2012 Seed Order

This past weekend I did one final check of my seed list, continued working on the growing plan for the upcoming 2012 season, and ordered some seeds to supplement what I already had. After looking around and debating where to order seed from I decided to go with High Mowing Organic Seeds of Wolcott, Vermont.

The order was nothing spectacular as we have more then enough seed for most of what we want to grow. I ordered:
Yankee Salad Mix
Purple Osaka Mustard Greens
Siberian Kale
Darki Triple Curled Parsley
Genovese Basil

That's it! The remainder of the seeds will come from what I've already got stored away in my personal seed bank as well as the random impulse seed purchase I may be susceptible too on occasion. We also have 4 packets of seed coming in each month courtesy of the Seed of the Month Club which is a great way to increase my personal seed collection. As usually I will be buying pepper and tomato starters from a local source, but plan to start the remainder of what we grow from seed, again this is subject to the occasional impulse purchase (last year it was huckleberries).

Have you ordered your seed? How for along is your planning/growing for the 2012 season??

Looking Ahead.

A quick look at the calendar indicates it is smack in the early stages of what is shaping up to be a real winter here in Boston. With two major storms having already passed through Boston, and a third just around the corner it is difficult to look towards spring, but the time is here!

The seed catalogs have been coming in for a month already, with a few more arriving each week. Over the next few weeks I will be going through my seeds, contacting local farms about seedling sales, and browsing the catalogs while imagining fruitful harvests and warmer temperatures!

As the next bout of snow rolls in this weekend I will be sitting with a cup of delicious coffee or tea and sorting through my seeds and marking up these seed catalogs as a plan begins to form in my head and on paper for the forthcoming year.

It will only be my second year of gardening but I am excited to see where the lessons and skills from my first season will lead to greater success in year 2.

It begins all over again...

Monday I posted my final harvest of the season and a few shots of a put to bed plot. In that post a ready asked if I was already planning for the spring. Half jokingly I replied that I had been planning for next year as soon as I had started working this year. The truth is that I learned a tremendous amount this year and will definitely put it to use next year!

While my post was loading on Monday my mailman left a surprise that already points to next years growing season:

Despite the grainy cellphone pic it's clear that the first 2 seed catalogs for 2011 have arrived with High Mowing Organic Seeds and Pinetree Garden Seeds taking honors for earliest arrivals. I am mostly set with seeds but it never hurts to look through the catalogs and daydream of more space and more veggies!

Seed Potatoes: Planted!

The seed potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm were planted this afternoon!

After visiting the family on Sunday to show reverence to my wonderful Mother I set out to prepare the potatoes and their future home. First I cut up the potatoes, making sure there were at least 3 eyes per piece.

While the potatoes sat in the light I headed to the plot and got to work digging the trench which will house the potatoes. After some digging and clearing I was left with a nice 10 inch deep trench, sprinkled with a generous helping of compost.

My hard work was clearly appreciated. This bird below was extremely excited to see a freshly dug trench for him to patrol, a veritable bug buffet! Here he (she?) is just about ready to dive in.

While at work on Monday I realized the temperature might drop too low to plant the potatoes in the next few days, I was also concerned with the brown cavities in the Russian Banana Fingerlings in the 1st photo so I called Wood Prairie and spoke to Jill at the potato growers helpline. She was extremely helpful informing me that the brown cavities in the fingerlings were of no concern, and despite the unreasonably cool temperatures I would be alright to plant out the Potatoes today. I cannot stress how excellent the customer service from Wood Prairie has been- I explained to Jill I was a first time gardener and merely wanted to alleviate my concerns before putting my potatoes in the ground. Jill patiently answered all of my questions and gave me some additional tips for successful spuds!

With my newly found potato confidence I stopped at the plot and placed my cut potato pieces in the trench, being careful to evenly space the pieces out.

I made sure not to note which potatoes were places where in the trench so that when they grow I can be surprised by what sort of potatoes I'll be able to randomly pull from the forthcoming hills.

Once the potatoes were evenly spaced I covered each piece with a few inches of a soil and compost mixture.

Next stop: Spud City!

Seed Potatoes are here!

My Seed Potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm arrived yesterday!!

(Seed Potatoes from top to bottom: Russian Banana Fingerling, All Blue, Yukon Gold, and Cranberry Red)

The packaging also came with postcards for each variety of seed potato I had ordered...

...the Maine Department of Agriculture certification for each variety...

...and finally: a thank you note, potato recipe booklet, and potato growing guide!

I'll be preparing and planting these delicious varieties just as soon as I can, hopefully as early as tomorrow! I'm looking forward to enjoying some delicious and colorful potatoes.

Seeds, Seedlings, and What I Hope to Grow

A few readers, friends, and fellow community gardeners have asked me what I'm planning to grow now that I have a plot so I thought I would give a break down of the seeds I've acquired and seedlings which will be picked up soon.
1)From Fenway Community Gardeners & The Fenway Gardens Spring Meeting:
Leeks (transplants gifted to us from a fellow gardener), Chive Seeds & Spinach Seeds - The Fenway Garden Society was nice enough to provide some seeds for their spring meeting, I got Chives & Spinach!
2)From the down:2:earth expo Gail and I attended in early April:
Mesclun Mix(planted last week!), Scarlet Nantes Carrots(planted last week!), and Dill seeds were all given out from the different garden & landscaping companies at the expo. Coincidentally all 3 seed packets were from High Mowing Organic Seeds.We also picked up packets of Basil & Sage seeds at the expo, but these come from the farmers of the Cabot Creamery Dairy Cooperative! Gail and I are huge fans of their cheese's and I think their business model is fantastic. They do not seal their seeds, they were giving them out as a gift. I am a proud supporter of their cheese products and will be proud to grow their herbs in my garden.
3)From fellow bloggers:
Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions was kind enough to send me some delicious looking Ottawa Cranberry Beans(seen here). While Ottawa Gardener at The Veggie Patch Re-imagined provided me with Garlic Chive seeds, some of which were successfully grown indoors over winter, while the rest are ready to be planted in the plot soon!
4) Hometown Seeds:
The kind people at Hometown Seeds saw my blog months ago, long before I had a plot and were nice enough to send me their Survival Seeds package to try out. The Survival Seeds package contains 16 non-hybrid 100% GMO free seeds which are meant to have a shelf life of at least 5 years. The seeds were not in individual packets, but in 5 0z, 5 gram, & 10 gram packages, more then enough for my small plot. From the Survival Seeds package we will be planting Golden Acre Cabbage(planted last week!), Long Green Cucumber, Utah Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions (planted last week!), Detroit Dark Red Beets (planted last week!), Black Beauty Zucchini, Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce (planted last week!), & Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans.
5) Natick Community Organic Farm:
The Natick Community Organic Farm is a non-profit certified organic farm just west of Boston. Their mission is to provide farm products, hands on education for all ages, and to foster community goodwill through love of the land. I have visited the farm numerous times since I was a child and am honored to support them in their spring seedling sale. Next week Gail & I will be picking up the following organic seedlings for our plot:
Yankee Bell & Hungarian Wax Peppers. Peacevine, Early Girl & Striped Roman Tomatoes. Diplomat Broccoli and Cilantro.
Along with the above vegetables we will also be adding Morning Glory, Autumn Beauty & Mammoth Sunflowers, and a mix of Nasturtium's
6) Wood Prairie Farm
The prospect of having a garden of my own made me think of Potatoes. I absolutely love them. Wood Prairie Farm has a reputation as one of the best sources of certified organic seed potatoes. Not wanting to limit myself to 1 variety of potato and taking into account the limited space I will have for potatoes I decided to order the Experimenter's Special which allows you to choose 4 different varieties of potato. Each package contains 3 potatoes of each variety for a total of 12 hills. I picked All Blue, Cranberry Red, Russian Banana Fingerling, and Yukon Gold for a nice variety of color, size, and taste. Potatoes were ordered last weekend and shipped out on Monday. They should be here before the end of the week!

Looking back at this massive list of vegetables and herbs I realize successfully growing all of these varieties will be extremely daunting. I don't expect every crop to be a smashing success so I am growing a large variety in smaller quantities in the hopes that the success's will outweigh the failures. My hope is that smaller plantings will allow Gail and I to slowly ease our way into the challenge of caring for all of these(hopefully) delicious edibles.

With research, hard work, and some luck hopefully the season will be full of gardening success and delicious vegetables!

Cranberry Beans & Cranberry Bread.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the wonderful gift of seed I received from Daphne's Dandelions last friday:

A packet of Ottawa Cranberry Pole Beans for the forthcoming garden!! They look delicious & can't wait for them to be in the ground! Once grown & harvested I will surely be passing on a few packets of dried beans of my own to spread into the gardening world.

As noted in my previous post I was quite disappointed due to the lack of black cranberries in my produce delivery. I had grand plans for cranberry walnut bread, chutney and a tart wonderful snack. Not to be deterred I was off to the neighborhood natural food store for a large container of dried local cranberries. They are a good substitution for what I was expecting.

In celebration of cranberries I made a delicious & incredibly simple cranberry walnut bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

3/4 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg, orange juice and peel; stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Add the cranberries and walnuts.
2. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

The recipe is easy and worked well enough, though I would reduce the heat 10-15 degrees and bake a tad longer next time. After years of cooking adventure I am slowly dipping my toe into the world of baking (primarily with bread making), and thus far I've enjoyed it.

Seeds!

I recieved my first seed packet in the mail. Not from a seed company but from Ottawa Gardener over at The Veggie Patch Re-imagined! 3 weeks ago she posted a free seed offer. A few days before I started this blog I sent an email requested Garlic Chive seeds. The seeds arrived saturday moring. Most of the seeds are going to be saved for spring but I'll be planting some this week to grow indoors as I've got the itch to grow something, and these seems like just the thing.

My indoor planting space/system consists of various windowsills and planters made from recycled yogurt cups, juice/milk cartons, and soda bottles.

1st Seed Catalog

After a long day at work I came home to find my first seed catalog waiting for me:

Seeds of Change is a USDA certified organic seed company based in New Mexico. A number of home gardeners & farmers have cited Seeds of Change as an excellent jumping off point to the world of seed catalogs.

I chatted up a few farmers recently at the end of season markets around Boston and was advised that looking at a variety of seed catalogs would give me a good idea about special or heirloom variety of veggies I may want to grow, but my best bet would be finding a reputable and well known seed company based in the same region that I am. If a reputable source in my area has success on their farms with varieties that I'm interested in, chances of my success go up due to similar (not the exact same) climates. The name which came up most often from the farmers was Johnny's Seeds of Winslow, ME. I won't be ordering all of my seeds from Johnny's but for starters a good number will be coming from them.