The new FEDCO seed catalog has arrived, and that's it for the rest of my day

Nothing else is going to be accomplished. The new seed catalog for 2023 arrived in the mail today, I've dropped all plans, and I'm on the couch with a pen and a dream. Stuff I've never heard of. Plants I didn't think would grow in my area but apparently will. Old favourites and fond memories. Interesting stories of the first person to develop and grow a particular variety or strain. Things I can grow to feed foraging chickens or improve my soil. (I may have to get chickens just so I can grow this stuff. It sounds lovely.)

Is anyone else like this with seed catalogs? Are you suddenly tempted to get a hog just so you can grow Jerusalem Artichokes and mangles for it to dig up and eat? Do you find yourself dog-earring EVERY page in the catalog? Do you start planning what crop rotation to use in the garden or consider leaving one raised bed fallow or plant alfalfa in it as if you were running a 100-acre farm instead of a suburban back yard veggie patch? Don't you long to buy seed by the pound instead of the packet? Are you tickled at the thought of planting a miniature tall-grass prairie in a flower bed and having a tiny controlled prairie burn? Doesn't the very idea of maple sugaring equipment make you want to move to a woodlot in Quebec?

It's -48 celsius outside, snow on the ground, spring planting at least 4 months away, and I'm making lists.

My husband says the way I approach seed catalogs highlights the difference between us. He looks at the current existing yard and asks himself what he wants and what the yard needs to be at its best. Then he'll go to the catalog and look up those things. I, on the other hand, look at the catalog cover to cover, reading it like a novel, and I feel the tug to go buy 50 acres so I can plant some of everything in the book. Sorghum! Hulless oats! Chia! Daikon radish! Fat Hen! Timothy! Ground cherries! Chinese cabbage! Callaloo! Upland rice! Turmeric! Stevia! I mean, how can you possibly not grow your own stevia if given the chance?

My husband said I am free to go do just that -- buy fifty acres and grow everything my heart desires -- but I will be doing it as a single woman.

Sigh. So I'll rein myself in and try to be reasonable about what will grow where I am and on the scale I'm constrained by. I'll tuck aside the catalogs and soothe my passion by choosing one new thing to grow every year and try to control expectations and longings.

Maybe this year I'll try sorghum...