Seed ordering has begun!

Red Russian Kale prior to weeding!

All of the favorite seed catalogs have arrived and it's time to order seeds.  Just a few weeks til we start the early seedlings, cauliflower and broccoli, followed by our favorites, tomatoes and peppers.  The photo shows last year's kale variety, Red Russian. You'll note this was prior to weeding.  Or more likely between weedings and prior to mulching.  Seems like until we get the mulch around the plants the weeds grow faster than the plants. 
This year we're trying a few new kale varieties.  Winterbor and Redbor - both are much curlier than last years varieties - Red Russian and Blue Curled Vate.  There is also a lovely Winter Red which is tempting so maybe we'll go with a few more choices this year.  I learned from the Territorial catalog that there are two types of kale, the Scotch group which has the curly leaves and the Siberian group like the Red Russian shown in the photo here.  At the end of the 2010 fall season, we had baby kale salads which had both wonderful flavor and crisp taste.  Mid-January now, that means maybe if we have a warm spring and are lucky with the frost events, we could be eating baby kale in four months!  Now off to decide about this years Basil. 

You say tomato, I say TomatoeS!

Memories of 2010 - what will be the favorite varieties for 2011?

We've started the prioritization process for this years garden space and of course, tomatoes are at the top of the list!  We've added some varieties and removed some.  We'll have plenty of the salad types in a range of new colors, flavors and shapes.  Yellow pear was a favorite from last year and we'll have those again, but in the Cyclone tradition of gold and cardinal, we'll also add red pear!  Here's the current list, all 26 types. for those that are new to our garden, we've indicated with "first time" in the list below.   If you are one of our North Grand Farmer's Market customers, let us know what you think of the list.

• 4th of July - nice flavor, prolific
• Big Beef - large, red hybrid, first time offering this year
• Brandywine in red, yellow, and black - heirlooms with great flavor and colors.  Yellow and black (I guess Hawkeye fans should be happy) will be new for us but we really liked the red brandywines from last season.  
• Celebrity - dependable and great for roasted tomato soup
• Cherokee Purple - flavor, flavor, flavor - our favorite heirloom from last year
• Dona - first time offering - medium size, red
• Emerald Evergreen - first time offering - medium size, green
• Golden Egg - first time offering - egg shaped yellow salad tomato
• Golden Rave - favorite yellow roma from 2010 - very prolific
• Green Grape - first time offering, salad tomato
• Green Zebra Stripe - favorite from 2010
• Hartmen's Yellow Gooseberry - first time offering, salad tomato
• Juliet - one of our favorite large grape tomato, great for dehydrating
• Pineapple - beautiful and tasty heirloom with yellow, orange and red stripes
• Razzleberry - favorite pink hybrid from 2010, great producer with mild flavor
• Red Calabash - first time offering, heirloom
• Red Pear - first time offering, should be great "pearing" with the yellow pear, both are heirlooms
• Schellenberg's - first time offering, large orange tomato
• Scotland Yellow - first time offering, yellow salad tomato
• Sweet Baby Girl - favorite red cherry - very sweet
• Sweet Heart - favorite red grape, yummy
• Yellow Pear - always a favorite
• Orange Paruche - first time offering, sweet orange salad tomato