The Poor Plant Stand...

Oh my, it's the month of seeds!
The mailman has been so kind to me lately...
Just the other day... oh wait! Do you know about Folia?
You don't!?
Folia's cool webtool helps you get all your seeds in a row - from listing chores to tracking frosts, researching sowing and harvesting timing to tracking observations about your garden.  Think of it like Facebook and Flikr and Wikipedia, all rolled into one great site! You can connect with other gardeners from all over the world, no matter what anyone plants or where they grow it. So, go check out myfolia.com after you've read all about my great seeds and you'll see what I mean!

So, a couple of weeks ago I connected with another gardener who lives not too far from where we just moved from. Ironic, no? This gardener is known across Folia for being THE person to go to if you want to know anything or grow any kind of tomato.  One of the features on Folia is a seed swap list. In a nut-shell,  each gardener can post a list of what they're looking for, and another list of the seeds they have to swap. So I reached out to this other gardener because I wanted to try and get ahold of some rare tomato seeds. We talked swap terms, and just the other day my seeds came in the mail!! So here's what was sent:
Tomatoes:

• Goose Creek (exceedingly rare) (Apparently smuggled into the country by a Caribbean slave two generations ago)
• Blush (Reputed to be the cross of two great tasting tomatoes, 'Maglia Rose' and 'Zucchero', these being chosen by an eight year old for their taste)
• Carbon
• Amana Orange (Said to be named for Amana, Iowa)

As well as a packet of 'Black Oil' sunflower seeds!

I was pretty excited, and it didn't take us long to start them off, and of course make sure all the info was recorded in the plant journal I keep.

Today, as if all this seedy goodness was not enough, more seeds arrived in the mail !!

In a large manilla envelope was my Heritage Harvest Seeds order!

I got more tomatoes! 'Manitoba', 'Bison', 'Martino's Roma', 'Early Annie', and purple tomatillos!

I also got 'Red Stalk' celery, 'Old Homestead' rhubarb, 'Mascara' lettuce, 'Doe Hill' peppers, 'Alma Paprika' peppers, and yet more cilantro!

I'm all aquiver to get these new seeds started, but we're running out of room in the plant stand.

What to do...what to do?

Temp: -8C/18F

Sky: clear

Wind: none

What I "C" From the Urban Trench

My apologies for the length of time between posts. Life has a nasty habit of getting in the way when you make other plans.
So the letter of the day is "C". It's taken me a couple of days to list some things that applied to our little world here, and then narrow that list down, but the most important for us is country. As in, we're moving out to it. We're finally getting out of the city, and none too soon. Now, I know that's not news to you regular readers, but it's a huge change for the boys and the dog. Moving from the city to the country will allow us  more freedom, more options, more self-sustainability, and definitely more security. The recent rash of "bath-salts" drug using has me more convinced than ever that we need to get the hell out of Dodge, so to speak. Yes, I know you can find pot growing in the bush because someone figured it was safe there, but at least someone high on pot isn't going to try and eat my face off!

Also a change for us will be the raising of chickens. We'll be raising layers in the hopes that we can keep our mini-horde of egg lovers satisfied, and  any extras (ha!) will be sold to generate money for feed. This is just one way to provide a bit more food security, and eat healthier too!

Compost is a big part of eating healthier in a way. Feed the soil, and you feed the plants, and in turn, eat healthier yourself. So I've been devoting a lot of time to learning how to make compost quicker and better.

Cover crops also help feed and protect the soil. They feed the soil by replacing nutrients and carbon mass, thereby building more productive soil, and increasing crop yield each year.

Speaking of crops, there's dozens that start with our chosen letter of the day. I look forward to harvesting all kinds of carrots, celery and cucumbers. I've never grown collards before, but since someone in the family wants them, we'll give them a go. I've been told they are similar to a cross between turnip greens and spinach. Well, I guess I'll just have to see.

Conservation of water and food has been a big thing for us lately, and will continue to be. I've taken to figuring out how much water we'd need for a week and setting it aside in sanitized 2L pop bottles here. Up at the new homestead, we're already getting rain barrels and eavestrophes in place so that we can save water there. Part of food conservation is canning, which I also look forward to. I've not been able make jam or salsa here, and honestly there's nothing like bright and lively homemade fruit salsa or crunchy pickles.

There's a lot to be said for home cooking too. Eating out has become fraught with super sized portions even I can't finish, preservatives I can't pronounce and a general feeling of dissatisfaction. Making our meals at home allows us a little more control over portion size, favor, spices, sodium and best of all, taste.  Not mention that the amount of food one can buy for $30 eating out is nowhere near the amount of food one can cook for $30. I feel sorry for all those folks at McD's, but my family has to eat better than questionable mystery meat, fries white with salt and drinks I can't finish.

Candles are important to those who like to prepare for emergencies. During thunderstorms, we gather candles in one place and make sure we adults know where the lighter is. Much better than groping in the dark. yes, cell phones give off some light, but I'm not sure I'd want to find my candles by cellphone light! Even if there is an app for that.

Well, this wraps up today's installment. Be sure and let me know about any "C" items I may have missed, in the comments. I love hearing from my readers!

"C" you all next time!

Of Record Radishes and Pink Peach Tomatoes

I was thrilled to get the mail yesterday, which normally I'm not. Not only was there a birthday card from my folks (thanks Mom and Dad!), but a seed catalogue I had sent away for arrived!
This is not just any seed catalogue...this is from Heritage Harvest Seed. Even just to look at the cover is a treat with it's 1800-ish style black and white illustrations of flowers and a horn of plenty. These folks from Manitoba, out here in Canada, specialize in rare and endangered heirloom species of vegetables, flowers and herbs, but even better there are no GMO's (genetically modified organisms), no hybrids and it's all natural and untreated! What a treat to stroll leisurely through their catalogue last night while snugged down in my warm bed! It's not often I'd like to have business owners over for tea, but Tanya Stefanec, Jessy Friesen and Iris Stefanec would certainly be welcome at my table! Listen to these descriptions...
"Arikara Yellow Bean: A very historic yellow bean that helped the Lewis & Clark  expedition through the winter of 1805 at Fort Mandan! Lewis obtained seeds from the Arikara Indians and brought seeds to Thomas Jefferson and in 1809 Jefferson planted the Arikara bean at Monticello. Bernard McMahon also offered it for sale in his 1815 catalogue. The pods can be harvested very young as snaps but this bean is at it's best used in the dry state for soups, stews or baking. Oscar H. Will carried the Arikara bean in his catalogue in the early 1900's. Productive, very early and an excellent baker. 80-85 days. Bush"
I feel like I've just sat in on a short but fascinating history class!

11 pages later we leave the beans and head into beets for a couple of pages, and the descriptions there are no less captivating. Including the Mangel Colossal
long Red, from the 1800's. "An heirloom Mangel that can reach up to 15 lbs and 2 feet long. Can be eaten when young." Can you imagine the pickled beets!

I've just been handed a bulletin...the record for the largest radish is held by Israeli gardener Nissan Tamir, Ripley's Believe It Or Not says that "Nissan has been growing organic vegetables for years, In 2006 he was amazed to discover two radishes that have been growing non-stop-each one weighed a staggering 22 lbs, or 10 kg)"!!

Turning our attention back to the catalogue, these folks offer beans, barley, beets, corn, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, celery, cauliflower and wait...RED celery?
"Red Stalk - (1700's) Red Stalk Celery has been grown since the 1700's. It has more of a robust flavor than regular celery and is excellent for soups and stews. the stalks are thinner than modern celery but the red color of the stalks is very eye catching."
Cool, have to get some of that!
There is also 9 different types of heirloom corn, 2 pages of cucumbers, eggplants, garlic, gourds, ground cherries,  Jerusalem Artichoke, kale, and kohlrabi, which I am completely unfamiliar with. Anyone have experience with this one? What's it like? What could I do with it? They also offer leeks, 2 pages of lettuce varieties, muskmelons, mustard greens, onions (including Welsh onions), parsnips, peas, peppers, and radishes that will make your head spin.

"Round Black Spanish - 1600's - One of the oldest heirlooms still available, dating from the 1600's. The 3-4" roots are black with a white interior. this old variety is a winter radish so it can be stored in sand during the winter with good results. It must be planted in the summer or early fall since it will bolt if planted in the spring."
Alas, there is no info to tell me how many days to maturation, but Google soon resolved that. (55 days to maturation) A quick trip over to the Milkweed Diaries  reveals this,
"I've been growing Black Spanish Round radishes for three years now, with both Spring and Fall plantings. I love them. They are reliable, they last forever in the garden and in storage, and are one of the easiest things I've ever grown.

The Black Spanish Round is a very old heirloom radish, grown in Spain since at least the 16th Century and probably long before. It was brought to the new world by conquistadors and grown by early white settlers in North America.

The skin of the Black Spanish Round is so rough and thick that the black root almost seems inedible at first glance. But that craggy, tough exterior is what protects the tender, spicy, crisp, and pure-white flesh of the Black Spanish Round. The thick, tough skin protects the Black Spanish Round for months of storage in the ground, in the root cellar, in the fridge, and apparently even in the holds of ships crossing the Atlantic."

The catalogue goes on to list spinach, 4 pages of squash varieties, swiss chard, tomatillos, and a mind-blowing 21.5 pages of different tomato types! So many of those were impressive, some I'd heard about before (I have a thing for heirloom veggies) but one above all the rest screamed 'PLANT ME!', the Pink Peach.
"Pink Peach (aka Landreth's Peach, the Wonderful Peach, Red Peach) Introduced into the seed trade by D. Landreth and Sons of Philadelphia in 1885. the 2 1/2 oz pink red fruit have a fuzzy skin like a peach and the flesh is quite sweet. 75 days from transplant."

Even after the turnip and rutabaga, after the watermelon and herbs, after the annuals and perennial flower offerings, after all the charming history tidbits and exquisite black & white illustrations...I want more! I'm not ready to put this little 74 page catalogue down...so I turn back to page one and start again.
If you garden or know someone who does, it is a wonderful way to pass a grey winter day by meandering leisurely through this impressive catalogue.
Pop on over to Heritage Harvest Seeds and order a catalogue. You won't be disappointed!