Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Time to Start Seed Obsessing!


It's cold, its snowy, but it's time.  After a solid two months of drooling over Baker's Creek seed catalog, it's time to place an order.  This is my second year ordering from Bakers.  It's owned by a young guy that started his own seed business when he was 17.  Now he's probably in his mid to late twenties and he has two seed stores and his own litttle town, lol.  I like their seeds for a number of reasons.  They are heirloom varieties, he avoids GMO seeds and purchases seed from a small group of proven farmers. He also grows a fair amount of it at his own place, has a huge selection and shipping is cheap!  $3, that's it!  His website has a few planting forums that have a lot of very smart growers on them and it that makes deciding between varieties a lot easier.

This year, when choosing seed, I was drawn once again to the odd, ornamental and unusual.  I tried to do a little better in balancing the stuff that probably doesn't have a prayer of doing well(asian melons), with varieties where my climate should be perfect.  My tomato choices numbered 20 with a heavy emphasis on black varieties.  I'll be regrowing three varieties from last year as well.  Chocolate Stripes, San Marzano and Dr. Carolyn.  


Here's the 2010 list.  They are all heirlooms with the exception of Fat and Sassy Pepper.  A 61 day pepper was just too hard to resist for this zone 5 girl.  I'll probably begin planting some items as soon as my order comes in, but this year I want to avoid starting too much too soon.  My plants were bigger than they needed to be last April and it made for a lot of extra work.

Molten Fire BC 2010 Amarynth
Cream of Saskatchewan BC 2010 Watermelon
Stupice BC 2010 Tomato (early)
Illini Star BC 2010 Tomato
Gajo De Melon BC 2010 Tomato(Cherry)
Vorlon BC 2010 Tomato (PL)
Black from Tula BC 2010 Tomato
Black Cherry BC 2010 Tomato(Cherry)
Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio BC 2010 Tomato
Chocolate Stripes BC 2009 Tomato
Kellogg's Breakfast BC 2010 Tomato
Violet Jasper or Tzi Bi U BC 2010 Tomato
Dr. Carolyn BC 2009 Tomato(Cherry)
San Marzano BI 2009 Tomato(Paste)
Brave General BC 2010 Tomato
Amerikanskiy Sladkiy BC 2010 Tomato
Japanese Black Trifele BC 2010 Tomato
Crnkovic Yugoslavian BC 2010 Tomato
Striped Roman   BC 2010 Tomato(Paste)
Copia BC 2010 Tomato
Big White Pink Stripes BC 2010 Tomato
Big Rainbow BC 2010 Tomato
Five Color Silverbeet BC 2010 Chard
Red Cheese BC 2010 Sweet pepper
Odessa Market BC 2010 Sweet pepper
Corbaci BC 2010 Sweet pepper
Sweet Chocolate BC 2009 Sweet pepper
Red Belgian BC 2009 Sweet pepper
King of the North BC 2009 Sweet pepper
Fat and Sassy Hybrid Totally Tomatoes Sweet pepper
Early Silver Line BC 2010 Asian Melon
Far North BC 2010 American Melon
 Red Wing BC 2010 Lettuce mix
Rocky Top BC 2010 Lettuce mix
 Giant Musselburgh BC 2010 Leek
Violette Longue Hativ BC 2010 Eggplant
Thai Round Purple BC 2010 Eggplant
Applegreen BC 2010 Eggplant
Japanese Long BC 2010 Cucumber
Lemon Cuke BC 2009 Cucumber
Strawberry Popcorn BC 2010 Popcorn
Lunar White Carrot BC 2010 Carrot
Cosmic Purple Carrot BC 2010 Carrot
Chioggia BC 2010 Beet
Cylindra or Formanova BC 2010 Beet
Chinese Red Noodle BC 2010 Bean
Purple Podded Pole BC 2010 Bean

7 comments:

Erin @ The Impatient Gardener said...

Great list .. thank you for sharing. I was just thinking today I better get organized and start ordering some seeds while some are still left. I was also sort of interested in where people were ordering from and Baker Seeds sounds like a nice operation.

Cooter said...

Wow - I bought 67 varieties from Baker Creek, and NONE of them are the same as your rather extensive list! That is pretty cool!

MrBrownThumb said...

Cool list.

I met the Baker Creek people last summer and thought they were really nice and generous folks. They were wearing these funny costumes that I had to take a picture of and post to my blog.

新衣 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jezibels said...

I too purchased all of mine thru Baker Creek, about 60 varieties and not too many of the ones you picked! We should compare notes. I started many in the South window today, bracing for 6-12" inches today, so watch out! Im staying in! check out my blog for my garden plan for this year www.sproutbabysprout.blogspot.com
~Jes

Anonymous said...

That's a lot of tomatoes! Great blog. I made my husband come and look at what you made to plant your purple potatoes in. He's going to try that this year. Since he's a landscaper we already have all the materials :-)

Cindy
Knoxville, Maryland

Stacy said...

Have you ordered yet Erin? Tick tock tick tock. ;)

Wow Cooter, I can't believe we don't have a single duplication! You clearly are not as drawn to the weird looking stuff as I am.

MBT Good to hear! I like buying from nice people.

Jez I started mine tomatoes the day after you did. I'm glad I'm not the only one in the land of never ending snow kicking things off. We can commiserate with each other when the freaky April storms hit and we have to find a place for a few dozen overgrown tomato plants.

Good luck Annonymous! I'm going to do it again with potatoes and I'm going to try a shorter version for asian melons as well.