Tag Archives: Territorial Seed Company

Ketchup ‘n’ Fries: The Pushmi-Pullyu of the 2015 Vegetable Garden

Ketchup 'n' Fries, photo courtesy of Territorial Seed Company

Ketchup ‘n’ Fries, photo courtesy of Territorial Seed Company

When I was 10 years old, my sister and I dressed up as a pushmi-pullyu for the Halloween parade at school. We had just read The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting, a fantasy adventure where Dolittle, a country physician, could speak with animals. One of the imaginary animals he encountered on his trip to Africa to save monkeys was the pushmi-pullyu, a cross between a gazelle and a unicorn. It had two heads, each one at opposite ends of its body.  My sister and I used a box as the body and connected ourselves with fabric. She looked ahead and walked forward while I looked behind and walk backwards and vice versa.

The new Ketchup ‘n’ Fries is the pushmi-pullyu of the vegetable gardening world. One side is a tomato plant, growing up, while the other is a potato plant, growing down. Although this combo was first introduced to gardeners in Great Britain last year (land of Doctor Dolittle), it is being introduced to this country for the first time in 2015, sold exclusively by Territorial Seed Company. The tomato plant is grafted onto the potato plant allowing a harvest of up to 500 red cherry tomatoes above ground and up to 4.5 pounds of white potatoes below ground, according to Territorial Seed Company. Because tomatoes and potatoes are members of the same plant family, they have the same cultural requirements of full sun and warmth. The plants are hand grafted (i.e., made to grow together physically); there is no genetic modification. Grafting is a common horticultural process, more so with fruit trees, but quickly gaining ground with veggies (grafted tomato plants have been on the market for several years). Ketchup ‘n’ Fries will be shipped in 2 ½ inch pots so it is planted outdoors after the average last frost date in early summer.

To me the real value of Ketchup ‘n’ Fries is the pushmi-pullyu factor: the “wow isn’t that cool, I want to read more” or “wow, isn’t that cool, I want to learn how to garden!” Imagine showing this oddity to school-aged children to capture their interest and to explain so many important lessons: botany (fruit versus tuber); science (plant family); health (nutritional benefits of eating vegetables); history (potato famine); chemistry (photosynthesis); math (average last frost date); and literature (Dr. Dolittle!). If my sister and I were inspired to dress up like a cross between a gazelle and a unicorn, think of the kids who could be inspired to garden by growing Ketchup ‘n’ Fries!

 

Cool Season Edibles: Expand Your Horizons by Planting Seeds

mustard

mustard

Last year at this time, I was furloughed due to the government shutdown. On a happy note, I had plenty of time to work in the garden and visited several well-known garden centers in Northern Virginia and one in Maryland to peruse their selection of cool season edibles. I was surprised to see a very narrow selection: plastic packs of broccoli, kale, and lettuce; one type of an onion; one type of soft neck garlic; and in one place, one plastic bag of hard neck garlic. To their credit there were raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry bushes in large plastic containers, usually at a reduced price. But even that selection was not representative; there are many other fruit bushes and brambles that do well in this area.

Many people are interested in eating healthy and growing their own food so I find it perplexing that garden centers don’t capitalize on this in the fall like they do in the spring and summer. Growing vegetables is the same, it’s just different vegetables. Several of my spring plants like spinach are grown again in the fall. In fact, I often use the same package of seeds. But then, most of my plants are started from seed. If you want to learn more about what is really possible, if you want to expand your choices of edibles, try growing your plants from seeds. Find companies that sell seed, ask for catalogs, and order a few seed packages of cool season edibles.

While you may see a few broccoli and kale transplants in the garden centers, you will find many types of broccoli and kale not to mention brussel sprouts, red and green lettuces, spinach, mustards (like a lettuce but peppery), mache, chard, endive, arugula, turnips, broccoli raab, cilantro, and dill from companies such as Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Seed Savers Exchange, and Territorial Seed Company. If you look at their web site or their catalogs, you will find that within each of these types of plants, there are many varieties, some more cold tolerant than others.

mache

mache

Don’t forget the “Asian” or “oriental” greens which tolerate light frosts here in my Zone 7 garden. Some of these are sold by the aforementioned companies while Kitazawa Seed Company sells 20 varieties of Chinese cabbage, 20 varieties of mustard, over a dozen varieties of pak choi, and different varieties of tatsoi, mizuna, and edible chrysanthemum greens.

pak choi

pak choi

mizuna

mizuna

Although these are not harvested and eaten in the fall, I would be remiss if I did not mention the wide variety that exists in the Allium family. Like I said, I only found one onion, one soft neck, and one hard neck garlic in the garden centers. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has about 7 of each type of garlic, plus elephant, Asiatic, and turban garlic. They offer Egyptian walking onions, white multiplier onions, yellow potato onions, and shallots. Small bulbs like these are easy to plant:  dig, drop, and cover! Seed Savers Exchange and Territorial Seed Company sell many different types of garlic and shallots and Territorial Seed Company also offers multiplier and walking onions.

These are only a few of the companies that sell these types of seeds and bulbs, and this based on 2014 catalogs I have at home now. I have no doubt that other companies sell cool season edibles; this was just to provide a snapshot of what is possible to grow in the fall in the Mid-Atlantic area. Don’t assume that what you see in your garden center is all there is to grow. The world is full of possibilities!!