More Seed Orders

A post I made a couple of days ago about inertia and being done with seed orders was all lies.

It turns out we were not done with our seed orders because we were bored and there were two catalogs we like, Baker Creek Seeds and Gourmet Seeds International, sitting there tempting us with their purty pictures and tantalizing descriptions. So Eugene ordered some winter melons, Piel de sapo (aka toad skin) and Verde da Inverno and a yellow, Italian, heirloom pepper called Melrose from Gourmet Seeds. Eugene has wanted to grow winter melons for several years and now he will have the seeds to do so.

I ordered a blue poppy and two heirloom tomatoes-Paul Robeson, a very hard to find heirloom I have been wanting to try for about 10 years as I love about everything about Paul Robeson-great actor/singer as well as humanitarian. I also ordered Tomesol, a white beefsteak tomato that is said to have the best taste of any tomato. We grew a white mater last year but I was not impressed. It was not really white, the taste was okay but not the greatest and the fruits tended to split. I probably would have been more impressed with it had I started the seeds and dealt with it the way we deal with our plants. But this white came from our friend Wyatt (he gave us something like 8 heirloom varieties last year) and the plants were too big to put with the other tomatoes on landscape fabric. So they went into their own area, unmulched, no irrigation and quite stressed from travel and living on the porch of the store for 2 weeks. So I am thinking these white tomatoes did not give us their all. This is why I am trying out another white tomato. The other thing we ordered from baker Creek intrigues me. The Cassabanana (aka melocoton) which looks like a large bright red cucumber. the flesh is bright orange and sweet. the vines can get to 50' long and it takes these things a long time to grow (It doesn't say how long but I am thinking 120 days). This will have to be started in April so it can be put into the garden in early May (with at least a row cover over top to keep thing warm if May is at all chilly) and than I am sure a hoop house will be erected over top come October. I know we have the technology and know how to get these puppies to ripen. If we can do cukes and zukes in November we out to be able to get these to ripen.

Along with the 2 seed orders was a big order to Nolt's produce supply for irrigation equipment (a new filter, some more drip tape and a reducer) as well as a couple of cases of pulp pint and 1/2 pint tills, 5# of rubber bands and a couple of rolls of 3' wide landscape fabric. We used to use Monte Packaging for our marketing supplies but found that Nolt's is about 33% cheaper across the board. So Nolt's gets our money.

I am hoping this is it on the seed ordering this year. I am pretty sure it won't be the end of seed orders. We will run short of something or realize we forgot to order something important or will find a back order is not an out of stock item. But I believe that we are done for the most part, except ordering chickens to be raised on pasture for meat (and maybe layers if we can get a coop built this spring summer)