Lots and Lots of Seeds!

I just placed our big seed order for the season. I think every seed company in the world has found out that we are farmers, so we get all of their catalogs in the mail. We have gigantic stacks of them piling up everywhere. I have three favorites - Johnny's Select Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and High Mowing Organic Seeds.

It's my job to look through them and decide what we'll be growing. So, I spend lots of time reading descriptions of various vegetable varieties, looking at pictures, and comparing types. I choose varieties based on flavor - the best tasting, size, disease resistance, and the number of days to maturity. I also try to pick ones that will thrive in our region. And sometimes I pick ones just because I think they'd be cool to try, like golden beets or red okra.

It's fun, and sometimes I get carried away. I went through four catalogs, circling tomato varieties that I wanted to grow. But when I counted them, there were something like 35 varieties! Obviously, I had to narrow it down. I think I ended up with about 13 varieties.

A few of the new things we're trying this year are (click on the links to see pictures):

Sanguine Ameliore lettuce - a bright green butterhead with red speckles

Orangeglo watermelon - a large melon with bright orange flesh, considered by many to be the best tasting watermelon ever

Lemon Drop tomato - a light yellow cherry that won the Seed Saver's Exchange 2010 taste-test

Purple Viking potatoes - a white-fleshed potato with bright purple skin

And lots more...

We'll be growing around 150 varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers!

My three favorites

Seed order, page two of four

Mickey wondered why on earth I would take pictures of papers when I had such a cute kitty to take pictures of.

Up next will be a few shots from our family photo shoot. Stay tuned!

-Tricia Ann

Leeks

Here are the leeks I planted in the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. I was a little worried about them, since it took so long for them to germinate, but they came up beautifully. I've been really excited about growing leeks since I read about Eliot Coleman's method of growing them. They'll grow in the greenhouse until they're 1/4 to 1/2 an inch in diameter, hopefully sometime in late April. Then they'll be planted outside. So, check back then to see Mr. Coleman's leek transplanting method.

I planted two varieties of leeks - King Richard and Megaton. "King Richard" just sounds like an awesome leek (That's why I ordered it...or one of the reasons, anyway). "Megaton"; however, is not prepossessing at all. Who came up with that name? It sounds like something from Power Rangers. Did they think that someone would see the name "Megaton" in the seed catalog and say, "I HAVE to grow that one!" ?

If all goes well, you CSA members will have leeks in your baskets in July or so.

-Tricia Ann

There are about 37,000 seeds in this 1/4 lb packet.

Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures from Christmas.

-Tricia Ann

Christmas Eve eve at The Brick, Jacob's favorite restaurant.

He ALWAYS gets...

Getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner

Ahhhh! A balmy Georgia Christmas :)

Washin' all that TN mud off

I love this mirror. It's so much fun.

I made creme brulee, and Jacob torched it for me. It took awhile to get the hang of it. There's a definite art to it.

Voila!

The Un-Cookies were especially good this year.

Cousins reading Luke 2 before opening presents

Eggnog clean-up ;)

Back at home, we had a surprise on Christmas morning. We didn't have a Christmas tree, so Daddy drew one, complete with the red stand that we've had ever since I can remember.

Gimli LOVES to open presents, even if they're someone else's and have already been opened.

Since we don't have much room around here to celebrate, we went with our grandparents to Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant in Franklin. The food was awesome! Go there if you get a chance. Here's mom with a huge, delicious pizza.

After lunch, we went to see Tangled at the theater. I really liked it. :)

House Raising T-Shirts

After much ado, trying to find an honest printer, dealing with vector software incompatibility, etc. - here are the house-raising shirts I designed. I had lots of helpful suggestions, and Caleb designed the beaver holding the hammer which adorns the front. Thank y'all!

-Tricia Ann

Our Trip to the North Pole...

...I mean, Illinois.

Last week, we took a road trip to Illinois for a wedding. On the way, we stopped in Indiana to visit our dear friends at Stonewall Farm. We had a great time at their house. We talked about farming, theology, movies, and all kinds of stuff. They fed us plenty of wonderful homegrown food. We were only able to stay for one day, and we were sorry to leave.

On Friday morning, we headed on to Illinois. We took a couple short-cuts, so it took longer than we were expecting.

It snowed a lot, but the roads were pretty clear.

Daddy drove.

Jacob intently played a game, and acted as DJ.

I took some pictures and looked out the window at the scrolling cornfield scenery :)

And guess what...I saw a tree!

Mom read to us and tried to keep her feet from freezing.

Huh.

Yep. It says 5 degrees. And this is at NOON! Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

We arrived at our destination without accident. When we piled out of the truck, our host came out on the front porch and greeted us with, "Welcome to the Himalayas!"

Everyone likes to hear Aunt Trish read.

The wedding was scheduled for 10:00 Saturday morning. We got there really early to help out, but the folks from the church already had most everything under control.

Laura played with Jonas so his mom could do other things.

I didn't take any pictures during the ceremony...I just wanted to watch and enjoy it. Besides there were plenty of photographers.

The bridesmaids and groomsmen ;)

There was an abundance of wonderful brunch food at the reception, and lots of pretty ladies to serve it. Here are Melinda and Grace.

Colton and Raquel

"Clean shirt, new shoes; and I don't know where I'm goin' to..."

Someone was kind enough to remember their brethren visiting from the other side of the Mason-Dixon.

Grace the lovely bridesmaid with Laura her lovely friend.

Sam and the other groomsmen decorated Colton's get-away car. ;)

We departed for home on the Lord's Day after worship. It was a wonderful trip.

-Tricia Ann

Planting Time - Already!

Can you believe it? Last week, we cleaned out the greenhouse. We washed everything off, repaired benches, buttoned up holes, etc. And today I planted the first seeds of the year. In the beds under the benches I planted a whole bunch of leek and onion seeds.

Gimli likes to help me in the greenhouse. :)

Snow!

We got about 4 inches of snow this week. It was so pretty. I recently got a new camera - a Nikon D90, and I LOVE it! I had fun taking pictures in the snow. The pictures I took with my old camera usually needed tweaking...these required none. We did go sledding, but I didn't take my camera with me.

I don't know if y'all have met Hoss yet. He's our Pyrenees puppy. Yep, a great big puppy. Don't let that innocent look fool ya.

Here's our house now. Notice all the doors and windows! The front porch is finished too.

Here's a view out one of the front doors.

~Tricia Ann