YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES

Global Search
Friday May 25, 2012

Change Location

Enter Zip Code

Use this as my default zip.
« Greengirl: Bookworms in the garden
Greengirl: Parsley pal »

Greengirl: Ever try a Jimmy Nardello?

Posted on September 21st, 2005 – 9:35 AM
By Jaime Chismar

My coworker’s enthusiasm for heirlooms transformed her cubical into a curiosity cabinet. A book of exotic melons, jars of roasted garlic, twisted red peppers - Her culinary oddities were more like specimens from Charles Darwin’s expedition to the Galapagos than locally grown produce.

I eyed her enviously as she left the office to interview local growers. A few hours later, she’d return with a huge smile on her face, and sometimes a few perfectly ripe samples.

“Wanna try and heirloom pepper from Italy?”

Though I had just brushed my teeth, I couldn’t resist. After one bite of a Jimmy Nardello pepper, I wanted to proselytize the merits of biodiversity from every street corner in the metro area - and make a couple more raised beds.

Check out the fruits (and photos) of her heirloom research here: http://www.startribune.com/stories/418/5623188.html.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 at 9:35 am and is filed under Tomatoes, Peppers + Eggplant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to "Greengirl: Ever try a Jimmy Nardello?"

Matt Negaard says:

September 21st, 2005 at 12:32 pm

I smuggled heirloom seeds from my Italian father-in-law into the US last winter. He just retired in Northern Italy last summer and planted a massive garden….bigger then previous years. He gave me the seeds from his best and most prized crops. Wild arugula, peppers, zucchini, and a tomato variety.

I may be going to jail for writing and telling this, but I was so proud when my true Italian veggies came to life this summer. I sweat a little as I had my illeagel contraband stashed in my luggage in 5 different places when I was coming back to the USA (bringing in seeds to the USA is a big no no). You would have thought the contents of the little packages were worth 1000’s of dollars. Little did I know when sitting at the dinner table this last few weeks that they were worth so much more.

Greengril says:
You are very lucky (and very brave), Matt. I’d do anything for that tasty variety of arugula I found in Lund, Sweden. To preserve your seeds for future crops, here’s a great book from Seed Savers.

PS: I’d love to see a photo of your contraband (jchismar@startribune.com). I promise I won’t divulge your secrets to the DHS or the FDA.

deb williams says:

September 22nd, 2005 at 7:09 am

I have no connections to old family varieties but search out the heirloom seeds from all the seed catalogs I get.
We went out on a limb this year and planted a paste tomato,
Polish Linguisa, that has a huge paste tomato (almost a pound each), a beefsteak flavor (yum, yum) and a naughty little pointed end. Good eats, good humor value.
Check out the offerings from Pinetree seeds or for better pictures the Totally Tomato catalog.

Greengirl says:
Great suggestions, Deb! Here are the links to Pinetree seeds and Totally Tomatoes.

Note: Some gardners have had horrible luck with Totally Tomatoes. You may want to check out this discusion before you buy live plants from these folks.

Subscribe to Greengirls

Learn more about RSS

Categories