Supply Chain Upheaval

Prior to Thanksgiving, I was listening to some ladies talking about the absence of necessities for cooking the Thanksgiving meal.  They were opting for alternative brands or skipping certain dishes altogether.  What a shame!  There is also talk of shortages of fertilizer in the spring, pushing prices higher and supply lower for many staples we rely on.  Very troubling.  

We have lots of seeds saved, but I figured in anticipation of breakdowns in our supply chain, I had better inventory our saved seed and make an order from my favorite seed supplier: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They can be found online at www.rareseeds.com.  I ordered and walked out to the mailbox today and lo and behold, my seed order had arrived!

I opened the package and everything I had ordered had arrived!  The package contained:

Verde Tomatillo: We make roasted salsa with this.  First time order!

Blue Lake Bush Beans: To replace the beans that the rabbit devoured!

Lima Beans: I love some lima beans cooked with some smoked sausage.

Cauliflower: Both PURPLE and white.

Okra: Burgundy, Clemson Spineless and Jing Orange (a new variety for us)

Stowell Evergreen Corn: We'll hope for a better harvest next year.

French Breakfast Radish: Fast growing and delicious in salads or a dip we make.

Blackeyed Peas and Contender Green Beans: Favorites of ours we order again and again.

Brunswick Cabbage and Mustard Greens: Well make sauer kraut with the cabbage and eat mustard over cornbread with the pot liquor poured over!

Russian Red Kale: To replace the last of the seed we had saved.

Butternut Squash: Is there anything better than a creamy butternut squash soup?

Roma II Beans and Purple Hull Peas: Romas are a flat, Italian bean we love and purple hulls are a high protein survival crop hardy in heat and draught.

Black Turtle Beans and Sugar Snap Peas: Black beans for refried beans and sugar snap peas are our year in - year out favorites for snacking.

There are a few benefits for ordering from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company:

1. Shipping is free!

2. Seeds are open-pollenated, so they can be saved year after year - unlike hybrids,

3. The Baker Creek Seed Catalog is beautiful,

4. When you order, they always throw in a FREE packet of seeds.  I like this as it enables you to try a new variety that you wouldn't have otherwise ordered.  It has introduced our family to some new things.

The free seed that came with this order was Uzbek Golden Carrot.  It comes from Uzbekistan and is called the "muscle" carrot as it is blunt and powers through tough soil, yet has a very sweet taste.  It is favored in Russia and China.  There is a video about it that can be viewed HERE.  We will try planting them and see how we like 'em.

Preparing for the Spring Garden in December

Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating. — Wendell Berry

Okay, I'm getting the itch.  Short days, gloomy weather, and water-soaked soil have all made it next to impossible to do any gardening.  But that doesn't mean nothing is getting done.  No-siree!  In my mind's eye, I have the 2019 Spring Garden all planned.  My rows are perfectly pulled up with soil not too dry but not too wet, There is not a single weed to be found in the garden and bugs and other pests are non-existent.  The seeds had a 100% germination rate and the plants are perfectly spaced, lush and green.  Of course, I need to pinch myself and wake up, because it's just a dream.  Things just don't work out like that.  However, it doesn't hurt to dream.

Time to start planning, though, and that all starts with seeds!  Seed catalogs start filling the mailbox this time of year and one that I really enjoy looking at and ordering from is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  The catalog is beautiful.

There are varieties of seeds from all over the world.  The seeds contained are open-pollinated, meaning that you can save the seeds after harvest and plant them again and again. I like to go through the catalog and dog-ear the pages that contain varieties I've tried before.  I also like to try new vegetables that I've never tried.

Baker Creek started a new promotion this year in which all shipping is free!  How cool is that?

So after I went through the whole catalog with a cup of hot tea, I made my selections and got on the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds website, www.rareseeds.com and made my order.  Yikes, I ordered a lot of seeds.

I got the order confirmation last night and received word this morning that my seeds had shipped.  I forgot one other tidbit - Baker Creek adds in a "Free Seed" packet or two or three, with your order.  This encourages you to try new things you might not have otherwise tried.  Can't wait for the seeds to come in.  The following items are coming up in Our Maker's Acres Family Farm Garden:

• On January 1st, I'll be planting tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seeds indoors in preparation for the spring garden,
• On January 10th, three bundles of onion sets from Dixondale Farms arrive in the mail and it will be time to plant,
• Broccoli, lettuce and kale is about ready to be harvested and the harvest will continue through the spring.

Spring is on its way!

The last several days we've seen temperatures in the 70's.  It has been a welcome change.  While milking the cows this morning, I heard mockingbirds in the trees singing their songs.  I hadn't heard songbirds in a while. This weekend I could hear crop dusters flying in the distance which is another telltale sign of Spring.  As discussed in another post, I worked up four rows and planted 116 seed potatoes.  I have some additional seed potatoes that I need to plant, but it'll require pulling up a couple more rows.  The days are getting longer, too, which will allow me to get more done in the afternoons. Sunset today is at 6:01 pm, but by the end of the month, it will be 6:09 pm. Longer days and warmer weather will dry out the water-logged soil and enable me to plant the Spring crop.

That got me to thinking that I needed to do a seed inventory so that I can order some seeds to replace the that I used last year.  So last night while Benjamin and I watched the Olympics, I went and got all my seeds out of the freezer and grouped them in logical groups like melons, beans, peas, corn, squash, okra, herbs, etc.  I made a list of the seeds that I have in stock on a legal pad.

Grouping seeds together and getting organized

Then I pulled out my planting guide from last Spring that shows, row by row, what I planted and when I planted it.  My planting guide shows all 35 of my 30 foot rows and what is planted where.  I compared the two lists (inventory against planting guide) to determine what I needed to order.  I like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I went to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com and placed an order. They'll come in the mail in time for planting.  The other reason I look at my planting guide is to help me determine where in the garden to plant items this year as I don't want to plant the same crop in the same location.  Rotating planting locations helps give the soil a rest and allows the soil to build up nutrients pulled out of the ground by the crop.

Looking at my planting guide from Spring 2013

Some of my seeds are left over from the 2009 crop packing year, but I still experience good germination on them, so I keep using them.  You'll notice that I only inventoried my purchased seed last night.  I have a big drawer that is absolutely filled with supplement bottles full of seeds that I save.  I'll use those seeds in addition to purchased seed.  Each year I try to save as many seeds as I can.  I have another inventory list of those seeds.  I'm finding that I have to purchase fewer and fewer seeds each year.  This year my total seed purchase was $17.50 and that included shipping.

Seeds on carpet that will soon be in the dirt

Making a list of all my seeds does another thing besides providing an inventory and determining what I need to order to be prepared for Spring Planting - it helps me begin thinking about how to organize the garden.  I have so many seeds and each year I'm tempted to enlarge the size of the garden.  I've found that the size of the garden and the time it takes to maintain and properly care for it is at odds with a person (me) who has turned another year older since last Spring's Garden was put in.  A man's got to know his limitations.

So I've decided to operate on the same standard operating procedure that our Government does.  I won't reduce the size of my garden, I'll just increase the size of it at rate that is a little slower than the garden's growth rate in the past and call it a cut. (Smile!)

Making a list and checking it twice

While watching the Jamaican bobsled team go down the run, I got out my LSU AgCenter Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide.  It can be found here.  It is a really good planning tool that I use to help me with seed spacing, depth, and planting times. After looking at it, I really got the fever to go out and play in the dirt!

Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide from LSU AgCenter

I have notes in the margins and things highlighted to help me improve the garden each year and I look over it to refresh my memory of things I want to change.  One thing that I'm definitely finding is that I want to be planting at the very earliest dates for the Fall Garden.  To try and beat the heat and bug pressure, I want to do the same with the Spring garden as well, but it is a little dangerous to do that.

Just to be on the safe side, I researched the average last frost date for my zip code and it is February 21 - 28th.  It won't be long now until I knock the rust off of my garden hoe...