Seed Catalogs!

In the first 16 days of January, we have received 14.3 inches of rain!  The average monthly rainfall for January in our area is 5.23 inches.  We're only halfway through the month and have already almost tripled our average monthly rainfall!  This has resulted in a muddy mess outside and I can't do much of anything.

Well, guess what has been arriving in the mail?  Seed Catalogs.  I remember being a kid and getting all excited for the Sears Wish Book.  I would look through those pages and dog ear the pages that had something I wanted.  Well, I'm all grown up now and still have a wish book - only it is in the form of Heirloom Seed Catalogs.  I really like the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog shown below.  It is like a coffee table book in that the photos in it are remarkable.  You can see where I have my legal pad and have marked down seed varieties I will be ordering for the 2013 Spring Planting:

My favorite "Wish Book"

You can go to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and request a catalog for yourself.  Trust me, you won't be disappointed.  Just safeguard your catalogs.  My wife went through my stack of old catalogs one day and threw the old ones away!  What was she thinking?  I have not a clue.


Interesting pictures!

All throughout the book there are great pictures of various heirloom seeds collected from remote places around the world.  The book also give tips on how to save seeds, recipes of various things that you can cook, along with essays about seed scarcity and the dangers of GMO's.


Watermelon anyone?

I sat in front of the fireplace with my legal pad and wrote a list of all the new, interesting things I'd like to grow next year.  I also added those varieties that we've had great success with and come to love, but hadn't saved the seeds and need more.  The difficulty is keeping your list small.  There are more varieties than you can shake a stick at.


Nice looking tomatoes

After quite a while, I finally got to the end of the book.   The seed packets from Baker Creek are affordable at $2.50 to $3 per packet.

They call Jere Gettle, the owner (above), the "Indiana Jones of Seeds!"

Now my task is to inventory my existing seeds to ensure I'm not ordering a bunch of seed that I already have.  First, I look through the seeds that I've saved myself.  I keep these in vitamin/supplement bottles in our laundry room cabinet. 

Inventory of seeds

You can see how I label the top of the container with the variety and year that the seeds were saved.  This is critically important.  I opened one container that had what looked like squash seeds in it, but I had not labeled it.  I guess I'll plant this mystery seed to see what it is.  I'm thinking it is a pumpkin, but who knows until it grows? 

Labeling the seeds is very important

Finally, I pulled out my stockpiled inventory of seeds from the freezer and wrote the names of these seed varieties down on my seed inventory list.  Interestingly, I have some Magnolia seeds in here from a Magnolia tree that my Mom and Dad got me when they were in Oxford, Mississippi for an LSU vs. Ole Miss football game.  I'm going to plant them this Spring.  I like to have plants and trees that have stories behind them. 

Seed inventory from the freezer

 Now finally, I'll cross check my inventory of saved seed and seed from the freezer against my projected seed order and cross off any duplicates.  I was thinking that would save me a few bucks, but who am I kidding?  That just frees up some additional money to try some new heirloom seed varieties!

Psalm 126:6

He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

 We're counting on shouts of joy come harvest time!