Once the Christmas Spirit has left and there has been a good heavy snow, I'm ready to see the life of spring again. There is something therapeutic about playing with dirt. In fact, for those that struggle with depression and anxiety working in the dirt/garden is suppose to be good for stress relief, nice physical exercise, and gets you close to nature. No wonder by February I'm ready for a new season. Joel and I have been busy planning this year. There is a surprising amount of calculations one must make to make the most time efficient, cost efficient use of space.
One may speculate we are a bit early, but I guarantee we aren't. It's officially seed starting time!! The excitement of picking out new varieties of vegetables, trial crops, and looking at seed catalogs are my entertainment. I've officially started our hot peppers, cabbage, and celery. Celery will be a trial crop this year as I haven't had much luck in the past with it. I'm thinking soil condition will make a big difference. The hot peppers are a large selection as opposed to previous years with carolina reapers, jalapenos, habeneros, cayennes, and a few other fun ones. We decided to expand the hot peppers for our friend Rob at Rusted Silo BBQ and our CSA member Steve who loves the heat. Rob gave us the variety he likes because he makes a Bourbon barrel aged, fermented hot sauce. You read that right, fermented hot sauce! If you haven't been yet, we suggest you stop by and check out their BBQ joint in Lizton. Its a small location but packs big flavor. The 2nd picture is showing Bakers Creek Seed Company's Atomic Grape Tomato. I'm excited about it because its literally a rainbow in color but is suppose to taste as good as it looks. Before long, my seed room is going to be packed with tomato plants as well.
I wanted to mention that we are starting to fill up spaces of our CSA, we keep a limited number of spaces so we can have enough produce for our two markets each week, so if you are interested please reach out to us! ~Holly
Any CSA spots left?