I always am looking for unusual plants or varieties. This is my first year trying out some seeds from MIGardener.  If these plants grow well in Michigan, the should grow well in Pennsylvania. Here are my selections and why. . .
Seed Picks for 2021
1) Champagne Bubbles Cherry Tomatoes – This cherry pole tomato plant is supposed to be very productive. Also, the seeds are hard to find or rare.
2) Lemon Drop Pepper – This 2 inch sweet pepper is from Peru and is supposed to be tangy and lemon flavored. I never heard of this pepper before.
3) Red Malabar Spinach – this is another rare seed. While it is not a real spinach variety, it is supposed to taste similar. Unlike regular spinach, it prefers to grow in the summer heat.  Since the stems are red and the leaves are bright green, it should look fantastic on my trellis!
4) Mammoth Sandwich Island Salsify – this a root vegetable that you probably won’t find at the grocery store. While other varieties of salsify have dark skin, this one has white skin and flesh. Some folks say it has a flavor that is a cross between parsnips and carrots. This variety can get up to 7 inches long and 1 inch wide on top.
5) Hamburg Rooted Parsley – This root vegetable is said to have a flavor combination of parsnip, carrot, celeriac and nut.  I’m intrigued. The leaves taste like parsley too. The roots will be about eight inches long and 2 inches wide on top.
6) Atomic Red Carrot – These carrots have red skin and orange flesh. When you cook them, they don’t lose their red skin. This type of carrot will grow to be about 9 inches long.
7) Pink Plume Celery – I have never grown this color of celery. It will grow up to 30 inches tall. The stems are slim and pink accented by green leaves What the heck! I’m giving it a try this year.
8) Purple Plum Radish – I’ve grown this variety before and I loved it. This radish is milder and resists cracking. One year I planted them really early in spring under cover and forgot about them. They got rather large for a radish and they still tasted great!
My other seed picks for 2021 include seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
