Yarn Along

I’m at the end of these Irish Oats socks, and I’m loving them so much I think I’ll have to make another pair for myself as these are a gift.  I’m really on a roll with socks, and I really have other knitting to do but it’s just that addicting.

I know it’s a funny thing to put a seed catalog into my reading for the week, but just like I love reading cookbooks when the story of the recipes are included, I love reading this seed catalog that tells you the history of that seed.

It’s an heirloom seed catalog that has an extraordinary collection of seeds from around the world.  Tidbits like “we got this pepper from the So-and-so family from this city in Mexico, and they have been growing this heirloom variety since 1832.”  Or, “this squash was used in Maine, with the latest known reference being in a seed catalog published in 1912, and is known to be harvested as soon as it starts to change color and ripens well in storage.”  It talks about the history of which corner of the world these seeds were found, and why these families used these varieties for generation after generation.  It didn’t just give the names of the seeds, it talked about which variety is better canned, which one is better fresh, which one handles frost better than another, and how well they store over winter.  I feel like I learned so much.  I actually read through the whole thing twice.  I had a lot of fun picking out my seeds for next year.

I actually love growing things in my garden that I simply cannot buy.  I like growing things that are hard to find.  The first few years on the farm, I realized that I dreaded gardening mostly because gardening was a system, and I was to work within that system, and everyone around me knew the system, and I didn’t.  The system made me feel stupid.  I hated the system.  I love to experiment.  I like to wonder.  The whole thing is fun when it’s childlike for me.  I’d rather try some daring new gardening technique and fail miserably than never learn anything new.

When I finally realized my issues through some discussions with Knut (when I talk and talk and talk and finally figure out what’s bothering me…he’s a patient man), he encouraged me to start experimenting.  He told me to make gardening mine, not just the family way.  The freedom with that this last year was amazing.  We had our best year of gardening yet.  That’s not to say that we weren’t overrun with weeds by the end, and we did have some major fails in there.  Our kitchen was always brimming with produce, though, and I learned so much.  It was exciting again.

So I’m going even more daring this year, and I’m going to try to correct some things that didn’t go well last year.  Plus I’m starting to realize more how I want the garden to look and how I want things arranged through all of this trial and error.  I’m starting to get a feel for how it should go together.

I’ve been debating back and forth about starting plants early indoors again.  I stopped trying this several years ago because I couldn’t remember to bring the seed trays in from the 3 season porch at night, and I always seem to have some toddler on hand that loves to play in my trays of seedlings and mess it all up.

Every time I mention to Knut that I might want to get some lights for starting seeds, and maybe a cart or shelf of some sort, he said he thinks his mom had something like that in the basement, but he didn’t even know if they worked anymore, or if the lightbulbs were broken or something.  It sounded like a project every time he mentioned it, so I honestly just looked to see how much new ones cost.  But he kept saying I should at least see if I could get them working first.

So he didn’t really describe where they were very well, and I went down to the “old basement” of the house (the unfinished side of the basement) 3 or 4 times trying to find them, then figure out where to plug them in, and finding cords, etc.

So I finally found them. They were fixed to Knut’s wax bench, where he waxes his cross-country skis.  I think in hindsight he was clear about where they were I just didn’t recognize them for what they were.  I was looking for some broken down things that I thought would be hidden under some box or under some bench or in the back of some shelf somewhere.  I had no idea they were these lovely lights on the workbench.  Knut had never turned them on, but I got them plugged in after getting an extension cord going, they turned on immediately…all the bulbs and everything.  They’re in perfect working order, and will hold 4 full trays of seeds easily.  I’m so excited.  I’m starting seeds this year!  And they’re even fixed to some nice shelves, and in the unfinished basement where the toddlers never are.  It could not be any more perfect.  Well, I have to kick all of Knut’s ski wax out.  There’s not much snow this year, and I still have a about 2 months before I plan to start the seeds, so it shouldn’t be too hard.  But it’s good to know that there’s a plan.

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along.