Finding the right varieties for the catalog happens in the field. We keep our growers in mind when we make our selections, ensuring the varieties we add bring value to professional and home growers alike. While our Early Jalapeño works well as an open-pollinated variety, we had been given the task of finding a hybrid variety that would bring more: more uniformity, more robust plants, and more preppers. As Taylor, the leader of the High Mowing Trials program, and I walked up to the pepper trials we were reserved. We had been down this road before. We gushed over plants that we were using as our comparable varieties. They had everything that we were looking for, except they weren’t available organically. We also looked at some beautiful varieties that were in development, but we really wanted this pepper now. And then we came up to the last one in the trial: strong, sturdy, and loaded with beautiful, glossy fruit. We checked the stake twice to make sure. Organic? Check. Available? Check. As soon as we could contain our excitement, we added Triunfo F1 to the list that we would bring to the Product Development team (PD) for the upcoming catalog. Finding varieties that perform and bring the most benefit to our growers has always been central to the work at High Mowing Organic Seeds. It is also work that doesn’t end. After compiling feedback from our growers on the phone and in their fields, PD comes together in the fall to review the current catalog and see where we have room to add new varieties, or slots. These slots might include a disease resistance, specific size or color of fruit, or the ability to perform in a particular season. Once the slots are identified, Taylor starts working on the upcoming season’s trials plan. By reaching out to our partner seed companies, as well as independent and public breeders, Taylor spends the early winter gathering samples and building the trials for the upcoming season. As the season progresses, her crew gathers quantitative data on the varieties, including color, size and yields. When the time is right for each slot, Taylor and I walk the fields, using a grading system to rate the varieties on appearance, vigor, taste, appeal. We then choose which varieties make the cut, bringing our whole PD team to the field where we make our recommendations. It is through this work, often started years ago, that we are able to identify and bring to our growers the varieties that have allowed us to become the whole farm catalog you hold today.