(Anasazi Sweet Corn)
Tall plants with large ears mature in 90 days.  Direct seed in rows in the garden.  Plant prefers full sun and warm soils.  Originally obrtained from a cave in New Mexico where a forward seeing Anasazi Indian had sequestered the seeds in a ceramic pot, lidded and sealed with pine pitch.  After sprouting and growing out, the corn revealed itself as a currently unknown strain of multiple colors tasting wholesome and sweet.  Probably over the top nutrition-wise.  100 g bag, Certified Organically Grown

Family:  Amaranth (Amaranthacea)
Annual, 100 days to maturity.  Showy, dark orange flowers on plants to 8 feet tall. Young leaves colored green with orange ribs are deliciously edible as a pot herb.  Seed is light colored, edible and excellent when cooked into a gruel.  Plant prefers full sun and regular garden soil.  Direct seed in the spring garden and thin to about 1 foot apart. 

100 seeds/pkt Certified Organically Grown

Family:  Aster (Asteraceae)
Hardiness: to 20 degrees F
Perennial, but can be grown as an annual.  Native to Southern Europe.  Produces large size, edible globes, flowering purple to 5 feet.  The globes should be picked in the early stages of maturation, and steamed until the scales come easily loose.  Dip in garlic butter or sauce of your own making.  As a medicinal herb, the fresh or dried leaves provide an excellent digestive tea or tincture. Plant prefers full sun and nitrogen rich soils.  Sown in the spring, the large seeds are rewardingly dependable and fast germinators.  Good for kid gardeners (and adults that crave artichoke and are not too impressed with the high prices artichoke in the store--it's a thistle, for goodness sakes!)  Thin or transplant to 2 feet apart.  Add more compost around the plant during the growing season. 

30 seeds/pkt., Certified Organically Grown

Family:  Mustard (Brassicaceae)
Hardiness:  All zones.
Biennial culinary green. Deeply cut leaves are a signature culinary delight.  Excellent addition to gourmet salads. Best-selling green for market gardeners. High in protein, appetite stimulant and digestive. Seeds yield an edible oil. Full sun to part shade, copious water, and rich soil make the best tasting greens. Sow in spring. Direct seed every 3 weeks for successive harvests. 

200 seeds/pkt., Certified Organically Grown

Family:  Mustard (Brassicaceae)
Hardiness:  All zones.
Biennial culinary green. Excellent addition to gourmet salads and the signature of an upscale cook. This wild selection is spicy and choice. Best-selling green for market gardeners. Appetite stimulant and digestive. Seeds yield an edible oil. Full sun to part shade, copious water, and rich soil make the best tasting greens. Sow in spring. 

200 seeds/pkt., Certified Organically Grown

(Genovese Basil)
A sweet lettuce leaf type that is tall, uniform, and slow to bolt.  Leaves gently savoyed.  One of the best for making pesto.  Kind to the stomach.  Regular Basil culture. These do fine in large pots in the greenhouse, solarium, sunny window, or summer porch.  They also do fine direct seeded into the spring or summer garden.  100 Seeds/pkt., Certified Organically Grown

(Egyptian Bean, Hyacinth Bean)

Native to tropical Africa and hardy to 20° F.  Vining perennial to 30 feet in the tropics, grown as an annual in the temperate north.  Excellent nitrogen fixer, also making edible pods and pretty flowers, also edible.  Plant prefers full sun, rich, well-drained soil and a trellis.  Soak seed and sow in spring, or get an early start in the greenhouse.  Direct seed or sow in large pots.  Germ is in 20 days at 70° F.

7 seeds/pkt., Certified Organically Grown

Biennial.  55 days to maturity.  Pronto quickly produces large, deep burgundy, 4 inch flattened globes.  The roots are classic, and the dark green leaves with red stems are equally edible.  Source of betaine, which is cleansing to the liver and will over time increase energy levels.  Beets are one of the best foods to eat to stay healthy, prevent cancer, and nourish your body.  ban mcd's, eat beats.  100 seeds/pkt, Certified Organically Grown

(Strawberry spinach, Raspberry chenopodium)
Family:  Chenopodiaceae
Days to maturity: 40 to 60
Growing to only about 8 inches tall, the sweeping branches bear many soft leaves and are studded with multitudes of berries.  Sweet but strange, bright red, heavily seeded berries occur all along the stems of this lamb's-quarters-like plant. The berries make a colorful and edible accent in the garden and in salads.  The greens are deliciously edible in salads or as a pot herb.  Best yet, the parsnip-like roots are crispy, sweet, and delicious, white but marbled with beet red, with just a hint of beetiness to the taste, and may be consumed fresh or cooked in soups.  This last fact was discovered by the ever-roving mind and fingers of our gardener, Erich, who has been known to discover new, delicious, and nontoxic edibles in unexpected places.  Plant prefers full sun to part shade and regular garden soils. Sow in spring.  Easy germination.  100 Seeds/pkt, Certified Organically Grown

(Ha Gobo)

Family: Aster (Asteraceae)

Biennial.  70 days to maturity.  Japanese version of Arctium lappa selected for the soft and deliciously edible leaves, which are good in soups and stir-fry. Very easy to grow by direct seeding in garden, spring or fall. 

50 seeds/pkt., Open Pollinated

(Watanabe Burdock)

Family: Aster (Asteraceae)

Biennial native to temperate Europe and Asia  The thin, early-maturing roots of Watanabe are best for eating.  They are smooth textured and sweetly nutritious as a boiled vegetable or scrubbed hard and grated in a ginger and tamari marinade.   All burdocks demonstrate extraordinary nutritive and blood-cleansing properties, used in combination with dandelion as a treatment for staph.  Sow seed in spring directly in regular garden soil and harvest that first year--like carrots.  If digging is not your thing, take an old bale of wet hay and knock together four 1 x 4s like an empty-bottomed flat to fit right on top of the hay bale.  Then fill this with garden soil and plant your burdock seeds in there.  They will germinate and send their roots down into the hay.  To harvest, remove the boards and pull apart the hay to reveal perfectly formed and tender roots.

100 seeds/pkt., Open Pollinated

The photo is of our germ test on the Watanabe.  I tried to be fair and find a bad seed, but it actually did come up 100% viable.  Then, after pulling up and counting the little sprouts (pictured) I laid them down on top of their gallon pot full of potting soil outside the door of the seedhouse.  I know, sounds callous, but it was the middle of the winter and these things are best planted for edible purposes direct-seeded in the garden, not left indoors by the stove where my germ test was accomplished.  Anyhow, the weather turned mild and rainy, and I kept walking by this gallon pot and noting that the burdock seedlings were still green and turgid.  After a few days of this I examined the pot more carefully.  The reclining seedlings had spontaneously DUG THEMSELVES BACK INTO the potting soil and were lifting their little leaves up into the firmament.  Now that's tenaciousness.  I wish I was that tough.  Richo

Family:  Mustard (Brassicaceae)
50 days to maturity.  Loose-leaf chinese cabbage, one of the oldest of cabbage cultivars still extant, featuring light green, heavily savoyed leaves that are tender and excellent in salad and stir fry.  Sow seed in pots or directly in the garden, spring or fall.  Very easy to grow.  Prefers rich, moist soil and sun.  300 seeds/pkt, Open Pollinated