Farming in winter?

January isn’t a month you spend a lot of out in the dirt, obviously, but it does have its own chores and tasks just as the cultivation months do.

Right now, I’m putting together the seed order. I take a lot of seed catalogs and spread them out on a big table in the living room. The first thing I do is I go through them, looking at what’s new and what’s changed. I have to look for all the vegetable varieties I want to keep for next year and find out which are no longer carried by any seed company at all. At the same time, I have some varieties in mind I’d like to grow because I saw them somewhere like Russo’s (they sell good stuff, but not necessarily organic, at their Watertown location) and I think they might appeal to the farm’s members.

I buy most of the farm’s seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. I am spreading out from that to more suppliers, though.

Right now, what I intend to add next year are jack-o-lantern pumpkins, fava beans and soybeans (the kind you can eat fresh after they’ve been steamed). You may have had this kind of soybean at gourmet restaurants or from other farms; they’re called edamame. We’ll have cooking instructions for them up here (and a lot of other things, too) if we decide to grow them this year.

Some vegetables won’t come back next year. The garden peach tomatoes, the pale yellow ones with the soft skin, for instance, weren’t popular enough. They’re a little insipid. We’ve been there and done that.

We've got a limited number of memberships available for 2005 still, and in particular the Thursday pickup day is nearly full, so please don't delay sending in your renewal. Also, now is the time to let friends and neghbors know about us, so that if they want a membersjhip, they aren't disappointed. Go to the website at http://www.heirloomharvestcsa.com/ to get the forms or more information if you need it.

Comments

[Jim Clark]

Thanks for posting this info. Today is about 2 degrees out, it's nice to think about getting back to the farm next year!

[Heather McBride]

The edamame sounds wonderful! It is a family favorite of ours. We are sending in our paperwork today to become members.

[dude]

very nce. I is liking all your informtin. It help lot when you splain it nice