Winter Returns

After a week of above-normal temperatures, Mother Nature reminds us Northeasterners that winter is still in the building. Seemed like the perfect day to sit down with a cup of coffee and my laptop to browse the internet for vegetable and herb seeds. My family has joined a CSA in nearby Plympton that will provide us with sixteen weeks of local organic produce from June to October, but one can never have too many home-grown tomatoes, cukes, and herbs, right? As has been the case with the majority of organic products I have searched for on the web, I was overwhelmed by the number of sites dedicated to organic seeds. One of the best sites I came across is Seeds of Change (http://www.seedsofchange.com/), which offers an incredibly diverse selection of organic vegetable, flower, and herb seeds as well as organic seedlings and a wealth of information and advice. I was especially excited to find such items as the heirloom Choggia beet (also known as a "candy stripe" beet) and heirloom yellow pear cherry tomatoes, as well as yellow beets, corn, peas, watermelons, and pumpkins. As I look out my living room window at my current 6' x 6' garden, however, I am suddenly wondering just where I think I'm going to plant all of these wonderful seeds. Either I need to be a bit more realistic and start off slowly, or plan on turning over a lot of additional earth this spring. You know, I have been thinking about expanding the vegetable garden a bit this year...

Even though I am really trying to eat as much organic produce as I can this year, is it really necessary to buy organic seeds? Is there a significant difference between untreated, non-genetically-modified seeds and certified organic seeds? And would the seeds collected from organically raised plants which were grown from non-organic seeds be organic? So far, I haven't really deciphered the difference between the two. What I have finally decided is that if there are reasonably priced organic seeds as well as conventional seeds, I would probably opt for the organic ones. One company that sells both untreated, unmodified seeds and organic seeds is Park Seed (http://www.parkseed.com/). All of their seeds are guaranteed to be untreated and non-genetically-modified, and they also offer a growing variety of organic seeds, all at prices which are generally lower than most of the other websites I visited. Although they don't carry a few particular items I am looking for (such as the Choggia beets and the yellow pear cherry tomatoes), they did have several types of heirloom tomatoes, such as the Tomato Heirloom Rainbow blend which includes seeds for seven separate heirloom tomatoes (including my favorite heirloom, Brandywine) in one packet for $1.95! They also have an organic herb seed collection and seeds for an organic heirloom cantaloupe called "Melon Hale's Best Jumbo". If you're not looking for specific varieties, Park Seed seems like a good place to start when planning an organic vegetable garden.

Time to shovel the driveway (again). Only three more months until spring...

Kate

The Ordinary Organic