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Seeds from Italy News
Vol 5, # 1 March 2005
We publish four times a year (usually) and include information on all aspects of Italian vegetables, herbs and flowers: selecting, growing, harvesting and storing and cooking. We would be happy to receive and if space permits, publish your experiences in these areas.
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1. Privacy Policy
2. What's New
3. Recipe
4. Tomato Trials
5. Customer Comments
6. Ten Pack Discount
7. Growing Tip - Starting onions
8. Shipping Times
9. Pumpkin Trials
10. Backorders
1. Privacy Policy. A number of people on their order forms asked me not to sell or divulge their personal information: address, telephone numbers, email addresses, etc. I want everyone to understand that I take privacy very seriously. I never disclose any customer information to anyone under any circumstances.(except of course the inadvertant screw up in the July 2003 newsletter. ) I have been bothered by too many telemarketers, received too much junk email to do that to anyone else. I don't even keep credit card numbers: a number of customers who reordered and told me to use their credit card number on file were surprised when I told them I do not keep them on my computer, nor do I have access to them from the credit card authorizing service.
2. What's New. I have brought in a few new items. While not in the catalog, they are up on the web site. There are five new tomatoes: a costuluto genovese, goia della mensa (jewell of the table-what a name) and gigante liscio (giant smooth), a determinate f1 San Marzano type & maremmano, a determinate that produces tasty 3 ounce fruit. I have a hybrid radicchio for those of you who have trouble with open pollinated varieties.
MELROSE PEPPER. I finally located some Melrose pepper seed. I have a limited number of small packs (50 or so seeds) which are up on the web site. I do not know how many people from the upper midwest have asked about this. It turns out that it is a pepper that was brought from Italy, probably around the turn of the last century, and became very popular in the Chicago area. A friend of mine located some seed and packaged it. Next year may have proper packages. I also have a small number of packets of SICILIAN BASIL . This is described as a very large leaf basil with intense flavor. I have only fifty or so packs and when they are gone, that is it for the year. May or may not be able to get it again next year.
3. Recipe This was sent in by Pat Fancera. I love it. It may get me back preserving things again.
"Take the Bacio di Satana peppers and remove the stem and scoop out the seeds with a melon ball scoop. Then remove the skin from the cloves of garlic, one clove per pepper. The peppers and garlic cloves are boiled in a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar for two minutes. Remove the peppers & garlic & let them cool enough to handle them. Stuff each pepper with a glove of garlic, a few capers, and an anchovy. Place them in mason jars and cover with olive oil. They are then sealed and placed in a water bath and processed for about 30 minutes. Great with antipasto and they are not hot. The recipe comes from our friends in Italy." As soon as I read this I thought, I had better order some more of those peppers.
4. Tomato Trials. Looking for participants. I am looking for people who would like to participate in a summer tomato trial. What I plan on doing is sending out seeds for the five new varieties (above in paragraph 2). Will send out 10-15 seeds for each variety. Each partipant will grow each variety out keeping notes on the trial sheet provided. If possible, they would take some photos with a digital camera. We can post the results up on the website in the fall. I think the folks from Organic Gardening magazine may also be interested in doing at least some of them. They did the fireball (Palla di Fuoco) last year and were impressed. So, if you are interested in participating, send an email to seeds@growitalian.com Please include your mailing address. I will try and get these out by the middle of March. CUCUMBER TRIALS. I have two new cucumbers that I would like to trial. If anyone is interested, I would send seed for verde lunghissimo and verde ortolani. Both are long green cukes, one from Franchi Sementi, one from Fratelli ingegnoli by virtue of a customer's rave recommendation.
5. Customer Comments - I often receive comments from customers and almost often they are very nice. People really like the way Franchi seeds germinate. They like the way the seeds grow and how good the fruit taste. Often people will comment on how I operate this business. I really try hard to provide what people want & need and do that in a timely fashion. I really appreciate the comments and it is one of the things that make doing this a lot of fun. I would ask you, if you have a few minutes, to send a comment to gardengate They have a pretty nice gardening web site and have a section where you can make comments on and rate companies involved in the garden/seed industry. You can go direct to the seeds from italy section at this web address: http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/2748/
6. Ten Pack Discount There is a discount (a free pack of seeds) if you order ten or more packs of seeds. I had originally intended to make that happen automatically when you order on line. Unfortunately, the web 'store' is a bit clunky and I can not do that. You have to remember to type the coupon code in the coupon box just before you check out. The code is tenpack Sometimes, however, the code does not work; other times people can not remember it. If that is the case, there is a simple fix. In the comments section on the order page, just type in a comment to the effect of "this code did not work, but I would like a free pack of ......." and state what you would like free. Remember, you get a pack of the regular seeds, not a pack of one of the special selection varieties or a pound box of beans.
7. Growing Tips - starting onion sets. In the north, just about the only way to get decent sized onions is to use sets. You have to start them about 8 weeks before set out. The good news is that they are pretty easy to do. Simply get some sort of flat container. A milk carton with the top cut off will do fine, but anything will do. Seed the onion seed trying to get a seed every 1/2 inch or so. They are slow to germinate and a bit slow to grow. Have patience. Once they are up, keep them under lights or out in a greenhouse if you are luck enough to have one. To plant, just take a clump out, separate them trying not to damage the roots too much, and plant them abaout four inches apart. Keep well watered. They catch quickly.
8. Shipping Times. During most of the year, I am able to ship an order within two days of receipt. The exception is the 'crazy time' which for me is February through the middle to end of March. Shipping times often creep up to five or six days and at one period last year were up to ten days. So, be patient. I rarely loose an order. You can call, but at that time of year, I often am not available. I will try and return your calls if you leave a message. Thanks for your patience.
9. Pumpkin trials. Joe Cuneo, a small grower out in the Connecticut River of Western Massachusetts grew some of the winter squash last year and sent this report. He began with Marina Di Chioggia - 14 seeds. Tonda Padana - 25 seeds. Butternut Rugosa - 30 seeds with 22 seeds left over. Here are his comments.
I started all three types in 4" pots in my greenhouse on 5/19/04, sowing one to two seeds per pot. I had 100% germination on all seeds. For each variety I had 15 pots (except Marina with 14 pots). The plants were transplanted into manured and fertilized "hills," three pots per hill and covered with row cover on 5/26/04. One week later I thinned to two to three plants per hill. The row cover came off approximately three weeks later when the flowers started blooming. All plants grew vigorously. I had my usual fight with squash bugs and as I follow organic procedures my control was limited.
My harvest window was the first to second week in September. Butternut Rugosa yielded the best with a total of about 50 pounds. However, there was a large variation in shape and size, with the largest squash weighing in at 4 to 5 pounds and the small ones at under 1 pound (there were several of these). Also, the ribs shown on the seed pack never developed. I very much would like to know why this was. The flavor and texture was excellent. As the harvest was sold or consumed by Thanksgiving, I do not know about storage capability. I will try this squash again in '05.
Tonda Padana yielded only four fruit with a weight of 4 to 5 pounds each. Their appearance was very close to the picture on the seed pack. The flavor and texture is similar to acorn squash but slightly sweeter. These guys taste great baked with a little butter and maple syrup. I still have two left in fine shape so I would say Tonda is a good keeper. This is a beautiful looking squash and I will grow it again this year and try for a better yield. I think this type would sell well at the farmers' market.
Marina Di Chioggia was my biggest disappointment as I only had two fruit set and they were small. I am not sure what happened as the plants grew well. All winter squash was next to the corn and perhaps this caused to much shade. Some of these vines grew 20 feet! But no squash! Anyway, I will take up the challenge and try again.
Thank you for the opportunity to try something new. I think the diversity of seed you carry is very special and your prices some of the best I have seen. I sell a good amount of lettuce locally and "Radichetta" and "Maravilla de Verano Canasta" are customer favorites. I am of Italian decent and my wife and I are avid cooks so it is a pleasure to grow vegetables I grew up with.
Your loyal customer,
Joe Cuneo
10. BACKORDERS. What causes a backorder? Why have some of you been waiting months for a particular pack of seeds (this year the problem varieties are mostly agretti, fava bean & a few of the new varieties)? While it may not be any less annoying to have to wait for your seed to arrive, perhaps an explanation of how backorders happen may make the wait a bit less bothersome. There are essentially three reasons for backorders. The first is a screw up on my part. I may misjudge how a new variety will sell. For example, this year I brought in Golden Boy tomatoes. I did not think yellow tomatoes would sell very well, so I did not order a lot. Of course, I immediately ran out. On the other hand, I thought the new spring onion would sell very well and brought in quite a few; I am going to have lots left over. On occasion, I have forgotten to order a particular item. This type problem is usually fairly easy to resolve; I just fedex in the missing items. The second reason is that shipping is delayed in Italy. They have to test each seed lot for germination, noxious weeds, etc. before they can package them. On occasion, a particular lot of seed does not pass and is rejected; no seed until they find another lot of good seed. Even more common is their habit of not informing me that a particular item will not be available because of crop failure. Every year they do this. For example, they told me a week ago that montovano fennel would not be available. A bit late, I thought. Fortunately, I was able to find another source. The final reason, and the most frustrating one, is a bureaucratic snafu. Every year there is one. This years involves fava beans and it was compounded by the fact the Italians were six weeks late shipping the seed. This year's bureaucratic snafu involves fava beans & the US Food & Drug Administration. What, you say, does FDA have to do with seed imports? They should have no role, but they do. FDA is responsible for administering the provisions of the Bioterrorism Act, designed to protect the supply of food products imported into the US. In essence, they have set up & administer a system whereby anyone who exports food products to the United States has to register with FDA & provide prior notification of any food product shipment. Those who do not do so will have their shipments confiscated & either destroyed or returned to country of origin. Seeds for sowing are NOT supposed to fall under the provisions of this act. However, there is a shipment of FAVA beans currently being held up because the local FDA folks think they do fall under the act. To make matters worse, there was a screw up on the import permit; USDA then held things & insisted the beans be treated at a different facility. They had to be trucked to their desired location. This has caused a total of almost five weeks delay. Looks like they will finally be released at the end of next week, but only at great expense and great delay to customers awaiting their seeds. So, my apologies for the backorders, but sometimes they can not be avoided.
Good Growing.
Bill McKay
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