August 2019
Garlic Bulbils are Available!
While supplies last, we have 48 varieties of garlic bulbils available for planting this fall. Bulbils - not the large bulbs that you're probably used to, but the tiny nuggets that grow in the scapes at the tops of the plants.
If you plant bulbils, be prepared to wait for two full years before harvesting fully-grown garlic, but the results should be better than clove-planted garlic, and growing from bulbils is a very economical way to scale up a diverse collection of varieties. Read our article to learn more: How to Grow Garlic From Bulbils
While supplies last, we will send you a good amount (at least 10) of bulbils for 5 different varieties for $15 including shipping and handling. Please order by credit card / Paypal at seeds.ca/store.
We cannot guarantee specific varieties, but if you have a favourite, please ask and we'll do our best to provide what you want.
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3000-Year-Old "Quinoa" Seeds Discovered in Ontario
The discovery of a cache of ancient quinoa-related seeds is upending conventional history about ancient indigenous trade and food in Ontario. During a routine archeological assessment for a Brantford housing complex in 2010, consultants were astonished to find a buried stockpile of Chenopodium berlandieri seeds that were radio-carbon dated to about 900 BC.
The domesticated goosefoot, a now-extinct species that was grown as a food crop by native farmers over 1000 km south of the Brantford area at that time, was easily recognisable by its peculiar snailshell shape - similar to its more familiar modern-day relative, quinoa.
Dr. Carolyn Male (1939-2019)
Tomato gardening enthusiasts from around the world are mourning the loss of Dr. Carolyn Male who passed away on June 26, 2019. Dr. Carolyn, as she was best known, was the author of 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden (1999) which is still considered the 'bible' for heirloom tomato growers.
It is reported that she grew and tasted up to 5,000 varieties of tomatoes and she generously shared many rare varieties with the gardening world. She was of the opinion that heirloom varieties tasted better than hybrids and that the hybrids might not be more disease tolerant than the open-pollinated varieties. In her honour, Steve Draper named an ivory-coloured cherry tomato Dr. Carolyn, and the variety Green Doctors was named for her and Dr. Amy Goldman.
Climate Change Threatening Seed Banks
The world’s northernmost town, Longyearbyen in the archipelago of Svalbard, has the unfortunate distinction of suffering a greater and faster loss of permafrost than any other. Many of the town’s buildings were constructed with the assumption that the ground would always remain as hard has concrete, but with recent rapid increases of temperature those structures are starting to sink into the soil.
Why do we mention this news, and why does Longyearbyen sound familiar to readers of Seeds of Diversity? The Norwegian municipality is home to the world’s most famous seed bank, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault - a back up storehouse of the world’s crop seeds that was established in this frigid arctic place for the long-term security of our food system.
In this issue
3000-Year-Old "Quinoa" Seeds Discovered in Ontario
Climate Change Threatening Seed Banks
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