Catalogues - Winter Vegetables and Plants

Our catalogues list the main plants that we grow, but at the farm stand you will often find plants not listed online. If you have questions about what these other varieties are or about how to grow them, please contact us.

Our catalogues are a work in progress that we are fitting in between seeding in the greenhouse, getting the laundry done, preparing this year's vegetable beds, and playing with the kids. Please be patient with us as we work to bring you a comprehensive list of our plants before the farm stand opens on April 1. Thanks!

Arugula

ARUGULA  Fast-growing annual producing lots of large green leaves that add a tangy, mildly peppery taste to salads and sandwiches. Grows well in cool spring weather, and self-seeds readily if you let it.
Cabbage

CABBAGE
Dark green outer leaves and a paler green, sweet, mild interior that is good for steaming and fresh eating. We grow a number of varieties.
Chard - Silverbeet

CHARD – Silverbeet
This plant produces prolific numbers of large, dark-green leaves held up by juicy, thick white midribs.  Silverbeet is perfect for tasty, nutritious steamed greens, soups, casseroles and stir-fries and in salads when leaves are young.

Collard - Champion COLLARD – Champion
This really cold-hardy member of the cabbage family is grown for cooked greens. Compact, handsome plants with dark-green, thick leaves are borne on short stems. They are gathered all winter and can be steamed, boiled, eaten fresh or stir-fried well into spring.
Corn Salad

CORN SALAD – Vit
Also known as ‘Mache’, this plant produces pretty, compact rosettes of leaves commonly eaten in sandwiches and salads from fall to spring. It is frost-hardy and is one of the earliest spring greens. Self-seeds if left to grow in the summer garden. A good choice for early spring container growing.

Kale - Red Russian

KALE – Red Russian 
Delicious, packed full of vitamins and minerals, and beautiful to see! The flat, serrated grey-green leaves have purple stems and veins which are tender enough to eat raw in salads and tasty when larger and steamed. Self-seeds if left to flower in next years’ summer garden.

Sorry, no photo available at this time – but it’s a great-looking mix of plants!

KALE – Rainbow Tuscan
Multicoloured plants with the strap-like leaves of Lacinato kale and the colouring of Redbor kale. Slower to bolt and more productive than Lacinato. Gathered in bunches, you will get some with blue green leaves, some purple leaves, some curly edges, some with red veins – enjoy this colourful bouquet all winter long!
Mesclun - Spring mix

MESCLUN – Spring mix
A cold-hardy and visually delightful mix of lettuces, arugula, beets, coriander, mustards, corn salad, chard and kales. Save a few of the most productive and pretty plants to seed next year’s crop in your garden and let Nature do all the work!

ONION – Walla Walla
These onions produce an exceptionally early harvest of large, sweet white bulbs. Again, let a couple go to seed, enjoy the pretty purple globe of flowers in your garden next summer, then let the seeds fall into your garden soil to provide you with next years’ early harvest!
Peas - Pea Sprouts PEAS– Pea Sprouts
Why wait until mid-June for that quintessential burst of ‘summer’s finally here!’ pea taste when you can enjoy it in early spring? Common in Asian cuisine, the versatility and tender sweet taste of edible pea sprouts have only recently been ‘discovered’ by Western gardeners and gourmets. These plants produce tender sprouts (up to 5” long before getting even slightly tough), they are cold-hardy and produce well into summer. Let some of the sprouts go to seed when you start eating your other peas mid-June, and you will have pretty purple/cream flowers to add to summer salads. The pods are nice when small, eaten as a snow pea, but get bitter when they fill out. Save some seeds for next year and grow your own!
RADICCHIO –  Palla Rossa

RADICCHIO –  Palla Rossa
This reliable radicchio forms a gorgeous, firm, round, dark-red and white head which appears like a jewel when you pull aside the tattered clump of outside green leaves. With a unique and tangy taste, it adds flavour, colour, and crisp texture to salads. It can be planted for summer or fall harvest. Radicchio is a leaf chicory, grown as a leaf vegetable. It has a bitter and spicy taste, which mellows when it is grilled or roasted. It can be used to add color and zest to salads.
SPINACH – Perpetual

SPINACH – Perpetual
Like a cross between spinach and chard, leaves ‘melt’ when steamed, but with a milder flavour than chard. Great raw in salads, and does not bolt as fast as regular spinach.
Swiss Chard - Rainbow mix

SWISS CHARD – Rainbow mix
A colourful blend of cold-tolerant plants to add a tasty, bright addition to your garden. Great for salads, steaming or even an early spring flower arrangement!

Metchosin farm offers high quality,organic plant starters by order for commercial nurseries. We also offer home gardeners plant starts and delicious produce at our farm stand spring through fall.