Here in the farm office I’ve spent these darker months happily surrounded by colorful stacks of seed catalogs offering thousands of varieties of vegetables, flowers, and herbs. In my dreams, I order one of everything. In my waking life I’ve settled on over two hundred varieties including seventeen strains of garlic, seventy heirloom vegetables and herbs, and thirty flowers with value in the medicine cabinet, the kitchen, and the field as pollinator and beneficial insect attractants. And if you visit the Ranch this summer, not only can you enjoy our vegetables from the kitchen, but you’ll be seeing those flowers cut and arranged in our dining hall and in our service settings, and perhaps in a wedding bouquet or two.

As I write, the seeds sit cool and dormant in our dark root cellar, alongside last season’s storage garlic, onions, and potatoes. They are light and compact, sealed in paper envelopes packed in glass jars. Their potential weighs in at thousands of pounds of raw, whole food. They are not a metaphor: they are literally our future flesh, and the story of our past. Each year, for centuries, our ancestors have nurtured these plants and saved their seed. Let me share a few varieties with you:

Fordhook Acorn Winter Squash is a rare creamy-colored baking variety introduced to Philadelphia in 1890.

Jimmy Nardello’s Sweet Italian Frying Pepper is a glossy red beauty with the honor of being included in Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste for its exceptional quality of flavor and use as a drying pepper.

Outredgeous Lettuce, a modern variety from plant breeder Frank Morton, has such vibrant red leaves that a group of botany students couldn’t identify it in the field.

Pskem River, a purple-skinned hardneck garlic variety from Uzbekistan reportedly has a flavor like the “unmistakable aroma of toasted hazelnuts”.

Henderson’s Pink Ponderosa Tomatoes weigh in at around 2 pounds, and have been enjoyed by gardeners for over 100 years. And yes, they are pink.

If you’d like to learn more, please visit our farm website for information about our internship program, grassfed beef, and public farm tours.

Sylvan Zimmerman. Sunrise Garden Co-Manager

Sylvan@SunriseRanch.org

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