The weather has been wonderful and warm, the trees are budding, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, and adventures await. Construction on the house is moving forward (though the stonework on the chimney is, unfortunately, as slack as ever) and the latches for the interior doors arrived today. We're quite pleased and I will try to remember to share a picture once they are installed. The seed order was finally placed today, too. Promises in a packet is how I think of them. Adventures, too, along with a little drama when I was foiled in some of my efforts by the simple words, "sold out". Growing some of these seeds will be an adventure because they are new to us. New this year: Kellogg's Breakfast Yellow tomatoes, Hopi Dye Sunflowers (madder and weld were sold out, unfortunately), True Lemon Cucumbers, collards, kale, May Queen lettuce, Boston Marrow Squash, tarragon, Sea Buckthorn, Zinnias, and a variety of new types of nasturtiums with names that include Black Velvet, Milkmaid, Empress of India, and Peach Melba. I can hardly wait. I'm also trying very hard to get my hands on Martock Field Beans. These are a variety that date back at least to the 12th century. The idea of actually growing and eating this little piece of history is incredibly exciting to me. I found out about them from a BBC program on Youtube called Tales from the Green Valley (http://youtube/RxtbCufq58U) that I am pretty sure I read about on the Cold Antler Farm blog (http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com). If you don't read this blog and are interested in farming, you should. The author, Jenna, is an inspiration to me in how she works to make her farming dreams reality. Anyway, back to the beans. They are pictured above and you can read about them here: http://www.martockhistory.co.uk/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12:the-martock-bean-&catid=1:martock-general&Itemid=9. Very cool stuff, if you are a history geek like me. I really hope I can get my hands on some.
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