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Get Ready to Garden: 40th Annual May Edible Plant Sale Offers 500+ Varieties

April 5, 2023

Join us as we celebrate 40 years of helping our community grow delicious and nutritious food! At this year’s May Edible Plant Sale, May 6-7, we’re excited to provide the best varieties for our Maritime Northwest climate, as we’ve been doing for the past four decades. This year is no exception, with over 500 varieties of vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and pollinator plants available for you to choose from. You may even discover new plants or varieties that are perfectly suited to your garden!

Plant Starts for Delicious Recipes Await

One of the best things about picking plant starts is imagining the wonderful recipes that you can create just a few weeks later.

  • Stir fry is the go-to quick dinner. Try throwing in veggies like ‘Amazing’ Cauliflower, ‘Magenta Sunset’ Chard, ’Red Bermuda’ Onions or ‘Sweet Chocolate’ Peppers.
  • You can pickle that. Try cucumbers like ‘Tasty Jade’ or ‘Painted Serpent’ for fresh refrigerator pickles and the standard ‘National Pickling’ cuke for canning. But don’t stop there! Pickled ‘Purplette’ and ‘Borrettana Cipollini’ onions will make a nice garnish for your summer cocktails, as well as an appetizer on your dinner plate. Get colorful with ‘Preludio’ fennel, ‘Purple Moon’ cauliflower and ‘Sunburst’ summer squash pickles for a tasty summer medley.
  • Summer soup is the gift that keeps on giving. For gazpacho, think about red veggies including peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos and onions. Cucumbers are a great foundation for a chilled soup. Add in goat cheeses, yogurt, dill and other herbs for extra flavor.
  • Our farmers are testing hotter weather with melons, like ‘Green Nutmeg’ cantaloupe, too. Our ‘Lime Green Salad’ and ‘Garden Peach’ colorful tomatoes, and our ‘Mango Melon’ melon will bring us all some brand new tastes.

Support Pollinators

This May, we are offering a selection of pollinator plants outside our usual range of edible flowers. These include some Pacific Northwest natives like stinging nettle, red columbine, pioneer violet and broadleaf lupine. Also look for sweet peas, pink yarrow, white sage, and mignonette in the pollinator section as well as some ornamental lupine and cosmos!

Be a Savvy Shopper

Whether this is your first or fortieth sale, here are some friendly tips and reminders on how best to navigate the sale:

  • Bring wagons, carts, trays and friends to help carry plants.
  • Pick-up a wristband for a designated entry time.
  • Don’t wait in line! Instead, check out our community partners and vendors or find a snack in the Vendor Marketplace in the lower field.
  • Lend a hand. There are a variety of ways to help, from plant care to shopper support. Plus, 100 volunteers get to attend the Early Bird Sale for free! Sign up for a shift today.
  • Make a gift at checkout! Each red plant tag is a $5 donation to Tilth Alliance. Every gift is a powerful investment in our work to create a sustainable, healthy and equitable food future.
  • Buy a ticket to the Early Bird Sale on Friday, May 5; 5-7 p.m. for $35 — have first pick of the plants and raise extra funds for Tilth Alliance.

Share Your Edible Plant Sale Story

We would love to hear your stories about attending and shopping at Tilth Alliance’s May Edible Plant Sale over the last four decades. Whether you attend every year or attended for the first time last year, we want to hear about your favorite finds, memorable experiences and anything else that made this event special to you. Share your stories (and a photo!) with us and help us celebrate the rich history of this beloved community event!

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