It's a Seedy Business!

Hard to believe it is that time of year again but here we are into the new year and the vacation from all things gardening is over. My first task is to take stock of my seed on hand, decide what is good or questionable and what I need more of and what new crops I might trial.

I do collect as much seed as I can from things like beans, peas, squash, tomato, pumpkin and I even have a little lettuce seed collected from last year. Seed collecting is something I am continuing to learn and each year I add a little bit more.

I try to order open pollinated seeds when possible or practical as hybrids do not allow for seed saving as they do not stay true in the next generations.

I look for heirloom varieties as I feel it is important to keep these older varieties active and often, like Brandywine tomatoes, they taste the best! All of the tomato varieties I now grow are types I can collect seed from each year.

I try not to buy treated seed but if there is a vegetable I love and it is only in treated seed I will buy it.

How much seed to buy is still a bit of guess work for me. I am trying to keep better records of how many feet or number of plants were required for last years distribution. For example last year there were 7 shares in the garden and I grew 200ft of carrots. I had lots of carrots even with part of the crop not coming up well. This year there may be 8 shares so I will add another 25ft of row. I know if I was doing this full time I would be more scientific but this is a hobby so I build data bit by bit as time allows.

So once I have decided what I have on hand, what new items I wish to add and I then have to decide where I am going to purchase the seed. I use two suppliers for almost all of the seed I buy. Hope Seeds from New Brunswick and Vesey's Seeds from Prince Edward Island. I like to keep it local but once in a while have ordered some special things from suppliers in Ontario and British Columbia.

Hope Seeds is a very exciting small independent seed house that has interesting heirloom and organic seeds for quite a number of vegetables. They are not cheap but their seeds germinated well for me and it is wonderful to have this source close to home. If you are planting a little backyard garden check them out at http://www.hopeseed.com/index.html

The mainstay of my seed supplies is Vesey's. They are reasonably priced. The quality and performance of their seed is very very consistent. Their customer service is impeccable if there is a problem. They are adding more heirloom, open pollinated varieties. Local and a long time family operation we are fortunate to have them in our area. http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/about

We often take our food so much for granted and forget it starts with seed. Having a consistent source for seeds is a matter of life and death. Like most industries there has been consolidation of seed suppliers over the years and with that the old varieties are often dropped in favour of the hybrids. There has become a serious concern re the diminishing bio diversity available and there are organizations now that focus on keeping the older varieties available. Often these older types are not favorable for large scale farming operations as they do not grow as uniform as the new hybrids so they are dropped from the catalogues. Large scale farming equipment requires the plants to grow and mature uniformly and the old styles do not.

Okay so now I simply go to the web pages and place the orders. Step 1 for 2010 completed!

The Farm!

The Farm consists of approximately 3 acres of wondrously fertile deep red northern Nova Scotia clay. This is the last parcel of an original 50 acre farm purchased by my parents in 1946. I moved back home to the farm in 1999 and started my first vegetable garden. I was hooked. I began reading all I could about vegetable growing. I discovered organic growing and began to wean my garden off of chemicals back in 2002. I was inspired by the writings of Eliot Coleman, Ruth Stout, J.I Rodale, Masanobu Fukuoka and many others.

As I grew more and experimented more I ran into a problem. What do I do with all this stuff? This is not my day job, this is a hobby, but, still, what to do. Could I sell at the road side? Peddle to the cottagers at the beach? Find a weekend farmers market? None of these really fit my situation. Maybe when I retire but not really for today.Then I stumbled on an idea.

I came across information for a form of agriculture called Community Supported Agriculture or as commonly known, CSA. This was very interesting. A group of people contract with a grower to grow food and they agree to pay the grower for a "share" of the crop. The farmer gets paid at the start of the season and once the crops come on, each shareholder gets a weekly share of the crops in season. The farmer applies the work and expertise, the shareholder supports financially and both share the risks and rewards of the growing season.

The experiment began in 2007 when a co-worker was excited to be my guinea pig and was inspirational in getting me going, as I was a little nervous. Could I grow good enough food for someone else's table! Well it seems I could

The experiment continues and now there are 6 shares on the go. I am having a ball and they seem to like what I grow and I am growing things I never dreamed of trying before. Some fail and some are winners.

I am not certified organic but I do not use chemicals on my land. Any outside sourced inputs I use are organic if at all possible. I do use, when pushed, a little bit of organic pesticide but only as a last resort as usually I grow enough to let the bugs have their fair share. Hey, they gotta live to, besides if you kill all the bad bugs you leave nothing for the good bugs to eat! I mulch the gardens heavily with hay/grass I cut with my scythe as this is free fertilizer and great exercise.

I am learning more every year and my only regret is that I did not start sooner in life. To grow nutritious food in a environmentally friendly way is not only a great challenge it is great fun!