Trials

Comparing Potatoes in High Mowing Trials Here at High Mowing, we LOVE potatoes. They always appear at our monthly potluck lunches, they're endlessly versatile in the kitchen, and they store beautifully--an important feature in a state where the growing season is a mere 120 days (in a good year!) They make a great early crop for farmer's markets, and come...

Honeynut Butternut Squash   Have you ever wondered how the seeds in our packets got there? Some varieties, like Honeynut butternut squash, have particularly unique stories. We couldn’t resist sharing the remarkable journey of this little squash and the vital farms and faces that have shaped it along the way.     1. The Market New market opportunities from Community...

Katie Traub is our High Mowing Farm Manager and with her team of Stephen Purdy, Noah LePage, Taylor Maida and their awesome crew, they grow our seed crops, conduct extensive variety trials, and engage in breeding projects on our Vermont Farm. Together, they have over 30 years of organic farming experience. Katie evaluating "Who Gets Kissed?" sweet corn in our...

Picture by Chez Loulou Among the vast cornucopia of crops grown by the diversified vegetable farmer, there isn’t another quite like the Belgian endive.  Also known as witloof – which means “white leaf” in Dutch – Belgian endives are a long season crop that requires a winter, indoor “forcing” phase to produce tightly-wrapped, almond-shaped, cream colored heads. The process has...

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest farmer around.  As Trials Manager at High Mowing Organic Seeds, my job affords me the satisfaction of not only farming vegetables and flower and herbs, but also cultivating information.  In fact, harvesting data is the reason for all that we do on our 5 acre Trials Farm.  (Read about what we do with all...

The Trials Field at High Mowing sits atop a hill in Wolcott, Vermont and overlooks rolling mountains to the west.  On the Trials Crew, we spend our spring days meticulously laying out sets of varieties a few feet at a time—6 varieties of mini Romaine lettuces, 12 varieties of leeks, 8 varieties of peppers.  We handle each trial with a...

Update - Jan. 2014 - we were able to source organic parsnip seeds this year! These seeds didn't make it into our catalog, but we have them on the website: Organic Lancer Parsnip Seeds The world of organic seeds is an interesting one.  As you turn the pages of your High Mowing catalog, you may wonder why we have sixteen...

Becky Maden is the Assistant Farm Manager at Intervale Community Farm (ICF), a thriving member-owned CSA farm in its 21st season of growing organic produce in Burlington, Vermont. Becky has worked on several diverse vegetable farms throughout the country and around the world. At ICF, Becky is either found in the greenhouse, on a tractor, or jogging between the two...

- by Tom Stearns, owner and President of High Mowing Organic Seeds Hello Growers! Just as the season has finished, it is already getting to be time to plan for 2013. What new markets are you going to strive for; what new tools do you need; what new crops might you grow? And of course, what varieties are you going...

In the late summer of 2010, High Mowing constructed a high tunnel with the goal of extending our growing season and conducting overwintering variety trials. We received a grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to put up a high tunnel through their Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative. For the past two winters we’ve conducted variety trials on overwintered crops...