Seeds from Italy News
Vol 5, # 4, December 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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If you have a friend who is interested in all things Italian (at least for vegetables, herbs & flowers, please feel free to forward this to them.
1. Privacy Policy
2. 2006 Catalogs
3. What is new for 2006.
4. NEW for 2006, on line only.
5. Growing Tip. Living Mulch.
6. Recipe with a story.
7. Recipe # 2. Roasted Trionfo Violetto Beans.
8. Bulk Seed. New list on line. I revised the list of bulk seed varieties and prices. I have included herbs & flowers which were left out of the previous one. If
9. Seeds from Italy Trial Garden
10. Christmas Gifts.
11. Fava Beans
12. Thank you
The newsletter is on line. You can read it there and view photos of the various things mentioned below. If you want to read on line, to to:
http://growitalian.com/sept_2005.htm
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 inadvertent 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. The 2006 catalogs are at the printer and will go out in the mail about December 2. If you have previously ordered, you will receive a catalog. If you have moved since you last ordered, please drop me a note
(seeds@growitalian.com) and let me know your new address. The catalogs go out bulk mail and the post office will not forward them.
If you have a friend who would like a catalog, they can either request one on
line at http://growitalian.com/request_catalog.htm
or they can email me at seeds@growitalian.com
3. What is new for 2006. Here is a more or less complete list of new items for 2006. Most are here now. A few will not be here until mid January.
a. Bean, Anellino Verde. Green curved pole bean. Beautiful. Taste like roma types
b. Bean, Anellino di Trento. Curved bush bean from Northern Italy. Color is green with reddish brown markings.
c. Cabbage, Verza Pasqualino. Green savoy. Earlier than other savoys by 10 days.
d. Cavolo Broccolo Spigariello, foglia liscia (smooth leaf) Leaf Broccoli. Widely grown in So. Italy, esp. Puglia. Eat the leaves & little broccoli tops.
e. Spigarello, foglia riccia . Serrated curly leaf version of above
f. Lettuce Ciucca Light green with red outer leaves. Jagged edges. Heads up at full size or use as a cutting lettuce.
g. Lettuce Riccia Invernale (curly winter). Open head, big red/green leaf with serrated edges.
h. Lettuce, Rouge Grenoblaise Crisp head. Red & green leaves that hold very well & resist bolting.
i. Rucola Sylvetta sel liscia (smooth) aka sel ulivo (olive). Smooth leaf variety very popular in Southern Italy.
j. Radicchio Rossa di Treviso Tardiva Upright red and white striped leaves with white stems. For those small fancy very white stem treviso types.
k. Chicory, varigated of Lusia. Light green radicchio, white stems & red markings. Early.
l. Chicory, varigated of Lusia, tardiva. Franchi special selection. Extra fancy version of the
Lusia. Very white stems. Late.
m. Escarole, Cardoncella barese Regional variety from Bari. Tall plant, open with very long thick stems.
n. Zuchetta rugosa friulana (wrinkled from Friuli).Light yellow fruit are very 'warty'.
o. Zucchini Lunga Fiorintino. Long, ribbed, lightish green with speckles. Fruit are a bit square.
p. winter squash. Muscade de Provence Flat, heavily ribbed brownish orange skin. Very sweet flesh
q. winter squash, Rouge vif d'etampes (aka Cinderella) French heirloom. Flat red/orange skin, heavily ribbed
r. Tomato, Astro F1. Determinate Plum. 3' high. VFN. Early. Heavy producer of 4 ounce plum tomatoes for sauce, canning. Grow in containers
s. Tomato, Fiaschette di manduria. From Puglia. Determ. deep red plum with a bit of a nipple at end. Productive
t. Tomato, St. Pierre.Old French round beefsteak. Large, deep red, mid season, great tasting tomato
u. Tomato Montecarlo, F1 Indet. VFN. Mid-Season. Vigorous producer of intense red, 14 oz. perfectly shaped fruit
v. Tomato, Red Cherry. Indeterminate open pollinated red cherry. Early
w. Tomato, Da Inverno a grappoli (winter grape). From Puglia. Determinate red cherry, grape shaped. Heavy producer Will work in a container
x. Pepper, Cuneo Another very good yellow pepper from the Piamonte. Big, round, 4 lobes, very thick walls & thin skin with great flavor.
y. Piccante Calabrese. Hot pepper from Calabria. Small round fruit become deep red when ripe
z. Pepper, Etna. Hot pepper. Early. Compact plant produces large number of cone shaped fruit which grow upwards. Bright red when ripe. Works in a container
a1 Pepper, Dolce Italiano. (Sweet Italian). Longish pepper, 1 ½" at top to a pointed end. Pick either green or red ripe. Good fryer
a2 Turnip, Bianca Lodigiana. Solid white turnip
a3 Onion, Piatta d'Italia Red/purple with some white; very pretty. Flat cippolini type. Early.
a4 Radish zlata. Round yellow radish (from Poland where Franchi does a big business)
a5 Sicilian Basil. DiSerenti strain from Sicily. Similar in size to Genovese, but leaf is a bit lighter and slightly blistered. Sweet with no 'clove' taste. Very intense flavor
a6 Watermelon Janosik. Yellow watermelon from Poland. Dark green skin, bright yellow flesh. @ 4-5 pounds. Very sweet
a7 Onion, genovese (bassano). Back again after several years of crop failures.
4. New for 2006, on Line Only. There are a number of items which I will have available on line. The reason for this is the supply is iffy. I can never be sure that I can get more. Here is the list:
a. Bean, Lupini. available mid Jan 2006.
b. Eggplant, bianca a uovo (white egg). Small white eggplant
c. endive ricciutissima. tres fine type. tiny leaves which are very tender.
d. faro (aka spelt).
e. Lentils
f. Melrose pepper. From the Mid west (originally Southern Italy). Dark red very sweet frying pepper.
5. Growing Tip. Living Mulch. This is from Ben Pollinger in New Jersey. I tried an interesting thing this year. I may have got the idea from one of your early newsletters this year? I planted my 4x10 tomato bed with a mix of leafy greens, such as
rabe, chard, puntarelle, spinach in March. Let it go strong, then planted 12 tomato plants in total (4 each of 3 varieties you trialed) right into the bed without turning it. Only pulled out plants to make a hole for planting. Had been making continual cuttings of the greens and letting them grow back. As the tomatoes grew so did the greens, choking out weeds. As I cut the greens to eat as they outgrew the
tomtoes, allowing sun back to the tomato, the tomato then shaded out the greens. I planted the tomatoes this year in the bed in which I had buried my compost last fall.
I thought this was a great tip. I am always having problems with rain splashing soil on tomato leaves which promotes disease. For the living mulch, thin stem chard would be really good for this; also beets. Cutting chicory or endive would work well as would lots of other things. You could even do lettuce. Next year I am going to give this a try.
6. Recipe with a story. I think the best recipes always have a story attached. This is from John Firestone & his wife Ruby Ann in Louisiana. They have been long time customers and John is the person who got me one of my best retail customers, Central Market in New Orleans, home of the famed muffaletta sandwich. The following is as received, no editing. It brought a lump to my throat when I read it shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit.
Bill
Greetings from Baton Rouge, LA. We are about 80 miles up-river from New Orleans and our population has virtually doubled in the past 10 days. My son and his wife and mother-in-law evacuated from New Orleans to our apartment before Katrina hit land and my wife welcomed them with a Tomato Basil Pie, the recipe for which follows. We harvested the basil (before Katrina blew in) from 2 plants I grew from the seeds you sent me but those plants survived Katrina and are still a lush green and begging to be incorporated into a Caprese Salad. I hasten to add that our wind and rain and damage were minimal, virtually non-existent, in comparison to New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama.
TOMATO BASIL PIE
Use ready-made or homemade pie crust(s), rolled out on a pizza stone if you have one. Prick small holes in the crust. Spread shredded mozzarella cheese evenly over the
crust(s). (We did not have any mozzarella at the time, so she substituted some semi-dried ricotta.) Sprinkle chopped fresh basil over the cheese. Slice any kind of fresh tomatoes thinly and make one layer over the entire crust. (Do this decoratively if you have that talent.) Salt & pepper to taste and drizzle several TBSP. basil-soaked olive oil over the tomatoes. (The latter can be prepared by filling a small container with fresh chopped basil leaves ahead of time and covering with olive oil.) Bake at 350º for 25 to 30 minutes until done. Enjoy!!
Thanks again for the basil seeds from Sicily,
John & Ruby Ann Firestone
7. Recipe # 2. Roasted Trionfo Violetto Beans. Just a few days before I received this comment and recipe, I got a call from my brother Guy who is a small grower in Acton, Massachusetts, 20 or so miles west of me. He said, 'Did I get those purple pole beans from you!' 'Yes', I said. [I had given him a some different beans to try including a half pound of Trionfo
Violetto. 'They were incredible', he said. Great taste, huge, tender, and the customers loved them. Make sure you get me more next year'
So, right after that conversation I got this comment from a customer in Colorado who took issue with my description of Trionfo Violetto beans. Here is what Carolyn Miller had to say about my variety description and a recipe to back up her comments. I will have to change my description of the Violetto beans.
"In my last e-mail forgot to take issue with the description of the pole bean, Trionfo
Violetto. Maybe it is "tenderest at the pencil thin stage" but remarkably tender for so much longer than any other pole bean I grew this year. It is a prime candidate for roasting.
Frost has been nipping at things in parts of the front range for a week now without getting completely into East Denver. Frost probably hasn't hit there yet and you will have time to test my roasted beans recipe. I was so busy tearing down the poles and stings to the all my beans this week, I didn't have time to set up the still life I had planned using a bowl full of Trionfo Violetto with a few of its interesting leaves and beautiful blossoms attached.
Recipe for roasted beans:
1 pound of green or Trionfo Violetto beans, washed (I don't weigh the beans. I just cook what I need.)
1 tablespoon of olive oil (..or enough to coat beans. Who ever heard of too much good olive oil.)
salt and ground pepper to taste
I use a large Pyrex glass rectangular dish, metal roasting pans should work as well.
Add the beans to the dish or roasting pan, drizzle oil over the beans and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes. Toss the beans again to redistribute and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until beans are beginning to shrivel and turn brown in spots.
Limit yourself to the deliciously intense flavor of the roasted beans the first time.
Additions of sesame seed added after the first 10 minutes of roasting or additions of minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, walnuts, onion added at the beginning of roasting time for variety."
8. Bulk Seed. New list on line. I revised the list of bulk seed varieties and prices. I have included herbs & flowers which were left out of the previous one. You can find the revised bulk seed list at:
http://www.growitalian.com/bulk_seeds.htm
9. Seeds from Italy Trial Garden.
Pepper Trials. This year I grew three new varieties: Melrose, a sweet red frying pepper from the midwest (originally brought there from Southern Italy), frieriello
(aka friggitello, napoleatano), another red frying pepper & giallo di cuneo, a big yellow pepper from
Cuneo. I also grew an old favorite, corno rosso. [FYI, none of the yellow corno's germinated. I think I got a bad lot of seed from another seed company. If any of you had problems, include a comment or note with your next order & I will replace them with genuine Franchi corno
giallo; they started carrying them this year]
Anyway, the peppers were started 10 weeks or so before set out date. I used a heat pad and except for the yellow
cornos, germination was excellent. Peppers went out to the unheated hoop house in early May and just sulked there; it was cold and rainy all through May and well into June. Didn't put the peppers out until June 8, and even then they did not do much growing until toward the end of the month when it stopped raining and got warm.
mid July. Not much growth
due
mid August. Peppers finally catching
to cool weather in
June
up.
First peppers to ripen were the Melrose. They produced a four or five inch long pepper about 3/4 to 1 inch wide at the top, tapering to about 1/2 inch at the bottom. When completely ripe, they were a lovely shade of red. Very thin skin (it essentially disappeared when you fry them) and very sweet taste. Plants were compact but very good producers. They probably would work quite well in a pot.
Next to ripen were the fiereiello. The fruit looked exactly like the melrose. The plant itself was significantly taller and maybe produced a bit more than the melrose. Taste was really good. I personally could not tell the difference, so I brought in my taste tester (I live in a huge old farm house and one of the wings is an apartment. The tenant shares garden space and has good taste buds). She could not decide which one tasted sweeter and at times could not tell the difference. In general, they were mighty good. These are highly recommended frying peppers.
Melrose peppers Frieriello Peppers
Cuneo was last to ripen. It is definitely a late pepper. It is a very large plant. Produces a huge brilliant yellow pepper perhaps four inches across and four inches tall, though it tapers a bit toward the bottom unlike the yellow asti. Very thick walls. Very sweet taste. Heck of a pepper. IT is a pretty good producer; anything that did well in New England this summer is a good producer under adverse conditions.
There are photographs up on the web site.
Tomato trials. This year I asked customers to trial three new tomatoes: Goia della mensa (table jewel), tondo liscio (round smooth) and maremmano (from Maremmano in Tuscany). There were trial growers form just about every area of the country. The following is a synopsis of the results.
a. Maremmano. Germination was high; most people reported at least 90%, many had 100%. These are a determinate plant with a heavy set of round red fruit ranging from golf ball to tangerine in size. They are very early. Most people had ripe fruit sixty or so days after set out of transplants. In my case, they were the earliest tomatoes int he garden, even earlier than my aweet 100 cherry tomatoes. Taste reports varied. Several thought it was one of the best they had ever tasted; others reported an average taste. I suspect that my own experience was typical. The first fruit I did not think tasted all that good, but then they were the first tomatoes and were head and shoulders above what I could buy in the store. Taste improved with later pickings. Also, while this is a pretty good fresh eating tomato, it is probably best suited for preserving or fresh sauce. The plant produces a huge amount of fruit. They hold well on the vine. They make an really good sauce. They are the prefect size to preserve whole. In general, the testers thought it was a keeper.
Goia della mensa. Germination was a little less than maremmano. Most people reported 80-85%, some higher. This is a small indeterminate plant, three to four feet high. It is pretty bushy. Fruit are ready in
70 or so days. Fruit are mid sized, red, and perfectly shaped. I mean perfect. No blemishes and very round. Most reported good to excellent taste. A few reported a tough skin (I did not have that). Production was moderate. I had pretty good luck with this tomato. I liked the taste, though it is not as good as the red pear in my opinion. Best characteristic is its absolute perfect shape.
Tondo Liscio. Germination similar to goia della mensa. Indeterminate. Fruit were ready in 70 or so days. Moderate production. Good flavor. Some people reported tough skin. Some people really liked the taste, a few definitely disliked the taste. Most thought it was good. The three plants I grew were very high producers and the fruit were perfectly shaped. They actually looked like hybrids, I thought. I thought taste was good. This was a nice tomato, but not one that I would consider a must have in my garden.
Bonus Review. San Marzano Nano, f1. This is a determinate San Marzano hybrid. It turned out to be an amazing producer of four inch or so san Marzano plum types. Each cluster set four or five fruit. It was very early, perhaps sixty five days. Fruit held well on the plant. They made a really good sauce. This would work well in pots. A row or two of these would produce a lot of jars of canned tomato. I am going to keep this for next year and also bring in a Franchi Sementi version.
Up on the web site are some pictures of these. When looking at these photos please take into consideration that this was a tough year to grow in Massachusetts. May & June were cold and very rainy. Tomatoes did not go out until June 4th; usually I put them out 20 May or earlier. It rained all through June and all of my tomatoes developed leaf diseases. Though they survived until the end of October, some of them were looking pretty tough by the middle of September.
CUCUMBER TRIALS. About fifteen people agreed to trial two varieties of cucumbers. Unfortunately, most people had serious problems ranging from deer to constant rain to cucumber beetles and there were not enough results to report back. My cukes were going great guns until they just up and died. I had never noticed the cucumber beetles this year and they got all of the cucumbers except for a few on the far side of the garden. Maybe next year I will try again.
10. Christmas Gifts. When you are thinking of Christmas, think Seeds from Italy. Give your favorite gardening friend a gift of seeds. You can give a gift certificate: they are available in $15, $25, & %50. I send out a gift certificate and will include the 2006 catalog. There is no shipping charge for the certificates. They are on line or you can call it in or fax it in. How about some great kitchen tools from Rigamonti Pietro. There is the passata machine to make passata (sauce for canning from your tomatoes), the really slick herb chopper, the cheese grater and there is a meat mincer/grinder which also has attachments to stuff sausage, make pasta, etc. I still have some of the wooden gift boxes: 18 packs of assorted seeds and two 1/2 pound boxes of beans. They come in a really nice pine box with Franchi Sementi burned on the side. They have a little plastic insert so they can double as a seed storage box.
11. Fava Beans. Just a reminder about Fava Beans. First, they are currently in stock. I have them in 100 gram packs (@ 100 seeds), 250 gram (more or less a half pound and 250 seeds) and any bulk size you want. Secondly, if you are in an area where the winter is mild (does not go below -15F or so), you are usually better off planting Fava beans now. It may be a little late for some areas, but you can still plant them if you live in most areas of California, the far south, etc.
12. Thank you. It is coming up on my seventh year doing Seeds from Italy. This began as a hobby which became a part time business with 20 retail outlets the first year. I started the web site the second year and my 'catalog' was a sheet of paper that I ran on both sides on an HP Inkjet printer. The first year I had 35 or so seed varieties; now I have more than four hundred. I do everything. Order the seeds, pick them up at the airport or sea port, smooze with USDA to get the garlic in, write the catalog, put the english language stickers on the packs, answer the phone, pack the orders, go to the post office. I have decided I want to keep it that way and have no desire to become a 'big' seed company. I figured out that what I really love is the contact with you folks, people who are as passionate as I am about growing really good vegetables, cooking them, and best of all, eating them. I love the phone conversations I have with customers. I love the email comments. I really appreciate you.
Good growing and buon natale.
Bill McKay