Fuzzy melons, curly beans

‘BLACK Cherry’ tomatoes -- dark juicy morsels with a tart-sweet essence and glistening maroon color that stands out in a salad or frittata. ‘Anellino’ beans -- curled like green and gold pigs’ tails with buttery Romano-like flavor and texture. ‘Papaya Pear’ zucchini -- sunshine-yellow summer squash that glow like tiny papayas.

If you assume such mouth-watering crops are exclusively farmers market delicacies, think again. Every one of these beautiful vegetables can be grown in your own backyard.

This year, seed catalogs, nurseries and plant sales offer a remarkable array of new vegetables for spring planting, including more heirloom varieties than ever before, hybrids that promise superior taste, and imports for ethnic cuisines and adventurous palates.

There’s no reason to settle for generically labeled nursery plants that leave you wondering, “Which ‘cantaloupe’ is this?” It pays to dig deeper for specific varieties. But with so many choices, where does the kitchen gardener begin? Here are this spring’s top picks from growers who love to cook as well as chefs who love to garden.

Cucumbers and melons are closely related and with the craze for petite melons, getting harder to tell apart. Personal or mini melons, promoted as perfect for singles or small families, were introduced three years ago. They are seedless, crisp and sweet with thin rinds. At 2 to 4 pounds each, rosy-fleshed ‘Little Baby Flower’ watermelons from Maine-based Johnny’s Selected Seeds are so popular that seeds are back-ordered. Johnny’s new ‘Mini Yellow’ has firm canary-hued flesh. But the ultimate personal melon may be brownish-yellow ‘Plum Granny,’ also called pomegranate melon and Queen Anne’s pocket melon, from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds based in Mansfield, Mo. This apple-sized, white-fleshed heirloom familiar to Southern gardeners has a fruity scent strong enough to fill a room and is reputed to have been carried by Queen Anne as a sachet.

Seeds from Italy now has downy little cucumbers called ‘Cetriolo (Carosello) Barese Scopatizzo,’ from Bari in southern Italy. “They’re actually melons eaten like cukes,” says proprietor Bill McKay. “Mild-tasting, best when young. The fuzz rubs off easily.”

At the Windrose Farm market stands, some of the farm’s favorite tomato varieties are available as seedlings, including ‘Black Cherry,’ a recent introduction that yields big crops of small, dark fruit; ‘Stupice,’ a popular Czech heirloom with exceptionally sweet fruit; and ‘Italian Red Pear,’ an old Roma with rich, solid flesh. ‘San Marzano Redorta’ is an oversize paste tomato that’s sweet and heavy with few seeds, ideal traits for sauce-making. Seedlings will be at Fullerton Arboretum’s tomato sale; seeds are available from Seeds from Italy (a Massachusetts importer) and Tomato Growers Supply Co. in Florida. Fullerton’s sale manager Elvie Tyra also recommends the rare pear-shaped ‘Japanese Black Trifele,’ “the richest, sweetest black I’ve ever grown.”

Two appealing low-acid tomatoes are the new pearly pink ‘Odoriko’ and ‘Momotaro’ (seeds are available from Oakland’s Kitazawa Seed Co.).

This year, Tomatomania, a sale held in several locations, will offer ‘Evan’s Italian Plum,’ a paste tomato grown from seeds brought back from Italy by chef Evan Kleiman of Angeli Caffe. “It’s wrinkled and ugly but not dry like many paste tomatoes,” says event producer Scott Daigre.

There are an abundance of new pepper varieties. “ ‘Tequila Hybrid’ is a nice, big, sweet amethyst bell, the best purple yet,” says Tyra.

Each packet of Renee’s Garden Seeds’ new ‘Suave Mild Habanero’ contains seeds for both red- and yellow-peppered plants. Says owner Renee Shepherd, “Cooks will love it. There’s complex habanero flavor but without the incendiary heat, and a hint of citrus that complements seafood and chicken.”

Blood-red ‘Carmen,’ a 2006 All-America Selections winner introduced by Johnny’s, is a very sweet Italian corno di toro or bull’s horn pepper; its flavor is amplified by grilling. Johnny’s also has seeds for ‘Jaloro,’ the first yellow jalapeno (fruit blush red at maturity).

Windrose Farm’s Barbara Spencer has high praise for two purple-black Japanese eggplant varieties: oblong, 8-inch nearly seedless ‘Millionaire Hybrid’ (available from Kitazawa and Evergreen Seeds) for its productivity and delicate flavor; and baseball-sized creamy-fleshed ‘Kamo’ (from Kitazawa).

The ability to grow disease-free potatoes from seed is a recent revolution in potato culture. Potatoes are easy to grow from tubers, but tubers may carry disease. Shepherd’s ‘Lucky Charms’ have a fluffy, white, nutty flesh. Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany, Ore., offers a smooth-textured brown-over-white ‘Catalina’ and the new white-on-white ‘Zoluska.’

‘Anellino,’ an heirloom pole bean with excellent texture and a delicious Romano-like flavor, is a new import from Nichols Garden. “Beans, tomatoes and peppers were introduced to Italy after Columbus visited the New World,” says owner Rose Marie Nichols McGee. “Italians bred them for flavor, and now we’re importing back from them.” Selected for its unusual curlicue shape, ‘Anellino’ is available from Nichols Garden in packets of mixed green and gold; Seeds from Italy sells three colors in separate packets.

For crisp-tender haricots verts, try a bush variety called ‘Jade’ grown by Camarillo’s McGrath Family Farms. Seeds are available from Territorial Seed Co. in Cottage Grove, Ore., and Connecticut-based John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. Yard-long beans are Indian and Chinese delicacies. The purple pods of ‘Tsu In,’ new from Kitazawa, turn black when cooked.

“Very pretty on a plate,” says owner Maya Shiroyama.

Tino Pettignano, Italian-born chef-owner of La Pergola Ristorante in Sherman Oaks, grows many varieties of squash in a plot near the restaurant. His favorite zucchini is ‘Albarello di Sarzana’ (Little Tree of Sarzana), available from Seeds from Italy, an upright courgette with long, pale-green fruit and beautiful blossoms, which Pettignano stuffs, sautes and adds to ravioli filling.

‘Salman,’ a new, mild zucchini imported by Nichols, is similar and quick-growing. Josh Kirschenbaum, product developer at Territorial Seed, grows warm yellow ‘Papaya Pear’ zucchini at home. This 2003 All-America winner is healthy even in cool, moist climates. The seed is widely available.

More and more heirloom varieties of winter squashes are becoming available. Great sources include Baker Creek; Seeds of Change in Santa Fe; Native Seeds/Search in Tucson; Kitazawa; Evergreen; and Nichols. Nichols has two of note: deeply ribbed ‘Queensland Blue,’ an Australian with fiery orange flesh that grows sweeter when roasted; and ‘Sibley,’ a banana-type introduced in 1887. Kitazawa’s ‘Shishigatani,’ another Kyoto heirloom, is light brown when ripe, with dense, sugary, pale-yellow flesh.

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Where to shop

Plant sales

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, (626) 821-4624, www.arboretum.org. March 16, lecture, tasting and tomato, pepper and eggplant sale. $20. March 29, lecture and tomato sale. Free with $7 admission.

Fullerton Arboretum, 1900 Associated Road, Fullerton, (714) 278-3579, www.arboretum.fullerton.edu. March 16 to 19, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tomato (150-plus varieties) and pepper (85-plus varieties) sale. Free.

Tomatomania, www.tomatomania.com. Southern California dates include March 24 to 26, Tapia Brothers Farm Stand, Encino.

Windrose Farm: www.windrosefarm.org. Sells seedlings at farmers markets including Wednesdays and Saturdays in Santa Monica (Arizona Avenue at 2nd Street).

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Seed companies

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, (417) 924-8917, www.rareseeds.com. Rare heirloom vegetables and herbs.

Burpee, (800) 333-5808, www.burpee.com. The largest seed company in the country; new and classic varieties. Widely available.

Evergreen Seeds, (714) 637-5769, www.evergreenseeds.com. Asian vegetables and herbs. Seed racks at markets and nurseries in Gardena and San Gabriel areas.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, (877) 564-6697, www.johnnysseeds.com. Broad range of vegetables and herbs.

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, (860) 567-6086, www.kitchengardenseeds.com. New and heirloom varieties; online recipes from the Chefs Collaborative (www.chefscollaborative.org).

Kitazawa Seed Co., (510) 595-1188, www.kitazawaseed.com. The oldest Asian seed company in the U.S. At Burkard Nursery, Pasadena; San Gabriel Nursery, San Gabriel; and Moneta Nursery, Gardena.

Native Seeds/Search, (866) 622-5561, www.nativeseeds.org. A nonprofit that preserves traditional Southwest Native American crops, and native and introduced wild foods.

Nichols Garden Nursery, (541) 928-9280; (800) 422-3985. www.nicholsgardennursery.com. Eclectic assortment of vegetables and herbs.

Renee’s Garden Seeds, (888) 880-7228, www.reneesgarden.com. California-tested specialty vegetables and herbs. At Orchard Supply and Smith & Hawken stores, Armstrong nurseries and selected local nurseries and public arboretums/botanic gardens.

Seeds from Italy, (781) 721-5904, www.growitalian.com. (Click on “Seeds from Puglia” for Cetriolo [Carosello] Barese Scopatizzo cucumber.) Traditional Italian vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Seeds of Change, (888) 762-7333, www.seedsofchange.com. All organic traditional and heirloom vegetable and herb varieties from around the world. At Bellefontaine Nursery, Pasadena; Sperling Nursery, Calabasas; Whole Foods markets.

Seed Savers Exchange, (563) 382-5990, www.seedsavers.org. A nonprofit organization of gardeners who save and share heirloom seeds.

Territorial Seed Co., (800) 626-0866. www.territorial-seed.com. Vegetables (many organic), especially for cool, moist climates.

Tomato Growers Supply Co., (888) 478-7333, www.tomatogrowers.com. 500 varieties of tomatoes; also peppers, tomatillos and eggplants.

-- Lili Singer