Spinach varieties: two of our farm favorites for their flavor and productivity

• "Tundra": Semi-savoy spinach for winter and spring​; 27 days from transplant

• "Lizard": Smooth-leafed spinach for warmer temperatures; 28 days from transplant

Broccoli varieties: (consider a mix to spread out your harvest)

• "Green magic": heat tolerant broccoli for later plantings; produces side shoots after the smallish main head is cut; 57 days

• "Gypsy": vigorous and disease resistant, with good heat tolerance; 60 days

• "Belstar": long-time favorite on the farm; consistent performance when planted in early spring; 65 days

Tomato varieties:​

• "Best Boy": medium-large red slicing tomatoes with excellent flavor​; indeterminate plants (consistent fruit set all season)

• "Big Beef": large beefsteak tomato; meaty with full flavor

• "Early Girl": small slicing tomato that is a consistent producer in a wide range of weather conditions

• "Florida 91": heat-tolerant determinate (sets all its fruit over a couple of months).  If you've struggled to produce any tomatoes at all in your home garden, consider adding determinate varieties to your mix.  We've added a few on the farm after realizing that, in very hot years, we get very few tomatoes after August anyway.  We may as well plant some varieties that by their nature load up with fruit early in the summer when conditions tend to be right in Oklahoma.  The indeterminates will keep chugging along through fall in a good year, so a mix is good.

• "Celebrity Plus": productive determinate; great flavor; a more disease resistant breed of old-time favorite "Celebrity"

• "Caiman": improved hybrid indeterminate; our favorite variety on the farm for its productivity and beautiful tasty fruit

• "Galahad": improved hybrid determinate; our favorite determinate; loads up with fruit in June and July; mostly done by August

• "Cherokee Purple" popular heirloom semi-determinate: produces well early but tends to shut down by late summer; gorgeous, super tasty large purple fruits

• "Valencia": meaty, super tasty yellow-orange fruit on a very disease-resistant, indeterminate plant

• "Striped German": very large yellow fruits with red stripes; beautiful fruit; not highly productive but worth the trouble

• "Oxheart": one of our favorite pink heirlooms that we've tried so far; wide range of sizes of meaty pink heart-shaped fruits; great for sauce or for slicing; one of our most productive heirlooms

• "Chef's Choice Orange": new for us this year; large orange slicers on an indeterminate plant; heirloom variety; recommended to us by other growers in the area

• "Carbon": not actually an heirloom, but it looks like a small version of Cherokee Purple; more productive and disease resistant

• "Brandywine Sudduth": Brandywine varieties are by far the best-tasting tomato we've ever tried; however, each plant tends to produce only a handful of jumbo-sized fruits through the season; the Sudduth variety is supposed to set fruit better in hot summers (jury is still out on our farm)

• "Supersweet 100": very tasty, reliable red cherry tomato plant

• "Blush": yellow-orange plum-sized tomatoes; first time trying them on the farm, but we've heard they're very tasty

• "Sakura": the tomato seed I order in September to make sure I have it for the following year; we love Sakura for its productivity and excellent tasting cherry tomatoes; fruits are an extra large cherry early in the season, then a more typical size later

• "Clementine": improved strain of orange cherry tomatoes that we're trying for the first time this year; has a reputation of being very disease resistant and productive

Pepper varieties​

• "Olympus": consistent producer of sweet green bell peppers that turn red if left on the vine​

• "Sweet Sunrise": widely adapted bell pepper; start green and turn yellow if left on the vine

• "Purple Beauty": produces small bell peppers that start purple and turn red if left on the vine; unique flavor; adds fun color to salads and other dishes all summer long

• "Banana": a sweet, banana-colored pepper; some people swear they sense a bit of heat in banana peppers

• "Early Jalapeno": loads of jalapenos that start green and turn red

• "Aji Rico": if you want a TON of very mild chiles, Aji Rico is the way to go!  Super productive and so pretty when loaded with fruits ranging from pale green to orange to red, that you could plant it as an ornamental.

• "Bastan": poblano pepper; starts green and matures to almost reddish black; excellent for stuffing and roasting if you like heat!

• Red cayenne: medium-hot, long skinny peppers; green to start, then red when fully mature (this is when they're spiciest)

• "Magnum": a green-to-orange habanero; look like dozens of little lanterns hanging on the plants; very hot

• Red habanero: a green-to-red habanero; very hot, especially when red!

Eggplant varieties​

• "Michal": improved European eggplant; excellent productivity even in Oklahoma's difficult conditions​; meaty dark purple fruits

• "Ping Tung Long": very productive and highly reliable Asian eggplant (long, slender, light purple fruits); even the best European eggplant variety I've found does not compare to Ping Tung in terms of reliability

Okra varieties​

• "Clemson spineless": green okra pods on vigorous plants; don't be fooled by the name - wear gloves and sleeves when picking!​

• "Burgundy": beautiful deep red pods; not as productive as Clemson Spineless, but produces earlier

Melon varieties​​

• "Sugar Baby" watermelon: super sweet, deep red flesh in a small, dark green watermelon; easy to get it to produce​

• "Starlight" watermelon: improved hybrid small-medium melon with excellent flavor, productivity, and disease resistance; red meat; striped green

• "Sugar Cube" cantaloupe: the easiest to grow that we've found; lots of super sweet, small cantaloupes; easy to tell when ripe because the stem pulls off the melon with just a little pressure

Squash varieties​

• "Early straightneck" yellow squash: long-time favorite for its excellent flavor​

• "Dunja: high-quality hybrid zucchini squash; In my opinion, the secret to growing zucchini in Oklahoma is to pay a lot for seed of high-quality hybrid varieties.  They outgrow the squash bugs and vine borers long enough to produce lots of really good zucchini.  (And then they'll die like all the rest, and you'll need to replant every 4-6 weeks if you want zucchini all summer long.)

Cucumber varieties​

• "Straight 8s": tasty long, slender slicing cucumber; pick at 6-8"​

• "Double Yield": best picked at 4-5" long; size is between a pickling cucumber and a long slicing cucumber; very good flavor

• "Manny": burpless small slicer with thin skin; very productive

• "Armenian": Armenian cukes are meant to grow very large; excellent flavor and thin skin at any size; light-green in color

• "Spacemaster": compact plant for small spaces; availability of seed for this variety is limited this year, so another compact variety may be substituted

• "Patio Snacker": very compact plant for pots; not as productive as the other varieties listed here so grow this plant only if you need to contain it on your patio!

• "Lemon": fun round, yellow fruits on productive plants

Basil varieties​

• "Rutgers Obsession": one of our favorite hybrid basil varieties; never succumbs to disease or heat; leaves are smaller than traditional Italian basil and do not have that lush look, but have the same great flavor for sauces and pesto​

• "Aroma": a first for us this year; hybrid Italian basil that is supposed to be disease resistant and also have big, lush, flavorful leaves

• "Cardinal": grown for its beauty and for cooking; develops deep red flowers later in the summer, and stays green and lush until then; flavor is not the same as standard Italian basil, but very good in everything I've tried it in

• "Siam Queen": highly productive Thai basil

• "Dark Opal": gorgeous deep purple leaves on productive plants; flavor is similar to Italian basil

• "Greek": adorable dwarf plants that keep a compact, clean shape all summer; small leaves with great flavor; plant this if you want basil in a pot and only use a little now and then (or if you just want a cute little plant that smells great)