COMMENCE THE SAVINGS.
The other day while working in the garden, Jesse made a curious discovery….FRUIT on our potatoes! Little green fruit growing above ground! After doing a bit of research, we learned that this is the seed of the potato plant. Since potatoes are generally planted by using….more potatoes….we sort of just assumed that potatoes just come from potatoes that came from other potatoes, and so on. But no! You can start them from seed! So of course we are completely obsessed with this idea and currently have a cup of bubbling, fermenting seeds on our kitchen counter. Each fruit contains multiple seeds... it also looks like a baby tomato (being in the nightshade family, and all) and is quite similar to the process of saving tomato seeds. We are excited about trying this out. Apparently, EACH seed will be its own, specific variety of potato. Amazing!
Along with the potato experiment, we are soon-to-be collecting and saving seeds from the flowering broccoli and overripe, wrinkly peas in the garden. This method not only saves us the money from buying seeds next year, but it helps us to learn more about the entire process of growing, and starts us the path to having our own varieties of vegetables….passed down year after year after year. We are working our way towards having a different kind of family heirloom to share with the future Frost generations.
- Hannah.
HEIRS.
As a punctuation to my recent musings on Antique Farming, Hannah and I planted some heirloom peanuts yesterday from Pearl River County, Mississippi. I'd received them from two of my seed-saving heroes, John Coykendall and Jeff Ross, the respective master gardener and farmer of the famous farm-to-table–to-bed resort, Blackberry Farm. But what could be more antique than heirloom seeds?––saved generation after generation by people trying to keep a special piece of diversity and culture alive. According to John, this particular peanut can be traced back to 1850, and we feel honored to be keeping it alive another year. Year 162.We have a great love for seed-saving and it will no doubt occupy much of the blog as the season goes on and as we plant and harvest our way through the year. Our shareholders will not only enjoy heirlooms of all shape and flavor––from colorful butter beans to wild tomatoes, popping sorghum to sweet potatoes––but by supporting us can also enjoy supporting this very important act of preservation. Hundreds of heirloom seeds go extinct every year, but Hannah and I, along with our lovely shareholders, can say with confidence that we're doing our part to carry on the tradition, keeping these antiques in use.- Jesse.
FREAKS OF NATURE.
I started planting our flower bed a few days ago. Jesse and I know very little about flowers, but are eager to grow and learn about them. When we were ordering seeds, there were only a few types of flowers I knew I wanted. Other than that, it was mostly an adventure in guessing ....picking what sounded nice or looked pretty. One of these mystery varieties was "calendula." When I opened the packet, I honestly almost screamed and dropped the seeds. Seriously, they are the MOST BIZARRE seeds I have ever seen. I called Jesse over and he peeked into the package and said, "Are they alive?" The seeds look like little tiny octopus tentacles or sea creatures or worms....so strange. This picture truly doesn't do them justice. It was terrifying. But I am obsessed with them. There is so much to learn and discover about plants and vegetables and farming and nature...and I hope to never stop being surprised by it.- Hannah.
FARM TO TABLE.
It was a big day for us today as we started putting the first of our tomato plants in the ground, tempting fate a little with the weather but feeling confident they'll be happier there. Afterwards, we took a minute to look over the rows and enjoy how the garden continues to fill up with potential: hundreds of ounces of seed will soon render thousands of pounds of food. We received most of our seeds in February, started planting them in March and by May we'll be devouring their efforts, amazed that what will come to make numerous dinners for us and shareholders often started out no bigger than the letters of this text. It would be like one blog post turning into wikipedia in 100 days. Of course, these few weeks before the harvesting begins might not be the most exciting time in the kitchen but they're a great time in the dirt, massaging our future meals into fruition, watching seeds perform miracles.- Jesse.
