Corn, Blue Star (breeder's selection), Flour (75-110 days) Zea mays This is a collection of all of the most unique ears in a very diverse gene pool that was rogued from the Hopi Blue flour corn.  This will still yield good flour corn, but it is a more diverse assortment of light blue to purple with non-linear rows of kernels in spirals, star and other interesting patterns.  It also has a good amount of dented kernels and strange forked ears.  A novelty for the curious gardener!  Can be eaten as sweet corn when picked young and roasted, but is best known for making an excellent, sweet blue corn flour that has 30% higher protein levels than dent corns. Plants are 5 ft. tall and bushy with many tillering side shoots.  Ears are a beautiful smooth silvery blue that are 8-10” long with usually 2, but up to 7 per stalk. There is still much variability in this strain with respect to kernel color and degree of kernel denting.  Expect ears to mature into shades of light gray/slate blue, to dark blue and purple.  Robust, drought-tolerant cultivar selected over many generations. HEIRLOOM,  Packet (One Ounce) ...

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Corn, Glass Gem, Flint (100 days) Zea mays This is a flint corn used for making flour or as a popping corn. Unlike sweet corn, it is not edible right off the cob.  It was likely bred as an ornamental variety - for obvious reasons. Many of these exquisite ears are simply too beautiful to eat.  Like many heirloom treasures, Glass Gem corn has a name, a place, and a story. Its origin traces back to Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer living in Oklahoma.  Carl Barnes’ (pictured in his corn field) kaleidoscopic corn has become a beacon - and perhaps an inspiring symbol - for the global seed-saving revival.  Barnes had an uncanny knack for corn breeding. More specifically, he excelled at selecting and saving seed from those cobs that exhibited vivid, translucent colors. Like other flint corn it is excellent for polenta and hominy. HEIRLOOM. Packet (Half Ounce) Quarter Pound Half pound ...

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Magenta Parching  (100+ days)   Zeea mays Parched corn offers yet another scrumptious way to eat non-sweet grain corn. Corn-breeders Carol Deppe and Alan Kapuler developed this OP variety from 7 sweet corn strains and 7 Hopi strains obtained from seedsman John Kimmey. It is cooked in a dry pan without oil for five minutes at medium-low heat, the toasting kernels start to swell and split, releasing a wonderful aroma. The best parching corns are slow to burn, though, it is important to keep them moving by stirring or shaking the pan. Packet (One Ounce) 1/4 pound ...

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Maiz Concho Flint (110-120 days) Zea mays We are grateful to share this beautiful heirloom from a nice crop grown by Dan Hobbs at Pueblo Seed in Colorado. Corn is strongly adapted to latitude, so when we grew this SW corn in Oregon it grew very tall (10-12’) and produced ears late. So, unless you are closer to 35 degrees Latitude, then allow for a very long season for this strain to mature. Maize de Concho is included in the Slow Food Ark of Taste collection because it has been used for preparing Chicos, a method of cooking involving harvest- ing at the green (milk) stage and prepared via an ancient technique through roasting in an earthen oven called an “Horno”. Chicos are still made by residents of the Upper Rio Grande and San Luis Valley where there is a revival of this endangered regional food in Acequia communities. This is an ancient flint type of corn that can periodically revert back to ancestral phenotypes indicative of its wild parentage from Teosinte. Ears are 9-14” long with pale, shell-white kernels. Can also be used for pozole, hominy, grits and polenta. Packet: One Ounce (≈ 110 seeds)  Quarter pound Half Pound ...

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Corn, Papa’s Blue (80-90 days) Zea Mays We are grateful to Wayne Marshall of Banbury Farm in Buhl, Idaho for this gem that were bred out of Painted Mountain by seedsman Ed Schultz, also in Montana. Dave Christensen (breeder of Painted Mountain Corn) spoke very highly of this variety, describing them as very uniform and a brilliantly colored blue. Much like it’s Painted Mountain origins, Papa’s Blue is a short stature (4-5’), very early maturing flour corn with great culinary qualities. Packet:  One Ounce (≈ 110 seeds) ...

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Corn, Riverspirit Rainbow, Flour (90-110 days) Zea mays A stable & diverse gene pool of native flour corns including Anasazi, Hopi Blue, Hopi White and others that has been successfully grown on homesteads in OR & CA for decades. Tall (7-10’) plants produce 1-2 large (10-20”) ears in every color and pattern imaginable. Excellent for corn bread, masa, tamales and adding to any recipe that calls for wheat. Incredibly beautiful – shucking it is like opening a present from the Earth! Packet (one ounce) 1/4 pound Half pound ...

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Corn, Siskiyou Pink, Flour (85-95 days) Zea mays This variety is part of our ongoing effort to adapt and stabilize new landraces that are useful staple crops to the Pacific Northwest region. The first parent of this lovely flour corn is Hopi Purple which we originally obtained from the old Seeds of Change collection from El Guique, NM.  We crossed this with Magenta Parching corn which was originally bred by ​​breeders Carol Deppe and Alan Kapuler who developed this OP variety from 7 sweet corn strains and 7 Hopi strains obtained from seedsman John Kimmey. All the parent varieties look quite similar and enabled us to bulk up a wide breadth of diverse genetics and adaptation. The result is a robust plant with drought and short season adaptation that produces 2 ears of beautiful pastel pink flour corn with good milling qualities. Can also be used for hominy, posole, masa and the like. If planted farther apart it will tiller well, producing side shoots and smaller side ears given a long enough season. Packet (1/2 oz)  ...

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Corn, Sunrise (110 days) Zea Mays This is a gene pool that came out of the southwest flour corns. It has a mix of yellow, orange, chinmark( stripped), lighter reds and dark red kernels.  The plants are 7-8 feet tall and produce 1-2 ears per plant that are 8-12 inches long. Tillers somewhat.   Drought adapted. We offer this warm hued mix to share the wonderful experience of discovering all the beautiful diversity in stalk color, silks, tassles, husks and ears. HEIRLOOM Packet: One Ounce  Half Pound ...

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Gourd, Cucuzzi, aka Serpente De Sicilia (80 days to fresh harvest, 120 days to mature gourd) Largenaria siceraria In Italy these gourds were harvested young like the way summer squash is and eaten steamed, sautéed, stuffed and baked. Their complex, nutty flavor is uniquely distinct from zucchini. Sprawling vines thrive in the heat and require a long season to mature the fruits to gourds if you chose to leave them on the vine for craft projects later.  Fruits can grow to 4-5’ long when left to mature.  They tend to coil and make odd curvaceous shapes unless trellised which allows gravity to pull them into long straight forms. 2.5g ~ 15 seeds...

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