Black from Tula is a rare beefsteak tomato that is highly praised among tomato enthusiasts for its rich flavours and great quality. It often ranks in the top 3-5 places in taste tests. Black from Tula is ideal for cottage gardens or direct sales at farmers markets. But be warned, picked dead-ripe from the vine and eaten directly the flavours may put you off store bought tomatoes forever. It has large fruits weighing on average 200-500g. The fruits have an attractive somewhat dusky red-brown skin with dark green shoulders. It has brick-red flesh with rich, somewhat smokey and complex savoury umami flavours. When we grew Black from Tula next to our favourite tomato Paul Robeson we did note that they are very similar but not identical in both appearance and flavour. Some seem to slightly prefer one over the other, but everyone agreed that both are among the best tomatoes they have tried.

Butterfley is a modern, well performing spinach created by a Dutch breeding company called Nunhems around 1968. It was created for commercial field production in northern Europe and is both cold hardy and has good disease resistance. It is described as an open-pollinated type with semi-savoyed (blistered) attractive dark green leaves that have a great mild and buttery flavour. It grows with an upright rosette of 18–25 cm long leaves when mature. It was particularly selected for vigor, bolt resistance, cold-hardiness and resistance to diseases like downey mildew. Suitable for overwintering in mild climates (zone 7–8 with light cover)

Arvidsjaur is a heritage variety from Swedish Lapland that is well adapted to cool climates and short summers.  This could hardy variety can be direct sown in soils as cold as 4-5c and, if allowed to be hardened of, it tolerates mild spring frosts. Adapted to cool climates it also has developed good general disease resistance, particularly against powdery mildew. This variety can be used in challenging cool locations or used as an early first sown pea followed by later successions of other peas, e.g. the Train Drivers Giant Pea. The young pods are flat, sweet, crunchy and can be eaten whole as a mange tout. Leftover pods can be frozen for later use. A good early everyday pea that is great for fresh eating, stir fries, salads or simply blanched with melted butter. For best snow-pea quality (crisp, sweet, stringless): pick when pods are 7–8 cm long and still flat. If you let them grow to 9–10 cm the pods become slightly tougher and may develop a faint string. You can also dry the peas for use in sups etc. However, it may be more efficient to grow e.g. The Bishops Red pea or the Preen as soup peas.

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