Since I'm so amped to have planted some peas, I started trying to order other seeds for the garden. I have used Seeds of Change out of Santa Fe for so long. But it was a bummer this year, as it seems maybe they were hit hard by the record cold temps and state of emergency in New Mexico this winter? Not sure, but nearly everything was unavailable. I did order some buckwheat, as I loved planting that around all the summer veggies (squashes in particular). But more on that later. . .
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| Caveman's Club Gourd |
Last year we grew pumpkins and they took up a lot of our plot. And then, actually, someone STOLE our pumpkins from the plot. We never had the heart to tell Eli. I ran out and bought some that looked similar and brought them home "from the garden." But, maybe because they will be new, Eli said he didn't want to grow pumpkins this year, but is interested in gourds. Seeds of Change has bird house and Caveman's club gourds, both of which are really excellent to grow, and when I told Eli that he could GROW a caveman's club, he just about flipped his lid!
But after ordering them, I remembered seeing something in one of my catalogs and pulled it out. The catalog is from John Scheepers' Kitchen Garden Seeds, and it's a GEM of a catalog. Get one! (They also have a website at www.kitchengardenseeds.com. The website is quite beautiful, with botanical drawings of vegetables to start your searching). It has great varieties and choices for veggies, flowers, and. . . just what I was wanting: a large fruited hardshell mixture. It comes with 25 seeds including apple, baby bottle, birdhouse, martin house, cucuzzi (a Native American basket gourd), long handle dipper, maranka (the caveman's club), speckled swan (a personal favorite), and bottle. All for $3.15 for the pack. I don't even know what they all are, but we'll find out!
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| Cucuzzi Gourd -- Can be grown straight if hung, or in curved form on the ground. |
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| Gooseneck Gourd |
Heirloom seeds are those that have been cultivated at small scales, usually over several generations, if not hundreds. They provide variety, diversity, insect resistance, and are so much fun to explore. And they usually come with great stories, too. When I lived in Louisiana, I grew an heirloom tomato just because some grandmother in Kentucky had worked so hard to maintain the seeds. I think this will be a good year to invest in some heirloom seeds and stories. I know Eli will really enjoy that! My hands-down favorite source of heirlooms is Seed Saver's Exchange: www.seedsavers.org. They exist to preserve garden heritage and plant diversity. And their seeds are good quality and interesting, too.
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| Examples of heirlooms at Seed Saver's |
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| Boy with Favas |
Something else I want to plant soon is fava beans. They are a great early season cover crop, a legume, providing good nitrogen to the soil, but they also are large enough that they help break up clay soil (which tends to settle over winter) so it's nice and loamy for summer plantings. Unfortunately, Seeds of Change had a crop failure this year, but I'll find them somewhere? Fava beans also are quite good sauteed in some olive oil with soba noodles or some other pasta. They are popular in northern New Mexico and in Meditteranean and North African foods, too. More on food, soon!
For a nice article on fava beans see Gardens West:
http://www.gardenswest.com/qry/page.taf?id=30&_function=atcldetail&sbtatcl_uid1=2017&_nc=b525ec3373850dda8af890bd5a74f4d6
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