Welcome to the New Evaluation Garden
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Garden space near the Lillian Goldman Visitor's Center has been redesigned for use by the Seed Savers Exchange Evaluation Team.
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Choosing Squash for Your Garden: Flavor Evaluations from Harvest through Storage
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As you begin to plan your gardens for this year, consider the storage qualities of squash. The optimal storage period for squash varieties can be significantly different. Not only do some keep longer, but the flavor of many varieties improves with storage. The evaluation team at Seed Savers Exchange evaluates squash for this very purpose.
Read MoreWatermelon Evaluation 2015
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Last week Phil and Steffen, the SSE evaluation team, were busy evaluating watermelons. This year Preservation grew 17 varieties of watermelon, a typical number, as it is a big crop that takes up a lot of space in the field.
Read MoreStep up to the Plate: 'Nutmeg' Melon
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Unlike the ubiquitous “cantaloupes” in today’s supermarkets, this melon has a divine aroma and flavor whose complexities are difficult to capture in words – sweet, spicy, nutmeg-like, with a distinctive floral aftertaste. If you are looking for an alternative to today’s standard melon, look no further than ‘Nutmeg.’
Read MoreIf You Give a Mouse a Lima
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Few vegetables elicit as strong a reaction in people as lima beans. We either love them or hate them. However, most of us can agree that lima beans from the frozen foods section of the grocery store are vastly inferior to homegrown ones. So, if you have ruled lima beans out of your diet, we urge you to give them another chance. At Seed Savers Exchange, we have over 300 varieties of lima beans in our Heritage Farm Collection, displaying a tremendous array of colors and patterns.
Read MoreStep up to the Plate: A Bean that Makes the Recipe
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Here’s a bean that’s so tasty and so unusual that it has not only inspired many home cooks but also some rather far-fetched stories of its own origins.
Read MoreStep up to the Plate: What's a Turnabaga?
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At Seed Savers Exchange we sometimes lovingly refer to our collection of 103 turnips and 81 rutabagas as “turnabagas.” Confusion reigns over these crop types; many turnips in our collection are actually rutabagas. Much of the confusion stems from the fact that a common name for rutabaga is Swedish turnip. Botanically, however, the two are different species. Our favorite example of this confusion is the ‘Westport’, or ‘Macomber’, turnip, or as it’s known in the Heritage Farm Collection, Turnip 8.
Read MoreStep up to the Plate: Our Mystery Squash
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Philip Kauth, assistant curator, and Steffen Mirsky, horticultural technician, make up the Seed Savers Exchange Evaluation Team. The Eval Team is the division of the Preservation Department that keeps detailed records of more characteristics than most people know an individual variety can have. Their work helps us differentiate between the varieties in our collection and describe them clearly in the Yearbook. This is the first in their new blog series, Step up to the Plate, a monthly profile of a variety that stands out to the evaluation professionals.
Read MoreSeed Savers Exchange Members Evaluate the Collection
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Each year Seed Savers Exchange members from across North America trial garden varieties from SSE's genebank collection. They send us reports on performance and taste qualities, and photos of the varieties growing in their gardens and harvested in their kitchens. Read on to find out some the results we've seen and some of the varieties we've tested.
Read MoreEvaluating Heirlooms with 2014 Conference Attendees
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Part of the evaluation process (and arguably the most fun) involves Tasting Trials. Aside from SSE Members who participate in the Member Grower Evaluation Network (M-GEN), the Evaluation Program has not requested public participation in the Taste Trials up until this point. Sixty-five participants at the 2014 Conference and Campout gave us detailed rankings and notes about 4 snap beans, 5 carrots, 4 collards, and 11 kale.
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