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Greetings from
Tom
Organic
Varieties offered Only from High Mowing
Seeds!
Trials Field Walks Schedule
Continuous Harvest - Holly
Simpson
Research Report - The Importance of
Nitrogen - Jodi Lew-Smith, Ph.D.
High Mowing Fall Countertop
Collections
Excellent
Summer Varieties - Available Organically Only
from High Mowing Organic Seeds!
Sure, you can get some
of these varieties elsewhere, but no other company
offers these seeds organically! We're proud to offer
these tasty summer varieties – Available Organically
Only from High Mowing Organic Seeds!!
Greetings From Tom
 Hello growers
and gardeners!
Summer has arrived early up here in Vermont, just as
spring did a few months back. That puts us a bit ahead
of where we usually are; some of our melons that have
been under remay since early May are about ready to
flower - almost 3 weeks ahead of usual! The fireflies
have also arrived 16 days ahead of any other year in the
10 years that I've been tracking it at my house. I
expect that there will be more surprises in store for
us, but so far this is the best start to the growing
season that I can remember. So, I am excited. But
should I be terrified instead? Is this spring too good
to be true or indicating some sinister changes afoot?
Last night I had dinner with Bill McKibben, one of our
nation's leading environmentalists and author, best
known for his writings on climate change and as the
organizer of www.350.org. We talked about the
excitement of such an extremely early spring as well as
the concern about what it may indicate. I am sure that
many of you have experienced weird weather or changes
to rainfall patterns as well. Whatever the weather
does, it will no doubt be asking a lot of not only us
farmers and gardeners, but also asking a lot of the
seeds that we use. How do you breed and select
varieties for whatever weather is coming? Resiliency
in genetics and in all of our production methods will
become increasingly critical. How well will this work
if it rains for a month, or if it is dry for a month or
if it does both - back to back? We are asking
ourselves these kinds of questions in our seed
production, trialing and breeding and would love to
hear your thoughts and experiences as well.
Sincerely,
Tom Stearns,
President & Founder
High Mowing Organic Seeds Trial Field
Walks
First
walk of the season on Wednesday, June 30th, 4 – 6 PM –
Focus on lettuce, brassicas (spring planted) and
herbs
 For the second
summer in a row, High Mowing Organic Seeds will host
monthly “Trials Field Walks”, guided tours of the over
800 vegetable, herb and flower varieties being grown,
compared and evaluated in the 3-acre HMS trials
garden. Join High Mowing Organic Seeds trials manager
Heather Jerrett for a walk down the rows, to see and
taste some of High Mowing’s newly-released, exclusive
varieties, like King Crimson pepper and Midnight
Lightning zucchini, along with labeled displays of
many, many more varieties. The High Mowing Organic
Seeds trial garden serves as a rigorous testing ground
for selecting stand-out varieties to make available to
through the annual seed catalog. Visitors will learn
how data is collected to accurately describe and assess
variety characteristics independently and in comparison
to other varieties.
There will be four monthly trial field walks during the
2010 season. Each session will focus on specific crop
groups, but there will also be time to explore all the
varieties being grown in the trials garden. Join us to
learn and share information about growing specific
crops, handling pests and diseases, and for a sneak
preview of new varieties that may soon be available as
organic seed!
Schedule of Walks Wednesday, June 30th, 4 – 6
PM – Focus on lettuce, brassicas (spring planted) and
herbs
Wednesday, July
21st, 4 – 6 PM – Focus on cucumbers, beets,
carrots, cabbages (fresh market), herbs, snap beans,
okra, artichokes, and fava beans
Sunday, August
22nd, 10 AM – 2 PM – Highlighting summer crops,
including cucumbers, summer squash, melons,
watermelons, beans, beets, carrots, lettuce, fennel,
snap beans, edamame, napa cabbage, tomatoes and
peppers. Note: This Trials Field Walk coincides with
the Kingdom Farm & Food
Days, a two-day event celebrating food and farming
in the Northeast Kingdom.
Wednesday, September
22nd, 4 – 6 PM – Focus on winter squash,
carrots, beets, leeks, onions, lettuce and root
crops
All Trial Field Walks are held at our trial garden on
Marsh Road in Wolcott, VT. Directions.
Continuous Harvest: A Succession
Planting "How-To" - Holly
Simpson, Sales Associate
Succession planting
can play a significant role in maximizing the usable
space in your garden. As soon as you harvest one crop,
the next crop can be seeded or transplanted in that
soil. Using the succession planting method can also
extend your growing season in either spring or fall.
Identifying appropriate cool season and warm season
crops is the first step to planning for the
season.
 Vegetables such
as lettuce, spinach, radishes, peas (shell, snap, or
snow), salad green mixes, beets and scallions can be
direct seeded in early spring, as they mature quickly.
Seedlings of broccoli, early cabbages, mustard greens
and even kales and collards can be transplanted at this
time too. Onion sets and potatoes also require cooler
temperatures to become established. All of the crops
listed above can withstand a light frost. Using row
cover fabrics, cloches or cold frames insulate the soil
to maintain a temperature of 50-55 degrees.
As soon as the cool season crops have been harvested
and the last frost date has passed, pull out the plants
and have your warm season crops ready to go. Starting
warm season seedlings of melons, eggplant, cucumbers,
tomatoes, peppers, chard, celery, summer and winter
squash etc. to transplant will give you a head start.
In the late summer, one to two months before serious
frosts (July to mid August in our area of northern
Vermont), plant another round of cool season crops.
The following items will be fine with light to harder
frosts: Beets, Chinese cabbage, carrots, cauliflower,
endive, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, spinach, turnips and
lettuce.
Also, for continuous harvests, another simple method of
succession planting would be to make several plantings
of the same crop. For example, green beans can be
planted every 2 weeks from mid-May thru mid-August or
transplant broccoli and cauliflower starts every two to
three weeks for sequential harvests.
Make a chart with all the vegetables that you wish to
produce more of. Once you the chart is complete for
the first season, you will find it easy to modify the
following years.
Using either of these methods will feel very rewarding
and allow you plenty of vegetables for fresh eating but
also for canning and freezing to keep the harvest
edible year round.
Research Report
- The Importance of Nitrogen -
Jodi Lew-Smith, Ph.D -
Director of Research &
Production
As the last of our
seed crops go into the ground, I find I’ve been
thinking about nitrogen. This is something of a
problematic nutrient in organic systems, mostly
because the obvious organic sources – compost and
manure – contain so much phosphate that we quickly
create situations of excessive phosphate levels,
which can tie up other nutrients so they become
unavailable to plants even when they’re technically
present in the soils.
 The ideal organic solution to
nitrogen fertilization, of course, is the planting
of leguminous cover crops, which add nitrogen and
also organic matter without adding phosphorous.
However cover cropping isn’t any kind of a solution
to last-minute requirements, and doesn’t work all
that well as a side-dress for crops requiring
heavier doses of nitrogen. For small areas of
intensive cropping you can use blood meal, soybean
meal, or alfalfa meal, but all three are generally
pretty expensive to use on any kind of a larger
scale.
The percent organic matter in soils also plays a
key role in the formula, for each percent of
organic matter releases a set amount of nitrogen
over the course of a growing season. This means you
can use your soil test to help calculate your
nitrogen input required. This is useful, and
building organic matter is always a key component
of a good management strategy.
Since increasing the nitrogen in your soil through
cover cropping requires advance planning, now is a
good time to think about which nitrogen fixing
cover crops fit into your particular crop rotations
for this summer and fall, and into next
season.
Clover is a good nitrogen fixer, providing up to
100 lbs/acre of nitrogen, and its long taproots
bring up nutrients from the depths of the soil.
Clover is best planted in spring, summer, or fall
and left overwinter, then incorporated after its
second full season of growth.
Peas are another excellent source of nitrogen that
can add 170 lbs/acre. Peas can be sown in early
spring as soon as the ground can be worked and
throughout the summer. The final sowing for
overwintering or a fall cover should be about 6-8
weeks before first fall frost. Peas prefer cool and
moist conditions and will survive through many
frosts (winter kills at about 15°F). Peas are
often sown alongside oats, which act as a “nurse
crop” for the peas to climb.
Hairy Vetch is vigorous crop praised for its winter
hardiness and nitrogen fixation. Best sown in the
fall, it is often grown with winter rye as an
overwintering cover that will regrow vigorously in
the spring.
Farmstands & Retail Markets: High
Mowing Countertop Collections Available For Fall
 High
Mowing has attractive countertop collections that are
nice displays for a late summer and fall vegetable seed
offering.
An example of a great Fall Vegetables collection
includes:
2620 Mesclun
Mix 2610 Gourmet Lettuce
Mix
2520 Lacinato
Kale 2600 Rouge d’Hiver
Lettuce
2260 Bull’s Blood
Beet 2870 Pink Beauty
Radish
2885 Giant
Winter Spinach 2880 Bloomsdale
Spinach
Or, contact Katie at katiel@highmowingseeds 802-472-6174
x 105 to find out what other varieties there are to
choose from.
Top of
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Recipes from EatingWell Magazine!
 High Mowing Organic Seeds and EatingWell Magazine have teamed up this summer to share with you some great ideas in growing and cooking. Each vegetable or herb variety offered in the High Mowing Seeds Packet Collections is linked with a series of recipes from EatingWell highlighting that selection. Using organic seeds from High Mowing ensures a successful beginning to your gardening adventures, and following an EatingWell recipe ensures a delicious journey’s end! These mouth-watering recipes will help you enjoy your garden’s bounty!
EatingWell Recipes that feature High Mowing organic varieties!
Kingdom Farm
and Food Days! Aug 21st - 22nd!
 (Formerly
known as High Mowing Organic Seeds' Field Days) Come to a
free, fun-filled event in celebration of good food and
Vermont agriculture. Participating farms in the Northeast
Kingdom will open their doors to the public. Our trials
garden will be open for self-guided and hour-long guided
tours throughout Sunday. Labeled displays of over 800
vegetable, herb and flower varieties will allow visitors
to see a wide range of side-by-side comparisons of many
popular and some yet-unreleased varieties. There will be
live music, workshops on seed saving, pest and disease
identification, and an evening bonfire! Kingdom Farm and Food Days
Details.
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