Spring Seedlings

Lonna from a previous seedling event at the co-op

April 2022 Produce Parable

By Adam Calder

We have been selling Lonna’s seedlings for over ten years, and each year she outdoes herself with the quality and selection of her plants.

Spring has arrived, and so have our locally grown garden seedlings from Onion Creek Farm right here in Ames. This year we have a great selection of tomatoes, peppers and herbs grown with attentive care by Lonna Nachtigal.

Our selection of Red Tomatoes includes: Brandywine, Costoluto, Caspian Pink, Box Car Willie, Trophy, Marglobe, Fireworks, Marion, Eva’s Purple Ball, Rose, Saint Pierre, Rutgers.

For paste tomatoes, we have Amish Paste and Roma.

The list of not-red tomatoes includes: Gold Brandywine, Persimmon, Cherokee Purple, Rainbow, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Gold Jubilee, Ukrainian Purple, Green Zebra, Taxi.

We have Fargo Yellow Pear, Fence Row Cherry, Blond Kopfchen, Ingleheart, Texas Tiny and Patio tomatoes for those who like small snacking tomatoes.

Looking for peppers? California Wonder Bell, Gold Bell, Apple Pepper, Jimmy Nardello and Mini Mix are all sweet peppers perfect for snacking, cooking or a salad. Ausilio, Jalapeno, Anaheim, Hot Cherry Bomb, Czech Black, and Bulgarian Carrot hot peppers are available if you are looking to add some sizzle to your meals.

Lonna has also grown an assortment of herbs such as basil, parsley, cilantro, rosemary, lovage, pineapple sage, motherwort and mint. This year she is excited to offer a new seedling: Perennial Red Welsh Onion. This name is a bit of a misnomer, as these onions likely originated in China or Siberia. She says these onions are a great addition to any garden.

We have been selling Lonna’s seedlings for over ten years, and each year she outdoes herself with the quality and selection of her plants. If you are looking to fill up your garden and get a head start on eating home-grown produce, then stop on by and check out what we have to offer.