The Utopian Seed Project

Moody skies and intermittent sun at @frannysfarm today. We dug the last of the #yacon #arrowroot and #turmeric before doing collard clean up and a better cold damage assessment.

We talked about the idea of letting the collards go to seed as a WNC cold tolerant landrace and we harvested all the big leaves for eating while pulling away the rotted and damaged ones.

Grateful to our @elonuniversity intern, Liam Falter, and Chef Ashleigh Shanti (@foodordeath_ ) for braving cold weather to help with the harvest. Not mention Roux who likes eating raw turmeric, yacon, arrowroot and collards aka everything!!

#experimentalfarm #collards ...

Yacon aka Bolivian Sunroot (Smalanthus sonchifolius) is an Andean root crop in the sunflower family that produces crisp and sweet storage tubers over a long growing season.

You can eat yacon raw, but here we sliced and dehydrated. The dried slices have a raisen-y texture and sweetness!

#yacon #boliviansunroot #tuspyacon #experimentalroots #andeanrootcrop ...

Finally getting round to cleaning the taro! This is a cultivar that we're calling Korean Taro. It has been cultivated by the Pang Family in Georgia for about 50 years. It's very productive and tasty and low in oxalates. It'll be on our Patreon thank you list and we're excited to keep sharing this taro widely! Taro has a long culinary history in Korea and throughout Asia (especially Southeast Asia).

#taro #colocasiaesculenta #tusptaro ...

It's been a while since I checked on the collards and I was a little nervous given lows of 8F and pretty consistent freezing temps. There was definitely some damage, but a majority of the collards were ALIVE 💚

#collards #collardtrial #tuspcollards #heirloomcollardsproject #heirloomcollards #wintergreens ...

Packing up some #WhidleyWhite Okra for a community wide selection project (leave a comment if you're interested!) and some Florida Conch Pea for my #Patreon thank you list.

#seedsaving #okra #southernfoods #southernpeas #conchpea ...

Celosia (Celosia argentea) aka Quailgrass, Lagos Spinach, Soko, Aodoyokoto.

From Lost Crops of Africa: "Of all the world’s vegetable crops celosia is far and away the prettiest. Deriving from the Greek word ‘kelos,’ meaning burned; the name itself refers to the plant’s brilliant appearance and striking flame-like flowers. In a hundred nations the showy heads of this species seem to outshine the sun in gardens, window boxes, streetside displays, and floral exhibits. Not only are the flowers richly hued, their deep-green foliage may also be shot through with streaks of red or purple pigment. As a result, celosia can be eye catching even before it blossoms.
But although this plant catches eyes almost everywhere on earth, few of its admirers know that it is edible, let alone that it is an important leafy vegetable in parts of tropical Africa. In Nigeria, Benin, and Congo, to name just three countries, the fresh young leaves are a common item of diet. They are primarily eaten in a dish prepared from various vegetable greens, combined with onion, eggplant, hot peppers, palm oil (or other vegetable oil), and fish or meat. Sometimes, peanut butter is also added as a thickener. All the ingredients are added to one pot, and brought to a steady boil to produce a tasty and nutritious “soup.”"

Our Celoisa had beautiful varigated red/green leaves and grew about 5ft tall, producing leaves all summer. It was very late to flower and therefore set seeds. However, even this small seed crop brings us one step closer to regional adaptation! Next year we'll hopefully have a bigger seed harvest and therefore more to share!

#celosia #eatyourgreens #sumemrgreens #lagosspinach #seedsaving #celosiaargentea ...