by Chris Smith, The Utopian Seed Project | Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020 – 

As the executive director of The Utopian Seed Project, I’ve been working with Seed Savers Exchange, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and Working Food on a project to build a coalition of seed stewards, gardeners, farmers, chefs, and seed companies to preserve heirloom collard varieties and their culinary and cultural heritage.

Grid of 20 collard varieties

There’s lots to love about The Heirloom Collard Project. Two highlights include:

  • A Collard Week (Dec.14-17, 2020) of fantastic collard-focused presentations from people like Michael Twitty, Chef Ashleigh Shanti, and Ira Wallace.
  • A 20-variety collard trial happening right now, which includes more than 230 gardeners across the nation and eight farm trial sites growing all 20 varieties. (I’m one of the lucky eight to have all those collards in my field!)

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by Gena Moore, CFSA Organic Research Coordinator | Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020 —

Picking peppers at Lomax Farm

Above: Picking peppers in the high tunnel at Lomax Farm

We all know variety selection is a key factor in crop success. Here in the Southeast, we face issues like excessive summer heat, high humidity, and insect pest pressure—just to name a few. Choosing the right variety to fit your farm and market is more exciting than ever before with an expansive collection of cultivars to choose from. For example, there are thousands of tomato varieties grown around the world; however, there are certain types that carry resistance to our common diseases in the Southeast U.S. Even further, there are varieties that respond best to various trellising or that yield in flushes as opposed to consistent harvesting to suit different markets.

In this article, we will dive into some results of a recent variety demonstration conducted at CFSA’s research and education Farm in Concord, NC (Lomax Farm), as well as some favorite varieties from Carolina farmers. We hope this information helps you plan for big harvests next year! We want to give a big thank you to Vitalis Organic Seeds for donating seed for our variety demonstration and to our local food pantries for accepting and distributing the produce to our communities in need.

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by Eric Soderholm, Organic Production Coordinator 

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When thumbing through the pages of a seed catalog there is a great deal of information to take in regarding how specific crop varieties might perform on your farm. The unfortunate reality is that there is not enough data available concerning which varieties are suited to the unique management techniques, regional conditions and market demands organic growers face here in the Carolinas. This can be particularly frustrating when working with companies that offer performance tips which are based on target regions entirely outside of our own. While a handful of noble advocates for regional seed systems have been making headway on this issue here in the southeastern US – working on conducting and sharing the results of replicated variety trials – the work ahead is still tremendous.  Bridging this information gap will require the concerted effort of a network of growers and researchers working collaboratively. Read on to get a very basic introduction to some of the design concepts of variety trials and to learn about how you can connect and share your experiences with CFSA and our network through an upcoming publication called the Seed and Variety Trial Report . (more…)

by Eric Soderholm, Organic Production Coordinator

The following builds on the tips provided in the September 2014 eNews entitled “On-farm Variety Trial Design Considerations, Part 1.” 

When planning a variety trial, the key traits you need to observe and measure and the protocol you use to evaluate them deserve considerable forethought. Once the trial is laid out, planted and maintained for several weeks or months, you won’t get a second chance to collect comparative data once a crop reaches and passes prime maturity. Don’t let your efforts in developing a uniformly treated, replicated trial go to waste; think ahead about what is important to your operation. Spend some time drafting a list of what you value in a particular crop. Do you favor kale varieties that produce vigorous seedlings and can compete with germinating weeds? Perhaps you want pea varieties that have long harvest windows for your CSA and farmers’ market sales. Crop evaluation traits will fall into one of two categories: qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative traits—like fruit shape, flavor, and uniformity— are often evaluated using a standardized rating scale that is developed ahead of time. Quantitative traits can be measured in an appropriate unit (lbs, inches, etc…) or by rating, which would include yield, fruit diameter, or days to maturity. (more…)