Baker Creek Christmas

[curly_kate]

So my wonderful DH bought me the northern gardener seed collection from Baker Creek, and my inlaws got me a $50 gift certif there! I am pretty flush with seeds right now, but I need to figure out what to buy from Baker Creek. Anyone buy a variety they absolutely love from BC?

 

[wifezilla]

I loved the ground cherries, plum tomatoes, dragon tongue beans, and collective farm woman melon. I also had a good bok pak choy harvest and the alpine strawberries are delicious.

 

[digitS']

Kate, I'll bump this back to the top and offer a few "notions." Since, I have not ordered from Baker Creek before, you will have to take them with the proverbial, grain of salt.

I've been trying to come up with more early maturing Mediterranean tomatoes so have been doing online research. Baker Creek has a favorite tomato: Thessaloniki. Also, I had a nice one in 2010 called Tigerella (not a Mediterranean). It is sometimes called "Mr. Stripey" but that name causes some confusion.

There is also a large tomato called Mr. Stripey but Tigerella is supposed to be a plum. It was very pretty but more important to me, it was very early ripening! Baker Creek doesn't often give days-to-maturity and their description of Tigerella isn't clear: "Tasty round fruit are bright red with orange stripes. The 2 tomatoes are quite beautiful. The yields are high even in cool summers and it starts producing very early. It also has good disease resistance. So smooth, so pretty! Originating in England; this is a good greenhouse crop."

So? What "2 tomatoes" are they talking about? There's no mention of Mr. Stripey or anything else . . . Still, they certainly make it sound like the Tigerella I grew which is supposed to have been an English greenhouse tomato.

Also, Baker Creek has several Marconi peppers. I didn't have a long enuf growing season for Marconi Rosso to mature but grow Giant Marconi every year and have grown standard Marconi many times. Giant Marconi is absolutely my favorite sweet pepper and I think that everyone should try Italian sweet peppers!

Steve

 

[lesa]

I agree with Steve, on the Marconi peppers. They are huge, delicious, easy to grow and great for freezing. I really enjoyed having them and look forward to growing them next year!

 

[thistlebloom]

I've been trying to come up with more early maturing Mediterranean tomatoes so have been doing online research. Baker Creek has a favorite tomato: Thessaloniki. Also, I had a nice one in 2010 called Tigerella (not a Mediterranean). It is sometimes called "Mr. Stripey" but that name causes some confusion.

I've not ordered from BC either, so I don't mean to hijack the thread, but in reference to the Mr. Stripey/Tigerella muddle, they are apparently different. Totally Tomatoes describes Mr.S as an heirloom, with an 80 day maturity, and Tigerella as "similar" to Mr.S , with a 76 day maturity.
I had such a dismal tomato year last season that I'm thinking of doing the super early 55 day ones. It would be nice to harvest more than TWO lousy tomatoes!
I could easily get carried away and try to grow about 10 varieties that I've made note of, but hopefully common sense will prevail...

 

[damummis]

I loved the mountain princess tomatoes. Very prolific.

I loved everything I got last year and I have 59 different varieties of seeds coming this year. Mostly veggies but a few flowers that I am going to sneak into clients gardens this year.

eta: DH just called "Hey hun, you got a huge package from Baker Creek. Excactly HOW MANY seeds did you order?"

 

[wifezilla]

 

[Greenthumb18]

Baker Creek does have a great selection of heirloom varieties, which i like. I tried some varieties from there this past summer, like Pantano Romanesco tomato which were pretty good. And a few others Cherokee Purple Tomato, Flame/ Hillibilly Tomato, Pink Ponderosa, and this Portuguese variety Rei dos Tempores. I need to look for a nice beefy and meaty type of tomato for next summer, anyone know of some varieties that fit that bill?

 

[curly_kate]

Thanks for all the suggestions! One of my favorites from last year was Kellogg's breakfast. Huge beefsteak type that was absolutely delicious! I'm glad I saved the seeds, tho, because it doesn't look like they are carrying it this year. I just cleared out some space in the laundry room for my seed starting. Can't wait to get started!!!

Ground cherries were one of the seeds I got in my kit. WZ - are they a fruit-fruit, or more like a tomato-fruit?

 

[wifezilla]

They have a good fruit taste when totally ripe, but some can have a bit of a tomato flavor. Just make sure you let them get really yellow before you try to eat them