Ordering Seeds

This is a very exciting time of year.  Quickly, winter is going to leave us and spring is creeping up on us.  There are important things that must happen.  We must make plans.  I have contemplated our crop plan over and over so much that I think I have exhausted the thing. The next step was to choose the varieties of crops.  I will admit I can get over enthusiastic while scanning through the different seed catalogs.  All of a sudden I want to grow every rare variety of every vegetable that there is out there and I must stop myself from choosing to grown an unreasonable number of different crops.




Taking Inventory



Still, even with my restraint, we are a diversified farm and we are committed to growing a variety of foods that people really want to eat.  Being a part of our CSA means a change in the way you eat.  All of a sudden every week you will have in front of you, not a question of what you want to cook, but how you want to cook the food that is available.  This is how you begin to truly eat seasonally.  

All of this begins with a few small boxes of seeds.  We select a variety of different seeds so that we will be able to eat food that we produce all year long.  We purchase storage varieties, that will take us past the short growing season here in Vermont.  We will grow tomatoes for canning and freezing, so that even in the dead of winter you can enjoy the harvest from your farm share.  We will also grow heirloom tomatoes which can be eaten straight off the vine in the middle of August.  All this variety takes planning and preparing and while I did stop myself from purchasing too many packets of purple carrots, Groundworks Farm will grown over 150 different plant varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers in the 2011 season.

Mostly we are growing the basics.  Things that will be available every week of distribution are Lettuce, Beets and Carrots.  But we will throw in the occasional Kohlrabi, Asian Greens and one of my favorite things, Hakerai Turnips.  We hope that this makes eating your vegetables a bit more exciting.  Another perk to being part of a CSA is knowing your farmers.  We are here to grow food for you so if there are vegetables that you wish had been in the share in the past and you would like to see in your box, let us know. 

I have ordered the seeds for the 2011 season and the small boxes are arriving. The fact that these little packets will turn into thousands of pounds of vegetables that will feed hundreds of people never ceases to amaze me.

For more information on our Vegetable Farm Shares click here.  For a registration form to sign up for the 2011 season click here.