The register
The seed catalog, autumn edition
Eight strains are in the live register this season. Every packet names the family or grower it came from and carries their notes with it. Germination figures are our own wet-towel tests from the spring, not a lab's.
8 varieties shown
Grows like a rumor and grains like a promise. The young leaves go in the pan; the seed heads go ...
The strain that started this library. Stringless, early, and generous enough that we measure the...
A small amber pear that laughs at cold nights. We keep it for the sauce that gets us to March, a...
Dark enough that frost makes it look lit from inside. Cut it and it comes back three times; the ...
Plant it in a block, never a single row; corn is a neighborly crop and this one sulks alone. The...
Keeps until the seedlings of the NEXT crop are up on the bench, which is the whole point of a st...
The first entry in our first ledger and still the most-borrowed packet we own. Loose heads, no b...
Warm, not fierce; a pepper for people who say they can't eat peppers. Does beautifully in a five...
Nothing in the drawer for that
No strain matches that filter this season. Try another drawer, or ask at the bench; the winter register is being typed up now.
Ask at the benchThe register, plainly
Numbers from the spring 2026 germination tests, counted by two people and argued over by one.
| Strain | Family | Days | Sowing | Germ. rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cricket Amaranth | Amaranthaceae | 90 days to grain | Direct after frost | 88% |
| Marrow Creek Bush Bean | Fabaceae | 58 days to snap | Direct, soil warm | 94% |
| Frost Pear Tomato | Solanaceae | 82 days to fruit | Start indoors 6 weeks | 91% |
| Midnight Frill Kale | Brassicaceae | 55 days to baby leaf | Late summer direct | 86% |
| Honey Foot Sweet Corn | Poaceae | 74 days to eating stage | Direct in blocks | 90% |
| Porcelain Doll Gourd | Cucurbitaceae | 100 days to harvest | Direct after frost | 84% |
| Ledger Lettuce | Asteraceae | 45 days to head | Every 2 weeks | 96% |
| Ember Oxheart Pepper | Solanaceae | 75 days to color | Start indoors 8 weeks | 87% |