Spring is in the air! Is anyone else as relieved as I am? For vegetable gardeners like us, now is the time to start thinking about plants you want in your Summer garden.

A couple weeks ago I talked about heirloom seeds and a great company called Seed Savers Exchange. Here’s a list of great summer crops that are sure to get your mouth watering!

·       Christmas Lima Bean: Produces beautiful large quarter-sized flat white seeds with maroon spots and swirls; used as a green shell lima or dry; rich flavor with heavy yields; bears even during extreme heat; dates back to the 1840s.

·       Purple Podded Pole Bean: Discovered in an Ozark garden in the 1930s, probably northern European origin; they turn a bright green when cooked.

·       Cherokee Trail of Tears Pole Beans: Given to Seed Savers in 1977 by the late Dr. John Wyche, from Hugo, OK. Dr. Wyche’s Cherokee ancestors carried this bean over the Trail of Tears, the infamous winter death march from October 1838 in the Smoky Mountains to March 26, 1839 in Oklahoma, leaving a trail of 4,000 graves.

·       Scarlet Runner Beans: One of the oldest runner beans now in existence; first documented in 1750 ; good for use as either small snaps, sliced pods or green shells, used in place of limas in cooler climates; highly ornamental red flowers; hummingbirds love them!

·       Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber: A small cucumber with a sour taste – almost like it’s been pickled on the vine! Looks like a tiny watermelon; great for salads.

·       True Lemon Cucumber: Unique yellow appearance; size of a tennis ball; great for pickling and slicing. Does NOT taste like a lemon!

·       Ping Tung Long Eggplant: Extremely beautiful eggplant from Pingtung, Taiwan; dark lavender fruits grow up to a foot long with a one inch diameter and have an incredible shine that radiates off the skin.

·       New Zealand Spinach: Not a true spinach, but similar in flavor and usage that grows during the summer; has small, brittle fleshy green leaves, great for fresh summer greens; New Zealand native brought to Europe by Captain Cook in the 1770s.

·       Tomatoes; we’re all familiar with our local favorite heirloom tomatoes; Brandywine from as far back as 1889, Cherokee Purple, German Pink and German Johnson.

Other varieties include:

  • Gold Medal: Large, yellow, streaked red; firm and smooth; very little acid; said to be the sweetest tomato you ever tasted.
  • Blondkopfchen: A yellow cherry tomato; (a.k.a. Little Blonde Girl); small golden-yellow 1″ fruits with excellent sweet taste. Fruits are borne in giant clusters, enormous yields and never a cracked fruit; bears until frost; seed obtained from the Gatersleben Seed Bank in eastern Germany.

You’d be hard pressed to find those in a grocery store. Happy Gardening!

Eric Eitel is a farmer, father, personal trainer and owner of Instant Organic Garden Southern Maryland, a business that builds raised bed g