This may be the most challenging month for my contribution to Garden Bloggers‘ Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens. My garden is buried beneath snow and ice, but I was fortunate enough to find at least one resilient snowdrop bloom in the Front Border to share with you. There were actually a few more, but the children picked them to make a small vase. Inside, I have some amaryllis blooming, which you can see here (white) and here (red).
Second Amaryllis in Bloom (White)
For a picture of my first amaryllis in bloom, click here.
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: the best heirloom seed offerings I’ve seen anywhere
I recently received my Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog. I love it. The whole thing deserves a cover to cover read. The heirloom seed offerings are phenomenal–the best I’ve seen anywhere. The descriptions and histories of the various seeds are interesting and illuminating. For instance, I’d never heard of some of the cucumbers offered, particularly those from India. There are cucumbers in many colors: white, yellow, green, and even brown.
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The seed selection is vast and diverse. They have so many of my favorite black and green tomatoes that I was out in the garden looking for more places to grow tomatoes. The catalog notes that Baker Creek offers more melons than any other catalog. I was happy to find a 60 day maturing watermelon. Also, you will not find any GMOs in this catalog, not even GMO corn.
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The story of Baker Creek and the company’s aims are also to be applauded. It is a family owned business from Missouri (my home state) which has been able to grow every year in size and offerings. In the back of the catalog is a reprint of an article about the founder, Jeremiath Gettle. I love the story of how his love of heirloom vegetables and seed saving has grown into a thriving business. This is truly a story of how following you passion can reap vast personal rewards.
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In addition to offering seeds for sale, Baker Creek also publishes a magazine (with a great name) “The Heirloom Gardener;” has a poultry farm for historic, rare breed chickens; and hosts several festivals at Bakersville, the historical village they are creating.
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For more information, check out their websites:
http://rareseeds.com/
http://heirloomseedsmen.com/
http://theheirloomgardener.com/ (no relation to this blog)
Government Gone Wild: Proposed Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tax on Cows and Other Livestock
From the New York Times: The E.P.A. indeed issued an “advanced notice of proposed rulemaking” this summer that called for public comments on the idea of regulating greenhouse gas emissions from cars, as well as “stationary sources” — which, yes, would include cows and other livestock. For the full article, click here.
First Amaryllis in Bloom (Red)
Remember those amaryllis I planted after Thanksgiving?
Hydrangeas in the Snow
Local Harvest: North Jersey Farms, Food and Families
Frelinghuysen Arboretum
Saturday, January 17, 2009 (snow date January 24), 1-4 p.m.
Free admission
Meet some of the New Jersey farmers and artisans who produce the food on your table at “Local Harvest: North Jersey Farms, Food, and Families,” a celebration of the farms of northern New Jersey. Meet farmers, watch chef demos, sample and purchase local food, and learn about north Jersey’s agricultural heritage past and present. Learn about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and sign up for a share of the 2009 harvest. Co-sponsored by the Morris County Historical Society and the Northern New Jersey chapter of Slow Food USA.
Made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
More details: http://www.acornhall.org/events.htm
Some Christmas Presents for the Gardener (Received)
Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop on Kids in the Garden: What the Kids Say
This month’s Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop at Gardening Gone Wild is on Kids in the Garden. As a gardener with five young children, my whole blog is in part about gardening with children. Some of the most popular posts on my blog have been the most explicit about the topic, including:
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“My favorite thing in the garden is making flower arrangements. I like putting different flowers together. My favorite color is pink, so a lot of my vases have pink in them. One of my favorite plants is the hibiscus, but the flowers only stay good in a vase for one day. Phlox are good too.”
“My favorite thing in the garden is harvesting vegetables. There are so many different ones to find in the vegetable garden. My favorites to harvest are the tomatoes.”
“My favorite thing about gardening is looking at the flowers. Some of my favorite flowers are daffodils, tulips, and muscari. Muscari is my favorite because it looks like it has bells.”
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In addition to these posts, my post for last month’s Design Workshop was Five Tips for Growing Edibles with Children. For this specific Design Workshop, I asked my three oldest children to write down their favorite things about gardening.
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“My favorite thing in the garden is making flower arrangements. I like putting different flowers together. My favorite color is pink, so a lot of my vases have pink in them. One of my favorite plants is the hibiscus, but the flowers only stay good in a vase for one day. Phlox are good too.”~
-My older daughter, age 10
“My favorite thing in the garden is harvesting vegetables. There are so many different ones to find in the vegetable garden. My favorites to harvest are the tomatoes.”~
-My oldest son, age 9
“My favorite thing about gardening is looking at the flowers. Some of my favorite flowers are daffodils, tulips, and muscari. Muscari is my favorite because it looks like it has bells.”~
-My younger daughter, age 7
Heirloom Gardener 
