Our warm season seed inventory grew at our last ‘Lettuce Get Together’ thanks to volunteers! We have many new varieties of TOMATOES and new flowers and herbs as well.
Determinate varieties grow to a certain height (usually 2-3ft) then stop growing and mature all of the fruit in a short period of time.Many paste tomatoes are determinate. These varieties are great for canning and well suited to growing in short or split season areas
Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing, flowering and setting fruit until stopped by frost, disease, or really bad weather. Most Cherry and large beefsteak tomatoes are indeterminate, They need to be caged or staked with a really sturdy support.Most really large heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate. These varieties are great if you have plenty of space, warm summer temperatures, and a long enough growing season.
What herb goes fantastic with tomato? BASIL! And we have several varieties to choose from.
BASIL VARIETIES
Dark Opal Purple
Genovese
Italian Pesto
Mammoth
Profuma di Genova
Queenette Thai basil
Now all you’ll need is a good sourdough baguette and some quality olive oil and you’re in for a real treat!
Check out the latest seed inventory pages for the full breakdown of what Chico Seed Lending Library has for you to borrow, grow out, harvest and return!
Our cool season seed inventory grew at our last ‘Lettuce Get Together’ thanks to volunteers! We have many new varieties including shelling peas, snow peas, bulbing fennel, and collards.
Keep in mind this is just the cool season seed. We’ve added more herbs and wildflowers like Parsley, Thyme, Cilantro and CA Poppy. We also added just a few warm season seed like Sorghum and Eggplant but keep an eye on the list, we’ll be adding many more warm season seed in the months to come.
Check out the latest seed inventory pages for the full breakdown of what Chico Seed Lending Library has for you to borrow, grow out, harvest and return!
8 varieties of Bush Bean, 5 varieties of Pole Bean, Yardlong, Cow Pea, and Edamame!
Chico Seed Lending Library now has more than 23 varieties of Beans for your growing, eating and seed saving pleasure! ALL beans are ‘Beginner’ so a very easy type from which to save seed. Please consider growing out some of these varieties and returning them to CSLL!
Simply allow some of the beans to dry in their pods on the plants before collecting, but gather them before they shatter. Spread the collected pods on a tarp and gently step or rub the pods together to separate the pod from the seed. Blow the chaff away using the wind or a fan and collect the seed. Here is a video from Sow True Seed which shows you how. Do ensure the seeds are completely dry before storing in an airtight container. Then follow the steps on our seed donation page and bring some back to CSLL!
Family
Common Name
Scientific Name
Variety
Qty
Fabaceae
Yardlong Bean
Vigna unguiculata
Thai Suranaree
10
Fabaceae
Tepary Bean
Phaseolus acutifolius var. latifolius
Mitla Black
14
Fabaceae
Tepary Bean
Phaseolus acutifolius var. latifolius
Gold
8
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Rolande
10
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Provider
14
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Kentucky Wonder -bush
10
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Black Turtle
10
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Royalty Purple
10
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Harvester
10
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Nickel Filet
10
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
French Filet
14
Fabaceae
Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
French Marcotte
12
Fabaceae
French Bush Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Roc d’or
9
Fabaceae
Pole Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
German Pole Bean
12
Fabaceae
Pole Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Blue Lake
12
Fabaceae
Pole Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Mama’s Cannellini
11
Fabaceae
Pole Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Old Homestead
13
Fabaceae
Pole Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Kentucky Wonder -pole
12
Fabaceae
Runner Bean
Phaseolus coccineus
White Emergo
3
Fabaceae
Cowpea
Phaseolus unguiculata
California blackeye
10
Fabaceae
Lima Bean
Phaseolus lunatus
Henderson’s Baby
1
Fabaceae
Soybean
Glycine max
Surge
1
Fabaceae
Soybean
Glycine max
Edamame
10
More than 300 seed packs were added to our inventory at our monthly ‘Lettuce Get Together‘ yesterday, thanks to volunteers who help us keep our inventory strong! Check out the full CSLL seed inventory for the list of all seed we have available for you to borrow.
Since January of this year CSLL members have borrowed more than 1000 seed packs, which is almost double what was borrowed in all of last year! We now ask that members also return some seed so we can locally adapt this seed to our bioregion! We have helpful information on Donating and Returning Seed but feel free to contact us if you need additional information to info@chicoseedlendinglibrary.org!
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9th from 4:30 – 7:00pm in the meeting room of the Chico Branch of the Butte County Library (1108 Sherman Ave. Chico, CA).
Do you have tomatoes coming out of your ears?
If you do bring in some of your favorite varieties for a Tomato Tasting and Seed Saving Demonstration! You’ll learn how to process & save your tomato seed for next season and taste some delicious local tomato varieties. And even if you don’t have buckets of tomatoes come on in anyway and enjoy!
At 4:30 we’ll start with our Seed Library Orientation for those who are new or would like to know more about how to best utilize CSLL. We’ll provide information about how our seed borrowing system works, our different levels of seed saving for returning or donating true to type seed and how to advance your knowledge of seed saving in general.
Around 5pm we’ll start packing seed for our inventory and discuss our monthly seed topic which is TOMATOES!
At each and every ‘Lettuce Get Together’ you are able to:
Become a member of CSLL (the only requirement is to be an existing library card holder; if you’re not it’s free and easy to do!)
CSLL Orientation to learn how to best utilize the seed library
Check out up to 5 seed packs per season
Seed saving education and discussions (discussions include timely local gardening information)
Package up diverse seed varieties
We hope to see you at our ‘Lettuce Get Together’. You can join our ‘LGT’ on Facebook too!
In Seedy Abundance,
~The Chico Seed Lending Library Team Sherri Scott, Jane Hirtel, Joan Bosque, Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper and Sarah Vantrease
At our June ‘Lettuce Get Together’ yesterday our wonderful volunteers helped package up summer grains for CSLL members to borrow. The varieties are so unique so we thought to share a bit more about them than the simple list we have in our Seed Inventory.
Jobs Tears seed (Coix lacryma-jobi)
The first photo is a grain called Jobs Tears. From the Poaceae family this summer grain grows much like its relative corn. And like corn Jobs Tears do like water and are a perennial in areas with no major frost. Its beautiful seed can be used for crafts and the seed has a small hole in the center which makes it perfect for use as a bead in jewelry! It has also been used as a grain and medicine for centuries in Asia.
Sesame seed (Sesamum indicum)
Next is Sesame! This variety was grown and shared with CSLL by co-founder and primary seed educator, Sherri Scott. We also have an Afghan variety donated to us from Redwood Seed. Sesame is VERY heat and drought tolerant so is a perfect grain choice for our bioregion.
As Redwood Seed tells us on their website they are, “Graceful plants produce multitudes of tan sesame seeds along tall stalks. The dried seeds taste nutty; they can be dry roasted and used whole in cooking or ground into a paste. Beautiful white flowers are tubular.” Sesame is a gorgeous plant all on its own as one can see from the photos here.
Hopi Red Dye Amaranth seed
One more unique seed variety is the Hopi Red Dye Amaranth. This gorgeous amaranth plant is grown for both it’s nutritious edible greens as well as its vibrant red dye. The Hopi have mixed the plant with flour corn for centuries to make their world-renowned piki bread. Native Seeds/SEARCH tells us how to make piki bread or tortillas, “To use Hopi Red Dye for piki or tortillas, soak a large handful of flowers, leaves, and stems in water overnight in water. Mix the water with finely ground cornmeal to the desired consistency. It will result in a pink or fuchsia colored batter. Alternatively grind the flour bracts on a metate and add to cornmeal.”
NEW SEED TO BORROW!
In addition to the varieties we mentioned above we have LOADS more seed for you borrow, as you can see from the photo at left. So come on in, check them out and CHECK THEM OUT!!
Thanks for supporting CSLL and have a great beginning to summer!
March 8th from 4:30 – 7:30pm at the Chico Library meeting room (1108 Sherman Ave.)
We will hold our Seed Library Orientation for those who are new or would like to know more about how to best utilize CSLL. We will provide you with information about how our seed borrowing system works, our different levels of seed saving expertise for returning or donating true to type seed and how to advance your knowledge of seed saving in general.
While we package up BEAN seeds for our seed inventory we will talk about BEGINNER SEED CROPS. Beginner seeds can be fairly reliably saved without cross-pollination. These crops are a great place to start and learn about saving seeds and include:
Asteraceae (lettuce, sunflower, artichoke)
Fabaceae (bean, lentil, pea, peanut)
Solanaceae (tomatoes in particular are Beginner in this family)
We will also have a ROOT TASTING to enjoy sharing our crop harvest of the early spring season. Carrots, radishes, turnips, parsnips, beets and more. You can bring a certain variety you enjoy and/or make a dish with the root crop for sharing potluck style.
At each and every ‘Lettuce Get Together’ you are able to:
Become a member of CSLL (the only requirement is to be an existing library card holder; if you’re not it’s free and easy to do!)
CSLL Orientation to learn how to best utilize the seed library
Check out up to 5 seed packs per season
Seed saving education and discussions (discussions include timely local gardening information)
Package up diverse seed varieties
We hope to see you at our next ‘Lettuce Get Together’!!
