Perusing Seed Catalogs

There's a magical moment in mid-December that I have anxiously awaited for the past five or so years (thanks to a recommendation by Martha Stewart). It's not the 12 days of Christmas, it's not holiday parties and it's not the start of football bowl season. Can you guess what it is?

Do you have any ideas yet?Well, you sillies, it's the arrival of my Fedco Seed Catalog! It's black-and-white, printed on newsprint and is the most lovely piece of liberal reading material that I can get my hands on all year long. Slightly sarcastic, highly whimsical, and dedicated to your local neighborhood farmer, it's everything you could ever want in a seed catalog.Who could have foreseen that I would ever demand qualities in a seed catalog?

Fedco went on a mission about three years ago to vet their product line of anything that was genetically modified and products from companies who were known proponents of genetic manipulation (Be gone, Monsanto!). Natural selection to produce desired qualities is one thing. Inserting genes from one species into another to allow for indiscriminate use of chemicals such as Roundup on a crop is something entirely different. Entirely. We are creating a world filled with chemically resistant cultivars so that when it really matters and we need to eradicate a weed, it simply won't be possible without chemicals that turn our children into green-skinned, three-legged sloths. Let me dismount from my soapbox. I love this co-op. Who else would think of selling garden seeds for school fundraisers? What a grand idea and so much better than, say, beef jerky or dried out chocolates.Their brand of sarcasm is right up my alley. Directions for ordering. Complete with a request to be neat! There are actual humans behind this catalog. Real life people.But most important to the catalog is their product offering. They give their customers complete and honest descriptions, oftentimes with a history. Honesty is the best policy for them -- if they don't have a product due to crop failure or if something is tricky to grow -- they let you know this right up front.
They have the classic varieties, weird varieties, heirloom varieties, and new introductions. There was the misbegotten year when I ordered this garden peach tomato. It sounded lovely. Except I overlooked the fact that it was fuzzy. It was the most productive tomato year I've ever had. Fuzzy tomatoes. Geesh.

I. Love. My. Fedco Seed Catalog. Please look them up and request a catalog. You'll feel good about yourself and you'll throw all those other bright-colored, evil-doing seed company catalogs right out the window. I ordered no fewer than 24 seed varieties, a set of onions, a set of shallots, and two types of potatoes. And I sent the order in by mail. Not internet, not fax, and not phone. I feel so homesteady.

If you don't garden, I'm sorry. Really, really sorry. We'll discuss this later.

Peace and Love,

Homestead Girl