Seed Saving Information

This family is self pollinating, crossing does not occur between members of the same species. Some of the seed saving in this family will consist of selecting tubers and roots, for example yacon & artichokes. With scorzonera and salsify you will want to harvest a lot of roots and select the best ones to return to the ground for seed. With all the other species it’s best to collect seed from more than one plant and mix.

We sometimes have trouble with lettuce in our wet summers. Lettuce flowers rot and do not set seed if it is too humid or wet. Our answer has been to use the pollen cages we have for isolating the brassica flowers, and put plastic liners in them to keep the rain off the lettuces. At Seed Savers in Iowa I know they grow their seed lettuces in glass houses and that will happen in NZ with commercial lines of seed however it feel important that we continue to grow out our Institute seed in our own natural environment to keep it adapted to our conditions as far as possible.

LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa)

Four Seasons OS 

This is a buttercrunch type lettuce with a tender light green crinkly heart and bronze outer leaves, very similar, if not the same as our NZ heirloom mignonette lettuce.

Light Heart NZ

I’m delighted to be offering this lettuce. It has come to us from two places, Rotorua and Ruawai. The family that sent it in from Rotorua had had it in their family since their grandfather had imported it from the USA (Manhatten) many years ago. It is one of the oldest lettuces known and is one of the very best as well! It’s similar to the one we call Odell’s in the shop catalogue, except the leaf has distinct pointy ends. In some catalogues it’s called Deer’s Tongue. It’s green and small, with a tight heart, very sweet and crunchy.

Half Century NZ

This is an heirloom from New Plymouth and it came with the following description “Presumably a survivor from the 1850’s and not surprisingly. Butterhead type, exceptionally compact and crisp. This is a perfect home garden lettuce. Too succulent to stand marketing! Suited to cultivation over along period.”

I would like to add a few observations as well. The birds love it better than anything else in the garden! You need netting and hoops on hand- and also the thing that makes it stand out for me is the thickness of the leaves. They are very substantial, quite unlike any other lettuce I’ve seen or tasted. It is a small green buttercrunch type, beautiful!

Winter Lettuce NZ

This is the first heritage vegetable seed that came to me. It was given to me by my mother in law, Mary, and she really liked it because it is less liked by the slugs and snails than other cultivars. It is also the best winter lettuce and is a great lettuce for picking a few leave at a time. It has curley, long green finger leaves, which can be picked over along period.

RADDICHIO (Cichorium endivia)

Rosso OS

Bino Gola, whom some of you may know, gifted us this Raddichio. A favourite of his, it has been in his garden for many years. He loves it and says that one of its best characteristics is its hardiness. It is a tasty red (red and green leaves).

SCORZONERA

Black Salsify NZ

Scorzonera is sometimes called the vegetable oyster because, like salsify, it has a delicate oyster like flavour. Whereas the salsify root is white skinned, this one is black so it is also known as the black salsify. They are different plants from different branches of the asteraceae family and have different coloured flowers as well.  Scorzonera has yellow flowers which are edible. To me the root tastes very like kumara. Harvest scrub and steam, served with vinaigrette, they are great, also mashed and made into patties.

ARTICHOKE

Jerusalem (Helianthus tuberosa) NZ 

This is the common root vegetable that is becoming more and more popular, if grown in good soil they produce large numbers of clean easy to use tubers.

Jerusalem Artichokes, or Sunroots as they are called in North America where they are an indigenous food, are a member of the sunflower family. This vegetable has been a very important peasant food in the past. Extremely hardy and prolific, beneficial garden insects are attracted to it’s leaves. The edible part is high in slow release sugar, so it’s an excellent vegetable for those with sugar imbalances such as diabetes and hypoglycaemia. Great pig, duck and chook food too. They are ready for harvesting in autumn when the tops die back, but we prefer to leave them in the ground and just to help ourselves as we need them. If you dig them all up you have to store them in a way that keeps them all damp or they dry out and become inedible.

Globe (Cynava scolymus) OS

These artichokes are great food in early spring when there’s not a lot around. They begin producing their edible buds in early spring when we have loads of eggs and milk, watercress and asparagus and not much else. We simply pick the young buds, steam them and serve with vinaigrette. Perfect with an egg dish. The plants are perennial, but if you cut them back hard after each flush of buds they will come away and you’ll get a crop every six months, spring and autumn. The stalks make great compost. The flowers are heaven for the bees. It’s worth leaving the second crop of buds to turn into flowers just to watch the bees do their frenzied feeding and dancing on the anthers!

YACON (Polymnia sonchifolia) NZ 

A stunning looking member of this family, large red furry leaves, little yellow sunflower type flowers, which flower late autumn when you harvest the large juicy sweet tubers. This is South American vegetable which produces huge crops. Above the tubers you eat, but just below the surface of the ground are the little knobbly things that you keep for re-planting next years crop. The crunchy tubers are sweet and carroty with a light, almost gingery taste.