It's -40 outside, a thick layer of ice coats everything outdoors, and frost coats the inside of my windows, so what better time to curl up with Baker Creek's latest seed catalog? Yes, it's the dead of winter in January and I'm already ordering seeds for the garden. Hopeless, I know. Well, actually, I suppose it means I'm hopeful. Someday this wet white stuff will all go away and the soil will be warm and friable again. I'll be able to find my way out to the composters without a probe and ice axe.
I've got a lot of my seeds already, of course, because I harvest my own every fall. But when I want to try something new, I have to add to the seedbank, and rareseeds.com offers a great selection of non-GMO heritage varieties from all over the world. This year's new treats to try: Black Krim tomatoes (the most nutritious in their study), Cantare green beans, Nantes Scarlet carrots, Giant Cape Gooseberries, Patisson Golden Marbre scallop squash, Fordhook Zucchini (usually I grow Black Beauty), and I'm also stocking up on Good Mother Stallard beans (ate them all last year -- oops) and miniature white cucumbers (didn't have a great crop last year so couldn't save seeds). I've also ordered some black and white dianthus for my boss, who is into black and white in her garden.
Baker's Creek has great photographers; you browse through their catalog and want to lick the pages, everything looks so enticing. It's difficult to limit myself. I don't have ten acres to fill up. So I have to be choosy about what to plant. Corn takes up a lot of space and nutrients without a high yield, so it has to go. Broccoli and celery take too much water. Cauliflower never works. And I'm the only one in the family who will eat Brussels sprouts, so I'll just buy a stalk of them at the farmer's market instead of buying an envelope of 250 seeds. Decisions, decisions!
But incredible that there is sooooo much to choose from! God has given us so much variety and abundance. It seems a shame not to try them all!
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