I do love seeds…Love affairs with the seed catalogs of winter are commonly mentioned amongst gardeners and farmers and I am no exception! Just ask Ben, I’ve been going to sleep looking at Abundant Life and Territorial catalogs for weeks and working doggedly to prepare smart and creative seed orders. I love this process because it’s all about imagination, dreaming up possibilities, being hopeful and brave and trusting that spring and summer will really come back. This choosing process also gives us an opportunity to establish how we want our urban farm business to grow in the warmer months by deciding what our identity is, what we want to provide to our community and what we want to eat ourselves!
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| Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries |
My favorite seed order as of this moment is the package of
Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherries from Uprising Seeds in Acme, Washington.
It’s an heirloom in the Solanacea family (a cousin to the tomatillo)
that has been grown in the U.S.
since at least 1837 and probably before that, brought here by Polish immigrants
(weird, I know!). The taste of these
little gems is mystifying: slightly tropical, unctuous, savory and sweet and
tart all in one.
I’m getting most of my historical information about this delicious plant from Bill Thorness’ great book Edible Heirlooms, which details the histories of many heirloom food plants that grow well in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a great resource for the kind of urban farming I love, a toolbox for building connections to the food plants that we used to know so well, that have travelled all over the world with us and have grown in our grandparents gardens.
Knowing the stories behind the plants we are growing is something that Flying Bear Farm has at its core. Therefore, new-found plants like the Bitterroot Buttercup Squash cultivated in Ben’s homeland of Western Montana and the Hot Portugal Pepper with a long historical journey from Brazil to Angola to Portugal (one of my ethnic homelands!) are cherished possibilities in our garden plans! Old favorites like the CupaniSweet Pea (the original strain of sweet pea) and Wild Arugula (from seeds saved over multiple years in our family gardens) round out our planting plans.
I’m getting most of my historical information about this delicious plant from Bill Thorness’ great book Edible Heirlooms, which details the histories of many heirloom food plants that grow well in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a great resource for the kind of urban farming I love, a toolbox for building connections to the food plants that we used to know so well, that have travelled all over the world with us and have grown in our grandparents gardens.
Knowing the stories behind the plants we are growing is something that Flying Bear Farm has at its core. Therefore, new-found plants like the Bitterroot Buttercup Squash cultivated in Ben’s homeland of Western Montana and the Hot Portugal Pepper with a long historical journey from Brazil to Angola to Portugal (one of my ethnic homelands!) are cherished possibilities in our garden plans! Old favorites like the CupaniSweet Pea (the original strain of sweet pea) and Wild Arugula (from seeds saved over multiple years in our family gardens) round out our planting plans.
So as the snow falls outside and I am cozied up with coffee
and blankets inside, I am imagining the riotous colors and textures of the
summer garden and waiting like a kid on Christmas for the boxes of seeds to
arrive at our door! And then, come
mid-February, we’ll have to work hard to plant them all out, in the new greenhouse
and the raised beds…totally can’t wait!
With seed love,
-Melissa
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