I’M LETTING myself be transported away from the winter scene outside my window, burying my nose not in the snow but instead in the spring-into-summer possibilities depicted in seed-catalog pages. I have familiar, favorite varieties I grow every year—but I’m also looking for some new-to-me possibilities, and Lane Selman of the Culinary Breeding Network at Oregon State University always has some delicious suggestions.
Lane, a professor of practice at Oregon State, founded the Culinary Breeding Network in 2012, a collaborative community of plant breeders, seed growers, farmers, produce buyers and chefs collaborating to improve vegetables and grains by creating, identifying and promoting outstanding cultivars—especially organic ones. Among Lane’s personal plant passions are edibles from Italian culinary traditions, including a diversity of radicchio, and I was eager to get her suggestions for our 2026 gardens. (Above, a new kale from Johnny’s Selected Seeds that she has her eye on, called ‘Unicorn.’)
Read along as you listen to the Jan. 5, 2026 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
must-try seeds, with lane selman
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Margaret Roach: Hi, Lane. How’s that winter out there in the Pacific Northwest?
Lane Selman: Today, thankfully, it’s sunny and that’s nice, but it does mean it’s colder. So it’s still, right now in this moment, very lovely, I’m happy to say.
Margaret: Good, good. So as a quick background, tell us what Culinary Breeding Network is, just so that a little more than what I said, just so that people have an idea of what you do in one of your big activities.
Lane: Sure. So I work at Oregon State University as a researcher, and a while back, I think you said 2012, but it was earlier than that, I had been working ever since 2005 with a lot of organic farmers to find varieties that perform really well on their organic farms. So the best-suited varieties for them that grow well without chemical assistance in the organic microcosm, like the organic ecosystem.
And these farmers often wanted organic seed, they wanted open-pollinated varieties. They had a list of things that they wanted, but also one thing they really wanted was great flavor. And so I was working with the plant breeders at Oregon State University and other universities to try to find these varieties that fit. I started doing tastings to get that information, just to know about varieties, because we would grow them out on the farms. We’d understand which ones grew really well, performed well, yielded well, didn’t get diseases and all the problems that the farmers are trying to avoid.
But then it was like, how do they taste? What do they like? And so at that point, I got a lot of chefs involved because I was also working at the farmer’s market here in Portland, Oregon. I asked the chefs to get together to taste these so that they could evaluate them because I was like, who else? Who’s the pro at tasting things?
Margaret: [Laughter.] Perfect. Right.
Lane: So these are all the chefs that also already bought from local farms and they were already in it. They were very excited to be a part of it. And they evaluated a lot of … And it’s at this point, in this moment that this kind of came about, I’m talking about red roasting peppers, which we can talk about later if you want to hear my favorite ones. And so they tasted them and they started sharing with me the things that they really liked about them. Not just the ones that had the best flavor and the best texture, which was what I was asking them, but then also the shape and size that they needed, the straight walls, all these different things that they needed, and kind of brought me into their world and what they do once the vegetables are grown and harvested and they have them in their hands. It’s like, oh, there’s all these things that they really need, and are they talking to the plant breeders and the folks that are actually making those huge decisions? And they weren’t.
So basically that’s when the Culinary Breeding Network started, and I said, “Oh wow, this is the bridge that needs to be built.” This is the gap that there is where the plant-breeding world, which is often for a good reason in isolation because of pollen; having to keep it isolated. It’s done away from a lot of people; it’s a hidden thing.
And the chefs and all of us that cook are using these things in the end. So I wanted to be able to bring all these folks together. So the Culinary Breeding Network is really about bringing the plant breeders, the seed growers, the farmers, the chefs, and also just consumers all together to kind of explore, evaluate. So I’m oftentimes working with them to evaluate new and upcoming in the process in the plant-breeding process. And I also organize big events that are open to the public so they can actually kind of get to see what this hidden world is. It’s like the wisdom is behind the curtain, right?
Margaret: Yeah. And it’s really, I mean, for everyone’s benefit, that’s for sure. So I don’t know where we want to start. And I’ve been beginning to look through the, I say “catalog” still, but most of them are just websites [laughter] with the new listings on them. I don’t know where we want to start. Do we want to start with a particular group of things or any … What do you think? What are you most excited about or what’s something you said about …
Lane: Yeah. When you asked me I immediately went to leafy greens. So I was like, let’s talk about the leaves and things like that first and then maybe the fruits, meaning the things with seeds. Yeah. So I mean, the first thing that came to mind always is cima di rapa [above,from Uprising Seeds], which a lot of people … Well, you live on the East Coast and I feel like it’s a little more popular there than on the West Coast. We always see it in grocery stores like Andy Boy, cima di rapa, a.k.a. broccoli rabe and also rapini people call it. So we oftentimes just see it there, and that’s it. Sometimes farmers I feel like out here grow it; not a lot. I feel like there’s a really short window for harvest. So I think it’s a really great thing to grow in your garden. So I always grow it and I just have it all the time.
So it’s not like a lot of the other brassicas that we eat that are Brassica oleracea, this one is actually Brassica rapa. So it’s in the turnip family; it has that strong turnip flavor, and I really love it.
Margaret: And so it figures into some dishes you like to make, some that you like to cook, I imagine.
Lane: Yeah. There’s a classic dish from Puglia that is Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa, and sometimes it has sausage as well. So it’s just a pasta where you cook down, you blanch, the cima di rapa and then you saute it with garlic, and you use some of the pasta water and it kind of makes it creamy. And you put the orecchiette in there and it just makes a really lovely simple dish, put a bunch of Parmesan or Pecorino on it. If you wanted to have meat with it, you could saute sausage, Italian sausage, and put it in there. You could put some Calabrian chili paste or whatever, mix it up a little bit. But it’s like a very delicious meal, I think. And I feel like a lot of times what we find in the grocery store is a little more mild than what it should be. It’s like-
Margaret: So we might say if we Anglicize it, broccoli rabe, is that what … And it’s a little milder, a little-
Lane: Yeah. So a little more mild. And so you can get … So Uprising Seeds has some right now; Brian [Campbell] and Crystine [Goldberg] are big fans of it. And I know that they’re getting more from the same breeder that I work with on the radicchio stuff, Andrea [Andrea Ghedina of SmartiesBio] in Italy, they have been working with him to have some more options that are available. So there will be some maybe this year, but if not in the coming years, but at least he has at least two right now. I just love growing that for myself.
Margaret: O.K., good. And another leafy green, maybe with some spice or some taste to it? [Laughter.]
Lane: We call it ‘Wasabi’ arugula; I love this thing. I don’t know where … It’s called a lot of different things, but this is what I see if you do find it at a garden shop, like a plant, or you buy seeds it’s always kind of like ‘Wasabi’ arugula is the name of it. It is this wild green I’ve seen in Sicily. It just grows everywhere and it’s very pungent. It does taste like wasabi. I just eat it raw just by the fistful. I just love it. But you can make it into a salad. You could put it on top of pizza. It would wilt very quickly, but it’s really … As you can see, both these things, they’re both really strong flavors, but: love them.
Margaret: Well, and I think when you’re going to put something, like you said, you could put some on top of a pizza or you’re going to put it into a pasta dish. I mean, there’s other flavors in there, too.; you might have your cheeses and so forth and maybe tomato. And so it stands up to those.
Lane: Yes.
Margaret: So ‘Wasabi’ arugula, and Uprising, is this another of their specialties? Uprising Organic Seeds.
Lane: Yes, they have it. I’ve seen it at like Renee’s Garden [photo below] I believe has it. I’m sure there’s in other places, too.
Margaret: O.K., good. I think on your Instagram maybe it was, I can’t remember, for the Culinary Breeding Network, I think I saw an unusual kale recently. Did I? Was it ‘Unicorn’ or something [photo, top of page]?
Lane: Yes. So ‘Unicorn’ kale is out this year, which was bred by Philip Griffiths, who’s a breeder at Cornell. And Johnny’s is offering it this year for the first time. And it’s this a really pretty kale with very vivid green leaves and it has bright purple stems and it’s very beautiful. It’s supposed to be … I haven’t actually tasted it, but it’s supposed to be kind of succulent texture and pretty cold hardy.
Margaret: And I think that they say it’s like you did vivid green, and there’s almost like a yellowish cast to the green. You know what I mean? It’s not dark green, right?
Lane: Yes.
Margaret: Yeah, exactly. And those purple midribs or whatever, the stems—just gorgeous, right?
Lane: It’s so pretty. That’s one thing that he’s really into. I work on a couple of projects with him, and he’s really into fun colors, shape, sizes. He works a lot with brassicas, but he’s like, there’s so much to play around with in here and to mix up. So it’s really fun to see so many pretty vegetables out there.
Margaret: Yeah. And I would think this one, they say it’s more tender and not so … Like some of the dark kales can be really chewy, right? Yes. And so I would imagine, especially when grown to a younger age, this would be almost like a delicious salad.
Lane: Exactly. It’s supposed to be very tender and nice. And a lot of people, I mean, I know they’re trying to market it also as not just full kale, but baby kale, because of that striking color difference. So it would be very pretty in a salad at all the different sizes. It’s supposed to keep that tenderness. And I’m sorry, I said it was cold hardy, but it’s less cold hardy than the stronger kales that you were talking about. Sorry.
Margaret: O.K. So another one then, I suspect?
Lane: I was thinking, before we get into the radicchios, of course-
Margaret: Uh-oh [laughter].
Lane: I was also thinking about another strong-flavor mustards. I love mustards, and Wild Garden Seed has quite a few mustards. ‘Dragon Tongue’ is one. Oh yeah. That one is a very purple one. It’s just absolutely beautiful and delicious. There’s one called ‘Horned’ and they actually just have their pungent mix. Again, of course, I really love pungent things. So this one is a mixture of all these different, all of Frank Morton’s breeding material that he has.
Margaret: At Wild Garden Seed.
Lane: At Wild Garden Seed, yes.
Margaret: O.K., so to try some of these as well; that’s a good idea.
Lane: And you can eat them baby, bigger, whatever. And when they’re babies, I was up at a farm in Carnation, Wash., and they had a big patch of it out there. And I just was just eating it right there out of the field and couldn’t get enough of it. I was like, I don’t even want to do anything with it. I just want to eat it. I think that’s a good sign.
So those are the leafy greens that I was thinking about that I really love that I do like to make sure that I have in my … I put in my garden every year, because I want them. And they’re harder things to find, I feel like out in the world when I go, because I go to a lot of farmer’s markets and whatnot.
And then of course there’s radicchio, which is this is not … at this moment is not the time … or when we’re planting a lot of the other things, it’s not the time to seed it; you want to wait until June, July to seed it, but you if you’re going to get some, buy your seeds when you buy all the other ones at the beginning of the year. And there’s three new ones that we have as part of the Gusto Italiano Project.
Margaret: And that’s with Uprising?
Lane: Yes. Uprising Seeds carries them. They’re actually bred and grown in Italy. They’re all organic and open-pollinated. And there’s a new pink one. So if the people that like pink, it’s fantastic. A lot of them are later season, but there’s an earlier one now called ‘Jolanda.’
Margaret: So it’s an early pink variety.
Lane: It is, yes. All pink. There’s one that is all yellow now called ‘Yellowstone’ [above]. Yes. And that one is really cool. I think the less color there is in it, I feel like the more mild it is. And so the yellow one, it’s really small, too. It’s a Verona, so it’s like the same shape as the Verona ones, which is kind of like a little teardrop shape, or sometimes it’s like oval if it doesn’t make the little point. Very cute. And it’s so nice because you can just cut the bottom off and just kind of peel all of the leaves off. And they’re just like the perfect size, and are a little bit like Belgian endive. So you can put it in a salad and use it that way. Or you can use it for hors d’oeuvres or something, where you put something in it and eat it just like you would like Belgian endive or something. A little hand salad [laughter].
Margaret: So some new radicchios. O.K.
Lane: Yes. So I love that one. And then ‘Bandarossa’ [below] is a new one in that project, too, the Gusto Italiano Project, which is the Verona shape. It’s purple, but the mid-rib, instead of being all white, has a red or hot-pink stripe on it and it’s very beautiful. So all three of these are new this past year. They’re just gaining traction though, and they’re all very pretty, very striking.
Margaret: I’ll give a link to some previous conversation we’ve had about growing radicchio for people who don’t know. So we’ve got some leafy, leafy, leafy, leafy, leafy, leafy [laughter]….
Lane: I know. Well, then we can talk about herbs, if you want to just finish up leaves with herbs. I grow a lot of those [laughter].
Margaret: Right. Because we all know the usual things, but …
Lane: Yeah. And I feel like I kind of was doing this already, but then I went over to someone’s house to eat when I was traveling and I was in Oakland. And there’s friends of mine that used to own a restaurant in Oakland, and his use of herbs… They grow tons of herbs also in their backyard. And it was like, wow, this is great. I feel like it really kicks it up a notch.
I’m a person that makes very simple food. I use very good products. I’m going to use great vegetables. I’m going to roast them the right way, but nothing fussy in the least. But I really like to make sauces and then have a lot of chili crisp or crunchy things to put on top, a lot of seeds to put on top. But herbs also does the trick with this, too. It just takes it to the next level, I feel like.
So I always have, this comes with a lot of different names, but Mexican tarragon, or sometimes they call it mint marigold. It is in the marigold family. It’s not related to tarragon itself, has pretty low yellow flowers. That one, I’m always growing. Love it. I’m going to get around to talking about other seed companies, but this one is available from Uprising. I do know that also Johnny’s has it.
Margaret: Yeah, a number of people have it. Definitely, the Mexican tarragon, totally.
Lane: Exactly. Sculpit is another one that I love [above, sculpit from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange]. It also goes by the name of carletti. This is something that I’ve had in Italy, and it kind of tastes like a mixture of actual French tarragon and oregano maybe together. It has very beautiful little flowers and it makes a little balloon kind of thing also. And a lot of times people like florists use it, because the blooms are so pretty.
It is really tasty. And I actually had it where it just kind of grows wild in northern Italy. And so when I’m there doing the work on radicchio, I was there with a farmer, another farmer named Andrea. There’s a lot of farmers named Andrea [laughter]. And he just went out and just picked it from the field because it just grows wild there. And his sister made us a very simple risotto with this, and they call it carletti. And it was the best risotto I’ve ever had, I think, because that herb is just delicious. So ever since then, I’ve grown it again, and it looks really beautiful. It’s very beautiful in the garden and tastes great.
Margaret: And then I think you have a parsley that I’d never heard of that you mentioned to me the other day when we were emailing and so forth, which I think Experimental Farm Network has Hungarian Landrace Parsley. What’s distinctive about this one, real quick?
Lane: So this one tastes great. I don’t know how really how to describe it, but it tastes different and superior to other parsleys. This was something that Wild Garden Seed’s Frank Morton was working with and got the seed originally from the U.S.D.A. GRIN database [Germplasm Resources Information Network, or GRIN].
And he had seeds from Hungary and he got seeds from a lot of different countries and he grew them all out. And he was just going to create a new flat-leaf parsley from it, but he found that they tasted distinctly different from one another, all these parsleys from different countries. And so this was one that he kept and said, “O.K., this one’s really great. Let’s keep it separate so that we can kind of …”
He just liked the way that it grew. He was looking for something that overwintered and didn’t bolt when transplanted and he liked the flavor of it. And we had some chefs work with us on this, too. So this is one that he kept from that project.
Margaret: I know we both share this sort of amazement/admiration for the collection of cucumbers and cousins of cucumbers by Jay Tracy at The Cucumber Shop, an online seed catalog. Are there a couple of those that you want to kind of highlight? Because I mean, we all know what we think a cucumber is, but there’s an incredible diversity of relatives [above].
Lane: Yes. So very excited about the cucumber. These are cucumber melons, because they’re actually immature melons rather than the cucumber species.
Margaret: So it’s Cucumis melo?
Lane: Yes, exactly.
Margaret: As opposed to sativus, the species of sativus, which is the cucumber that we know.
Lane: Yes. And so very confusingly, Armenian cucumbers are these immature melons, even though they don’t look immature, they look just like cucumbers [laughter].
Margaret: Or longer.
Lane: Yes. They are in this family as well as Carosello. And so I’ve been working on some trials, too, with Cornell on these as well, but The Cucumber Shop, Jay Tracy there has a huge collection of them. And I love these. I feel that they have a little more mild taste, a little more mild flavor than the cucumbers. I like the texture a lot. You can use them just interchangeably, though, with cucumbers, however you use those, but they have a very nice kind of smooth texture, if that makes sense. So I’m loving those. Again, a little bit hard to find, so it’s nice to grow them yourself.
Margaret: Right. And he has such an incredible collection. It’s so fun. I mean, he’s a keen enthusiast who’s made this wonderful project, a catalog. And some of them are different shapes and some of them are more sort of spotted and some-
Lane: Exactly. And the Carosello is tiny. It’s more like a tiny melon; it’s oval and it’s very small size. Those things, the texture is just unbelievable. And just put them in a cucumber salad. You could put them with tomatoes, with onion, just something very simple and just delightful to eat.
Margaret: So speaking of melon, the word melon, you also, I think, told me about a melon seed that you were attracted to you were interested in from Johnny’s, I think. ‘Melonade’ [below] or-
Lane: It’s called ‘Melonade.’
Margaret: Instead of lemonade. O.K.
Lane: And it’s a sweet and sour melon. It was bred by a man named Jason Cavatorta in Florida. And yeah, we had this at one of the events that I organized, and it was really cool because it wasn’t just very, very sweet. It had this really nice balance of sweet and sour together. It sounds a little bit weird, but it was fantastic. And the chef made it into kind of like a Thai salad that had I think fish sauce and shallots and hot peppers. And it was absolutely delicious. And it was such an interesting and different melon that I’ve ever … But you could just eat it by plain.
Margaret: I have to look up that one. That’s interesting.
Lane: I think it’s definitely worth looking into and growing it and seeing what you think about it, because I’ve wondered if it’s going to become a whole new category in itself with our melons.
Margaret: Do you want to just give us a quick shout out of some peppers? Because I know that’s another thing you love.
Lane: Thank you, yeah. So I’ll just say, we talked about the sweet pepper tasting that I did that kind of started the network. That one, that was the winner with all the chefs there and in our field trials was ‘Stocky Red Roaster.’ This was bred by Frank Morton at Wild Garden Seed [below]. It was a lot of different places that you can find that ‘Stocky Red Roaster.’
It’s wonderful for roasting. It’s really thick, straight walls, very meaty. It’s great for roasting and preserving in olive oil. I use it all the time to make romesco. You can just eat them. You could eat them raw. You can saute them, anything with them. They’re really high-yielding. They don’t lodge. I’ve just been so impressed with this pepper when we grew it.
Margaret: O.K. ‘Stocky Red Roaster.’ Well, Lane, we are out of time, but those sound pretty fun, too. I’m going to give links to everything, of course, with the transcript.
Lane: Thank you so much.
Margaret: And I hope I’m going to speak to you soon again. I hope so. So thanks. Thank you. Thank you.
Lane: I look forward to hearing about how everybody’s garden goes this year.
past conversations with lane selman
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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 16th year in March 2025. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the Jan. 5, 2026 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
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