January 13, 2010

A new year and a new season just around the corner.  This year I am ordering my seed early - well earlier than I have in the past and yahoo - only two out of stock items out of all the seed I ordered.  Still have to order the potatoes but then all I have do is sit back and wait for the seeds to show up at my doorstep.

I'm trying a few new things this year - starting onion from seed (and ordering onion plants too - I don't want to get too cocky), going to try annual artichokes, and of course I am on my now annual quest to successfully grow broccoli and cauliflower.

A few of my favorites are no longer carried by my usual suppliers but thank heavens for the internet.  There are a number of small seed houses out there that carry off the beaten track  stuff and I stumbled across a number of intriguing seed varieties while I was tracking down Wadenswiler Kraut cabbage, Brown Golding romaine, and Green Pineapple tomatoes.

New seed sources this year include: Diane's Flowers, Trade Winds Fruit, Garden of Cures, and Wild Garden Seed.  Shawnee is a fan of Southern Exposure seed so check them out too.  This year potatoes will come from Roniger's - a huge selection of organically grown certified seed.

Most seed for this year is coming from Fedco, Johnny's, Abundant Life, Seeds of Change, Baker Creek, Seed Savers Exchange, and Territorial.  I'm repeating a lot of last year's varieties but of course a fell in love with some new varieties of tomatoes and peppers and was not able to resist their siren call.

We are now eating our way through last year's harvest - potatoes, carrots, winter squash and pumpkins, spaghetti squash, sweet and hot peppers, beets, asparagus, home canned pickles, cabbage, homemade sauerkraut, dry beans and snap beans, eggplant, onions, garlic (I love garlic...), tomato sauce - I mean really - how fortunate can one person be?

So, seeds are ordered, I'm eating my way through the winter stock (did I mention how incredibly good the Purple Rain carrots are?  not to mention the White Satin and Amarillo carrots...), listening to my Synister Dane CD (http://www.synisterdane.com/home.html), and plunging head first into political activism.

So, great vegan veggies - great activist musis, and a world to fix!  Yep - life is good.