What veggies grow well on Quadra Island?

By Jennifer Banks-Doll.

Are the long lists of suggested varieties of tomatoes, peas and cucumbers in seed catalogues making you feel a little dizzy and overwhelmed? Are you wondering which seeds to order for success this year in the garden? Me too!

I asked a few fabulous Quadra Island gardeners to suggest some annual vegetable varieties that both grow well on Quadra AND taste good. I’m hoping others will add their suggestions in the comment box below. I have even added a few of my favourites from my first year of gardening on Quadra.

Please note that the seed source listed is one source where that variety can be found this year, and usually the place the gardener who suggested it has been purchasing it. There may be many other places you can find that variety, including one of the many smaller seed companies listed on our Resources page.

Here is the list of favourites I have compiled so far:

Beans

– Carson Yellow Bush Bean from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Janice Ammundsen. Janice grows prolific numbers of beans and loves to can them plain or turn them into dilly beans.

Beets
– Bulls Blood from Salt Spring Seeds – I have grown this in several gardens and it always does well. But what I love the most is the red leaves, so pretty!
– Cylindra from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Janice Ammundsen. You get a lot of beet from this variety, and it is easy to peel and slice.

Broccoli
– Calabrese from West Coast Seeds or Heritage Harvest Seeds – recommended by Janice Ammundsen. An open-pollinated heirloom variety that yields many side shoots after the main head has been harvested.

Cabbage

– Chieftan Savoy from Heritage Harvest Seeds – recommended by Janice Ammundsen. An open-pollinated, heirloom variety.
– Integro Red Cabbage from West Coast Seeds – Val Barr always grows this one for fermenting and finds that green cabbage is a favourite of deer and slugs in her garden if they get near it.
– Miletta Savoy Cabbage from Stokes Seeds – this variety won top honours at the 2018 Quadra Fall Fair. “Very photogenic cabbages, great for making cabbage rolls and okonomiyaki (Japanese freestyle pancake omelettes)” says Allan Mandell.

Carrots

– Flyaway from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Janice Ammundsen. Bred to be unattractive to the carrot rust fly.
– Nantes and Scarlet Nantes from West Coast Seeds or Salt Spring Seeds – I grew a lot of these carrots last year and found they did better than all of the other varieties I tried, and tasted just like a homegrown carrot should, sweet and earthy.
– Napoli organic from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Carol Anne Caulfield. These carrots are especially good right out of the ground in winter as they become very sweet after a first frost.
– Purple Haze – recommended by Carol Anne Caulfield. A purple skinned carrot that is “so sweet and wonderful to pull out of the garden right now.”

Cucumbers

– Miniature White from Heritage Harvest – recommended by Janice Ammundsen. An open-pollinated heirloom variety that is sweet and great for fresh eating.

Kale
Kale grows very well here. I knew that the first time I visited the Community Garden, which was in the winter, and I witnessed the most beautiful kale plants I had ever seen!
– Organic Lancinato from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Val Barr. Great for fresh eating.
– Russian Red from West Coast Seeds (originally) – self seeds every year for many gardeners on Quadra and is great for salads and stir fries.
– Scarlet Red from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Betsy Young. A pretty and reliable variety.
– Vales Blue Curled Scotch from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Val Barr. Great for making pesto or freezing.

Leeks
– Bandit Winter Leeks from West Coast Seeds – Val Barr plants these in May and harvests them in fall and winter as long as they last. She cautions that “A very hard frost will make them slime.”

Lettuce
– Alkindus Organic Butterhead from West Coast Seeds – “spectacular to look at, excellent performer in my garden. It is a butter type so lovely buttery soft but crisp leaves, gorgeously deep maroon with bright lime green towards the centre” says Carol Anne Caulfield.
– Drunken Woman from Salt Spring Seeds – I have grown this variety in a few gardens with great success. Whether the name entices or repels, this pretty variety is much more reliable than its name might suggest.
– Jester Organic Crisphead from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Carol Anne Caulfield. “Jester, with purple spots, is very crisp and juicy.” Similar to Alkindus, it is also “spectacular to look at and an excellent performer.”
– Speckled Butterhead from West Coast Seeds SOLD OUT – recommended by Janice Ammundsen.

Onions
– Calibra Yellow Onion Seeds from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Val Barr as a long keeper.
– Rossa di Milano Red Onion Seeds from West Coast Seeds – also recommended by Val Barr as another long keeper.

Peas
– Cascadia Snap Peas from Salt Spring Seeds – a large, juicy and highly productive snap pea that can also be used as a shelling pea. I suspected from the name that it would grow well on the west coast and I was right.

Peppers
– Antohi Romanian from The Incredible Seed Company – recommended by Janice Ammundsen.

Potatoes
– Sieglinde from West Coast Seeds – “The most delicious potato variety I’ve tasted on Quadra. Order early, they sell out fast!” Allan Mandell.

Pumpkins

– Lady Godiva Organic from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Karen Dunn. This is the industry standard for hull-less pumpkin seeds that can be roasted and eaten as pepitas. The fruit is said to be full of seeds but the flesh is known to be stringy. However Karen said that “I should also mention that the flesh made a delicious pie filling.”
– Triamble Pumpkin from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. “Triamble was introduced to me by a gardener on Cortes. It is such a cool looking squash, tri-lobed, blue-green, excellent eating, deep yellow-orange flesh, very sweet AND an excellent keeper. I was able to cook up and eat my last one last MAY…and then I discovered one more (under the spare bed!) later in the summer still in fine condition!” says Carol Anne Caulfield.

Squash
– Butternut (widely available) – recommended by Carol Anne Caulfied and me. Its shape and thin skin make it easier to peel than most squashes, and its flavour and texture are reliably good. Carol Anne says, “a plain, good old, standard, all round, excellent performer, keeps well, and such excellent sweet flesh, makes the best pumpkin pie.  Not as many squash per plant, two to three usually for me, but large.”
– Festival Squash from West Coast Seeds – recommended by Carol Anne Caulfield. “Festival I love for it’s eye appeal, it’s so colourful and it is a good keeper and good flavour etc. as well.  Why grow a plain green acorn squash when one can grow one that looks like a festival?!  It was super productive for me as well.”
– Honey Boat Delicata from West Coast Seeds and now available from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. One of the sweetest squash varieties out there and highly productive. “Summer of 2017 was incredible, one plant produced 22 squashes!” says Carol Anne Caulfield.

Tomatoes
I spent a small fortune ordering tomato seeds last year as there were so many wonderful-sounding ones to choose from! As it turns out, I was disappointed by most of them. Here are some more promising varieties to try:
– Sungold Cherry Tomatoes (available from West Coast Seeds) earned the “Best Tasting” award at the 2018 Quadra Fall Fair. Says the winner Allan Mandell, they are “phenomenal producers, startlingly sweet.” After tasting a few myself I can verify, they taste like candy! I am going to grow some next year for my kids who have yet to meet a fresh tomato they liked. If they don’t like Sungolds, I give up!
– Tasti-Lee Tomatoes from West Coast Seeds. “The best eating tomato we have found and a very good producer, even in less than ideal soil” says Betsy Young.

Zucchini
– Romanesco Zucchini from West Coast Seeds and others. “Ribbed Italian heirloom variety that simply redefines the vegetable, it’s that good. Slightly nutty flavour. Does very well here” says Allan Mandell.

What veggie varieties have you had good success with on Quadra or nearby? What seed provider did you get them from? Please leave a comment below and let us know. (Please Note: Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t get posted right away. If it is your first time commenting on a blog here, it can take a few hours to see it posted.)

Jennifer Banks-Doll is a new farmer and blogger living on Quadra Island.