seeds... seeds... and more seeds

It's that time of year that every gardener looks forward to. The time of year where one's eyes start to wander the seed catalogs, the seed websites, and dreams about all the vegetables and fruits one will be growing that year. It's the time for hope; hope that everything you have spent your hard earned money on will grow and multiply and be fruitful.

We've been on the hunt for the most interesting seeds that we can buy, but the only hitch is that we must find seed that is organic seed. You see, we are in the process of becoming a certified organic farm (more on this in the future). This presents itself with limitation on the seeds available to purchase by us from seed companies. Some organic seeds are everyday varieties that many people have heard of (who wants to grow Kentucky Wonder pole beans? Everyone and their great great grandpa has been growing it since 1864, which on the one hand makes it an heirloom and on the other makes it common place). But, we are after varieties that might be a bit more unusual (look out Turkey Craw and Mayflower beans!).

seeds from Horizon herbs: wild arugula, chilhuacle pepper, hopi yellow bean, hopi red lima bean, palla rosa chicory, chinese wild yam (couldn't help myself), Chadwick's cherry tomato, principe borghese tomato

We have been pouring over lots of great seed companies and seed saver websites. Maybe you might be interested in looking at them too for your own garden? Maybe those kids might want to grow something their classmates might never have heard of or would have ever imagined eating?
Here's a quick list of the places we have purchased from:
Seed Savers Exchange
Sustainable Seed Company 
Horizon Herbs
The Natural Gardening Company
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Bountiful Gardens
and for potatoes
The Main Potato Lady

seeds from Sustainable Seed Company: chiogga beet, american flag leek, hungarian black pepper, australian brown onion, and a free packet of speckles lettuce

In general, we found most of these organic seed websites and more from the CCOF website
organic seed resources

What we have learned though, is that there is a loop hole....
You must use organic seed if you are a certified organic farm, BUT if you cannot source a particular seed as organic and have records showing that you have searched for said organic seed, but can only find commercially available conventionally grown seed, then you are allowed to grow that seed. The other stipulation is that the seed must be non-gmo, and either untreated, or treated only with allowed substances.

With this in mind we have agreed to abide by this rule and only source organically grown seeds. This presents us with the challenge of a treasure hunt for these special, heirloom, rare, or unusual organically grown seeds. We have purchased a first round of seeds, but will be getting our next treasures within the week.



and here's a little sneak peak for the next post...

what does 22 feet of schedule 40 1/2" PVC,  3sided 1/2" PVC elbows and male adapter fittings create when it's all cut to length and fitted together?

tune in next time for a post about the art of seed sowing and building your own mini greenhouses.

Updates of the First Winter

Greetings Everyone,

We hope that the winter is going well. We are doing great! The farm is too...

Despite the fact that there is no "farming" to do right now, there are still projects to complete and observations to make.

PROJECTS:

First, we started cutting back the huge blackberry bush that is starting to invade the farm. It is well established (hasn't been pruned for about 5 years!), so we have a lot of work to do to completely remove it. The first step is to cut all of the canes and just leave them barely sticking out of the ground. Once we have completed this, we will come back through and dig out the roots. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the canes are growing around and through some large rosemary bushes. Getting access to the canes is a bit tricky... its a twisted game of Twister. "Twisted" because we have to navigate the thorny "spikes" that we left sticking out of the ground and because of the the dangling thorny canes that seemingly reach out and grab us.

First cut the canes. Then dig the roots. We are about 1/3 done.

We have also started to replace the fencing. The original fence was installed by Yeti over 15 years ago, and much of it is falling apart. The owner offered to buy the materials if we install it. Deal! While it is a challenge, it is something (somewhat) new for us. So far, we have completed about 3/4 of the fence. Our goal is to have it completely done by Spring... we hope.

We also have to start cleaning out and around the shed. Much of it is completely disheveled, so it needs a whole day of organizing and cleaning. We need a less-cluttered place to store our tools and an area to germinate our seeds for the coming year. But, all of the stuff in/around the shed is Yeti's, so we have to wait for him... He is busy pruning fruit trees this time of year, so this project will likely not get started for another month.

Gopher-ing and Mole-ing. Be glad that there are no pictures for this one. It's an ongoing communication with these guys to keep them out of the garden. We try to "tell" them that they can live and eat just outside the fence line, but coming inside poses a threat to both of us. Yeti says that, over the course of the first 3 years that he farmed here, he trapped more than 1,000 gophers!

OBSERVATIONS:

The results of our Seed Sowing - Moon Phase experiment are inconclusive at the moment. Neither of the plants, those sown according to the moon and those not, is growing too well. They're not doing poorly, it's just that we sowed them too late, it has been very cold for a prolonged period of time, and there has been little/no rain (until now!). Even so, we will continue to experiment with such phenomena as we continue to plant in the future.

It finally rained!

Finally, we want to thank all of you, one for actually reading this blarney, and two for continuing to encourage us. Also, we want to thank you for helping us get some tools and supplies that we need. Thanks to you, we have recently added goodies both big and small to our tool-chest: a wheel-barrow, a hoe, and a Farmer's Almanac, just to name a few. Shortly, we plan to equip our irrigation system. So, once again, thank you!

New Wheelbarrow. Putting it to good use already.

Snoozing in the sun...

There will be more pictures soon...


C + C