Grandma Hadley's Heirloom Lettuce Lives On

Surely Grandma Hadley would be surprised to learn that I'm enjoying her beautiful lettuce in my garden in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was growing it in southern Illinois in 1915, according to her granddaughter, who passed the seeds on to her niece.

 Grandma Hadley's lettuce at a young stage

It came into my hands because this forward-thinking niece donated seeds to Seed Savers Exchange in 1988 for safe keeping.  Now, over two decades later it is being tested in a handful of gardens across the country through Seed Saver's Exchange Member-Grower Evaluation Network (M-GEN) in an effort to collect details on its cultivation and just as important, its flavor and texture. Ultimately, Grandma Hadley's lettuce will be preserved by being offered in their seed catalog. Those who grow, eat it and share it, will ensure that it will not be lost. 

To me this means more choice when I want to grow my own lettuce, which is a staple at my house!

From left to right: Grandma Hadley's, Merveille de Quatre Saisons,  Renee's Container Babies

It's thrilling to grow something in my garden that very few people have ever seen or tasted, let alone cultivated in their gardens.  It feels precious, and a privilege to be entrusted with the promise of plenty that rare seeds bring.

And this succulent, tender butter-head lettuce is worth saving- it has striking blue-green leaves edged with a delicate burgundy and it makes a lovely salad. 

Blue-green Grandma Hadley's lettuce with garden flowers 

Lettuce seeds are easy to save and I'm letting several of the plants go to seed. I'm looking forward to  sharing them with family, friends and neighbors.  I'm happy that this deserving heirloom will live on to feed and delight many more gardeners for some time to come.

Look for it from Seed Savers Exchange, perhaps as soon as next year.

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

Gardeners, Are You Ready For a Seed Trial?

My 2013 trial beans from Rancho Gordo

Have you considered participating in a seed trial?  It's a meaningful way to take your gardening to another level. Don't be afraid to give it a try. All you need are basic gardening skills and experience growing from seed to maturity (especially with annuals: vegetables, herbs or flowers).

The Purpose of Seed Trials
The reasons for conducting seed trials are to gather details about the performance of a particular plant in different parts of the country, therefore in diverse climate zones, growing conditions and different growers. This "crowdsourcing" approach has been very effective for organizations such as non-profit Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, and specialty grower, Rancho Gordo in Napa, California.

The information gathered from teams of gardeners and farmers enables the organization to offer rare varieties to the public with instructions and details about planting, growth habit and eating quality. Harnessing the efforts of growers is an invaluable resource for keeping the thousands of historical and heirloom edibles in circulation and in preventing their extinction.

My saved Madeira beans from the Rancho Gordo 2012 trial

Collecting Data From Your Trial
So besides the fun of trying out new varieties of edibles, you can feel good about contributing to their preservation. Among the data the participants are typically asked to record are: number of days to germination, rate of germination, days to flowering, days to maturity, size at maturity, and eating quality. Photographs may also be requested.

And if your crop fails, that's important information too- insect pests, animals, unexpected weather, and diseases,  these are the realities of gardening.

Madeira beans are a type of cranberry bean with striking colored pods

In my experience, participants are volunteers and are not paid, but the seeds are supplied free of charge. As a gardening geek, I love getting the trial seeds in the mail- they are in plain packages with no pictures and no instructions. It's exciting to grow them out and discover each new variety.

Seed Saver's Heirlooms
Some of these, particularly from Seed Savers, are very precious and there is only a limited amont of seed available. The majority of the seeds they save from extinction are sent to them by ordinary folks who have grown the seed within their families or with neighbors for generations. Saving the seeds from the trial is usually not required, but I always save some to grow again and share, and in the end, that's the goal with heirlooms.

Rancho Gordo- Saving the World's Beans One at a Time
Steve Sando, owner of Rancho Gordo, became a collector, grower, and supplier of a diverse array of beans, many of them rare, that he brought to the United States from his travels abroad. In some cases he has contracted with small heirloom bean growers in Mexico (see Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project) as a way to give them a market, which makes it possible for them to keep their farms and livelihood. And what beautiful beans they are!

Beans hold a special place in my heart. I grew up eating lots of beans, lentils, and garbanzos in my Chilean family, and I love them all. And because I don't eat meat (except seafood), I was thrilled to discover I could grow protein rich food in my own garden.

2013 Seed Trials
This year I'll be trialing two beans from the Putla region of Mexico for Rancho Gordo, and an heirloom lettuce called "Grandma Hadley's" for Seed Saver's M-GEN project.  If you are interested in learning more about the M-GEN project or participating, contact them at: m-gen@seedsavers.org.

Three Heart lettuce from my 2012 Seed Savers trial

Read my post about the Rancho Gordo bean trial.

If you would like some over-the-top inspiration about getting involved in saving seeds, watch this short presentation by Simran Sethi, in a TED talk she gave on April 2, 2013. Beautiful.

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

Fire Fighter Grows Community Through Gardening

A fruit tree in bloom at the fire house

Firefighter paramedic Mike Robbins, not only serves our community of Mountain View, California,  by risking his life to save others, but he serves up fresh vegetables to his teammates through his love of gardening. Mike established an edible garden with vegetables and fruit trees at Mountain View Fire Station 1, that not only provides fresh produce for the station's meals together, but he also shares the bounty with the neighbors in his residential location near downtown.

I met Mike when he and his fellow fire fighters dropped into the Chez TJ kitchen garden last Spring to chat about our mutual passion for growing food. What a great idea to have an edible garden at a fire station - because as Mike has found, it's also therapeutic and relaxing to work in the garden.

Firefighter and EMT Joe Wortham in the firehouse garden

For those in stressful jobs, the activity of growing and sharing food together is certainly nurturing, nourishing, and sustaining in many ways. I dropped by the fire house recently to how the garden was coming along and to say hello. Mike had been deployed elsewhere for the day, but I met his crewmates, Joe Worthman and Steve Desirio, both fire fighters and EMTs (paramedics). 

They were happy to show me the garden, and I even cajoled one of these camera shy heroes, (Joe) into a photo. Apparently the urban legend about all fire fighters being handsome heartthrobs is true, as you can see for yourself in the photo above. Fire fighter Steve Desirio is an avid gardener at his home in San Francisco, where he grows edibles all year-round (in the fog, no less) and even starts his veggies from seed. They both gave abundant credit to Mike by saying that the garden is all his doing.


You can read an engaging article about Mike and his garden on California Bountiful Magazine.

A big thank you to Mike and his crewmates for their service to our community!

Photo: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke.