First mail order seeds

My first delivery of mail order seeds came today from Seed Savers Exchange. I am excited more and more every day to get into the garden! The lettuces look yummy. All are open pollinated varieties. I see some colorful salads in our future!

The following are the descriptions of the lettuces, pepper, and the tomato:

Mascara - One of the most beautiful in SSE’s collection of 1,024 lettuces. Curly frilled oakleaf-shaped leaves retain dark red color in hot weather. Nice mild flavor. Bolt resistance. Looseleaf, 65 days.

Yugoslavian red - Red-tinged leaves form somewhat loose heads that can measure up to 12" across. Cutting the head in half exposes solidgreen interior leaves and an almost white center. Excellent mild flavor. Butterhead, 55 days.

Forellenschuss - Our perennial favorite, hard to find an all around better lettuce. Austrian heirloom that translates literally as “trout, self-enclosing” meaning it’s a speckled romaine. Gorgeous romaine lettuce with medium green leaves and splotches of maroon. Superior flavor. Holds very well in the summer heat. Romaine, 55 days.

Buran pepper - Extremely sweet and productive Polish heirloom. Great flavor! Medium-sized plants grow 18-24" tall. Fruits are 3-lobed and measure 4" long by 3" at the shoulders. Fruits are almost equally sweet when either green or red. Sure to be a favorite. 90 days from transplant. SWEET

Sheboygan tomato - NEW! Grown since the early 1900s by Lithuanian immigrants in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Pink paste type fruits have excellent flavor and weigh 4–6 ounce. Excellent yields, great for canning. Indeterminate, 80 days from transplant. CERTIFIED ORGANIC

Ordering seeds

Well, I ordered my abundance of seeds today. Not that I don't have any seeds mind you. I have plenty.

These are all of my left over seeds from last year and some longer than that. As you can see, there is no shortage of seeds.

I did my part to stimulate the economy of various seed companies today. I ordered from Johnny's, Bountiful Gardens, The Maine Potato Lady, Seed Savers Exchange, Baker Creek Seeds, and Pinetree Garden Seeds. Many of the varieties that I ordered are open pollinated. I tried my best to not order any hybrids. I want to start saving my own seed for following years. If I do that, I can place them in the Seed Savers Yearbook for others to buy. I also bought some heirloom Burpee seeds from Wal Mart.

Now I need to make a listing of all of the seeds that I have available for this year...

Happy Groundhog Day

Well, according to groundhog lore, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Not that I really mind. I have enjoyed this winter with the snow staying on the ground longer than usual since the temps aren't fluctuating as much as they seem to. Plus, I need extra time to figure out what seeds to order and from which of the multiple catalogs that I have received this year. The pretty pictures and unique descriptions of each type of seed make my choices so difficult! I am really leaning toward open pollinated heirloom seeds that have not been genetically modified. Googling GMO foods will give you a pandora's box of information on this topic. I feel that we are exposed to too much in the environment already and why take the risk? This is making my choices slimmer. Until then, I will probably continue to oogle at those pretty pictures and the unique descriptions until I am forced to make my decisions so that I can get my seeds started in a timely manner.