Corn, Cassiopeia, Popcorn (100-110 days) Zea mays  A southern Oregon original in development over the past 11 years.  Originating with the old Cochiti Pueblo strain from New Mexico, we crossed it with 4 other varieties.  Cassiopeia combines the best traits of 5 different heirloom popcorns.  Selected for early maturity, large ear size and multiple ears per plant (up to 5), it is multicolored, tall (8-9’) and beautiful.  Let dry in the field and cure on the cob indoors for a few months before popping.  Will not cross with sweet or flour corns.   * Please note that in order to pop successfully popcorn must have an adequately long season to mature fully.  Harvest once husks are dry on the plant.  If frost kills plants before maturity you can pull them from the roots, bundle and let finish under cover.  Let ears dry fully after shucking (usually 2-3 months) before trying to pop.  (And no it doesn’t work to try and pop it on the cob. they just burn!). An Open Source Seed Initiative pledged variety bred by Don Tipping. Siskiyou Select Original Packet (1/2 ounce) Quarter pound    ...

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Corn, Oregon Blue Maiz, Flour (75-110 days) Zea mays We have created a strain cross between 4 blue flour corns (Hopi Blue, Rio Grande Pueblo from NM, Chihuahua Blue, and Papa's Blue - which is a blue strain of the short season Painted Mountain.) The goal is to eventually develop a well adapted, reliable staple Maiz for the PNW and similar climates. It will exhibit some variability, however all will make good flour corn.  If you save seed, particularly if you do it for numerous cycles, then you are on your way to having your own Heirloom of tomorrow! 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 (up to 14%) than dent corns. Plants are 5-8 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 some 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.  Makes excellent corn meal (as pictured). Siskiyou Select Original  Packet (One Ounce) Quarter Pound - ...

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Rootbeer Popcorn (100 days) Zea mays This is the long-awaited selection from our Cassiopeia mix of the copper/brown phenotype that seedsman, Bill McDorman coined “Root Beer” during one of our biennial Seed Academy training. Growth is the same as the Cassiopeia variety, however, the tassels, silks, and husks have a lovely copper pigment to them. Some variability may still be possible as we continue with this project. Give it a try and let us know your impressions! OSSI (Open Source Seed Initiative) Pledged Variety bred by Don Tipping. Siskiyou Select Original Packet (Half Ounce≈ 105 seeds) Quarter Pound  ...

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Corn, Starburst Select Sweet (F4) (85 days) Zea Mays Starburst Sweet Corn has a red splash of color in a star pattern over white kernels. Eating quality is on par with the open pollinated white sweet corn, Tuxana with large ears that are  9-12” long. The orange red pigmentation is still somewhat variable and we will be working to continue to grow and stabilize the unique variety in the coming seasons. This variety began as a chance cross when we were growing out our Sunfire Flour Corn and upon shucking it we noticed a few dozen dried wrinkled kernels indicative of sweet corn seed. Typically flour corn seed remains plump when dry. So we carefully pried those kernels out and saved them for a future opportunity to grow them out. 4 years later this project is came to fruition and it’s just about ready to be released and minted as a bona fide variety. Siskiyou Select Original Packet 1/2oz ...

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CORN, Sunfire, Flour (100 days) Zea Mays A breeding project to stabilize a trait that we noticed in a landrace flour corn of sunburst patterns of red over yellow, white, orange or red kernels. Also known as Chinmark.  Gorgeous to grow!  Grows to about 6-7' with some tillering and 2 ears per plant. drought adapted. Open Source Seed Initiative pledged variety selected by Don Tipping. OSSI pledged. Siskiyou Select Original Packet: One Ounce  ...

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Kale, Alive Vates Grex   Brassica oleracea (55 days)  A Siskiyou Seeds Farm original variety that is the result of allowing 6 different strains of Scotch curled, Vates types of kale interbreed, including Winterbor (F1), Starbor(F1), Easy Pick (F1), Darkibor (F1), Dwarf Blue, Scotch curled, Meadowlark, Nash's Green.  We began with a large population of a few thousand plants and then selected the hardiest survivors that made it through a week-long cold snap down to 5° F with no snow or mulch.  What made it not only survived, but thrived, growing succulent, sweet green leaves starting with the warming days of February and jamming right along until finally flowering in late May, at which point we harvest tasty flower shoots for use in stir fry or raw in salad.  Frilly blue green leaves are held high off the ground to keep winter splashback of mud off them.  This is an interbreeding population so expect some variability…perfect for homestead gardeners who look to their kale patch to feed them year round! We have done an intensive Half-sibling breeding program with this variety wherein we saved seed from our favorite 100 plants out of a larger population of 2,000 plants, then grew 50 plants from each of those 100 mothers and then rogued out the less desirable plants leaving the best 30W% of a larger grow out of 5,000 plants.  So this is becoming a true open-pollinated work-horse kale that is an alternative to modern hybrids. Siskiyou Select Original  Packet (1/2 g ≈ 125 seeds) 1/2 ounce - ( ≈ 4,000 seeds) 1 oz (≈ 8,000 seeds) 1/4 lb (≈ 32,000 seeds)...

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Melon, Galina, (80 days)   Cucumis melo In Ancient Greek myths Galina was one of the Nereids, (or sea Nymphs, who accompanied Poisiedon) and was known as the goddess of calm seas. Eating and savoring this melon may just as well make you feel like you have been enchanted by the Nereids. Galina is an intentional cross between two excellent melons, the Israeli open pollinated Haogen, (listed above) and the wonderful Galia (an F1 hybrid). Still in the stabilization process (this is the F5), variability is possible, however, the off-types are still tasty. The exterior is bright gold with green stripes and some netting with green flesh. It is highly aromatic and very sweet and quite tropical- tasting with hints of pineapple and butterscotch. The goal with this breeding project is to have a melon with the eating quality of Haogen, and the durability of the netted skin of Galia. OSSI Pedged. Siskiyou Select Original Packet (1/2 g ≈ 25 seeds) ...

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Purple Sunrise  Raphanus sativus  (30 days) The project began as a friendly challenge between Dr. John Navazio and Don Tipping after a seed grow out of Plum Purple radish and noticing some off types that were more elongated. We wondered if we could breed a French Breakfast type that was purple and white instead of red and white. John's idea was to make selections from Plum Purple off types, while Don chose the path of crossing Plum Purple with French Breakfast and selecting from there. This is an ongoing project to stabilize a cross between Plum purple and French Breakfast radishes. Begun in 2017, it still produces an occasional off type (as red seems genetically dominant to purple) but is close to the goal of elongated purple and white crisp tasty roots. We like to eat all the colors of the rainbow and know that purple is harder to find! Siskiyou Select Original Packet (2 g ≈ 250 seeds) ...

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Spinach, Popeye (40-50 days) Spinacia oleracea This is a farm bred original created by combining the best traits of a variety of savoy leaved spinaches into an open pollinated, interbreeding population (aka “Grex”). Leaf color is very dark green with a wrinkled savoyed shape that really adds loft to raw salads. In our trials last summer this variety bolted a good 2 weeks later than a similar variety grown in the cooler summer climate of Washington. A wonderful glimpse into the benefits of imparting bioregional adaptation through on-farm selection and breeding. Siskiyou Select Original Packet (2 g ≈ 200 seeds) Ounce...

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Sunflower, Tiger Teddy  Helianthus annuus (90 days)    Fantastic blending of Tiger’s Eye bicolor and Teddy Bear genetics.  Colors are bronze, maroon, red, gold and yellow.  Blooms are mostly double-petaled flowers with single outer layers, with an occasional fully double individual. Outrageous cut flower. Bred by Don Tipping. Siskiyou Select Original. FLA.  Packet -2 1/2 g (~50 seeds) ...

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 Sundream Cucurbita Maxima (90 days) Good ideas have to start somewhere…this project started as a taste bud love affair with the excellent variety Sunshine (F1), a delicious orange skinned squash developed by Rob Johnston.  With the dream of culturing this strain into an open pollinated variety, we offer this stabilized (F6) open pollinated strain.  We love the flavor of this productive and tasty squash.  This heirloom of tomorrow in the making is a Siskiyou Seeds farm original bred by Don Tipping An interesting agronomic note on this variety and other cucurbit seeds that we grow here at Siskiyou Seeds is that we have not used floating row covers to protect young plants from cucumber beetle damage (which is standard practice on nearly all small farms in our area). Our aim is to breed for and select for plants that are naturally resistant to cucumber beetles and a decade into doing this it seems to be working!  Open Seed Source Initiative pledged & Siskiyou Select Original Packet (5 g ≈ 30 seeds) 1 oz ...

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ZINNIA, Crazy Legs Zinnia elegans (70 days) This is a selection from the popular cactus mix of an exceptionally unique mutation with fully quilled bright fuchsia petals that are both involute (rolled inwards) and fimbriated (petal tips splayed or frizzled looking).  The petals also have a characteristic only observed in 2 plants (out of 300) from the original population of being crooked, like a bent leg. Plants grow to 3' tall. We will continue to select and refine this unique specimen. A pale orange version is in development. (See picture). Bred by Don Tipping. SSF. Packet (0.8 g ≈ 75 seeds) ...

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Zinnia, Orange Anemone  (80 days) Zinnia elegans -  A standout from our Tidepool Mix population that possesses the quilled petals of the Cactus types in pleasing hues from pale orange to a more orange red. Breeder Don Tipping is selecting for highly doubled revolute and fimbrulated, a trait where petal tips are not pointed as is typical, rather they are splayed out. Special attention is being given to encouraging and stabilizing the squiggly petal trait in which the petals zig zag out from the central disc. This is a variety still in development so you can expect some variation, however, subsequent iterations will become more unique and uniformly amazing! Very limited quantities. A Siskiyou Select original. packet ~0.4g ~ 30 seeds...

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Zinnia, Tidepool Mix (75 days) This was the outcome of an intentional cross between our Cactus Mix with its wondrous highly doubled, quilled petals and the marvelous Dreamin’ Mix which is an interspecies cross between Zinnia elegans and Zinnia haageana. The resulting progeny will undoubtedly be a wild and raucous combination of the myriad phenotypes possible between this genetic mashup. During the Fall Seed Academy class we went through a field of thousands of plants to select our favorite individuals and that is the origin of the Tidepool Mix, named for the propensity of many of the flowers to resemble sea anemones. Grow it and discover the wonders of nature for yourself. Siskiyou Select Original Packet - 0.3g (~30 seeds) Podcast Interview describing the breeding behind this project: https://awaytogarden.com/expanding-the-zinnia-palette-with-siskiyou-seeds-don-tipping/  ...

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