Showing posts with label seeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seeds. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Farmers and Seed Distributors Defend Right to Protect Themselves From Monsanto Patents
Press Release
New York—The eighty-three family farmers, small and family owned seed businesses, and agricultural organizations, including the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), challenging Monsanto's patents on genetically modified seed filed papers in federal court on Thursday, August 11 defending their right to seek legal protection from the threat of being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed. The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) represents the plaintiffs in the suit, titled Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA), et al. v. Monsanto pending in the Southern District of New York. Last week’s filings are in response to a motion filed by Monsanto in mid-July to have the case dismissed.
“On behalf of plaintiffs in Ohio and elsewhere who fear being sued for patent infringement if their fields are contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically engineered seed, our attorney gave Monsanto the opportunity to state unequivocally that they would not sue,” said Carol Goland, OEFFA’s Executive Director. “Instead, Monsanto’s response was to try to deny our right to receive legal protection from the courts.”
Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director added, “Our filings include sworn statements by several of the plaintiffs themselves explaining to the court how the risk of contamination by transgenic seed is real and why they cannot trust Monsanto to not use an occurrence of contamination as a basis to accuse them of patent infringement.”
Plaintiffs Bryce Stephens, who farms in Kansas, Frederick Kirschenmann, who farms in North Dakota, C.R. Lawn, who is founder and co-owner of Fedco Seeds in Maine, Don Patterson of Virginia, and Chuck Noble, who farms in South Dakota, each submitted declarations to the court describing their personal experiences with the risk of contamination by genetically modified seed and why those experiences have forced them to bring the current suit asking the court.
As summarized by the accompanying brief filed by PUBPAT on the plaintiffs' behalf, “Monsanto's acts of widespread patent assertion and plaintiffs' ever growing risk of contamination create a real, immediate, and substantial dispute between them.”
Twelve agricultural organizations also filed a friend-of-the-court amici brief supporting the right of the plaintiffs to bring the case. In their brief, the amici describe some of the harmful effects of genetically modified seed and how easily GMOs can contaminate an organic or conventional farmer's land.
For more information, contact:
Daniel Ravicher, PUBPAT, ravicher@pubpat.org or 212-461-1902
Carol Goland, OEFFA, cgoland@oeffa.org or 614-421-2022
Friday, January 14, 2011
2011: The Main Seed Order
Yesterday Eugene and I sat down in front of the computer with several seed catalogues and proceeded to do our main seed order for 2011. This year we ordered from Fedco, Johnny's and Baker Creek. We will likely order some more seeds from Seed Savers Exchange and Dixondale (they do nothing but onion and leek plants and we have heard great things about them and after 15 years of starting our own onions, scallions, leeks and shallots from seed we are thinking about trying seedlings and see what happens).
Here is what we have ordered so far. You won't see many lettuce or tomato seeds in these orders as we save most of what we grow from our own stock, same with yellow and red onions, popcorn, arugula and many other things. And, of course, we have left over seed that is still viable from last year and years before that. But this does give you a fairly good account as to what we plan to plant this year. for the complete list see our
FEDCO Seeds
Jade Bush Green Bean
Maxibel Bush Haricots Verts OG
Golden Gopher Muskmelon
Sunsweet Watermelon
Crimson Sweet Watermelon OG
Halona Muskmelon
Peace Watermelon
Dark Star Watermelon
Super Zagross Middle Eastern Slicing Cucumber
Telegraph Improved European Cucumber
Cocozelle Zucchini
Carnival Acorn Winter Squash
Zeppelin Delicata Winter Squash OG
Sunshine Winter Squash
Yellowstone Carrot
Arat Root Parsley
Gilfeather Turnip
King Sieg Leek OG
Ailsa Craig Onion
Space Spinach
Olympia Spinach
Tyee Spinach OG
Giant Winter Spinach
Flashy Green Butter Oak Lettuce OG
Bright Lights Chard
Champion Collards
Red Russian Kale OG
Winterbor Kale
Diamond Eggplant
Purple Beauty Sweet Pepper
Revolution Sweet Pepper
Valencia Sweet Pepper
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Flavorburst Peppers Sweet Bell
Lipstick (OG) Peppers
Merlin Beets
Green Magic Broccoli
TendersweetCabbage
Purple Haze Carrots
Atomic Red- Carrots
White Satin Carrots
Bolero Carrots
Nadia Eggplant
Javelin Parsnips
D'Avignon-Radish Long French
Easter Egg- Radish
Discovery Daikon
Emu Spinach
Costata Romanesco Zucchini
Waltham Butternut
Tatsoi
Kyona Mizuna
Baker Creek Seeds
Charentais Melon
Red-Seeded Asparagus Bean
Valencia Winter Melon
Raspberry Lyanna Tomato
Striped Roman Tomato
Here is what we have ordered so far. You won't see many lettuce or tomato seeds in these orders as we save most of what we grow from our own stock, same with yellow and red onions, popcorn, arugula and many other things. And, of course, we have left over seed that is still viable from last year and years before that. But this does give you a fairly good account as to what we plan to plant this year. for the complete list see our
FEDCO Seeds
Jade Bush Green Bean
Maxibel Bush Haricots Verts OG
Golden Gopher Muskmelon
Sunsweet Watermelon
Crimson Sweet Watermelon OG
Halona Muskmelon
Peace Watermelon
Dark Star Watermelon
Super Zagross Middle Eastern Slicing Cucumber
Telegraph Improved European Cucumber
Cocozelle Zucchini
Carnival Acorn Winter Squash
Zeppelin Delicata Winter Squash OG
Sunshine Winter Squash
Yellowstone Carrot
Arat Root Parsley
Gilfeather Turnip
King Sieg Leek OG
Ailsa Craig Onion
Space Spinach
Olympia Spinach
Tyee Spinach OG
Giant Winter Spinach
Flashy Green Butter Oak Lettuce OG
Bright Lights Chard
Champion Collards
Red Russian Kale OG
Winterbor Kale
Diamond Eggplant
Purple Beauty Sweet Pepper
Revolution Sweet Pepper
Valencia Sweet Pepper
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Flavorburst Peppers Sweet Bell
Lipstick (OG) Peppers
Merlin Beets
Green Magic Broccoli
TendersweetCabbage
Purple Haze Carrots
Atomic Red- Carrots
White Satin Carrots
Bolero Carrots
Nadia Eggplant
Javelin Parsnips
D'Avignon-Radish Long French
Easter Egg- Radish
Discovery Daikon
Emu Spinach
Costata Romanesco Zucchini
Waltham Butternut
Tatsoi
Kyona Mizuna
Baker Creek Seeds
Charentais Melon
Red-Seeded Asparagus Bean
Valencia Winter Melon
Raspberry Lyanna Tomato
Striped Roman Tomato
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Seed Buying
One of the big events in winter for us farmers is the seed order. Since we garden on acres this is a far larger undertaking than when we did home gardens. Ordering has happens much earlier for us growing commercially than for home gardeners. In fact we get our commercial catalogs about 3 weeks earlier than the home gardener catalogs (we know this because several of the companies we use have both). So in mid December we get our first catalogs-Johnny's and Fedco Followed by Seed Savers Exchange. A those are the 3 main companies we use for our seed supply.
There are a whole lot of companies we will not use due to the fact they source most of their seeds from companies owned by Monsanto (Peto and Semenis seeds). Jung's is one of them. Okay, another big reason we will never ever buy from Jung's Seeds ever again is they have sent us a lot of horrible plants and seeds. The rhubarb we got from there all died within 12 months, 95% died within 3 months. Than there were the trees they sent us last year that should have come in March or early April but cam in mid June and all but 1 were dead. We also do not like the policy of no refunds, store credit only. And they have bought up a lot of smaller companies (that people think are still independents) such as Totally Tomato
Vermont Bean Seed Co., Burpee, Cook's Garden, Earl May Seeds, Gardens Alive (not really a seed place they are more into fertilizers, pest control, etc.. and used to be a really good place to buy organic inputs), Lindenberg Seeds, Mountain Valley Seeds, Park Seeds, T&T Seeds, Tomato Grower's Supply, Willhite Seed Co., Nichol's, Rupp, Osborne, Snow, Stokes, R.H. Shumway, The Vermont Bean Seed Co., Seeds For The World, Seymour's Selected Seeds, HPS, Roots and Rhizomes, McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers, Spring Hill Nurseries, Breck's Bulbs,
Audubon Workshop, Flowers of the Month Club, Wayside Gardens, Park Bulb's and Park's Countryside Garde.
I also have quit buying seed from Baker Creek because they have send too many wrong or poorly bred seed. This is a shame because I really like Baker Creek. they are independently owned, they do not sell any GMO seed nor source with companies that do. All things that are important to me. but the seed quality for the most part sucks and in my market garden I have to have good to great seed quality and the seed should match up with what it says on the packet. I would say with Baker Creek, 3 out of 5 times there have been mistakes on their part.
Now savvier readers will note I order from Johnny's Selected Seeds and that Johnny's does indeed source some seeds from Semenis/Peto Seeds (though I hear rumors saying they have stopped or will stop buying from these corporations). The reason I make this exception for Johnny's is because I have been a happy customer for over 15 years, the seeds are top flight. There are very few mistakes made and when they happen they always make good, often within hours. they are an employee owned independent seed house with inhouse seed breeding program that is second to none. They are an official AAS trial site because of their location and great breeding program and they have one of the best seed catalogs in the world. And they have signed the Safe Seed Pledge (This link has a list of all the seed houses that have signed this pledge in 2009).
Around Christmas time we get the first catalogs (Johnny's first than Fedco a week later and finally SSE) and we start looking through them and also looking at the list of seed needs I complied last year as we used up the seeds (this is something that I had not done before 2009-or if I did I lost the list before seed ordering time. This saved a lot of time and made the order far more accurate than in the past). this year Eugene did the order and I was the one who got to put the orders on the order blanks, check to make sure we got everything (we never do and this year has been no exception. IIRC we still need a few tomato types) and than the order is calculated, checks are written and than everything is put into the correct envelopes, stamped and sent out.
This year Johnny's got $193, Fedco $207 and SSE $17.50. I know we still have to order strawberry plants which will be another $75 or so. And there will likely be other orders for seeds due to various reasons. And believe it or not this is a relatively small seed order for us. Many years we spend over $600 on seed alone (and several thousand on other inputs and equipment).
After the orders are dropped into the mail box at the Post Office we go home and sit around and await the incoming orders.
As per usual, Johnny's was the first to send us our order. About a 10 days ago the UPS guy delivered a box full of seeds and we were happy. We took the box inside and went through the seeds and found 3 kinds on back order. But within 3 days those seeds had also arrived at the post office. After the Johnny's order came the Seed Saver's order of heirloom tomatoes arrived. And yesterday we picked up the Fedco order at the post office. Or at least the majority, as many things are on back order and one thing was out of stock Even'star American Rapa which seems to be something for spring mixes so not a big deal that there is none. Besides I contacted Fedco and asked if they could send Hamburg Parsley instead of a refund and they said certainly (because they are flexible like that). one thing i am very happy about is the fact our onion seed arrived yesterday. You see CR Lawn, Fedco's founder always includes a newsletter with the order and he wrote that 6 varieties of onions have been on back order but during his writing 3 types arrived at their wearhouse and thus Fedco was able to fill some of their onion orders, including ours. This is important because onions (and leeks and shallots) really need to be started by Feb 1st for best results. It really sucks to see the term "Back Order" next to the seeds you need early as possible (and it is even worse when there is a note stating those seeds will not be available for 2 to 3 months and you already know there are none to be had anywhere because you already checked out 15 different companies for the variety-this happened to about 10 years ago mainly because we were not ordering our seed early enough, so we got smart and got into the habit of ordering early in the year).
Now that we have our seeds let the planting begin! And it will today with onions, leeks and shallots (and maybe kale and lettuces too).
There are a whole lot of companies we will not use due to the fact they source most of their seeds from companies owned by Monsanto (Peto and Semenis seeds). Jung's is one of them. Okay, another big reason we will never ever buy from Jung's Seeds ever again is they have sent us a lot of horrible plants and seeds. The rhubarb we got from there all died within 12 months, 95% died within 3 months. Than there were the trees they sent us last year that should have come in March or early April but cam in mid June and all but 1 were dead. We also do not like the policy of no refunds, store credit only. And they have bought up a lot of smaller companies (that people think are still independents) such as Totally Tomato
Vermont Bean Seed Co., Burpee, Cook's Garden, Earl May Seeds, Gardens Alive (not really a seed place they are more into fertilizers, pest control, etc.. and used to be a really good place to buy organic inputs), Lindenberg Seeds, Mountain Valley Seeds, Park Seeds, T&T Seeds, Tomato Grower's Supply, Willhite Seed Co., Nichol's, Rupp, Osborne, Snow, Stokes, R.H. Shumway, The Vermont Bean Seed Co., Seeds For The World, Seymour's Selected Seeds, HPS, Roots and Rhizomes, McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers, Spring Hill Nurseries, Breck's Bulbs,
Audubon Workshop, Flowers of the Month Club, Wayside Gardens, Park Bulb's and Park's Countryside Garde.
I also have quit buying seed from Baker Creek because they have send too many wrong or poorly bred seed. This is a shame because I really like Baker Creek. they are independently owned, they do not sell any GMO seed nor source with companies that do. All things that are important to me. but the seed quality for the most part sucks and in my market garden I have to have good to great seed quality and the seed should match up with what it says on the packet. I would say with Baker Creek, 3 out of 5 times there have been mistakes on their part.
Now savvier readers will note I order from Johnny's Selected Seeds and that Johnny's does indeed source some seeds from Semenis/Peto Seeds (though I hear rumors saying they have stopped or will stop buying from these corporations). The reason I make this exception for Johnny's is because I have been a happy customer for over 15 years, the seeds are top flight. There are very few mistakes made and when they happen they always make good, often within hours. they are an employee owned independent seed house with inhouse seed breeding program that is second to none. They are an official AAS trial site because of their location and great breeding program and they have one of the best seed catalogs in the world. And they have signed the Safe Seed Pledge (This link has a list of all the seed houses that have signed this pledge in 2009).
Around Christmas time we get the first catalogs (Johnny's first than Fedco a week later and finally SSE) and we start looking through them and also looking at the list of seed needs I complied last year as we used up the seeds (this is something that I had not done before 2009-or if I did I lost the list before seed ordering time. This saved a lot of time and made the order far more accurate than in the past). this year Eugene did the order and I was the one who got to put the orders on the order blanks, check to make sure we got everything (we never do and this year has been no exception. IIRC we still need a few tomato types) and than the order is calculated, checks are written and than everything is put into the correct envelopes, stamped and sent out.
This year Johnny's got $193, Fedco $207 and SSE $17.50. I know we still have to order strawberry plants which will be another $75 or so. And there will likely be other orders for seeds due to various reasons. And believe it or not this is a relatively small seed order for us. Many years we spend over $600 on seed alone (and several thousand on other inputs and equipment).
After the orders are dropped into the mail box at the Post Office we go home and sit around and await the incoming orders.
As per usual, Johnny's was the first to send us our order. About a 10 days ago the UPS guy delivered a box full of seeds and we were happy. We took the box inside and went through the seeds and found 3 kinds on back order. But within 3 days those seeds had also arrived at the post office. After the Johnny's order came the Seed Saver's order of heirloom tomatoes arrived. And yesterday we picked up the Fedco order at the post office. Or at least the majority, as many things are on back order and one thing was out of stock Even'star American Rapa which seems to be something for spring mixes so not a big deal that there is none. Besides I contacted Fedco and asked if they could send Hamburg Parsley instead of a refund and they said certainly (because they are flexible like that). one thing i am very happy about is the fact our onion seed arrived yesterday. You see CR Lawn, Fedco's founder always includes a newsletter with the order and he wrote that 6 varieties of onions have been on back order but during his writing 3 types arrived at their wearhouse and thus Fedco was able to fill some of their onion orders, including ours. This is important because onions (and leeks and shallots) really need to be started by Feb 1st for best results. It really sucks to see the term "Back Order" next to the seeds you need early as possible (and it is even worse when there is a note stating those seeds will not be available for 2 to 3 months and you already know there are none to be had anywhere because you already checked out 15 different companies for the variety-this happened to about 10 years ago mainly because we were not ordering our seed early enough, so we got smart and got into the habit of ordering early in the year).
Now that we have our seeds let the planting begin! And it will today with onions, leeks and shallots (and maybe kale and lettuces too).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Seed Ordering Time
January is seed ordering time here at Boulder belt. The seed order used to be a huge event for us that caused a great deal of stress (what if we forget something? What if we get it WRONG!!??!?). we would get the seed catalogs in the mail (most arriving by Jan 1st because we are commercial growers and commercial growers get their catalogs before the home gardening crowd). We would study the catalogs for days dreaming of spring and planting and warm mornings and fresh food being harvested daily and other unwintry thoughts. We would put big black stars by the seeds we wanted to buy and would fill out order forms and check them twice than send in the orders.
And every time we would discover we had missed something important and would freak out.
These days we do not find the seed order is such a big deal because we have started in the past two years putting 2 to 4 seed orders every year pretty much in every season. So if something is forgotten we no longer freak out. Instead we just order whatever it is we need and grumble about S&H charges that could have been avoided if we only had order whatever with the rest of the seeds.
So far this year we have put in our orders to Johnny's selected seeds and Fedco and have only forgotten one item-5 pounds of sugar snap peas, one of our best selling crops. I have not decided if I want to put in another order to Johnny's or Fedco or go with one of the Heirloom companies-Baker Creek or Seed Savers Exchange. Both have sugar snap seed, I believe. But we have not order sugar snaps from either of those companies before so don't know the quality. We usually get our peas from Fedco or Johnny's and do know what to expect form them.
Something that has come up in the various forums I use about seed buying-The fact that Monsanto bought Semenis seeds and now controls something like 85% of the global seed stocks. We at Boulder belt do research where the seeds we buy come from and we avoid buying Monsanto owned seeds. This has meant dropping several hybrids that have always done very well for us and finding substitutes. This has not been an easy task for a couple of crops. I have yet to find a replacement I really like for the Fat n Sassy green to red bell pepper. It has been fun trying out different peppers both hybrid and heirloom. I have found many heirloom varieties I like a lot but none have come close to replacing this red bell (but I have found some wonderful yellow, purple, brown, red cheese and other peppers that now have a place in the market garden)
We used grow a wonderful pure white sweet onion called Superstar that we dropped because of the Monsanto connection and have yet to find anything close. So now we grow heirloom sweet onions that are not as pretty but have no ties to Monsanto and have excellent taste, though rarely are as mild as the Superstar.
I am hoping today we finish up the seed ordering for this month. We still have to order some tomato seed. There are two heirlooms I want to grow-Paul Robeson, a black beefsteak mater named for the performer/activist, Paul Robeson and also Green Zebra because Miami University is interested and we have not grown a green full sized mater in years. We grew GZ about 6 or 7 years ago and it was prolific, pretty but not the best tasting mater that we grow. We also have to order eggplant and of course the sugar snap peas. I think we will also order several flower varieties. We have been wanting to grow sunflowers for years and I think this is the year to do so. Sunflowers can brighten up any day and it looks like we are going to go through a lot of very dark days and will need sunflowers to rescue us all. And we need yarrow and there will likely be many other seeds we will decide we cannot live without.
And every time we would discover we had missed something important and would freak out.
These days we do not find the seed order is such a big deal because we have started in the past two years putting 2 to 4 seed orders every year pretty much in every season. So if something is forgotten we no longer freak out. Instead we just order whatever it is we need and grumble about S&H charges that could have been avoided if we only had order whatever with the rest of the seeds.
So far this year we have put in our orders to Johnny's selected seeds and Fedco and have only forgotten one item-5 pounds of sugar snap peas, one of our best selling crops. I have not decided if I want to put in another order to Johnny's or Fedco or go with one of the Heirloom companies-Baker Creek or Seed Savers Exchange. Both have sugar snap seed, I believe. But we have not order sugar snaps from either of those companies before so don't know the quality. We usually get our peas from Fedco or Johnny's and do know what to expect form them.
Something that has come up in the various forums I use about seed buying-The fact that Monsanto bought Semenis seeds and now controls something like 85% of the global seed stocks. We at Boulder belt do research where the seeds we buy come from and we avoid buying Monsanto owned seeds. This has meant dropping several hybrids that have always done very well for us and finding substitutes. This has not been an easy task for a couple of crops. I have yet to find a replacement I really like for the Fat n Sassy green to red bell pepper. It has been fun trying out different peppers both hybrid and heirloom. I have found many heirloom varieties I like a lot but none have come close to replacing this red bell (but I have found some wonderful yellow, purple, brown, red cheese and other peppers that now have a place in the market garden)
We used grow a wonderful pure white sweet onion called Superstar that we dropped because of the Monsanto connection and have yet to find anything close. So now we grow heirloom sweet onions that are not as pretty but have no ties to Monsanto and have excellent taste, though rarely are as mild as the Superstar.
I am hoping today we finish up the seed ordering for this month. We still have to order some tomato seed. There are two heirlooms I want to grow-Paul Robeson, a black beefsteak mater named for the performer/activist, Paul Robeson and also Green Zebra because Miami University is interested and we have not grown a green full sized mater in years. We grew GZ about 6 or 7 years ago and it was prolific, pretty but not the best tasting mater that we grow. We also have to order eggplant and of course the sugar snap peas. I think we will also order several flower varieties. We have been wanting to grow sunflowers for years and I think this is the year to do so. Sunflowers can brighten up any day and it looks like we are going to go through a lot of very dark days and will need sunflowers to rescue us all. And we need yarrow and there will likely be many other seeds we will decide we cannot live without.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Seedling Madness
Yesterday was spent dealing with seedlings, lots and lots of seedlings.
The first round of lettuces went out to a hoop house where they will be transplanted in the next couple of days. The first round of onions and leeks went into a cold frame because they grow better in such conditions than under lights in a too warm and humid for them grow room.
I was good to see all those flats and pots of seedlings going outside because the second round of lettuces germinated and had to be put into 4 flats of 2" soil blocks (49 per flat). This round of lettuce includes two of my favorites-lollo rosa and cracoviensis, both heirlooms. Also did with 3 flats of kale-winterbor, Holona (aka Dinosaur kale) and Russian white. the winterbor we have been growing for years and the other two are new to us.
I still have to do up another 3 or flats of large soil blocks for the celery and celeriac that is just beginning to germinate. Hopefully, I will get to that today after harvesting the leeks for the farmers market this Saturday in Oxford. otherwise they will wait until Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.
I also did another round of onions yesterday as the Stella Natura indicated it was a good day to plant root seeds. We thought we had enough planted with the first go round but two pots of red onion seed failed to germinate (well one had a whopping 2% germination rate, the other zero) leaving us with 6 pots of onions. So I prepared 6 additional pots and planted more Ailsa Craig, Boulder belt Sweets and some older Copra seed which had fairly poor germination but needed to be used up or thrown out so I sowed them very heavily in hopes of getting 2 full pots of seedlings. I also did a pot of some red onion seed Eugene saved last year that has been doing well for us.
While I was doing that Eugene made soil mix, trimmed the blackberry canes, carried lettuces up to the hoop house, tried to dog proof the fence only to find while he was fixing one part, Nate was wiggling out of a new hole he had created further down the fence line so he could run across 127 to see the dogs on the other side of the road. Damn Dogs.
And it is still early in the season. I have not gotten into the thousands of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, etc., seedlings that will be started in the next couple of weeks. Or all the seedlings that need transplanting or all the perennials that need mulching or the fruit trees that need pruning. We have a lot on our plates but it will all get done as it does every year.
The first round of lettuces went out to a hoop house where they will be transplanted in the next couple of days. The first round of onions and leeks went into a cold frame because they grow better in such conditions than under lights in a too warm and humid for them grow room.
I was good to see all those flats and pots of seedlings going outside because the second round of lettuces germinated and had to be put into 4 flats of 2" soil blocks (49 per flat). This round of lettuce includes two of my favorites-lollo rosa and cracoviensis, both heirlooms. Also did with 3 flats of kale-winterbor, Holona (aka Dinosaur kale) and Russian white. the winterbor we have been growing for years and the other two are new to us.
I still have to do up another 3 or flats of large soil blocks for the celery and celeriac that is just beginning to germinate. Hopefully, I will get to that today after harvesting the leeks for the farmers market this Saturday in Oxford. otherwise they will wait until Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.
I also did another round of onions yesterday as the Stella Natura indicated it was a good day to plant root seeds. We thought we had enough planted with the first go round but two pots of red onion seed failed to germinate (well one had a whopping 2% germination rate, the other zero) leaving us with 6 pots of onions. So I prepared 6 additional pots and planted more Ailsa Craig, Boulder belt Sweets and some older Copra seed which had fairly poor germination but needed to be used up or thrown out so I sowed them very heavily in hopes of getting 2 full pots of seedlings. I also did a pot of some red onion seed Eugene saved last year that has been doing well for us.
While I was doing that Eugene made soil mix, trimmed the blackberry canes, carried lettuces up to the hoop house, tried to dog proof the fence only to find while he was fixing one part, Nate was wiggling out of a new hole he had created further down the fence line so he could run across 127 to see the dogs on the other side of the road. Damn Dogs.
And it is still early in the season. I have not gotten into the thousands of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, etc., seedlings that will be started in the next couple of weeks. Or all the seedlings that need transplanting or all the perennials that need mulching or the fruit trees that need pruning. We have a lot on our plates but it will all get done as it does every year.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
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)
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)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Winter Inertia
It is the end of Feburary (close enuff) and therefore we are close to the end of the most boring, mind numbing time of the year for us farmers.
the seed orders are all in and most of the seeds and plants have been delivered to the farm. We still are getting seed catalogs every time we visit the PO Box. I guess these folks don't realize that if we have not order from them yet the chances of that still happening are quite small. But Since the chance is not zero they still have hope we will send them some money.
We have started some seedlings but not enough to keep us both busy for more than 45 minutes a day. So far we have onions, leeks, lettuces and broccoli started. The alliums and lettuces are germinating and the broccoli will follow suit in a few days as it was just planted yesterday. At this point we have somthing like 10 perma-nest trays full of seeds and seedlings and 12 nursery pots full of onion and leek seeds that are beginning to wake up.
It is still too icy/snowy to do much up in the garden. I suppose we could be clearing out hoop houses that have dead crops in them so we have room for the lettuces and other cold weather crops. But the inertia of mid winter seems to be preventing the two of us from doing much in the hoop houses.
Eugene is in the midsts of doing the state and federal taxes for 2007. I believe he is about 75% of the way through the taxes, maybe more. They seem to be going quite well, very little swearing this year, so far.
We have ordered 6 tons of compost from Fresh Aire Farms but don't know when that will arrive. Dan Young makes some very nice compost. We make compost too but ever since we got out of the laying hen bidniss we never seem to have enough material to make enough compost for the farm. And out compost is not nearly as clean and nice as Dan Young's so we for the second year in a row buy his to supplement what we make. And the bought compost is a tax write off of which which we are finding we need a lot more.
Soon enough the seasons will change and spring will be here and the work can start in earnest and I won't be so bloody bored
the seed orders are all in and most of the seeds and plants have been delivered to the farm. We still are getting seed catalogs every time we visit the PO Box. I guess these folks don't realize that if we have not order from them yet the chances of that still happening are quite small. But Since the chance is not zero they still have hope we will send them some money.
We have started some seedlings but not enough to keep us both busy for more than 45 minutes a day. So far we have onions, leeks, lettuces and broccoli started. The alliums and lettuces are germinating and the broccoli will follow suit in a few days as it was just planted yesterday. At this point we have somthing like 10 perma-nest trays full of seeds and seedlings and 12 nursery pots full of onion and leek seeds that are beginning to wake up.
It is still too icy/snowy to do much up in the garden. I suppose we could be clearing out hoop houses that have dead crops in them so we have room for the lettuces and other cold weather crops. But the inertia of mid winter seems to be preventing the two of us from doing much in the hoop houses.
Eugene is in the midsts of doing the state and federal taxes for 2007. I believe he is about 75% of the way through the taxes, maybe more. They seem to be going quite well, very little swearing this year, so far.
We have ordered 6 tons of compost from Fresh Aire Farms but don't know when that will arrive. Dan Young makes some very nice compost. We make compost too but ever since we got out of the laying hen bidniss we never seem to have enough material to make enough compost for the farm. And out compost is not nearly as clean and nice as Dan Young's so we for the second year in a row buy his to supplement what we make. And the bought compost is a tax write off of which which we are finding we need a lot more.
Soon enough the seasons will change and spring will be here and the work can start in earnest and I won't be so bloody bored
Friday, February 15, 2008
Gentlepeople Start Your Gardens
Yesterday we started our 2008 growing season by planting onions and leeks in 6" to 10" pots.
We planted 2 kinds of leeks-Lincoln and King Sieg. Lincoln we have been growing for years. It is a very nice slender leek that comes in early (for a leek). King Sieg we grew for the first time last year and really liked it. This is a huge fat leek with great flavor. We still have most of a bed left from the 2007 season in a hoop house that is doing terrif.
We also started a ton of onions (okay, not a ton yet but if all goes well all those seeds should become 2000 pounds of allium goodness). We are doing several heirloom onions including Boulder Belt Sweet (from Walla Walla seeds), Ailsa Craig (another sweet onion), Red Weathersfield (not a good storage onion as almost all from last year have sprouted. But we had seed and lots of it so they are being sowed again this year. they are a popular seller, I believe because they are a weird shape and an heirloom) and some red onion seed Eugene saved in 2006. And we are doing many hybrid onions including Copra, my favorite yellow cooking onion. Great storage onion with fantastic flavor. This will be the 10th season we have grown these. Last year I was going to drop this variety because it was a Semenis variety and Semenis was bought out by Monsanto but Johnny's Selected Seeds found a non Monsanto breeder of Copra onions and is getting the seed from that source so all is good with me and my Copra onions (I really did not want to drop this variety but I also did not want to give any money knowingly to Monsatan so it was a major issue with me last year). Other hybrids include Varsity, a yellow onion we trialed last year and than forgot exactly where they were planted so I am trying them again this year. I believe they are the huge yellow onions that are storing better than the copra and taste almost as good. This year I will do a far better job of writing down the location of the Varsity onions. We also will be growing Mercury red onion (a very nice red onion that replaced another Monsatan/Semenis var we were using called Mars. We grew Mercury for the first time last year and liked it. And like the Red Weathersfield we had a lot of seed from last year.).
We should have started the leeks and onions earlier but we did not for two reasons. One, we did not have all our seeds until early this month and two we use a biodynamic planting calendar called the Stella Natura and it indicated that Feb 14th would be the best day to plant roots of the entire month and we have learned from using this calendar that if you can wait to hit a most auspicious moment it will pay off greatly. Thus we waited for the great root time to plant root seeds. We will likely have better germination and less damping off and other fungal diseases than if we had planted a week earlier.
Next we will start lettuce and brassicas (broccoli, kale, cabbages).
Here's too a great 2008 growing season everyone. Cheers!
We planted 2 kinds of leeks-Lincoln and King Sieg. Lincoln we have been growing for years. It is a very nice slender leek that comes in early (for a leek). King Sieg we grew for the first time last year and really liked it. This is a huge fat leek with great flavor. We still have most of a bed left from the 2007 season in a hoop house that is doing terrif.
We also started a ton of onions (okay, not a ton yet but if all goes well all those seeds should become 2000 pounds of allium goodness). We are doing several heirloom onions including Boulder Belt Sweet (from Walla Walla seeds), Ailsa Craig (another sweet onion), Red Weathersfield (not a good storage onion as almost all from last year have sprouted. But we had seed and lots of it so they are being sowed again this year. they are a popular seller, I believe because they are a weird shape and an heirloom) and some red onion seed Eugene saved in 2006. And we are doing many hybrid onions including Copra, my favorite yellow cooking onion. Great storage onion with fantastic flavor. This will be the 10th season we have grown these. Last year I was going to drop this variety because it was a Semenis variety and Semenis was bought out by Monsanto but Johnny's Selected Seeds found a non Monsanto breeder of Copra onions and is getting the seed from that source so all is good with me and my Copra onions (I really did not want to drop this variety but I also did not want to give any money knowingly to Monsatan so it was a major issue with me last year). Other hybrids include Varsity, a yellow onion we trialed last year and than forgot exactly where they were planted so I am trying them again this year. I believe they are the huge yellow onions that are storing better than the copra and taste almost as good. This year I will do a far better job of writing down the location of the Varsity onions. We also will be growing Mercury red onion (a very nice red onion that replaced another Monsatan/Semenis var we were using called Mars. We grew Mercury for the first time last year and liked it. And like the Red Weathersfield we had a lot of seed from last year.).
We should have started the leeks and onions earlier but we did not for two reasons. One, we did not have all our seeds until early this month and two we use a biodynamic planting calendar called the Stella Natura and it indicated that Feb 14th would be the best day to plant roots of the entire month and we have learned from using this calendar that if you can wait to hit a most auspicious moment it will pay off greatly. Thus we waited for the great root time to plant root seeds. We will likely have better germination and less damping off and other fungal diseases than if we had planted a week earlier.
Next we will start lettuce and brassicas (broccoli, kale, cabbages).
Here's too a great 2008 growing season everyone. Cheers!
Monday, January 21, 2008
SSE: Where Boulder Belt Stands
I was looking at my Google Ad-sense stats and noticed that the past couple of days have seen a rather large increase in traffic to this blog (but sadly no increase in click on the ad sense ads, c'est la vie). This got me to check out the website where my blog stats are logged and I found that over 110 people came to this blog because of the Post I have on the upset at Seed Savers Exchange. This is THE STORY of the year for us green thumb folks, it seems. It certainly is a dramatic story no matter which side you are on.
Now what side is Boulder Belt on? neither at the moment. It is simply too soon to be able to tell what is going on. Right now SSE is saying as little as possible. Just about every gardening forum and email list has some sort of conversation going on about this and there is a lot of emotion and conjecture being tossed around with very few facts. Lots of people are boycotting both SSE and Johnny's Selected Seeds (Rob Johnston, founder of JSS, is on the SSE Board of directors). I am not boycotting either. I just sent in a $300 order to Johnny's for seeds and plants. They are about the best in the business and I see no reason to withhold my business from them just because Rob is sitting on the SSE board and was involved in Kent Whealy's termination (which may or may not have been justified). I intend on putting in a much smaller order to SSE in a week or so. I want to buy nipple fruit seeds from them and there is likely a few rare heirloom veggies I will decide I cannot live without.
Now what side is Boulder Belt on? neither at the moment. It is simply too soon to be able to tell what is going on. Right now SSE is saying as little as possible. Just about every gardening forum and email list has some sort of conversation going on about this and there is a lot of emotion and conjecture being tossed around with very few facts. Lots of people are boycotting both SSE and Johnny's Selected Seeds (Rob Johnston, founder of JSS, is on the SSE Board of directors). I am not boycotting either. I just sent in a $300 order to Johnny's for seeds and plants. They are about the best in the business and I see no reason to withhold my business from them just because Rob is sitting on the SSE board and was involved in Kent Whealy's termination (which may or may not have been justified). I intend on putting in a much smaller order to SSE in a week or so. I want to buy nipple fruit seeds from them and there is likely a few rare heirloom veggies I will decide I cannot live without.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Buy Some Books
Okay, you may noticed a slew of new books from Amazon sitting in the sidebar to the left. These are books that I personally own and are favorites here at Boulder Belt Eco-Farm. Here's the deal. I write this blog because I love writing. But I want this blog to generate some income and Google and Amazon ads are posted here for that purpose. Click on an ad, and I get a tiny % for allowing these ads to clutter up this blog. With Google I do not have any say as to what will be posted. For the most, part the Google ads have been unoffensive (there are a few that appear from time to time that do piss me off. Milk is Milk is one such ad. It's Alex Avery's site touting the wonders of rBGH and GMO's and telling us that organics will kill us all. Oh, and anything associated with Monsanto).
With the Amazon ads in order for me to get any $$ you do have to buy a book (and it has to be from the selections posted here on this very blog). Since it is the Holiday season and you likely have to buy some presents anyhoo why not support small farm in doing so
So I am asking you to take a look at the Amazon selections here. If you see something that interests you (and if you are a beginning locavore or market farmer all these titles ought to pique your interest)click on that link and buy the product and I get a % and the blog generates money for our sustainable farm and that means income during our slow season (winter) so we can pay bills, buy seed and equipment for the upcoming growing season.
Okay about the publications listed.
Food and Farms of Ohio; I have to admit I have not read but Boulder Belt Farm is profiled in this book. The reason I do not own this is because I usually get a copy of any book I am in (and there have been several) and for some reason I was not sent a free copy of this book. At any rate this is a cookbook that celebrates local food and farms of Ohio.
Root Cellaring; This is a must have book if you intend to be a locavore/eat locally year round. Beautifully and simply written it explains how you grow and put up food for the winter so you can eat local year round. And this is not just for us rural folks, they have lots of tips for apartment dwellers as well.
The New Organic Grower; I think this is Eliot Coleman's best book. It covers about everything you need to know to set up a market garden of really large and complex home garden. I think this book would be overwhelming for a gardening newbie. Coleman covers site selection, laying out a garden, crop rotation, equipment needs, seed starting, season extension, etc.. this book is what got us through the jump from teensy market garden to growing on an acre (now we are at around 3 acres).
Seed to Seed; This is the best book on basic seed saving. Anyone interested in heirloom crops and seed saving should have a copy of this book. it is basic and well laid out and is the seed saving book we use most often here at Boulder Belt Eco-Farm.
The New Farmers Market: This is simply the best book ever published on farmers markets. If you are a in the process of developing a new farmers market you must have this book. If you are a market grower you must have this book, it is loaded with tons of information as to how to better market what you grow. I have used this book a lot, both for my own farm's sales and also to help create the Oxford farmers markets Uptown (which is very very successful, in part because of this book)
Breed Your own Vegetable Varieties; When you have gotten beyond basic seed saving and want to try your hand at breeding it is time to move from Ashworth's Seed to Seed and buy a copy of this book. Deppe is a professional seed breeder (she has a Ph.d and everthang) and a very good writer. this book is a series of stories about seed saving and breeding along with all the technical information you need to know about isolation, plant selection, etc..
Acres Magazine:The Voice for Eco-Agriculture; I have been an Acres subscriber for well over 10 years (and because these are too good to ever throw away-like Nat'l Geographics-I have a 4' stack of the back issues). I love this publication as it keeps me up to date on farm issues, industrial organics, NAIS, etc.. It has a lot of information on soil building, grazing, permaculture, biodynamics, small farming, alternative medicine for man and beast. If you are at all into alternative living check out this magazine.
With the Amazon ads in order for me to get any $$ you do have to buy a book (and it has to be from the selections posted here on this very blog). Since it is the Holiday season and you likely have to buy some presents anyhoo why not support small farm in doing so
So I am asking you to take a look at the Amazon selections here. If you see something that interests you (and if you are a beginning locavore or market farmer all these titles ought to pique your interest)click on that link and buy the product and I get a % and the blog generates money for our sustainable farm and that means income during our slow season (winter) so we can pay bills, buy seed and equipment for the upcoming growing season.
Okay about the publications listed.
Food and Farms of Ohio; I have to admit I have not read but Boulder Belt Farm is profiled in this book. The reason I do not own this is because I usually get a copy of any book I am in (and there have been several) and for some reason I was not sent a free copy of this book. At any rate this is a cookbook that celebrates local food and farms of Ohio.
Root Cellaring; This is a must have book if you intend to be a locavore/eat locally year round. Beautifully and simply written it explains how you grow and put up food for the winter so you can eat local year round. And this is not just for us rural folks, they have lots of tips for apartment dwellers as well.
The New Organic Grower; I think this is Eliot Coleman's best book. It covers about everything you need to know to set up a market garden of really large and complex home garden. I think this book would be overwhelming for a gardening newbie. Coleman covers site selection, laying out a garden, crop rotation, equipment needs, seed starting, season extension, etc.. this book is what got us through the jump from teensy market garden to growing on an acre (now we are at around 3 acres).
Seed to Seed; This is the best book on basic seed saving. Anyone interested in heirloom crops and seed saving should have a copy of this book. it is basic and well laid out and is the seed saving book we use most often here at Boulder Belt Eco-Farm.
The New Farmers Market: This is simply the best book ever published on farmers markets. If you are a in the process of developing a new farmers market you must have this book. If you are a market grower you must have this book, it is loaded with tons of information as to how to better market what you grow. I have used this book a lot, both for my own farm's sales and also to help create the Oxford farmers markets Uptown (which is very very successful, in part because of this book)
Breed Your own Vegetable Varieties; When you have gotten beyond basic seed saving and want to try your hand at breeding it is time to move from Ashworth's Seed to Seed and buy a copy of this book. Deppe is a professional seed breeder (she has a Ph.d and everthang) and a very good writer. this book is a series of stories about seed saving and breeding along with all the technical information you need to know about isolation, plant selection, etc..
Acres Magazine:The Voice for Eco-Agriculture; I have been an Acres subscriber for well over 10 years (and because these are too good to ever throw away-like Nat'l Geographics-I have a 4' stack of the back issues). I love this publication as it keeps me up to date on farm issues, industrial organics, NAIS, etc.. It has a lot of information on soil building, grazing, permaculture, biodynamics, small farming, alternative medicine for man and beast. If you are at all into alternative living check out this magazine.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Saving The Planet One Seed at a Time
A very nice article I pulled from the Baker Creek Seed gardening forum (with permission, of course). As regular readers know, I do a lot of seed saving because I feel it is vitally important to preserve as many seed varieties as possible. Especially now that way too many small independant seed companies are being gobbled up by big multi-national seed monopolies. So far this summer I have saved 10 kinds of tomato seeds and at least 7 kinds of lettuce seed. If we do fall zucchinis I will will save zuke seed as the fall as they will be well isolated and hand pollinated.
As a side note, I would take a Dodge Dart over a GTO any day. I have owned a couple in my life and really love the ugly little Darts. But I will always choose an heirloom mater over an insipid round red orb
Saving the Planet One Seed At A Time
Susan Carson Lambert
Ever wonder where the seed comes from for all those Heirloom tomatoes you see at the Franklin County Farmer’s Market? Many of those tomatoes are ancient. To be labeled an heirloom the lineage must be traceable for 50 years. The women of the Garden Club of Frankfort were curious about heirloom tomatoes so they invited Gary Millwood – otherwise knows as the “Tomato Man” to come talk with them at their August 10th meeting. The moniker is well deserved after hearing his talk about old tomato varieties. Millwood now lives in Eastern Jefferson County
Millwood learned about farming from his grandparents who were tenant farmers in South Carolina and his parents who were city folks, but still grew flowers and vegetables. His life’s work was in service to the church. He worked for children’s homes as an administrator and stockman and gardener. He grew vegetables to feed the children and staff at the home. In the 90’s he had health problems which eventually required him to retire from his staff position.
By 2000 he was recovered enough to begin growing again, but not on the same scale as before. He began to focus on heirloom tomatoes. A friend got him started by giving him some seed for the “Granny Cantrell’s German” tomato. He loved the tomato and that was it. He was off trying to find more heirloom seeds. Once word got out that he was collecting Kentucky tomato seeds people began sending him seed. Gary shared a lot of source material with me to for writing this article. It is amazing how many varieties of heirlooms there are just here in Kentucky. Here are a couple examples: Kentucky Plate- potato-leaf plant with a smooth pink beefsteak fruit, 1-1.5 lbs each. Excellent taste and good yield. Resembles Brandywine. Indeterminate. Here’s another – Kentucky Amish Oxheart - Casey County Heirloom, very large, red oxheart, great flavor, variable shape, regular leaf, solid texture, good production. These are just two examples out of many pages of reference material. This guy knows his heirloom tomatoes!
There are several organizations for saving seed, the one of the most prevalent is the Seed Savers Exchange. SSE is a nonprofit organization that saves and shares the heirloom seeds of garden heritage, forming a living legacy that can be passed down through generations. When people grow and save seeds, they join an ancient tradition as stewards, nurturing our diverse, fragile, genetic and cultural heritage.
The SSE organization is saving the world’s diverse, but endangered, garden heritage for future generations by building a network of people committed to collecting, conserving and sharing heirloom seeds and plants, while educating people about the value of genetic and cultural diversity. Few gardeners comprehend the true scope of their garden heritage or how much is in immediate danger of being lost forever.
There are other organizations Millwood works with, the Appalachian Heirloom Seed Conservancy AHSC is dedicated to preserving Appalachia's edible heritage, this young non-profit has already added 50 regional varieties to its seed bank, and is preserving several hundred more. Since so many of these rare heirlooms came as just a few seeds from a single source, the AHSC is currently building inventory. In time, they plan offer these seeds to AHSC members and others. They published a quarterly newsletter, with info on what they grow and how you can help preserve heirlooms from the Appalachians. Their email is: KentuckySeeds@hotmail.com ACHS will have a conference this fall Oct 5 – 7 in Berea at the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center.
Gary is active in another organization the Cincinnati Heirloom Open Pollinated Tomato Associate Growers CHOPTAG. They are an organization specifically devoted to share their appreciation for heirloom tomato gardening. They have plant swaps in the spring and tomato tastings in the late summer. The most recent was August 18th. Each grower puts all of her/his tomatoes on a picnic table and everyone tastes the tomatoes.
According to the International Seed Saving Institute. We are on the verge of losing in one generation, much of the agricultural diversity humankind created in the last 10,000 years. The International Seed Saving Institute, a non-profit, non-governmental educational organization was founded as a response. Central to their strategy is the seed saving ritual, a ritual as old as civilization, a ritual in many ways responsible for civilization. Saving heirloom seed, not just tomatoes, is very important. Biodiversity in the agriculture community is vital for all the same reasons as in natural communities. If we grow only a few varieties of anything there is a good chance the variety could be wiped out if some killing disease came along which affected it. If there are many kinds of plants growing with different strengths and proclivities - where one variety may fail, another might be unaffected and flourish. Monocultures of anything are generally not a good idea. For the welfare of our future and to maintain our genetic heritage saving heirloom seeds is imperative. If you save your own heirloom seeds you are saving money because you don’t have to purchase seed next spring, you can give them as gifts (other gardeners love this) and you know what kind of tomato you’re going to get when you grow them next year - because they are your own seeds. AND in a small way you are contributing to the welfare of the planet.
Here is a site that tells how to save tomato seeds.
Like Gary Millwood, I am a gardener. I have first hand experience with heirloom tomatoes as I grew 5 varieties from seed in my greenhouse this spring. They are coming in right now. They start and grow well. They are not fussy and grow on strong vines and produce like crazy. Unlike some hybrids I’ve grown that demand water and pout and wilt when they don’t get enough, these heirlooms have survived this wretched summer we’ve all lived through and are pumping out so many tomatoes its overwhelming.
If you have not experienced heirloom tomatoes (note I did not say EAT) go down to the Franklin County Farmer’s Market Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday morning and pick some up. Heirloom tomatoes compared to the insipid tomatoes available in the grocery store is like the difference between driving a ‘66 GTO and a ’66 Dodge Dart. Go for the GTO and the Heirlooms!
As a side note, I would take a Dodge Dart over a GTO any day. I have owned a couple in my life and really love the ugly little Darts. But I will always choose an heirloom mater over an insipid round red orb
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Seed Starting
Onion seedlings beginning to poke out of the soilLate winter is when we start the first of our seedlings. Right now we have a lot of onion and leek seeds on the light tables. We also have been doing lettuce on a regular basis. next week the early zucchinis and cucumber seedlings will be started along with cabbages and broccoli.
Eugene watering the seedlings on a light tableEugene is thinking about changing how we do the cabbages and broccoli. For the past 12+ years we have started them inside under lights using soil blocks. last summer Eugene direct seeded the last planting of cabbages and they were about the best cabbages we have ever grown. likely because direct seeded plants are always stronger and healthier than transplanted seedlings because the direct seeded plants do not undergo transplant shock which really weaken plants but its something you do not notice if all you do is grow seedlings inside for a particular crop. what he is thinking of doing is planting the broccoli in a raised bed built last year for spring mix. While we will have to transplant the seedlings they will be grown outside which should make them a lot heartier than indoor grown starts. And if some don't get transplanted they can grow in the raised bed as there do not seem to be any other plans for the thing.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Spring is Here
It's over 70 degrees so I have the windows open and my shoes off!
The buzzards and red winged blackbirds are back so I think the whistle pig was correct in predicting an early spring.
Did some work in the garden this morning. Pulled all the cabbages and put them on a new compost pile. Weeded out the spring mix so it will be pickable this Friday for the Winter market on Saturday. Transplanted a few heads of lettuce that were growing too close to other heads of lettuce so they would all have room to grow to full size. helped Eugene weed out a bed of spinach than thinned/transplanted a lot of spinach to fill out the bed. Need to do this to 6 more beds, transplanting/thinning, that is, not weeding/hoeing as that has been done.
Since I am out of shape I quit the garden after 3 hours of work. Hung out the laundry on the line and made some lunch. Than I made up 6 bags of catnip and 16 bags of roasted squash seeds. I will likely do more bags of squash seeds. They are so good. I coat them lightly in virgin olive oil than lightly season them with our garlic powder and a salt and roast them. Yum!
Now I am blogging and baking chocolate chip cookies.
The buzzards and red winged blackbirds are back so I think the whistle pig was correct in predicting an early spring.
Did some work in the garden this morning. Pulled all the cabbages and put them on a new compost pile. Weeded out the spring mix so it will be pickable this Friday for the Winter market on Saturday. Transplanted a few heads of lettuce that were growing too close to other heads of lettuce so they would all have room to grow to full size. helped Eugene weed out a bed of spinach than thinned/transplanted a lot of spinach to fill out the bed. Need to do this to 6 more beds, transplanting/thinning, that is, not weeding/hoeing as that has been done.
Since I am out of shape I quit the garden after 3 hours of work. Hung out the laundry on the line and made some lunch. Than I made up 6 bags of catnip and 16 bags of roasted squash seeds. I will likely do more bags of squash seeds. They are so good. I coat them lightly in virgin olive oil than lightly season them with our garlic powder and a salt and roast them. Yum!
Now I am blogging and baking chocolate chip cookies.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Hoophouses in Snow
This picture shows why we will not be selling anything at the Monthly Winter Farmers Market in Oxford, OH. We can't get into the things!
That said, we will be attending the market as customers. There is locally raised pastured meat to be bought from the Filbruns. Hopefully, Karen Baldwin of Tahapsia'a farm will be there with her incredible eggs. If she is not there than I will get eggs from someone else. If no one else has eggs than I will go without because factory farmed eggs are disgusting to me.
But most importantly, our Fedco Seed order is in and we can pick it up tomorrow at the market. We do a co-operative order from Fedco that Harv Roehling has been in charge of doing for a lot of years. This allows us to get deep discounts from Fedco by buying in bulk. I do not know how many folks were involved this year but last year the collective order was over $2,000. I suspect it will be more this year as I think the group is larger and our order was 3x larger this year than last.
I got an email from Harv telling me that Fedco was out of some seeds-Poona Kera Cucumber (which I think we can get from Seed savers) and Seminola Winter Squash (maybe Seed Savers will have this too). We also have several items on back order-Nelson Carrots, Red Ace beets and Pac Choi. Fortunately none of these crops will be planted early so we can wait on them for 2 months, if need be. In the past, Fedco has tended to back order the early stuff like spinach, onions and leeks. But since Harv has moved up the order date to early January this sort of thing has become less common.
I am looking forward to seed starting time which is coming up quickly. The quiet winter is getting boring.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Where to Buy (and not buy) Seeds
Found a nice article on the site Groovy Green called Where to Buy your Seeds and Where Not To. The only problem I had with the article was there was no mention of the fact lots of small farmers using organic methods are selling seeds over at Local harvest. In the past I have listed my seeds for sale there but moving the farm has meant putting the breaks on seed saving for the past couple of years. But 2008 should be the year we get back into the swing of saving seed for sale to the public.
Read the rest at: http://groovygreen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=328&Itemid=58
Where To Buy Your Seeds, & Where Not To
By Sharon Astyk
If we're to become a nation of farmers, and a nation of people who take home and small scale agriculture seriously, I think it is important to think about our seed sources. After all, without good, safe, reliable sources of seed, there is no agriculture - period.
The darkest force here has been the evil Montsanto, the Satan of agricultural corporations (and that's saying something since there are quite a few other dark angels out there), who bought up Seminis a couple of years ago. Now Seminis is the wholesaler that provides much of the seed for the seed trade, including many classic hybrids and non hybrid varieties. And recently, I've just learned that Seminis has bought Burpee seeds - the largest single mail order supplier. http://groovygreen.com/groove/?p=868. Now I have a fondness for the Burpee seed catalog, and there are a couple of non-hybrid varieties of theirs I love - a red french marigold, a cherry tomato. But I won't be buying there again. Pity, but I have no desire to support Montsanto's chemical agriculture, their attacks on farmers, their attempts to patent seeds created through laborious home breeding. And I try very hard to avoid Seminis varieties of seed. Because Seminis is a wholesaler, and sells to many of the seed companies that send out your catalogs, it can be difficult to tell where your seed originated. That means that I'm pretty much limited to some of the funkier catalogs out there. The good thing about that is that those catalogs have a large selection, a lot of neat stuff, and are usually good stewards of the environment. Giving them my money is an excellent thing....
I'm a big advocate of buying locally, but as I just told a friend, seeds are one thing that I don't always purchase from my local retailer. There are several reasons for this. The first is that my local retailer tends to carry commercial garden center varieties of seed, which come from very far away. There are good reasons to want to buy local seed, from plants that have already adapted to your particular climate. Often the seed I mail order from far away is more local than the seed that I would buy from my neighborhood garden shop. The second reason is that I can often get organically grown seed if I buy by mail - and even though you don't eat the seeds themselves, there are excellent reasons to want to avoid drenching the field your seeds are grown in with pesticides and chemicals. Also, small seed companies often struggle to get along, and they need all the business they can get. Finally, there is so much variety out there in food plants that buying locally simply wouldn't allow me to try as many different things - if I had to rely on local sources there'd be no Glacier Tomatoes coming early, no Stein's Late Flat Dutch Cabbage hanging on in my garden until December.
There has been a heavy consolidation of the seed industry in the last few years, to its detriment.
Read the rest at: http://groovygreen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=328&Itemid=58
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Another Nondescript Post
It's the last day of January, it is cold and a bit snowy (enough to make it look wintry but not enough to play in).
Things are at their slowest point. The seed ordering is mostly done for the year (there are still some rare and funky tomatoes to order from Seed savers Exchange, one of my favorite seed companies-a seed bank and seed growers network really). The real seed starting has not yet kicked in. We have started onions under lights and Eugene sowed some radish and lettuce seeds in one of the hoophouses a few weeks ago but the real work is still ahead of us.
Today we did house cleaning. Eugene was in the kitchen and decided to pull the stove and fridge away from the wall and clean underneath, next he was attempting to get the floor clean and swept and mopped it twice. It still looks like crap but at least we know it is cleaner. Mopping floors is something I do not like doing though I have had many jobs where mopping was in the job description and I learned over the years how to do a good and efficient job. I guess if I were paid $10 an hour to mop I would do it daily instead of monthly. While he tackled the kitchen I did laundry, cleaned the bathroom and tidied up the living room. Later on Eugene vacuumed the living room (now a daily occurrence) while I hung the laundry up in the spare room upstairs (no, we do not have a dryer and if we did I still would not use one. I have dried clothing about 4 times in the past 13 years using a clothes dryer, they are such an energy waster).
Yesterday was errand day. We go to get our share of raw milk every Tuesday and try to combine that with as many other errands as possible. So we hit the credit union to make a deposit, paid the mortgage, went to the post office to pick up mail and send off an order of garlic powder (I sell garlic powder I make from garlic I grow via my local harvest store, among other things). Than we drove south to Wehr Rd to pick up our milk and talked to Janet and found out she had had a nasty fall walking between the barns on her farm. She slipped on some ice and hit her head and had likely sustained a concussion. We also found out their newest cow had calved (bull calf) on Monday evening. That means more milk production for them. drove back to Eaton and stopped at Kroger's for food we cannot source locally and did our shopping for the week. Got home and made burritos for dinner.
I dunno what we will have for dinner tonight but it will involve some pork chops I cooked up Monday. I'm thinking biscuits made with souring raw milk from last week and sauteed cabbage and onions. What ever I cook it will make the kitchen floor dirty. Some habits one learns from working for years in professional kitchens are hard to break and getting food all over the floor is one of them. It would not be so bad if I had a pantry cook/dishwasher to clean up after me.
Tomorrow one of my most favorite people in the world is coming to visit. My friend Julie from college who is visiting her folks up in Van Wert, OH from California. She will be arriving with her son Patrick and we will have lunch and conversation. Maybe some sledding if it snows enough (doubtful, but you never know)
Things are at their slowest point. The seed ordering is mostly done for the year (there are still some rare and funky tomatoes to order from Seed savers Exchange, one of my favorite seed companies-a seed bank and seed growers network really). The real seed starting has not yet kicked in. We have started onions under lights and Eugene sowed some radish and lettuce seeds in one of the hoophouses a few weeks ago but the real work is still ahead of us.
Today we did house cleaning. Eugene was in the kitchen and decided to pull the stove and fridge away from the wall and clean underneath, next he was attempting to get the floor clean and swept and mopped it twice. It still looks like crap but at least we know it is cleaner. Mopping floors is something I do not like doing though I have had many jobs where mopping was in the job description and I learned over the years how to do a good and efficient job. I guess if I were paid $10 an hour to mop I would do it daily instead of monthly. While he tackled the kitchen I did laundry, cleaned the bathroom and tidied up the living room. Later on Eugene vacuumed the living room (now a daily occurrence) while I hung the laundry up in the spare room upstairs (no, we do not have a dryer and if we did I still would not use one. I have dried clothing about 4 times in the past 13 years using a clothes dryer, they are such an energy waster).
Yesterday was errand day. We go to get our share of raw milk every Tuesday and try to combine that with as many other errands as possible. So we hit the credit union to make a deposit, paid the mortgage, went to the post office to pick up mail and send off an order of garlic powder (I sell garlic powder I make from garlic I grow via my local harvest store, among other things). Than we drove south to Wehr Rd to pick up our milk and talked to Janet and found out she had had a nasty fall walking between the barns on her farm. She slipped on some ice and hit her head and had likely sustained a concussion. We also found out their newest cow had calved (bull calf) on Monday evening. That means more milk production for them. drove back to Eaton and stopped at Kroger's for food we cannot source locally and did our shopping for the week. Got home and made burritos for dinner.
I dunno what we will have for dinner tonight but it will involve some pork chops I cooked up Monday. I'm thinking biscuits made with souring raw milk from last week and sauteed cabbage and onions. What ever I cook it will make the kitchen floor dirty. Some habits one learns from working for years in professional kitchens are hard to break and getting food all over the floor is one of them. It would not be so bad if I had a pantry cook/dishwasher to clean up after me.
Tomorrow one of my most favorite people in the world is coming to visit. My friend Julie from college who is visiting her folks up in Van Wert, OH from California. She will be arriving with her son Patrick and we will have lunch and conversation. Maybe some sledding if it snows enough (doubtful, but you never know)
Friday, January 05, 2007
Say No to Burpee Seeds
I just found out that Monsanto bought out Burpee seeds as of Jan 1 of this year. Monsanto, it seems, is attempting to buy out all the seed companies in the world and that is bad because those who control the seed sources control about everything else.
I hope Monsanto does not do stupid things like drop most of the seed varieties it now owns (which is likely) or turn many of these veggie and fruit seeds into GMO (again this is very very likely).
Until a few minutes ago I was allowing Burpee ads to appear on my AdSense ads. That will no longer happen as I will not knowingly allow any Monsanto owned companies to advertise on this blog because as far as I am concerned Monsanto is an evil multinational corp that has brought no good to the planet as well as having a proven track record of being against organic farming and smal diversified farms
I hope Monsanto does not do stupid things like drop most of the seed varieties it now owns (which is likely) or turn many of these veggie and fruit seeds into GMO (again this is very very likely).
Until a few minutes ago I was allowing Burpee ads to appear on my AdSense ads. That will no longer happen as I will not knowingly allow any Monsanto owned companies to advertise on this blog because as far as I am concerned Monsanto is an evil multinational corp that has brought no good to the planet as well as having a proven track record of being against organic farming and smal diversified farms
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Seed Ordering
Heirloom Red Ruffled peppers, one of the kinds of seeds we saveThe seed order is where a great deal of our money goes. Even though we save a lot of our own seeds we will still spend several hundred dollars on our order. The reason we do not save all of our seeds are numerous. Some are just too difficult to do. I have tried saving broccoli seeds but they always come out sterile for me. Some we do not have a good way to isolate the parents so we do not get a mixing of genetics (this includes melons and squash, though we do save some zucchini seeds that we grow out in early spring). Some varieties we buy are hybrids and while hybrids do make viable seed it will not be pure and therefore we do not know what will come up the following season.
This year I am facing a problem of losing several favorite hybrids such as fat n' sassy peppers and superstar white sweet onions. This is due to Monsanto buying out Semenis Seeds and the aforementioned varieties (along with something like 15 others we used to grow) are now owned by Monsanto, a company I will not knowingly support. So I am dropping these varieties and have to find replacements. the onions will be pretty easy as there are some great open pollinated sweet onions out there such as Siskyou Sweet and Ailsa Craig, though neither is a white sweet onion.
The good thing for me is the fact Fedco Seeds has been a leader in this "do not buy Monsanto seeds" deal and in their 2007 catalogue have clearly marked the questionable seeds (by discontinuing them) and, for many, have found good substitutes. the other catalogue we use, Johnny's Selected Seeds, still carries all the Monsanto/Semenis varieties even though they, like Fedco are anti-GMO. But I assume their reasoning is that despite the current ownership of certain varieties, these are wonderful cultivars and should still be offered to growers who want them. This makes it hard for me not to buy certain varieties such as Fat n Sassy, which, so far I have not found a replacement for. Last year I trialed Ace pepper but did not like the size, shape or taste and it was a poor seller too boot. I have found a variety called Orion which looks like it might be comparable to Fat n' Sassy. there is also a variety called x3r Red Knight that looks good and because it is in both catalogues is not a Monsanto owned seed (Orion might be as it is in Johnny's only).
Yesterday I did an inventory of the seeds we have and with Eugene we wrote down about 3/4 of the seeds we will be ordering from Fedco. Still have to get the Johnny's order started and that is the plan for today-to get to the point of filling out order forms. We have to have the Fedco order in by Jan 4th as we order with a group of folks and that is the deadline for the group. We have no deadline for Johnny's but i have found if we are ordering onion seed the earlier we get the order in the less likely we will have those seeds put on back order (a very bad thing because onions need to be planted as early as possible and we like to get them started inside by mid January. If they go on back order we may not get the seeds until mid April when they are no longer any good to us) or find them sold out.
I mentioned we do save a lot of our own seed. Most of the seeds are either tomatoes, lettuce, beans or peas with a few peppers and leafy greens in the mix too. We also have a lot of butternut squash seed which we can successfully save because we rarely grow any other squash that will cross with butternut (some day I will write an entry on the sex life of winter and summer squash but not today). Oh yeah and some eggplant seed that likely did cross with the other eggplants and will give us some interesting fruits. Actually we have a lot of squash and melon seeds because Eugene loves saving seeds from such fruits despite the fact he refuses to isolate these crops properly for seed saving. So Eugene's seeds are generally a genetic cocktail of really interesting but not sellable results. This past season he planted zucchinis from seed he had saved and I think all 5 varieties of zukes were represented in new and wonderful shapes and colors. but while the squash were really beautiful they were not great eating and not what we expected. And when you garden for a living you really need expected results for most things.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Onions and Leeks
More signs of life awakening;
The leeks and mercury onions have germinated. I hope the rest will follow suit but I did plant a lot of year old seed and onion seed does not last very long so the rest may not do so well. I did hit them all with a feed of weal Maxi-crop (a kelp based fertilizer) and perhaps that will kick the older seed into high gear and get them germinating. It sure is nice to have some stuff growing under lights
The leeks and mercury onions have germinated. I hope the rest will follow suit but I did plant a lot of year old seed and onion seed does not last very long so the rest may not do so well. I did hit them all with a feed of weal Maxi-crop (a kelp based fertilizer) and perhaps that will kick the older seed into high gear and get them germinating. It sure is nice to have some stuff growing under lights
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)