Freedom Seed Winners
After checking the seedling tray every couple hours for the past few days I’m happy to announce the winners of my Freedom Seeds Contest. Oddly enough cell numbers 1 and 2 won, Lee was right. He guessed that #1 would germinate first due to being watered first.
The winners are: Redclay and Bridgett. Thanks to our very generous reader I was able to pick 2 winners instead of just one. I hope both of you enjoy sowing the seeds of Freedom in your gardens!
Remember, if you want to order seeds from Freedom Seeds to specify on your order form that you heard about it on my blog they’ll give you a 5% discount. Here’s the PDF Freedom Seed List if you would like to order.
Why should you order open pollinated seeds? Here’s a great quote from the book Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age
In the late 1500’s explorers of the New World brought back two types of potatoes to Ireland, and left the plants natural enemies behind. For three centuries, potato growing in the country flourished, even given relatively little genetic variation. But this eventually left them easy prey for various New World molds, viruses, and bacteria that found it’s way across the ocean. Between 1825 and 1849, two-thirds of the nation’s potato crops went bad. Famines during eight of those years took the lives of a million people, and convinced another million to pack their bags for more fertile fields.
Agriculture around the world today is set on the identical course toward disaster. Eager to find a superspecies that can resist pests and microbial enemies, growers around the world are relying on dwindling numbers of carefully designed seed species. These monocultures are genetically “stable,” which means that each seed grows into fruits and vegetables similar in size, color, and taste. Like their predecessors in Ireland, today’s farmers are being blinded by short-term success. Yes, monoculture crops enable them to achieve ever-larger yields of marketable produce or grains at lower costs. But while these crops remain the same, year after year, their enemies are mutating, evolving, catching up, and spreading. Sooner or later, every superspecies meets its superpredator.
Are you concerned about monoculture farming and the dwindling of species variety?
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There’s Still Time for Free Seeds
Many of you have commented on the Freedom Seeds for Free post. There is still time to comment if you’d like and one of my loyal readers generously donated money so I can choose an extra winner (so now we’ll have 2 winners – THANKS generous reader). Since Lucy is still on bed rest I had to come up with a great way to choose a winner, I didn’t want to do the number in a hat thing again. Yesterday it hit me, this is a gardening blog so I should do something that pertains to gardening. Since the contest is for seeds, I decided to let seeds choose the winner. How am I going to do it?
I filled a seed tray with planting mix, added some seeds and whichever cell germinates first is going to be the winner (actually the first 2 cells). I numbered all the cells so they correspond to the number of the commenter. I chose lettuce seeds since they germinate in 3-5 days (originally I was going to use onion seeds, but they take 10-20 days to germinate).
In order to give you all the same odds, I added 3-4 seeds to each cell. I also chilled the soil on the back porch for a couple hours since lettuce likes cooler temps to germinate. I’ll be patiently checking the seed flat every couple hours for the next 3-5 days to make sure I see which seeds germinate first. There are plenty of cells in the seed tray so we still have room for a few more comments. So head on over to Freedom Seeds for Free and make a comment, you have 3-5 days. Once two seeds germinate the contest is officially over. Good luck to you all!
Anyone care to guess which number will be the first to germinate?
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Freedom Seeds for Free
I’m a member of a community called Freedom Gardeners. It is just one of the services provided by the Dervaes family. This is their mission: Path to Freedom strives to inspire individuals to “think globally, act locally” by motivating them to live a simpler and more fulfilling life on the path to eco-stewardship.
Along those lines of helping others learn to live more sustainably, they have started selling Freedom Seeds.
These seeds are carefully chosen open-pollinated varieties and are non-hybrid, non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), non-Monsanto (yeah). You can be certain when you purchase these seeds you are not supporting big agri-business and you’re supporting a family that’s doing their part to help us be more involved in our food.
In order the show my support, I’m ordering some Freedom Seeds and I’m going to be giving away Freedom Seeds to one of my lucky readers. All you have to do is comment on this post, tell me what you would like to grow (if you want, download the seed list and tell me the 3 kinds of seeds you would like). At the end of this week I’ll pick a winner and I’ll order your 3 seed choices with my order.
You can also download the Freedom Seed List and if you mention my blog you’ll receive 5% off your seed order. If you’ve never grown any of your own food before try starting with some lettuce, it’s a quick and easy veggie to grow. I’ll caution you though, you may find yourself hooked and start growing more and more of your own food (which is a great thing!).
What would you like to grow this summer? Do you start your own seeds? (take the poll)
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Heirloom Tomato Seeds from WinterSown
A couple weeks ago I found out about Winter Sown on Annie’s Kitchen Garden. Wintersown will send you free heirloom tomato seeds for nothing more than a self addressed stamped envelope. They have a list on their website and you choose 6 kinds that you would like and some alternates (in case they don’t have the ones you want). I was super excited when I looked through their list because they had Tumbling Tom as one of their options and Principe Borghese as well. I was hoping to find Tumbling Tom tomatoes because I want to try growing them in hanging baskets on my front porch. Principe Borghese are superb drying tomatoes, so I was hoping to find these to dry for winter use.
I sent off my SASE last week and I received my seeds on Monday. When I opened up my envelope I was delighted to not only find my first 6 choices of seeds, but some of my alternate choices as well and some cucumber and parsley seeds.
They also included a brochure with directions on how to save your own seeds and they encourage you to send in your saved seeds so they can give them to others. What a great idea! I have saved tomato seeds for a few years, it’s super easy. This summer I saved a few from some farmer’s market tomatoes. I made sure to ask if they were heirloom plants. I’ll have to save a bunch and send in my extras this fall.
What seeds did I receive?
Cherokee Purple ~ Deep, dark rose-tone beefsteak, known for great flavor, most fruits over a half pound, IND, about 80 DTM
Cold Set ~ Canadian saladette has red fruits up to four ounces, fast and early, DET, about 65 DTM
Tumbling Tom ~ Loads of red cherries on dwarf plants are perfect for pots or hanging containers, DET, about 70 DTM
Costoluto Genovese ~ Italian heirloom has ribbed fruits, about 5 – 7 ounces, IND, 90 DTM
Roller Coaster Cherry Tomato Mix ~ Delicious and colorful blend made from varieties of cherry, pea, currant, wild types and rarities; 10+ seeds per pack, IND, 70 – 85+ DTM
Azoychka ~ Lemon-yellow beefsteaks can weigh about a half-pound, yummy early cropper, IND, 70+ DTM
Principe Borghese ~ great drying tomato, DET, about 75 DTM
White Beauty ~ Creamy white, meaty and delicious, most about a half pound, IND, 85 DTM
Kitchen Herb: Parsley
Marketmore Cucumber
I’m super excited about trying all these different kinds of tomatoes. I really want to grow San Marzano as well, but those may have to wait till next year. I’ll be starting these seeds in a month or two and I’ll probably give all the extra plants to my mom. I’ll keep you posted on how they do.
What are you favorite tomato varities? Have you ever saved seeds from you tomatoes?
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Garden Dreaming
‘Tis the season for seed catalogs. I don’t get too many in the mail because I’ve opted for most of them on-line, but I still get a few.
Nothing quite beats leafing through the glossy pages looking at all the new and improved flowers and veggies. I always have a few things I circle in hopes that they’ll flourish in the gardens here at Chiot’s Run.
I’m going to be focusing on edible plants again this year, so only a few new flowers will be welcomed. I’m going to go all green (you remember my love of green). Hopefully some Bells of Ireland and Envy and Tequila Lime Zinnias.
I’m also going to be adding a bunch more herbs to my gardens, especially lots more thyme (remember it’s my favorite herb). I really like to order herbs from Richter’s, a Canadian company that specializes in herbs. They have pretty much any herb you could want, it’s the one place I have found a few obscure herbs I’d been hunting for. I’m sure I’ll have a pretty good sized order from them; including a few new kinds of thyme, the Caraway Thyme sounds delightful as does Orange Spice.
Since I’m focusing on edible plants this year, those will take up most my seed buying budget. I’m trying to order mostly heirloom plants, particularly the vegetables. Those will mostly likely come from Seed Savers or some other on-line site. I can’t really order those yet though because I haven’t planned out my edible garden spaces. I’m sure that will happen here in the next week or two. I need to go through all of my seeds leftover from last year first.
Is anyone else still planning this summer’s garden, or am I last one? Does anyone have any great sources for heirloom seeds?
