Welcome back. It's hard to believe, but I just finished participating in Project FeederWatch for the 12th week of the season. This project started on November 10th and runs through April 5th. So there are still nine weeks remaining.
Over the last few weeks I have taken some nice photos, so I thought I would share. Like I have said many times, this is a great project which involves the whole family.
In my next post, I will focus once again on gardening, specifically growing micro tomatoes indoors during the winter. This is becoming more popular, since it is a great way to grow good tasting tomatoes during the winter months.
First of all, Happy New Year to all! I am looking forward to another year of gardening, birding, and blogging.
It's that time once again. If you're a gardener you'll know what I mean. Seed catalogs. Yes, seed catalogs. They are already arriving. Even though it's still early Winter, we can look ahead to Spring by looking through the catalogs arriving daily and plan for the coming growing season.
I look forward to these each year, I have my favorites, and usually receive some different ones each year also. I especially like to see what new vegetable varieties each company has, as they each try to showcase their new gems.
If you are familiar with my blog at all, you will know that I tend to focus on tomatoes, especially heirloom tomatoes. I have been won over by the heirlooms, as I have said many times. In my opinion, they simply taste better and most times look better also.
For the catalogs I have received to date, I will give a brief overview of each and highlight one new vegetable variety from each. The seed companies always pride themselves on their new varieties each season.
The Park Seed Company got its start n 1868, and thus is one of this country's oldest mail order seed companies. I remember my Mom getting their catalogs back in the 1970s and ordering from them. Recently, I have been ordering their heirloom tomato Rainbow Heirloom Blend for at least 3 or 4 years, with the exception of 2018 when I tried an alternate blend from another source. Needless to say, this year I will return to the Rainbow Blend. For me it is one of the best heirloom tomato seed mixtures I have found.
New from Park Seed this year is the Purple Boy Tomato Hybrid:
From the Park Seed website:
New tomato that combines all the flavor of the heirloom Cherokee Purple with an improved disease resistance package. It's deep violet color, intense rich flavor, and stunning violet-purple hues, offers that true homegrown tomato tang!
The J. W. Jung Seed Company was started in 1907. The company also publishes quite a few other seed catalogs including Totally Tomatoes and R H Shumway I have ordered from Jung in the past and view them as a good company with good prices.
New from Jung Seed is the Giant Belgium heirloom tomato:
From the Jung Seed website:
Giant meaty tomatoes with mild, sweet flavor. So sweet that some people use them to make wine. Huge, dark pink fruits average 1-1/2 to 3 pounds, but can weigh up to 5 pounds. A favorite slicer for burgers and BLT's as well as sauces and canning.
This is a fairly new company formed in 2013. Looking at their catalog, I am impressed both in the selection of varieties and how the catalog is organized. For example, in the tomato pages they have an entire page of tomatoes resistant to blight. They have heirloom hybrids, grafted tomato root stock, and much much more. For those of you interested in grafting, see my post from March 3, 2014.
New from Seeds ' Such this year is the BumbleBee Mix tomato:
From the Seeds 'N Such website:
70 days. A spectacular mix of pink with yellow stripes, yellow with red stripes and purple striped with metallic green. Round, 1 1/2-in., cherry-sized, crack- resistant fruits create the freshest, tastiest, most colorful salad ever! Indeterminate.
This a specialized catalog as the name implies. The 2019 catalog is their thirteenth annual seed catalog. I have been ordering from them for several years. They sell not only potatoes and sweet potatoes, but onions and shallots, even leek and onion plants, as well as garlic and winter cover crops. New for 2019, grains including wheat and flint corn.
They have a great selection of fingerling varieties, which are very popular among home gardeners and chefs alike. I have grown several of the fingerling varieties.
New this year is the Island Sunshine potato. From the Maine Potato Lady website (no photo available):
Bred and selected by the Loo Brothers of Prince Edward Island specifically for field resistance to late blight. Also has resistance to common scab. A medium yield of round tubers with rough yellow skin and dark yellow flesh offers excellent culinary quality for boiling and baking. Late maturity and great storage.
Heirloom Tomato Seed Collections
As I stated above, I have my favorite heirloom tomato seed collection that I have found and tested to date from Park Seed. I recently discovered a website that showcases numerous collections that might interest you. Tomatofest offers a collection for everyone, based on tomatoes types, sizes, time to maturity, climate, and more. For example, one collection features heirlooms best for making sauce.
Following is a video which explores many heirloom varieties, perhaps to help you narrow down which ones you may like:
Finally, A bird photo I captured this past weekend during Project FeederWatch.
