Gardening for Good - McKenna's Plant List

Meet McKenna!

We're following Denver gardener McKenna as she grows from seed to donation. McKenna will be donating homegrown produce to Kaizen Food Share through the Fresh Food Connect app, and is excited to share her garden adventures with our community!

Our pepper seedlings didn't make it (tried 2 different batches). So picked up a few seedlings from a person in Lakewood who sells them from their house!

What are we growing this season?

All seeds procured from High Desert Seeds + Garden - all seeds grown in southern Colorado (product descriptions from their website)

Andes Rainbow Pepper: With a range of colors from deep purple to deep red, this variety hails from the Bolivian rainbow chile, but has larger fruits and thicker walls. It has a rich chocolatey flavor packing a lot of heat! Makes a delicious spicy pepper powder. This varietal was selected by Glenn Drowns of Sandhill Preservation Center.
Black Krim Tomato: This is a very popular tomato and for good reason. It produces plentiful, richly flavored red-purple large fruits. At our elevation of 6300 ft, it produces many pounds of highly prized heirlooms for market and for BLTs all summer long. It Is one of the earliest heirloom-type tomatoes to ripen and is a very consistent producer, just barely being outperformed by the Russian Green Tomato.
Black Plum (Cherry Tomato): Heirloom from Russia. Produces plentiful amounts of 2″, dark red oval fruit with green streaks. Grows on compact vines.
Bolita Bean: These small round pink beans are sweet, rich, and fast to cook. We love using them to make the most luscious creamy refried beans! These beans were brought to Northern New Mexico and Colorado by the Spanish who adapted them to higher elevations. We received this variety from Pueblo Seed and Food Co., whose strain came from the San Luis Valley, a high alpine valley over 7,000 ft in elevation. It produces round pink beans with plants that have a slight vining habit.
Capriglio Rosso Pepper: Wonderfully flavored stuffing pepper that hails from Italy. Tomato-shaped with thick red flesh. Great for just snacking on or stuffing and baking. Productive. Slow Food Ark of Taste variety.
Costata Romanesco (zucchini): Traditional Italian heirloom with striking ribbed fruit with mottled green skin. Has an exceptional texture, and flavor that is sweet with a subtle nuttiness. Its delicious both raw and cooked and the flowers are wonderful stuffed. Has some drought resistance, preforming well in dry farm trials.
Cardinal Black Pepper: This dramatically deep purple sweet pepper is very early to mature with a solid set up of deep purple short pointed fruit. As it matures it becomes even more dramatic becoming streaked with various colors from red to yellow. This variety hails from Ukraine.
Carmona (Butterhead Lettuce): Heirloom. Tender butterhead that blushes pink to brown-bronze with good blanching in the center. Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed kept this Canadian heirloom from near extinction. We loved it for its tender succulent leaves and ability to hold in the field over a long period.
Cobán Bean: Cobán is a very productive small bush-type black bean gifted to me by a friend who came across them in Coban, Guatemala. Produces plentiful small black beans that have a rich flavor.
Cosmic Purple Carrot: This carrot dresses up any salad with its dark purple skin and orange interior. Has a sweet taste with spicy notes. We have found that, of the OP purple carrots, the tops of these carrots are stronger but not too thick making them easy to harvest with or without tops. Developed by Dr. Philip Simon and staff at the USDA ARS in Madison, Wisconsin in 2005.
Early Jalapeno: A robust flavored jalapeno that is early to mature and preforms well in challenging climates. Fruits are about 3 1/2 inches and wide. Has a lot of checking (cracking on skin) and heat!
Flashy Lightning Lettuce (Butter Oakleaf): Small but stunning! This small heading variety sports magenta flecks and oak-shaped leaves. From the excellent breeding work of Wild Garden Seed. Very eye-catching at the farmers market. Fast to mature and great as a cut and come again lettuce. Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) Pledged variety.
Glory of Moldova (Saladette Tomato): This semi-determinate tomato produces prolific sets of deep orange tomatoes with wonderful flavor. Produces over a long period of time. A prolific heirloom that yields 2″, 4 oz., salad-sized tomatoes that grow in clusters of six or more. The flavor is mildly sweet and flavorful. We have heard it makes the best tomato soup! Semi-Determinate growth habit.
Heidi’s Arugula: Arugula with full-fledged nutty and mildly spicy flavor. This variety was given to me by a friend and we have loved growing it over the years for farmers market produce. Its oak leaf shape holds its shape giving the bag loft which creates longer shelf life. We are selecting it for bolt resistance to have continual harvest as the days get warmer in the spring.
Ho Lan Do (Snow Pea): We have been growing this for a number of years and think it is one of the best for flavor. It produces small snow peas on bush-type plants that do not need trellising, but minimal trellising does help with ease and quality of harvest. Excited to offer it here. White blooms. Also is known to have excellent disease resistance.
Honeynut Squash: It was love at first taste! After this squash became an overnight sensation with my family I had to offer it to you. Produces sweet, nutty, and smooth mini butternut squashes that are just so delicious! We even eat it as a dessert with just a touch of butter and maple syrup. We have partnered with Cornel University to bring you this fantastic variety and are happy to support their work breeding for organic farming systems.
Jericho Lettuce (Romaine): This is a highly bolt-resistant romaine that maintains it’s flavor even in the heat. Consumers at our market booth have come back asking for this one by name, so we decided to offer it in our catalog. Bred in Israel to withstand high temperatures.
Pico Pardal Garbanzo: The Pico Pardal garbanzo hails from Leon region of Northwest Spain. There, it is known for its small size, pronounced beak, and buttery flavor and it’s use in a traditional meat soup dish “maragato.” A vegetable packer attempted to trademark its name and restrict the use of this traditional bean in 1998. However, 17 years later the courts ruled that the variety belonged to the Leon culture. Free the seed!
Rainbow Blue Corn: This beautiful flour corn is an evolving landrace of native corn that has been selected for 10 + years in Colorado by Vibrant Earth Seeds. It produces plants that primarily produce long ears that are mostly blue with some pink, red, speckled, and white. A whole rainbow of diverse expressions! Its lineage includes Hopi Blue, Millenium (bred from Painted Mountain), Oaxacan Green Dent, Oaxacan Blue, Hopi Pink, Navajo Robin’s Egg, Anasazi, and more. This is a great flour corn that is good nixtamalized and turned into masa.
Rouge Sang Violette Carrot: A stunning and rare French heirloom. A sunburst inside and out, going from dark red shoulders to more orange at the tip and in cross-section, containing colors from brilliant purple skin to an orange, and yellow core. Unlike many colored carrot varieties, we find this one to be sweet without a trace of bitterness.
Sandita Cucumber: Sandita (aka little watermelon), Mouse melon, Mexican sour gerkin, or cucamelon. This crunchy slightly sour cucumber bite hails from Central and South America. This is one we prefer to grow in the greenhouse as it is slow to establish. However, once it gets going, you can easily pick up grape-sized fruit from off the ground when they are most ripe or off of the prolific vines. The plants have cute little leaves and are more resistant to disease than other cucumber crops.
Shishito Pepper: Blistered Shishitos have become a mainstay on menus everywhere. We understand why. These little green peppers hail from Japan and are perfect merely blistered in a pan or grilled with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Gobbled down hot by themselves or dipped in your dressing of choice.