Well, it's definitely that time of the year again. You know that whole "Santa is making his list and checking it twice sort of thing....yeah, I'm not talking about Christmas (though I am the town of New Pekin's official Santa Clause), instead I'm talking about that time of the year that somehow manages to arrive earlier and earlier every year, that time when I once again find myself staring at seed catalogs and making a list of what I want and what I need and breaking myself up over the compromise between the two.
Most of the seed I'll need for the farm I already have, there are a few gaps, and most certainly breeding and trialing will continue, there are many new cultivars from Hip-Gnosis Seed Development in the pipeline, but most of them are all a few years out from any type of stabilization that will make them a reliable market garden crop, then again those that I have stabilized so far give me hope for what the future holds.
Most of what I'll need for next year I can usually get in trades. I'm pretty much finished with my Tomato collecting and trialing, though there is a new one on the list for next year that is O.P., a large, red, productive beefsteak from Val and Grungy on the Homegrown Goodness messageboard (check the links to their picassa album and new blog in the "what's growin' on around the web" section of this site) called Guido. Those who grew it this past year say it is terrific and one of the market farmers on our site sang highly of it's praises.
Maybe some of you out there have some seeds I might be interested in? Want to do some trading?
In general here are a few things I am looking for:
Large bell peppers of various colors
Greasy Beans, preferably pole types
Soup Beans of all colors and stripes, preferably pole types
Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower and other brassica crops of this type
Grains, particularly wheat and millet, quinoa, amaranth
Flowers of various types.
Things are going well in the greenhouse and I will have some tomatoes coming in next week which is great cause I definitely need to put some cash in my pocket, I'll try to get some pictures of the tomatoes as they ripen.
I'm also selling some alpine strawberry plants locally. These are mixes of white alpine strawberries, as long as you keep them warm and give them a little sunlight they will bloom and produce all winter long, next spring you can bust them up and make 10-15 seperate plants out of them, they are in five gallon nursery containers and have been grown and fertilized "eco-logically". I'll probably make a post about this in a little while, a little self promotion for Bishop's Homegrown couldn't possibly hurt the blog any I wouldn't think!
I'll be posting some new blogs over the next few days and spending my spare time over at our Homegrown Goodness Message board over at http://alanbishop.proboards60.com If you have never been there, come check it out, make some friends, trade some seeds, share some knowledge, help be the solution to the closed minded gardening forums out there, we are really pioneering something great on this little site and I am very proud of it!
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