Common Wealth Pickling Cucumber
We have never carried a pickling cucumber before, and have finally found a really special one. Edmund Frost at Common Wealth Seed Growers in Virginia has been working on disease-resistant cucumbers for his extremely disease-prone region. He developed this variety to be vigorous in the face of stresses like heat and disease, and says, " Sweet, aromatic, crisp, and thin-skinned, these are great for fresh eating as well as pickling--even when picked on the large side. Bred to grow well in late season when downy mildew pressure is high, they also thrive when planted early. The vigorous, strong, and forgiving plants tolerate bacterial wilt, and there is a low incidence of misshapen fruits when plants are stressed. Abundantly productive over a long window. Stem ends are never bitter." He has pledged this as an OSSI open-source variety, and I like his simple restatement of the OSSI pledge: "These seeds and their offspring are open-source and not available for private intellectual property ownership Plss these words on when you pass the seeds on."
The Open Source Seed Initiative exists so that breeders who originate new varieties can protect them from exploitation and patenting by corporations. It means that the breeder has freely given up patent rights in order to keep the variety in the public domain forever. The OSSI pledge reads: "You have the freedom to use these OSSI-pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others' use of these seeds or their derivatives, by patents or other means, and to include this pledge in any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives."