OK, you’ve asked us over and over again, so we made a video about it. The question always comes up about “what varieties do you grow?” And we’ve always been a bit cagey about it. Not because we’re hiding anything, we talk about the varieties we grow all the time! The reason we don’t make a list is really because we think about that question in a very different way than the people who are asking it.
We think it’s much more important to understand “why” you might select a particular variety. Over the years, we’ve seen how varieties can come and go. We’ve witnessed how a particular genetic might be super popular one season and then all of a sudden vanish from all seed houses on earth the next. What then? Practically every “variety list” we’ve ever laid eyes on is out of date with obsolete, unobtainable genetics. Or maybe you’d have to order from a dozen+ different seed houses to get everything.
Not just that, but in our cold climate growing research, we’ve learned that variety selection is really only important with certain types of plants. For the overwhelming majority of veggies out there, the variety you choose isn’t going to make a bit of difference. So, if it looks good to you, grow it! Assuming you can learn to grow that plant, you’ll likely have success!
But, we have been thinking about this question and how we might want to answer it. And we’ve figured out how we’ll answer this question in a way that satisfies us. And hopefully it’ll also satisfy you.
We picked the 10 veggies where variety selection is actually going to matter in cool, northern gardens. Instead of just giving you a list of varieties, we talk about the traits that we’re looking for, some of the techniques we use and answer the “why” behind our variety selection process. The astute among you will note that we do show and tell you some of the actual varieties we use. And if you stick with us, we’re bound to give away countless more “variety secrets” that we aren’t really keeping. In some ways, we expect you to work for it, just as we did.
People really don’t talk about this, but in a lot of ways, extreme northern gardening is really in its infancy compared to agriculture elsewhere. Most of our land’s people were migratory hunter gatherer cultures not all that long ago. It’s really important that we all experiment, try different things and figure out what works and what doesn’t!
P.S. Facebook has historically penalized us with very low exposure for linking off-platform content. So, if you want to continue to receive our video content, you’re gonna have to go over to that “other site” and sub to us there!
