Seed Companies I Like

I used to only buy plants and seeds from Home Depot or a local garden store in Cupertino named Yamigami's.  But Kathleen and I started watching videos put out by Roots and Refuge Farm about a year and a half ago.  And from those videos and some of the other fans of those videos I became a customer of several seed companies.  In no particular order, here are my favorites.

1. Wild Boar Farms in northern California breeds crazy beautiful tomatoes.  

2. If you like cool looking stickers to put on your lap top or bumper in addition to rare vegetable seeds to plant in your garden look no further than Victory Seeds.  They are also the only supplier of tobacco seeds I know about.  I bought some but I haven't planted them yet.  This is one of my favorite companies to do business with.  Very fast delivery.

3. A problem I have in my garden is a lack of pollinators.  I think it is because the landscapers in my neighborhood use a lot of pesticides, but I am not sure.  Helping me solve that problem by offering seeds for dozens of pollinator attracting plants is Park Seed.  They also sell tall seed starting trays.  If you've ever tried to start seeds in a typically sized tray you hae run into the problem of your seedlings getting too tall before you are ready to plant them in the ground.  There "bio-dome" product helps with that.

4. Maybe you've heard of the Open Seed movement.  It is a reaction against Big Ag's efforts to patent seeds and use the law to control access to food.  Fedco Seeds is on the forefront of the movement.  Support them!

5.   The Name says it all:  Totally Tomatoes.

6.  I like Pinetree Garden Seeds, a family owned business out of Maine, and I wish I'd read their article about gardening without breaking the bank before I started gardening.  Also, they sell seeds for a black brandywine tomato that is absolutely gorgeous.

7.  I haven't actually bought anything from MI Gardener but I watch their videos on youtube.  They have helped me so much with my garden I feel like helping them out by putting a link to their seed business on this list.  They taught me how to grow beets, how to prune bell peppers, and lots of other stuff.  I am sure their seeds are high quality, too.

8.  This is a seed company all preppers should love; also anyone who pays attention to the past because they know the future needs the past.  Seed Savers is a seed bank, a business, and a political movement.

9. High Mowing is, really, an organic and non-GMO seed wholesaler but they sell to the public, too.    

10.  Gosh, the seeds from Hudson Valley are good, but the packaging is art.  You're going to love opening your mail and finding these beautiful seed packets inside.  You'll want to frame them and hang them on your walls.

11 & 12 .  It's kind of funny that Fruition and Baker are the last companies on my list because they are the companies I get most of my seeds from.  I love doing business with them.  They always helpful on the phone, quick to deliver, and the seeds I buy from them have high germination rates.  I think these two companies are responsible for 1/2 the food grown in our garden.

Election Worries

I woke up this morning and checked the news. All kinds of people in the media and politics and punditry are panicking about the President not admitting he has been defeated. I think there is nothing to worry about, and I encourage all those who might be worried to consult Article 2 and Amendments 12 & 20 of the US Constitution, and 3 U.S. Code ss 1 -18) You will see that in the selection of the President there is no regard for the votes of the people . Though I think he lost the vote earlier this month and is behaving foolishly, I do think his words since Election night provide a reminder to the American people that we do not elect the President ; the Electors meeting in their Sate capitols elect the President. And Electors are chosen by the State legislatures according to the procedures established by each of the legislatures. (The legislatures of Connecticut, Georgia, Delaware, and South Carolina have all in past years forgone a vote of the people and chosen the Electors themselves.) Now, if President Trump keeps saying he won after the Electors cast their ballots on December 14 we might have a problem. Until then there is nothing to worry about. Its all just a bunch of noise from people who want to sell your eyeballs to advertisers.

Starting Seeds Indoors

The New Ferns

The New Flowers 

Today, Kathleen got tired of seeing all the bare dirt in the garden   so she went to the garden center and bought a bunch of flowers.   Now, where once had been tomatoes, and basil, and
radishes, and   beets there are splashes of color.  And in one place that is shady,   except for three hours a day, she planted ferns.

 I am trying something new.  Usually, I plant seeds directly in the   ground or transplant seedlings purchased from a nursery.  But   today I planted seed indoors.  12 little pots are planted with Beni   Kodima watermelon seeds, 12 little pots are planted with Sierra   Gold cantaloupe seeds, and 12 little pots planted with Solly   Beiler cucumbers. My goal is to have all of these plants in the ground in early February and begin harvesting in late March.  If even 1/2 of the seeds germinate, grow, and produce fruit I will be very happy.  

The melons I am growing for the neighborhood kids but the cucumbers are for me.  Kathleen bought me a T-Fal canner some time ago but I rarely have enough cucumbers at one time to haul it down from it's shelf and put it to work.  It is my hope to have bushels of cucumbers to pickle next summer.  

Anselm has been talking to a Navy Recruiter.  Because of Covid-19 shut downs has not had any luck getting in to the sheet metal or pipe-fitter apprenticeship programs.  His plan had been to become a reservist and train to be a SeaBee.  But since talking to the recruiter the plan might be changing.  They are dangling dive school (for underwater welding) if he goes active instead of reserve.  And yesterday he took the ASVAB and scored very high, so now the recruiter wants him to train to be a nuclear reactor operator.  It is an important job but it doesn't translate in to the civilian career he says he wants.  Well, he's an adult now so he can do what he wants.

St. Matthew's Day

Last night was much fun.  The boys were here.  Kathleen's kids were here.  We did the Christmas wreath service, ate the cioppino (I used rosemary and thyme from thegarden, and bay leaves from a , and then I gave everyone little presents to kick off the fast.  Yes, I gave each person a can of smoked oysters.

Today, my name day, I worked out in the garden.  I transplanted all the basil plants from around the garden to one of the planter boxes that is kind of shady.  We've tried growing onions, carrots, parsnips, poppies, tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers in that box but it just doesn't get enough light.  The only thing that ever does well there are pumpkin vines, and that is because the vines grow into the sunlight. I have read that basil does well in shade.  I am hopeful.

I shot another squirrel in the garden.  I've lost track of how many I've killed since I started shooting them in the spring.  They started eating the garlic bulbs a couple of days ago.  I have never heard of squirrels eating garlic, especially when there are lettuce and cabbage plants nearby.  Very strange.

Today's harvest was small but, hey, it's November so I'm not complaining.

First day of the Nativity Fast

Basil, Kathleen's youngest son, and I went to church this morning but the church was full (Wuhan restrictions) so we didn't stay.  We stopped at Noah's Bagel's o te way home.   had my first bagel in a couple of years.  WOW!  It was good.  It was poppy seed with peanut butter.  Then I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for Grandfather's Cioppino.  They are all sitting on the table waiting for me to get started but I took a few minutes to go out to the garden to cut some rosemary and redwood to make an Advent wreath.  Starting tonight we'll light one candle and do the readings each Sunday and Christmas Eve, then it will be Christmas.

Hunting, Fishing, the Garden, and Getting Ready for Advent

Kathleen, Basil, and I went camping last Saturday morning.  We fished (caught nothing) and hunted (shot nothing) at San Luis Reservoir.  It was the first cold night of the winter, getting down to 33F.  While we were there we went by the San Juaqin National Cemetery and the Korean War Memorial.  I wanted to do that because Basil ha heard people say the U.S. is a colonial power that only takes from the world.  I wanted him about my Uncle Fred who fought in Korea, and to see the graves of some of the 33,686 American's who died to save a tiny insignificant county from the gaping maw of Communism. On the way home Sunday afternoon we stopped as Casa de Fruta and had deli sandwiches for supper. 

Yesterday Kathleen and I team taught her American History class.  We were dealing with the Modernist/Fundamentalist conflict in American Protestantism.  In one hour we dealt with Hegel, Marx, Wellhausen, Allbright, Fosdick, Bryan, Darwin, Franklin, Washington, Coolidge, the Mayflower Compact, James Brookes and the Niagara Bible Conference, the split between Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, the Lyman Brothers, the 5-Fundamentals, and much more besides.  It was a lot of fun.  I hope she lets me team teach with her again.  She said her students really enjoyed it.  They were texting questions to her late into the night.

Last night Kathleen and I drove over to the San Antonio Valley.  We were looking for a wildlife preserve where I could shoot turkey and pigs we never fond it.  It appears that the maps were inaccurate.  What we did see were lots of small cattle ranches, a nut orchard, 2 white tale deer (I don't have a deer tag), and 3 amazingly beautiful tule elk bulls. (I don't have an elk tag).

Today at dawn, after finishing morning prayers I went out to the garden.  I saw no squirrels to shoot.  That's a good thing.  Maybe, I've reduced the population enough that they won't be a horrible pest in the spring and summer. There were no raccoons in the live trap.  (There was a juvenile opossum in the trap yesterday.  I set it free.  They don't hurt the garden.)  While I was out there I counted twenty-one ducks (they were flying too high for me to make out what kind of duck.  My guess is mallard, since we have more of that than anything else.), a ruby throated hummingbird, a seagull (Not sure what kind.  It was flying too high.), a pigeon, two crows, a red tailed hawk, five Canada geese, three goldfinches, a red breasted nuthatch, two mourning doves, and some kind of flycatcher.

Right now we have growing cucumbers, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, onions, garlic, broccoli, kale, radishes, sugar snap peas, acorn squash, bell peppers (IT TAKES THEM FOREVER TO MAtURE!!!!), lots and lots of beets, eggplant, spinach, broccoli, green cabbage, five kinds of basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, oregano, Brussels sprouts, and, of course, the two lemon trees and three grape vines.  (We are thinking of planting two apple trees.)

Well, it' almost 10 o'clock in the morning.  I should, I guess, eat breakfast.  After that. I'll sart getting ready for the start of Advent on Sunday.