Survival Seeds

Well, the bug hit me....or fever, or whatever trigger causes the need to play in the dirt long before it's safe. I ordered from the Gurney seed catalog this week. My hubby has been concerned that I didn't plant enough garlic last fall (mainly because I waited too late to order the bulbs from the dealer I like.) So I just reconcile myself to make do with planting what I put aside for seed stock. Turns out, with an unlimited supply on hand we used way more garlic this fall/winter than ever before and my hubby has developed an addiction so severe he depleted our years supply of culinary garlic by January - with no fresh garlic until June/July we were very susceptible to vampires! I resorted to using the garlic in the decorator braids hung in my kitchen window. Not to fear, this was home grown garlic I braided. Thinking I had such a plentiful supply when I harvested the garlic last summer, I made a yarrow and garlic valance - the garlic is totally edible and organic, but I'd have liked to preserve my window treatments a few more months!

As we were preserving our salsa last fall, Ashley - AKA The Princess, recommended a salsa garden . We put up 12 jars of salsa and it was gone within six weeks. The child absolutely loves anything with vinegar in it and downed a pint of salsa in one setting. This left the extended family members highly disappointed because she ran through the entire stock of "Christmas salsa" in said six weeks. The salsa was intended as gifts to those who loved it the year before.

Back to the catalog order... I was looking for things I couldn't find locally. With The Princess's idea in mind and thinking this sounds like a great project for a mother-daughter duo I ordered some interesting tomatoes - my friends will not be surprised to note that I picked a variety called Flamingo's....they are an undersized plum tomato with raspberry pink interiors....It just sounded like to much fun to resist! They come as seeds which I don't generally have good luck growing tomatoes from seed, but for $2.45 it's worth the gamble.

Can't have salsa without onions - so I found an interesting variety of those also. Candy Apple Red's - supposedly eatable raw although I don't know why people do this - the plant makes you cry when you cut it - what makes you think you should eat it raw? Go figure....anyway, it looks pretty and if it is mild with a good flavor, will do nicely in the salsa. I generally saute my onions and garlic for the salsa and have had good results with the flavor.

To round out the salsa garden order I found some softneck garlic still in stock. So I ordered Pioneer Whites and Silver Reds....I hope they come soon so I can get them in the ground while it's still cool. With the softnecks I already planted and these, I should have enough to last through next winter and give some garlic braids as gifts. Maybe I can even replace my window treatment! If not, I'll double the order in the summer and hope I have help planting it all!

With those items added to the cart I decided I'd like some tomato plants - to get a jump on the season. I went out on a limb and ordered Black Krim heirloom cherry tomatoes. I've never had heirloom's before - I guess I felt they were to delicate for me to grow - I've got a limited budget - both financially and time - and I generally don't like to take a chance on something that's not going to produce. I thought I'd give through caution to the wind...

Before I log off, I wanted to share with you another site on seeds - Hometown Seeds they have a grouping of seeds called Survival Seeds. Hormone free and packaged to last for an extended period of time. Once you plant the seeds the resulting fruit produces seeds suitable to save for next years planting. Sounds very interesting to me - especially the hormone free aspect.

Although it is not very warm today - I have a need to prepare homes for the soon to arrive seeds and plants. This means raised bed preparation - I'm off to the rock pile to start hauling them up the hill for a bed near the house.....