Tis the season

There's less than 12 hours of daylight and the snow is knee deep, but we're past Christmas, so it's definitely Seed Catalog season!
So far I'm just at the "window shopping" phase. In a couple of days I'll get serious. 
There is nothing better in February than flipping through a good seed catalog... especially if you time it just right and catch the afternoon sun streaming through the living room windows - a person could almost imagine that it was t-shirt weather.  

We live north of the 54th parallel and in a valley - oh but I do love our valley. Look forward to plenty of long, full of pictures, boring to the outside world, blogs about our valley! It can make gardening a challenge though. We expect frost in June. We've had frost in July and August. September, well, we expect it. It just adds a special "we showed you" kind of success when we pick ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, home grown eggplants and melons. Necessity really is the mother of invention after all.

Still, it gives one pause to think, when driving past the old settlers homes that still survive in the area. Those were some tough settlers!


Thankfully, they survived, we're here, and now we have central heating, indoor plumbing and electricity. Oh, and as someone who actually had to go without central heating and plumbing in a similarly built house for a year and half - those are things you don't want to give up in these parts! 

Back to seed catalogs. Every year I swear I'm not "growing the garden" (not making it bigger). Then the seed catalogs have the nerve to come up with something I can't resist. Last year, this was the bait. 
I couldn't pass up the novelty. I couldn't pass up the colour. I couldn't pass up the cuteness. 
Here's the thing. Veseys more than delivered. Not only did those little tomatoes produce, we're still enjoying them now.  In a fit of late season "I'll never turn these all into sauce or something" desperation I threw a huge pile of these little beauties into freezer bags loose. We have been happily enjoying them in soups, stews, and other yummy items (I'll share recipes) all winter.  They're "people over for supper" kind of food.  There were a number of other experiments last year, just like every other year - this one's a keeper.  These little beauties are sold as Veseys Mosaic Mix. 


My job this week is to sift through all the "possibilities" and decide who's worthy of garden space. It's the highlight of my February.