Spoiler alert! Here’s a sneak peek of some of the new varieties you’ll find in our 2014 catalog, arriving soon in mailboxes near you. We hope you like them as much as we do! You can find all of these new varieties and many more in the catalog and on our website. Organic Murdoc CabbageOrganic Murdoc F1 Hybrid Cabbage 80 days to maturity Excellent variety for kraut or fresh eating, Murdoc produces large, hefty heads perfect for processing. You can never have too much of a good thing, so we’re pleased to offer Caraflex’s big brother – all the same goodness, just supersized! Like Caraflex, Murdoc has tender, crisp juicy leaves and a unique pointed cone-shape.  However, Murdoc puts on a lot more size, growing up to 8” in diameter at the base.  A distinctly silky texture makes this an excellent variety for sauerkraut. Organic Miami F1 CarrotOrganic Miami F1 Hybrid Carrot 60 days to maturity No vices here! Well-adapted as either an early or a main season carrot, Miami produces consistently uniform, cylindrical 6” long roots that tend to get stout as they mature. Feathery, attractive tops make for nice fresh market bunches. Nice crunch with carroty flavor. One of the sweetest varieties in our 2012 fall carrot trials. In our winter storage trial, we evaluated varieties in mid-January; Miami was among those with the lowest percentage loss at this date and rated among the best in flavor. Organic Janvel f1 CauliflowerOrganic Janvel F1 Hybrid Cauliflower 75 days to maturity Gorgeous, high-quality heads with nice dome shape and excellent uniformity. In our spring cauliflower trials, Janvel outperformed Fremont in both yield and presentation, and had a slightly longer harvest window. Perfectly formed heads range from 6-8” in diameter and are well-protected by tight wrapper leaves. Vigorous plants have tall leaves which provide excellent sunburn protection for curds, resulting in perfect, white heads. Dense, well-filled curds make this an attractive variety for both fresh market and processing. Janvel is also recommended for late summer and autumn harvest. Organic Allure F1 CornOrganic Allure F1 Hybrid Sweet Corn 75 days to maturity BI-COLOR Seductive sweetness in a high-quality bicolor! Allure is the first organically available synergistic sweet corn, combining confectionary sweetness with excellent seedling vigor.  Slender 8” ears have good tip fill, and biting into the tender yellow and white kernels results in a juicy “pop”.  Sturdy stalks grow 6-7’ tall in an impressively uniform stand.  When the trials crew harvested sweet corn from our 2013 trials, Allure was the variety most commonly set aside for personal reserves and the preferred one to “sample” during harvest.  Intermediate resistance to NCLB, common rust, and Stewart’s bacterial wilt. Organic Vitamin GreenOrganic Vitamin Green 21 days baby, 40 full size Glossy dark green leaves atop slender light green stems. Compared to Tatsoi, Vitamin Green has a faster growth rate and a more upright habit. Leaves have an attractive cupped shape, but not as savoyed as Yukina Savoy. Tolerant of heat and cold growing conditions; excellent winter green for unheated tunnels. Organic Braising MixOrganic HMS Braising Mix 35 days A balanced blend of robust varieties ideal for sautéing or braising. This mix contains a medley of kale, collard, choys and mustard greens to create an excellent combination of flavors and textures. Varieties have complimentary growth rates and contrasting colors and leaf shapes. This versatile mix is intended for harvest as bunching, but can also be harvested at the baby leaf stage. Contains some spicy varieties, but flavor isn’t overwhelmingly spicy. Organic Curly Roja KaleOrganic Curly Roja Kale 55 days The first organically available ruffled red kale! Curly Roja is the closest kale we could find to the popular variety Redbor F1. Plants grow to 16-18” in height. Densely frilled leaf edges, stunning purple sage color, deep purple stems – all elements of an exquisite kale bunch which holds well after harvest. Beautiful garden ornamental or edible landscape variety as well as an excellent variety of cold hardy kale! Organic Striker F1 LeekOrganic Striker F1 Hybrid Leek 95 days What strikes you first about Striker is the amazing uprightness of its attractive blue-green leaves. This late summer/early fall leek has good uniformity, and its straight shaft with virtually no bulbing makes this variety easy to clean. Striker offers the look, color and girth of a winter leek but without the wait! Organic Regal Oak LettuceOrganic Regal Oak Leaf Lettuce 21 days baby, 50 full size A gorgeous oak leaf with a distinctive leaf shape, Regal Oak is an excellent all season variety with notably strong bolt resistance. Bright emerald green leaves are deeply lobed with pointed tips. This variety grows with an open – almost splayed –  architecture, flat and low to the ground. Excellent for baby leaf, teenage or small full-size heads. As a baby leaf, the unique leaf shape and deep green tone of this variety add a nice component to a mix. One of our California growers praises this variety for good resistance to tip burn, powdery mildew, and bacterial leaf spot. A true crowning glory of a lettuce!  Organic Feher Ozon PepperOrganic Feher Ozon Sweet Specialty Pepper 65 days white, 95 days red Stout conical peppers start out pale white in color then ripen to yellow, then orange, then bright red offering a vivid spectrum of color to harvest off of one plant! Early fruit set of whitish/yellow peppers provide a nice alternative to the season’s first flush of green peppers. Heavy yielding, Feher Ozon produces copious amounts 4” long fruit with broad shoulders that taper to a point. When fully ripe, fruit are exceptionally sweet with a juicy pepper crunch. At early stages, flavor is mild and slightly zingy, but still sweeter than other varieties at a similar stage of ripeness in our trials. Sturdy stout plants hold fruit well and are not prone to falling over. Excellent container variety. Originally from Hungary, ripe peppers are traditionally dried and used for paprika. Organic Bagheera F1 Kabocha SquashOrganic Bagheera F1 Hybrid Kabocha 95 days High-yielding, semi-bush dark green kabocha with exceptionally dry texture.  In our 2012 trials, Bagheera produced the greatest quantity of marketable fruit per plant. Fruits average 3-4 LB, measuring about 4.5” in height and 6.5” in diameter. Bagheera’s flavor is deep, dense and delectable. From the outstanding winter squash breeding program of Dr. Brent Loy at the University of New Hampshire. Organic Caiman F1 TomatoOrganic Caiman F1 Hybrid Tomato 80 days GREENHOUSE Our largest, most disease resistant greenhouse tomato with a ruffled, fruit shape. Attractive 12-16 oz fruits have a flattened shape with creased shoulders reminiscent of an heirloom tomato. Bright red skin is shiny and eye-catching. Fruit grow in clusters of 4-6 on vigorous, indeterminate plants and hold well on the vine. Plants have short internodes and good fruit set. Caiman is recommended for unheated greenhouse production. Intermediate resistance to root-knot nematode. Organic Goldie Ground Cherry Organic Goldie Ground Cherry 75 days An exotic garden treat! Ground cherries, with their papery husks, tropical flavor and treasure hunt harvest experience add a little bit of magic to your garden. Bushy plants grow 2.5-3’ tall and can be trellised or left to sprawl. When ripe, the husk around the fruit becomes papery dry and the fruit falls off the plant to be hunted for and scooped up from below the leaves. Some people place a tarp or sheet underneath the plants to make harvesting easier, but either way the husks keep the fruit clean of any dirt. We trialed and tasted several varieties of ground cherries in our 2012 trials, and Goldie was the one that bested the rest.