1 4 Easy Ways t o O rd e r Online www.SouthernExposure.com Our online store contains everything in our catalog and more! Browse our website or save time with our online Quick Order form. Phone (540) 894-9480 Our phone hours are: Dear Valued Customers & Gardening catalog; a few more varieties than usual will 9 am–5 pm, M–F, January 1–May 31, and probably run out, but, we’re not going to run 11 am–3 pm, M–F, June 1–December 31 Friends & Everyone Everywhere, out of tomato seed! (EST). Please have your order and credit If you don’t see your favorite variety in card ready. We hope you’re OK!! the catalog this year, we hope that you’ll find What a strange and scary and crazy world right now. a different variety that you’ll try and like! (If Seeds have been a big comfort to us. It’s been helpful, Fax (540) 266-1021 life gives you lemons, make lemonade… if Fax your order anytime 24/7. Please use the during all this, to have *something* positive we can do. life gives you new tomato varieties, make When the pandemic first started, and we were scared and order form on page 87 or download one at tomato juice…) www.SouthernExposure.com angry and frustrated, it was good to be busy, and to at The weather took its own toll on seed least be able to send seeds to people to garden and grow growouts this year. Here in central Virginia, their own food. And then later in the spring, when the we had a nice proper hot July – 2018 and Mail P.O. Box 460 office work eased up some, it was good to get out in the 2019’s had been cool – but as soon as we Mineral, VA, 23117 fields and plant seed crops for this year’s catalog. made it to August, the weather turned cooler Please use the order form on page 87. For all that it’s been a crazy year, we’re managing to and wetter, and that slowed down our seed Complete ordering instructions & welcome 28 new varieties to the catalog this year. production for heat-loving crops like okra, Some interesting new varieties: three different bicolor limas, peppers, and cotton. We’ve heard conditions can be found on page 86. tomatoes in three different sizes! Virginia Sweets (p. 54) is similar from many other Southeast growers. a big family heirloom. Little Lucky (p. 56) has smaller And back in July, that hot weather was also fruits, it’s the lucky offspring of an accidental Brandywine hot, *dry* weather, and that drought hurt cross. And Tropical Sunset (p. 56) is a beautiful some growers’ crops. pink-and-gold cherry tomato that takes the taste of a big Brief Index Out west, many growers we know had close calls Complete index on page 91. slicing tomato and crams it into a cherry tomato. with wildfires, and some had to evacuate. During the Grenada Seasoning (p. 41) is a yellow spice pepper worst of the smoke, many couldn’t go outside at all, and Vegetables......................... 5–59 with unique floral flavor. Sally’s Hot pepper (p. 42) has had to stay inside at a time when seed crops were in peak small fruits in many colors, great for container growing. harvest. And even when it got a bit better, they had to Cotton............................. 67–68 January King cabbage (p. 11) has beautiful semi-savoy work while wearing masks to try to keep the smoke out Garlic.............................. 20–21 red/green leaves, holds well in cold weather. as best as possible. Back in the catalog this year are some of our We’ve been isolating on our farm since early March. Mushrooms...................... 30 favorites – Lutz Green Leaf beet (p. 9), Minicor carrot Right around then, some of us had cases of “is-this-flu- Perennial Onions................ 35 (p. 12), Liana asparagus bean (p. 7), Louisiana Purple or-????” and took care to isolate. Tests weren’t available Pod snap bean (p. 7), Texas Gourdseed corn (p. 16), and then, so we’re still not sure of what we had! We’re taking Herbs.............................. 60–65 Yellow Cabbage Collards (p. 24). extra precautions to protect folks here with health issues. Flowers............................ 66–73 But, while there’s a lot of new and returning Many of us have been able to get in carefully planned varieties, there’s also less varieties in the catalog than visits with family, but we miss not being able to easily Grains & Cover Crops...... 74–77 usual, because of the big pandemic sales surge. In travel and visit. Books & DVDs... ............. 77–80 mid-March, right around when seed orders normally We missed getting to see everyone at farm and start to slow down, they started to pick up… and then garden shows this last year! Ira’s new state guides to Supplies............................ 80–81 doubled… tripled… quadrupled… quintupled… and gardening (p. 77) were published just as the pandemic Mixes & Sampler Packs.... 82 finally, we had to limit how many orders we could take surged and we went into isolation, so Ira never got to do on our website. By early May, we were able to keep our a book tour. Ira and Irena have given some Zoom Potatoes........................... 83 website open again full time, but even when orders presentations on gardening and seed Sweet Potatoes.................... 84 slowed down, we still had about 3 times as many orders saving. Fall 2020’s Heritage Harvest as usual this summer. That really took a toll on our seed Festival was virtual, and 2021’s will be as inventory! And being busier than usual in the office well. Some other virtual talks will be made it harder for us to find time to grow seed crops happening this year, we’ll try to list them and trial crops here on our own farm. on our website’s events calendar. We line up most of our seed growouts from January This letter’s getting written in late through March. When the pandemic sales surge Garden Planner October. At this time, the Coronavirus SouthernExposure.com/gardenplanner happened, we checked back with seed growers, and death count for the U.S. is over 230,000, many of them took on extra crops, or increased the size and nationally; cases and deaths are Could you use help with garden planning? of the growouts they were already planning on doing. rising. By the time you read this, tens of But, most farmers make their crop plans during the Our simple, powerful online tool helps thousands more may be dead. We were manage your garden throughout the season winter, and they didn’t have the flexibility to take on scared and angry and frustrated when this much extra late in the spring. all started, and it’s even more frustrating, and from year to year. Beans, southern peas, and sweet corn were especially all these months later, to see that affected by the big sales surge; it’ll take us a year or two 1 Easily map plantings Coronavirus is still spreading as fast as it 1 Organize crop rotations to get back to having as many varieties as we like to was when this all started. offer. Which is to say, if you have a favorite bean or 1 Twice-a-month email planting reminders We hope for better in the year to 1 Order seeds directly from the planner southern pea variety, it’s a good year to save some dried come. We hope that you and yours are pods for next year’s crop. (Interested in saving seeds? safe. We hope for great weather and Try it free for a week – then you decide Check out our Easy Seed Saving Collection, p. 82.) whether to subscribe for just $29 per year. To reassure folks: we won’t run out of seed. For abundant gardens. example, we have 101 tomato varieties in this year’s – All the Folks at SESE 2 Featured SESE Seed Growers Feral Farm Meadowlark Hearth Carter Farms Cacia Huff established Feral Farm in Beth and Nathan Corymb are the fourth Growing on land originally purchased by their Jacksonville, Oregon in 2017, and has been generation to take care of over 500 acres of land in family in 1910, Michael Carter Jr. is the fifth growing seeds with SESE for the last three years. western Nebraska. Their farm, Meadowlark generation to manage their 150-acre farm in The name “Feral Farm” is a testament to her Hearth, was named for the area’s meadowlark birds, Orange County, Virginia. Michael’s sons, who grew rewilding experience starting her own farm, and and for the warmth at the center of the Corymbs’ up in Ghana, are the sixth generation, and also her reconnecting with the land. Cacia was first work. They have been growing seed for SESE since operate Carter Brothers seed business from the inspired to start her own farm and grow seeds 2013. They grow many seed crops, including farm. They primarily grow African vegetables. when she attended the Organic Farm School in cabbages, carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, Some of Michael’s favorites include Nigerian Washington from 2013–2014. She moved to and celeriac. Much of their land is dedicated to spinach, taro roots, okra, garden egg eggplants, and Oregon in 2015 to be close to family and began grass-fed cattle and hay, while 140 acres are a moringa. Carter Farms just completed their first working for local farmers.