for the good year that we have had. We continued to expand on the farm, having added even more gardens, a new machine shop, and a new media center. While we never know exactly what to expect in any given year, the quest is always on to find and preserve even more rare heirloom seeds. Jere and Emilee Gettle are planning a trip abroad next year to do just that.

The National Heirloom Festival that we planned and sponsored in Santa Rosa, California, gives us cause to both look back with satisfaction at having created a successful event, and to look forward to making the 2^nd National Heirloom Festival even bigger and better in 2012.

Christmas time in the Ozarks means that it is also winter time. For many people, that means it is time to kick back by the fire and take things easy while the weather rages outside. For the staff here at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, it means it is time to kick into high gear for the next several months. Most customers have had the 2012 catalog for 2-3 weeks by now and are already placing their seed orders. The staff has been busy, as apparently there are lots of lucky folks out there who will receive Baker Creek seed assortments or gift certificates for Christmas. Once the holiday season winds down, the seed orders will pour in as you at home begin to take action to bring those garden dreams to fruition.

We don’t entirely give up gardening during the winter time, though. Our green house provides at least a little taste of freshness during the winter months. What a treat it is to still enjoy figs, pink bananas, guava, and papaya growing right here.

Jere, Emilee, and Sasha Gettle, along with the entire Baker Creek staff, wishes all of you happy holidays followed by a new year filled with many blessings and successful gardening.

(left:Golden Crispy Melon, Right:Cambodian Green Giant Eggplant)


We are excited about our new favorite seed varieties at Baker Creek. While we have more than 120 new offerings of heirloom seeds in our 2012 catalog, we are particularly impressed with the following 15 varieties. Our customers are no longer bound to order the mundane. We now celebrate the diversity of our seeds and the countries from which they come. Many of these seeds have been collected by Jere during his travels, and many others come from friends living in various countries.

Sagami Hanjiro cucumber is a traditional Japanese variety used primarily for slicing. The name comes from Sagami, an area in Japan, and “Hanjiro” means two-toned. This cucumber is dark green and lime green.

Little Green eggplant produces neon-green fruits that are sweet, mild, and firm. This is a new introduction grown from seed sent to us from the former Soviet Union.

Aswad eggplant is an incredibly delicious Iraqi variety from our friend Nael Aziz. The satiny, dark purple-black fruits get up to 3 pounds or more.

Cambodian Green Giant eggplant is a large, round, flat variety from the kingdom of Cambodia. We collected this variety in 2004 when we were touring this once war-torn southeast Asian country.

Golden Crispy melon is a commercial variety that was discontinued in the early 1980′s. Small oblong to pear-shaped fruits are incredibly sweet and uniquely aromatic.

Uzbek Sweetness melon is an early melon from Uzbekistan. The golden skin encases pure white, sugary-sweet flesh.

Lemon Drop hot pepper is a seasoning pepper from Peru. It ripens to a clear lemon yellow and has an uncomplicated and slightly citrus-y heat.

Omaha Pumpkin squash is an Oscar Will Seed Company introduction, dating to 1924, but collected much earlier from the Omaha Indians. It matures early with tall, cylindrical, upright pumpkins which make cute Jack O’ Lanterns and good pies.

Tsungshigo Chinese tomato is a small, reddish-chocolate colored grape-shaped tomato with a sweet earthy flavor. Seed came originally from a Chinese commercial vendor.

Purple Pear tomato is a great snacking variety. Pear-shaped fruits are about 2 ounces and colored a deep purple-pink. Seed was originally received from our Ukrainian correspondent.

Abu Rawan tomato is another variety contributed by expatiate Iraqi seed collector Nael Aziz. Having a sweeter taste than most Iraqi tomatoes, this has solid, all-purpose flesh and will take the heat.

Ivory Pear tomato is a new staff favorite. Cute little 1-ounce fruits are ivory-cream in color and shaped like little pears.

 Pilcer Vesy tomato Is a classic, huge, yellow beefsteak type that we received from Russia. The fruits are a lovely lemon yellow and have fantastic flavor.

Dwarf Queeny Mixed hollyhock is compact and ideal for bedding use and containers. Huge, fully-double blooms are all along the stems.

Tall Orange Sun sunflower sports clear yellow-orange, six-inch, fully-double flowers that look like super-sized chrysanthemums perched atop plants that reach 4-5 feet in height.

Be sure to look at our newly updated website www.rareseeds.com. You will find flip versions of our 2012 catalog and sample issue of the Heirloom Gardener magazine for your browsing and reading pleasure, as well as many more photos, slide shows, and videos. We are also excited to offer iPad versions of both our 2012 Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog and the Heirloom Gardener.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and successful gardening in 2012!

Kathy and the entire Baker Creek staff.

Kathy McFarland is a Baker Creek employee and a life-long gardener.