new corn variety?

well the past few days have been interesting. i have made several trips to my garden at my sister's house to check on the corn. the painted mountain variety has been drying for a few weeks on the stalks. im extremely impressed at the speed of this variety. the rest still have quite some time to go before they begin to dry. but this painted mountain stuff is amazing. it was developed by Dave Christensen in Montana, so its intended to grow quickly and finish early, seeing as montana has a very short growing season. painted mountain is now available on several websites and from several seed suppliers. the site i ordered it from was the sustainable seed company. their website is sustainableseedco.com. they dont have a huge selection of seeds, but it was from them that i found out about painted mountain.
well when i planted it, i put a small block of it in between a large block of hopi pink and a large block of hopi blue. painted mountain has a massive genetic ability as far as color goes. it could almost be more appropriately called rainbow corn, but it isnt. among the more common colors are orange, purple, and a lot of yellows and reds. so naturally, i was expecting these kinds of colors from the ears i pulled. however, after i pulled the husks back, i found the hopi varieties had had a great influence on the outcome of the color. a couple of the ears had some yellow kernels, but the majority were blue, purple, pink, and white, with one ear being almost completely white with a few very light pinks, purples, and blues. it was among the most impressive, but the most impressive was one that had almost no solid white kernels, but rather all the kernels with white were speckled with blue and pink and purple. it was very interesting, and i will save some of the kernels for seed for next year so that i can try to either make a new variety of corn from it or a new strain of painted mountain. i have high hopes that this is possible, and will work to make it a new variety.

one other note, i will begin to post reviews of the various seed suppliers i have had experience with this year. the first should be posted within the next week or so.

yellow carrots and seed trains

had a great breakfast today that consisted of yellow carrots pulled straight from the ground. i have the yellowstone variety that seedsofchange.com sells. i originally wanted to get the amarillo variety that baker creek carries, but when the season started, they sold out really quickly and i was not able to get any. however, without knowing anything about the taste of the amarillo variety, i do have to say that im quite impressed with soc's yellowstone. they have had a variety of tastes depending on when i have pulled them and depending on how the weather has been. today they had a somewhat spicy taste to them, with just a hint of bitterness and a lot of sweetness that balanced out that bitterness. earlier in the season they were completely sweet with no bitterness and no spiciness, but i myself like to have spice in just about everything, so today was a real treat. i have a different variety, not amarillo or yellowstone, that i purchased from gourmetseed.com a few weeks ago and was among the seed shipments i posted about a couple of days ago. there is a lot of seed, probably more than i can use, which is why i purchased this particular pack. i do not recall the name of the variety, but they look pretty good. i also got seeds for something similar to a carrot, but more like a radish i think. if anyone is familiar with the fairy tale rapunzel, you'll remember that name comes from a type of plant. this is what i have. rapunzel is a german word, and in english it is called rampion. it has a white root that looks like a carrot or a long radish, and has edible greens as well. the seeds are unbelievably tiny; i thought carrot seeds were small, but these are almost microsopic theyre so small. i will be planting these in spring time, as utah weather will not allow me to plant them this year. hopefully they will taste something like a white carrot.
also, on idig forums, a seed train has started with the mater raider group im in. im new to this concept, but it sounds like a fun idea. the idea is, you get a group together from various states across the country, and one person starts the train by putting some of their seeds in a box and sending it to the next 'rider'. that person takes a few seeds of whatever interests them (but leaves some for the other riders), and then adds their own seeds to the box and sends it on to the next person. sort of like one of those stupid chain letters but it has a point. so when the box makes its way back to the first person, then there is a plethora of seeds on top of what they originally put into the mix. then that person sends the box through the train again so that the first couple people can also get what the last few people put into the box. it sounded like an excellent idea, so i decided i would get on board with this and join the fun. i dont know when the box will be coming to me, but i really cant wait to see. lalbers started the train, and i believe she is in new mexico, but looking at the locations of all the riders, it will go all the way to the east coast and back around. maybe ill be the last rider? dont know, but i cant wait to see what kind of stuff everyone puts in, especially redneck. thats about all for today. grow on.

cocozelle zuchinni squash

today i picked 3 cocozelle zuchinni squash from the garden i have at my sisters house. i brought them home and cooked them with some red potatoes i had picked from my garden a few days earlier, and also made some jasmine rice with saffron to go with it. overall it turned out to be extremely delicious, and i have to say that cocozelle zuchinni will now be a required item in every garden i grow for as long as i live. mostly, in size and shape, it looks just like a regular zuchinni, but the color is much different in that they are much lighter than a regular zuchinni variety, and have stripes extending from one tip to the other. the flesh is crisp like a zuchinni, but the flavor seems more like that of crookneck squash. its not a bold flavor and its not a weak flavor, but its more just kind of there, and its really accentuated quite well with pepper, olive oil, and marsala cooking wine. overall i have to give this vegetable a 10 out of 10, and i know that i will be growing it every year regardless of how much space is available.
as a side note, some of my flour corn varieties seem to be finishing off for the year. the painted mountain is pretty much done, and im just waiting for the husks to dry out and for the ears to fall over. at that point they should be ready to take in for indoor drying, and in about a month theyll be ready to grind for flour. i intend to use the flour for tortillas and cornbread. the other varieties are some hopi types and anasazi. im impressed at the size of the ears on these, as they are longer than my forearm. im hoping to get a high yield of usable grains off of these. the giant pumpkin, the last one i have, seems like it cant make up its mind whether its going to ripen or get larger. the other two were eaten by ants and mice, and one of those had been my biggest hope for a prize pumpkin. that didnt work out though.

the watermelons are doing fine, but they are a little misshapen from the ground they were sitting on. the cantaloupes now have netting all over their skin, and im just waiting for them to finish off. at home, the pickling cucumbers are nearly done, which is good becaus the dill's seedhead should be formed about the time theyre ready to be pickled. the sweet corn is also advancing, should be done soon. the tomatoes seem to be weak and drying out on the bottom of the plants, but the tops are dark green and look very healthy. still waiting on most of the peppers to decide whether they will set fruit or not. might just have to wait till next year.