Feaster Family Heirloom Mustard
Item Details
This heirloom variety has been stewarded and preserved by members of the Feaster family of rural Shiloh, Florida (Marion County), since the Civil War. This green-leaved mustard is mild and slightly sweet when cooked and was donated to Seed Savers Exchange by Jerome Feaster in 2014. Bearing long, broad, smooth, upright leaves with a toothed margin, these plants reach 20-25" tall and 16-18" wide.
- Conventional
This variety works for:
- Steaming
- Boiling
- Baking
- Soup
Mustard greens are traditionally associated with slow cooking. Combine chopped leaves with ham hocks or thick slices of bacon and garlic. After about 90 minutes of simmering a broth known as pot liquor will form and can be used in other dishes or to top your servings.
Mustard greens can also be added to baked dishes and quickly braised. Consider cooking them with ale cider vinegar or oy sauce and sesame oil.
Growing Instructions
Instructions - You can directly seed your mustards into the ground, placing 3 seeds every 8 inches. Plant them 3 months before your first frost in rows 18-30 inches apart. The seeds should be planted 1/4-1/2 inch deep. As they grow, thin them to 1 plant every 8-10 inches. Mustards may bolt early if planted in the spring.
- Start Indoors: 6 weeks before last frost
- Direct Seed: 1/2" Deep
- Thin: 1-6" Apart
- Plant Outdoors: 6-8” Apart
Ratings & Reviews
5 reviews
Good flavor and easy to grow
by Megan Michelle
This mustard took off even though I did not get the seeds in the ground until nearly the last day optimal planting for cold crops here in Oklahoma City, zone 7a. The flavor was great, perhaps a little mild, and we ate it raw in salads, cooked, and also fermented. When the heat finally made it bolt we let it bloom and a variety of pollinators were attracted to it's little yellow flowers. I will definitely grow it again.
MM-MM Good!
by Zachary (Zak)
Didn't get really big last year, but is a really good mustard. Really easy to grow. Looks really good as well.
Very flavorful but a little stringy...
by Cephus Harrell
I grew them in the same central Florida area they come from. Took me 67 days to get them to nice eatin' size & they were delicious...Better than most!
Prolific growing, beautiful plant and delicious!
by Kyle
My first year growing this or any mustard greens and it's a huge hit. Very easy to grow and prolific. I love the huge green elephant ears it produces. Typically cutting the larger outside leaves for dinner and leaving the rest to continue growing and it just never stops producing. It even grows fantastically inside under grow lights, so I have fresh greens in the northern latitudes all winter long But even now in early December, after several dips into the low 20's, it's still not given up out in the garden. Coming from Florida I wasn't sure if it would be cold hardy but it definitely is.
Early in the season taking some young leaves it didn't have much mustard bite, later on it's developed a nice sharp mustard flavor. Nothing abusive, just exactly what you grow mustard greens for instead of lettuce. Have eaten it raw in salads many times and cooked it into dishes that might otherwise use spinach. This will be found in my garden for as many years as I'm able to put seeds in soil.
Productive Crop
by Carla
The variety did very well in zone 5b. I was very surprised by how it stood up to the cold.