Common Sense Seeds

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Common Sense Seeds

Family run Canadian seed company. Short season, open-pollinated tomato seeds (and a few other veggies). Unique Tomato Seeds.

Grown in the Foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Alberta, Canada. Heirloom and Hardy Tomato, Veggie, Herbs & Flowers. Family run Canadian seed company
Heirloom and hardy seeds
Unique tomato seeds grown in Alberta, Canada

09/22/2025

I love growing nutrient dense foods. Especially when they are easy. And this summer, Mrs B’s Garden Huckleberry grew all by herself. I didn’t plant Mrs B’s, she self-seeded from last year’s harvest. Thanks to Trent White for helping me id the seedlings.

Mrs B’s Garden Huckleberry isn’t actually a huckleberry; Mrs B’s is a variety of Solanum scabrum – one of the edible black nightshades (in the same family as tomatoes and ground cherries). Native to Africa, Solanum scabrum is now widely cultivated around the world.

The edible black nightshades are starting to get attention as potential superfoods. Research on Solanum nigrum (another species of edible black nightshade) found that the dark coloured berries have anthocyanin levels similar to blueberries. Other studies have found that Solanum scabrum (using its old name S. melanocerasum) has vitamin C levels that are higher than lemons and limes and just under the vitamin C level of oranges (comparing vitamin C content/100 grams)

Taste-wise Mrs B’s aren’t as sweet as blueberries, but they are sweet enough. And Mrs B's is a different strain than the common wonderberry or garden huckleberry, and isn't bitter (other strains can apparently be bitter).

In fact, Mrs B's full name is -- 'Mrs B's Non-Bitter Garden Huckleberry' (according to the 1999 Garden Seed Inventory). To me they have a faint vanilla ice cream taste🍦😊

Plants are about 2 ft tall and productive.

We eat the berries raw (when ‘dull black’/’matte black’ in colour) and freeze them for smoothies and crumbles.

Mrs B’s was introduced to the seed trade by Seeds Blum (Iowa) in the 1980s, but are now hard to find. Our seedstock came from a Seed Savers Exchange member in Montana.

09/16/2025

This has been a great summer for tomatoes 🍅and here is one of our favourites❤️. Year after year 'Aritzkuren Black' shines in our garden and this summer was no exception.

This stunning tomato comes from the village of Aritzkuren in the Pyrenees mountains of the Basque region of Spain (the village has an intriguing history, included are photos of the village and terrain, more info on the website).

'Aritzkren Black' has glorious, ribbed fruit with tones of pink, brown, burgundy and black. The fruits are medium to large in size (150 g to 250 g) and have very good, sweet flavour. The 3 ft plants are impressive – so sturdy and robust. And very productive.

If you have wanted to try a tomato from Spain (or a warmer part of the world) but were worried about how it would do in a shorter season garden, this is a good one to try. Normally in Calgary we have dry conditions, gusty winds off the Rockies and struggle with cool, alpine nights (we’re at 1000 m altitude) -- although this year was a wet year in Calgary – even with all of this weather variability – nothing seems to faze this tomato.

And it's just fun to have a Basque tomato growing in your garden!🍅

09/09/2025

Happy Tomato Tuesday! 🍅❤️ We are excited to introduce you to Arctic Pot N’ Patio. A variety that was part of the ‘Northern Exposure Extreme Seed’ collection created by Marketland Gardens in Bowden, Alberta (circa 1990s).

This is a rare one! We gave Arctic Pot N’ Patio a prime spot in one of our little greenhouses (last photo, you can see it through the doorway).

Arctic Pot N’ Patio was indeed early. And very productive. It is mildly sweet, but we may have been overwatering/ coddling it😊

It also has interesting leaves – small, light green, and not very many of them. Rather, the plant was loaded with flowers (photo 2) and then tomatoes.

We are excited to bring this variety back to the seed trade. We will have seeds this fall.

09/04/2025

One of my favourite tomatoes 🍅 of the season, is of course, one that almost didn’t get planted. I had no room left but decided to plant a few ‘Fire Drill’ seeds.

Fire Drill is an old Tim Peters’ variety. I acquired seeds from a Seed Savers Exchange member in Montana a few years ago. But this year I noticed the member is not listing it, nor is anybody else (nor is it offered by any seed companies) so I thought now or never.

This is an all-around great tomato. The plants are small, sturdy, and about 18 inches tall. And the fruits are so lovely – perfectly round, no blemishes, nice saladette tomatoes that look like small apples when ripening. They are huge producers – both early, and the plants are still full of tomatoes as we get into September (pic 3).

And the taste – very good, full tomato taste – which to me means, both the sweet and tangy taste you expect in a tomato. They are perfect for salads.

It looks like Tim introduced Fire Drill around 1998. Here is his write up in the 1999 Garden Seed Inventory:
“50-55 Days – Det. Plants, Fireworks type, red fruit, uniform ripening, PSR [Peters Seed Research]”

I have no idea how this tomato has gotten lost to the seed trade!

We will have seeds for Fire Drill🍅 this fall.

08/29/2025

As August (and summer) draw to a close, my Tashkent Marigold is in full bloom. These mesmerizing photos of the old Silk Road are introduction to this exotic marigold, which comes from Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Tashkent was once a major trading centre along the Silk Road, the dynamic trading network that brought East and West together.

The photos capture Silk Road relics. They were taken circa 1910 in the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan—centuries after the Silk Road was abandoned—and then donated to the Library of Congress, which is my source. They mark both the passage of the Silk Road and its legacy.

Oh, the colours! I am in awe of the brilliant blue mosaics of the mosques (Photos 1 and 2) and the colourful clothes of the ‘man from Bukhara’ (Photo 3)—a reminder of the exotic goods that passed through this area. I am intrigued by the poise of the fabric merchant surrounded by his neatly folded rolls of cotton and silk (Photo 4).

The Tashkent Marigold (Tagetes paluta) was collected by flower seed collector Bob Bell during a “People-to-People” trip to Uzbekistan in 1992. He collected the seeds outside of an old school in Tashkent and then donated them to the Seed Savers Exchange (USA).

The flowers are stunning. Their single blooms are a deep red-mahogany with yellow-orange centers and deep green leaves. The small plants (16”) bloom right up until the first frost. And the leaves and flowers have a strong sweet smell, that is different than other marigolds— www.smartgardener.com writes:

“[The plants have] a sweet marigold fragrance. It lacks the common astringent odor of other marigolds. The plants are so fragrant they sweeten the air on a hot summer day. This is the finest marigold that we have grown.”

We will have seeds for Tashkent Marigold available Fall 2025 at www.commonsenseseeds.ca

08/26/2025

Thank you One Big World for sharing❤️ We agree Raspberry Viscount is an amazing tomato. Tania

08/21/2025

This is the story of a beautiful paste tomato called ‘Leamington No 1’🍅. It is a brilliant red blocky tomato on 18” plants. Leamington No 1 was donated to Plant Gene Resources Canada by Dr. Ernie Kerr, the master Canadian tomato breeder. I am always on the lookout for seeds that have passed through Dr. Kerr’s hands and was eager to try this one.

Its name also intrigued me – ‘Leamington No 1’— which suggests it was associated with Leamington, Ontario— the ‘Tomato Capital of Canada’ (Postcard 1 c. 1961)

Backstory: For over 100 years (1909-2014), Heinz owned a tomato processing plant in Leamington and made ketchup from tomatoes grown by local farmers (Postcard 2 c. 1958). Heinz supplied farmers with seed for the variety they wanted the farmers to grow. The seed was the high-water mark of tomato breeding. Although I can’t be sure, the name ‘Leamington No 1’ suggests this tomato was a main paste variety used by Heinz in Leamington.

The story of ‘Leamington No 1’ is also interesting because of its indirect association with the ‘Ketchup War’.

What is the ‘Ketchup War’? The Ketchup War is the ongoing ‘battle’ between Heinz and French’s ketchup brands for a place in Canadians’ fridges. When Heinz closed the Leamington plant in 2014, the town was dealt a huge economic and psychological blow. But soon after Heinz’s departure, French’s moved in and started to make ketchup at the Leamington plant—which created jobs in the factory and provided contracts for tomato farmers. French’s (who are more familiar for their mustard) highlighted their use of Canadian grown tomatoes on their ketchup bottles.

The Ketchup War started when a local construction worker Brian Fernandez posted on Facebook that he would no longer be buying Heinz’s ketchup and had switched to French’s. His post resonated with a lot of people (receiving 300,000+ likes), and a grass roots movement took off with people switching ketchup brands. There is a CBC short doc (17 minutes) titled “Inside the Ketchup War" about the events. I have put the link in a comment.

We will have seeds for Leamington No 1 in fall 2025 which you can find at www.commonsenseseeds.ca

You might want to grow your own ketchup!😃

07/31/2025

Living up to its name, Arctic Fire is 'lit' 😊 (Sorry, couldn't resist). Arctic Fire is our first beefsteak tomato to turn red this summer🍅. The tomato looks way too big for the plant (you can see another big, unripe tomato to the right). This is one of our smaller Arctic Fire plants but all of them are staying under 2 feet this year.

Arctic Fire is part of the ‘Northern Exposure Extreme Seed’ collection that was created by Marketland Gardens in Bowden, Alberta (pop. 1,200). It disappeared from the seed trade for awhile, but we are happy to bring this variety back.

We will have seeds Fall 2025.

For more info on Arctic Fire check out www.commonsenseseeds.ca

07/25/2025

We’d like to tell you about the bean growing collaboration between Common Sense Seeds and the Calgary Seed Library ❤️ Common Sense Seeds was kindly gifted over 40 different varieties of heirloom beans from long-time seed saver Paula Dubeski of Lacombe, Alberta. ❤️

This summer the Calgary Seed Library is growing out the 3 varieties pictured here and will be sharing them in their Seed Library in Inglewood as part of the Paula Dubeski Bean Collection.

Schafer Heirloom (top)
A lovely golden brown dry bean (bush bean) grown by the Schafer family in north central Alberta since the 1930s. Paula originally received these beans from Carol Schafer Smith of Lacombe, AB.

Pois-fève Laliberté (middle)
A unique ‘pea-bean’ – the plant resembles a bean plant and the seed a pea. This heirloom bush bean comes from the Lotbinière region of Quebec. In 1998, another long-time seed saver (Antoine D’Avignon) received this seed from Mr. Laliberté who was 80 years old at this time and said that the Lotbinière region was the only place in Canada this variety was grown. Paula’s notes indicate that this bean is very prolific, and the round white dry bean is used for soups.

Thibodeau du Comté Beauce (bottom)
This heirloom bush bean from the Beauce region of Quebec has tan seeds with maroon striping. It is used as both a snap bean (its green beans have purple splashes) and as a dry bean. Originally saved by Martin Roy of Saint-Zacharie de Beauce; but named after his grandmother, Madame Thibodeau who lived in the Beauce region and had been growing this variety for a long time. Reported to be a prolific bean that reliably dries down before the first frost.

Happy Planting everyone!

05/13/2025

It’s Tomato Tuesday 🍅❤️ Here is Santa Catalina. This is an old Glecklers' variety, introduced in 1952. We are growing it for the first time in 2025; and so far the seedlings are some of the most robust, healthy looking seedlings we have ever grown.

Glecklers Seedsmen (Ohio) were known for their unique seeds (1950s-1990s), and we are always on the lookout for their varieties, which are hard to find. We were fortunate to acquire seedstock for Santa Catalina from the USDA genebank (GRIN).

Click on a picture and scroll through to see pictures of Santa Catalina in Glecklers' catalogues and our seedlings.

Here is the write up for Santa Catalina from the front page of the 1952 Glecklers' seed catalogue (see image):

"A new jumbo pear tomato developed by Prof. Abelardo Piovano at the National University of Argentina. Excellent for tomato paste or as a salad tomato, grown in the home garden. Mid-season to late in maturity. "

Please check out www.commonsenseseeds.ca for other Glecklers' tomato varieties (Texto 2, Laketa, Hardin’s Miniature, Plamar, Cluster-Mato & Caleplata). We will have Santa Catalina seeds available in the fall of 2025.

Happy Planting!

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