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Welcome to Seeds from Italy News. We plan to publish four times a year and include information on all aspects of Italian vegetables: selecting, growing, harvesting and storing and cooking. We would be happy to receive and, if space permits, publish your experiences in these areas. Also, please let us know what you would like to appear in the GrowItalian News.
I want to apologize in advance that I am still having web site problems so it is a bit clunky to subscribe or unsubscribe. If you do not wish to continue to receive this newsletter, simply send a note to me:
bmckay@growitalian.com In the subject, just put unsubscribe; if you know someone who wishes to subscribe, tell them again to drop me a note, but to put subscribe in the subject line.
Contents
1. Introductry Remarks
2. What's New
3. Spring trails. Radicchio in the spring! Peas. Zucchini trials.
4. Staking tomatoes the Italian way.
5. Cavolo Nero - growing & cooking kale
6. The Fall Garden. What can I still grow.
1. I just want to tell you a little about myself and how I got involved with selling Italian Vegetable Seeds. I have been gardening (and even a little small scale farming) for years. About four years ago, I got into growing Italian vegetables. However, it was always a real pain to get seeds. I traded over the internet, pestered my friends who were going to Italy to bring back seeds, I wasted hours searching the internet for places that sold Italian seeds, and I spent a lot of money on postage to Italy. Even with all that, I never was able to get exactly what I wanted.
Just before Christmas 2000, I ran into the Franchi Sementi seeds. I got some from the agent in london and was very impressed. I asked about an agent in the US. When I was told there was none, but they were looking for one, , well as they say, 'the rest is history.' I began selling to Garden Centers in Eastern Massachusetts (a trial of the market, quite successful I might add). Next year I plan on expanding throughout New England and New York. In addition, of course we are doing mail order sales and Seeds from Italy is the sole mail order distributor of Franchi Sementi seeds in the US.
It has been a lot of fun, and at my age, that is important. Obviously, I want to make a profit at this, but mostly I am doing it because I really enjoy it. I can not think of anything nicer than being in a business I love. So, welcome. I hope you have as much fun and get as much enjoyment from out seeds as I do.
2. What is New. Lots of new seeds are available. If you ordered early in the year (when I only had about 60 varieties) you will be pleased to know we have expanded our line significantly. We now have@ 125 varieties and next year will probably bring in another 25 or so new ones. New items include six or seven different onions, five or six radish, four new tomatoes, more peppers., squash, escarole & herbs.
Web site. We have a real web site up and running www.growitalian.com Of course you can order seeds there, but we also have photos of every variety and long descriptions of each variety. In addition, we have detailed growing, harvesting and storage instructions for most varieties. We also have a section on growing tips and hints. Check out the low cost (as in $200-250) unheated greenhouse which will extend your growing season two months.
3. Spring trials. Did some quite unscientific spring trials and will share the results with you.
Radicchio. Radicchio is normally recommended as a fall crop, but I wanted to see if it could successfully be grown in the spring in zone 6 (usually). All in all, it worked fairly well. I started
transplants in the beginning of march and put them out in mid-April. Trial varieties included
Treviso, Rossa Verona, Castlefranco, Red Orchid & Pan di Zucchero. At this point in time (11 July) some have been harvested, some are still growing, and some were eaten by a woodchuck (must be an Italian woodchuck-he only went after the Franchi Sementi stuff). About 10% of them 'bolted'; the Treviso was most likely to bolt, the Red Orchid & Castlefranco were least likely to bolt. While I couldn't 'force' them, I did the next best thing and tied a few up with string and covered them with a pail. They blanched quite nicely. So, it can be done, although you are not going to be 100% successful.
Radicchio recipe. I tried this and it was extremely nice. Harvest a radicchio (preferably one you blanched) and pull off any loose outer leaves; quarter it, leaving the bottom part on so it stays together. Spray or rub on some olive oil and cook on the grill at low heat for 1-15 minutes until tender. Very tasty.
Peas. Trialed the Picolo Provenzale "Country" bush pea. Usually in the past I grew sugar snap peas (mostly because my wife really likes them). Anyway, planted about 10 April and had extremely good germination. Peas were very short (24-30 inch vines) and did well with no support. First peas were ready about 10 June. Pods had anywhere from six to nine peas. Picked them when they were quite small and they were incredibly sweet. My wife agreed they put sugar snaps to shame. Peas lasted for 10 days or so before they began to run out of steam. Moral of the story is to plant in succession; plant a group of peas, as soon as they come up, plant another group, and so forth. Unfortunately I never got to try the three other groups I planted. Woodchuck visited while I was in Italy; Peas were his third favorite after parsley & carrots. Stop planting about sixty before it gets really hot-here in Southern New England that means you stop planting somewhere around 15 May.
Zucchini. Was again amazed by Italian Zucchini. They have taste!! I think my favorite tasting one was Genovese, but they are all excellent. Firm, very little water, and flavorful. They have tons of flowers, so make sure you take plenty of these to cook. They are very tender. In fact if you are a market grower, you would have to be very careful handling Genovese and Tonda di Size since they mark fairly easily. Grew all five varieties we carry. Started some from transplants I began the beginning of May and planted out in Mid May, just in time for a spell of rainy cold weather. This is usually the death knell for zucchini as this kind of weather is perfect for the development of powdery mildew. Sure enough, it showed up. Sure enough, the plants shook it off. Italian Zucchini seem to have some resistance to this. Yield is excellent, even with the shortage of bees in my yard. Male flowers stay on the fruit for quite a bit longer than American varieties, so if you harvest them anytime before six or seven inches, you will also get a flower to eat. Although eating quality does not suffer until the fruit get to be about nine inches long, they are much nicer if you pick them at four or five inches. Plants were set in rows at three foot spacing (two plants per 'hill') and rows were spaced six feet apart. These are big plants (the round ones are slightly smaller) so give them room. Last year the Striato d'Italia and Albarello produced right up to the first frost, whereas the American varieties kind of gave up when the nights became cool.
Recipe. For two people, harvest 3-4 small (as in 4-5 inch) zukes. The male flowers will still be on; save them. Thinly slice a large onion and cut the slices in half. Add 2T olive oil to a high sided frying pan and cook on medium heat. Cut your zucchini in 2-2 1/2 inch sections and cut these into matchstick size pieces. Mince a clove of garlic. Mince @ 1/4 cup parsley. Cut up the flowers, removing the end section close to the zucchini. When the onion begins to brown some (5 minutes or so), add the garlic & zucchini. Cook another three-five minutes until they are done. Take from the heat, add parsley & flowers & serve. Variations include: cook 4 ounces of a short pasta until 3/4 done. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking water & drain pasta. Add @ 1/8 cup water to vegetables & add pasta. Cook til pasta is done. Remove from heat, make sure you still have 2-3 T water/juice in the pan & add @ 1/4 cup (or more if you wish) good freshly grated Italian cheese. Stir & you will have a nice 'sauce'. Variation # 2. Boil a couple of potatoes in their skins. Let them cool. Skin them if you want or leave the skins on. Mash them roughly with a fork. Add the vegetable mix. Mix well. Put in a slightly oiled teflon frying pan, shape the potato into a 'potato cake' & cook until brown on bottom. Put a plate over the pan, flip the potato cake out & slide it back in. Cook the other side
until brown. Serve hot or cool.
Growing Tip. Another way to stake tomatoes. I was in Italy in mid June and of course checked out the gardens of Italians. Noticed just about everyone (at least in Tuscany) stakes their tomatoes (and beans) this way. They get four bamboo poles about six feet long (or cut some 1/2 inch saplings). They put them together and tie them @ 10 inches from the top. Open the bottoms so they are @ one foot apart and sink them slightly in the soil. Plant one tomato at the base of each pole and prune to a single stem. This technique has several advantages. First it is very space efficient. Most experts recommend you give a tomato plant ten square feet. You can get 4 stems in about half that amount of space
with this technique. Secondly, while pruning to one stem results in earlier ripe tomatoes, it often brings about sun scale problems. Using this technique, the 4 plants grow up the teepee and by the time they reach the top, they are providing plenty of shade. I would especially recommend this technique for a tomato like a Cuor di
Bue. Like most oxheart type tomatoes, the Cuor di Bue has kind of a wispy growing habit that is perfect for this. Finally, this technique looks very nice and neat. My spouse bitterly complains about the ugliness of my concrete reinforcing wire cages.
Fall Garden. What can I grow now. Even for northern gardeners, there is plenty of time to get fall crops in. Many vegetables do best when grown in the fall.
Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, radicchio should be started between now and the end of July for folks in zones five and six. Later further south. Lettuce does especially well in the fall. The four seasons (4-stagioni) is a real fall standout; it becomes very red as the nights cool and it is very cold hardy. In my garden it routinely survives outside well into November and goes all year round in the unheated greenhouse. You should get lettuce and escarole going by the beginning of August, although if you are growing cutting lettuce, the beginning of September is fine.
Don't forget radish. Start some parsley since it will winter over in many areas and you can also dig it up and take it inside; start some more basil to take in before a frost. Start spinach about 45 days before the expected first fall Frost. Crops started about 30 days before the frost will probably not be ready, but they will winter over and you will have a very early spinach crop. This year in my garden, it was spinach at Easter. Arugula is ready in 35 days and is very cold hardy.
Garlic. I am thinking of bringing in some Garlic from Italy for fall planting. If people would be interested, let me know by email
bmckay@growitalian.com .
Other vegetables. Let me know what other vegetables you would like to see us carry. While I can not promise to bring it in, if there is even a moderate interest I will bring it in.
Good Growing from Bill McKay Seeds from Italy |