This year in the Seeds from Italy garden I did some bean trials and new tomato trials. In addition, there were a number of 'customer' trials. Some of these are pretty extensive such as those done at Hampshire College, others were of one to four varieties. For the most part the customer trials are placed up here unedited [in the sense I did not censor things, though I may have shortened some of the text]. Customer trials are on separate pages you can link to from here. The Seeds from Italy Garden results are below.
SPRING RESULTS. New items trialed this spnring included carouby pea, bionda da taglio chard and egyptian beet (bietola da orto egitto migliorata-improved egyptian)
a. I started some of the carouby inside and set them out toward the end of April [we had a very cold 'spring']. Direct seeded a group at the same time. First peas were ready around June 21st, so they are 60-65 or so days. Interestingly enough, the direct seeded peas were only five days or so behind the transplants. They grow up to five feet, so they need some support. Flowers are a really pretty purple. Peas are really good and very productive. They are still (11 July) going strong). Though classified as a snow pea, they are more like an edible podded sugar snap pea. The pods range from four to six inches. The trick was deciding when to pick them. I assumed that they were like Chinese snow peas which get tough and stringy when the peas begin to swell, so I first began picking them just before the peas began to swell. I later found out that if you let them swell some, they are even better. The best technique seems to be to pick them when the peas have swollen, but before the pods change color from green to a lighter green. They are excellent eaten raw like a sugar snap, but equally as good cooked. Just try sauteeing some in some olive oil, perhaps with some garlic scapes if you have them. You could also just boil them a bit and then cook with a little pancetta and pearl onion. For you market growers, I would expect them to have good market potential. The first of my sugar snaps were ready yesterday and I did a taste comparison in the garden; the carouby won hands down.
b. Bionda da taglio chard. This was a real hit. They are the lighter green version of the verde da taglio chard which is the vegetable that started me on this Italian seed quest. Growth habit is pretty much the same. They do well from direct seed or transplants. Same thin stem and smooth leaf. The leaf, however, if incredibly soft-almost as soft as a butter head lettuce. Taste seems a bit more mild than verde da taglio. When cooked, they darken up to almost the same color as verde da taglio. Definitely worth trying.
c. Egyptian beet. Was as sweet as I was promised, though perhaps not quite as sweet as chioggia. The beet is deep red and ready a few days after chioggia. No oxalyic acid taste. Tops are a bit smaller with red stems and red/green leaves. They would probably make a very nice baby beet green for you market growers. Shape was variable. Some round, some more flat like a cippolini. Definitely they will be back again next year. Also, I want to stress a beet tip. All beets tend to rise a bit out of the soil as they grow. If you allow the sun to hit the top of the beet, they will turn 'corky'. While this does nothing to taste, it does change the color some. The solution is to pull up soil over the top of the beet. Easiest way to do this is when you are hoeing weeds, just drag some of the soil over to the side of the beet row. It does not hurt anything and you will have perfectly smooth and consistently colored beets. This is especially so for the chioggia beet.
SUMMER TRIALS. Summer Trials. It was a difficult year in many ways. The weather was a challenge. Spring was very cool and it stayed cool well into the summer. We had almost constant rain and temperatures no higher than the low 80's throughout the summer. They claim this has been the coolest summer in 30 years. To make things worse, I fell from a ladder and broke my arm in several places. Weeds got ahead of me. To add insult to injury, we had an incredible number of chipmonks survive over the winter; I had at least 40-50 of them in my yard and seven or eight moved into the garden. They really liked the tomatoes. The final stroke was early blight showed up in late July and most tomatoes are gone by now (6 September). All and all, a fairly normal year. Nevertheless, there are some results to report.
a. New tomatoes trialed included Palla di Fuoco (Fireball) and San Marzano Redorta.
Palla di Fuoco is new this year; I brought it in based on the recommendations of some customers. It is reasonably early, sets a huge number of fruit which are round, red, and mostly weigh 10-14
ounces. Nice taste & texture. I was impressed with this and it is definitely a keeper.
San Marzano Redorta. This is described as a very large San Marzano type. It was. Big fruit (as in 10 ounces or so) many of which had a bit of a nipple at the end. They made an outstanding sauce. They are extremely juicy and the inside is full-no hollow spaces. They were very good tasting; I think this is the only plum tomato I have ever eaten that I would condsider tasty enough to eat fresh. They were extremely productive. Definitely another keeper.
BEANS. It was a very good year for beans. Bush beans were all grown in 3 foot wide beds, with seeds spaced 2" in the row and rows spaced 12" apart. They seem less succeptible to rotting in cool soil, so they were planted in the 3rd week of May and germinated exceptionally well. The pole beans were planted on tripods made out of 8 foot saplings. Six or seven beans around each pole. All of our beans are untreated, so make sure you plant them only after the soil has warmed up well. These went out the end of May and all germinated extremely well this year.
BUSH BEANS. First trial was a couple of bush beans that I had not grown previously. Slenderette is the organic seed and Vanguard is a variety I brought in based on a customer recommendation. Both are green, fairly early. Slenderette produces a slightly flat six inch pod. Nice taste and texture and good production. Definitely a keeper, especially since it is the only eating bean I know of available in organic seed. Vanguard was one of the best bush beans I have ever eaten [the customer was definitely correct when he told me that] It produces a very heavy crop of 5-6" round green beans. Crisp and great taste; they taste almost as good as a pole bean. They are also pretty easy to pick which was a real bonus.
UN METRO. These are the yard long beans, sometimes called asparagus or snake beans. They are similar to the chinese ones, but are a slightly different variety. They are pole beans and need heat to do well (production was down here due to the very cold summer we had). They begin to produce in 65-70 or so days. Beans grow in pairs and seem best when picked between 12-16 inches; at that point they can be eaten raw or if you cook them, it only takes four or five minutes. You can let them keep growing and you get a very nice shell bean (actually it looks like a black eyed pea). Very productive and excellent taste [though a bit different from a regular pole bean]. They were very nice cooked with a bit of tomato, garlic, onion & basil.
LAMON & Lingua Di Fuoco. Lamon is a shell (borlotto) bean from Venice. They are ready in 70-75 days. You get a very heavy crop of beans which have a red/white pod. Inside are 4-5 very large white beans with red mottling. The trick to picking them for fresh shell beans is to let them completely color up; pick before the pod begins to fade. They are pretty easy to shell. The Venetians claim it is the best tasting shell bean in Italy, and they may be right. I cooked them (15-25 minutes depending on the stage at which you picked them) with some sage in water about one inch above the beans. You want just a little bit of water left. You can serve them lots of ways, but my favorite is just to add some salt & a good drizzle of olive oil and eat them at room temperature. The lingua di fuoco is a larger bean (it has 5-7 beans) which are a bit smaller than the Lamon. Good taste and texture. Pretty good production. I thought the Lamon tasted a bit 'meatier', but that may just be personal preference. Lingua di fuoco a pretty good bean; it is also available in a bush type, though the pods are a bit smaller.
NEKARGOLD. This is a yellow pole bean. It was somewhat early for a pole bean and produced a very nice crop of slightly flattened 6-8" long yellow beans. Very nice taste and texture. No strings. Held pretty well.
SANTA ANA. This is a green pole bean, round & a bit small (6" or so). Very good producer and great taste. I really liked these, almost as much as the supermarconi. They were a bit on the late side as far as pole beans go.
AGRETTI. This was new this year and it is very difficult to find here in the US. It is a fairly popular spring green in Italy. Taste is a bit like beet greens, though with a sour/bitterish undertone. I really like it.(but then I think all vegetables should be a bit bitter) The traditional way to cook it in Italy is just to boil it until tender, drain, dress with lemon juice and olive oil and serve at room temperature. It also goes well with pasta. Agretti seed has a very short shelf life (7-8 months) so if you bought some and did not use it all, it probably will not work next spring[maybe it will since it was in hermetically sealed packs]. It is definitely a spring crop. Get it out shortly after you sow peas. [It will not germinate when it is hot out as in the middle of the summer] One seed every three inches or so in a row, spacing rows 12 inches or so apart. It is up in a week. Transplants will work; I did a bunch in 72 cell trays that took well to transplanting. It is a slow grower at first. It needs a constant supply of water. I grew mine in a loose sandy soil, though I suspect it would do better in a mucky soil (like onions). It was ready to pick in 60 or so days. You can either pick the entire plant and cook it or you can pick some of the many branches and it will regrow. It will last pretty much all summer, though it gets a bit tougher toward the end of the summer.