Seed Libraries - A Win In Pennsylavnia For All Of Us

Such good news has to be shared.
I first saw the announcement this morning on The Small Farmers Journal site that I'm not even sure how I got to. I'm so glad I did.

Yesterday one of my favorite organizations,  PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture), along with Grow Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, and The Public Interest Law Center, released a statement with this heading:

Seed Libraries in Pennsylvania Allowed to  Engage in Free Seed Exchange
PA Department of Agriculture Clarifies that Seed Act of 2004
Does Not Apply to Non-commercial Seed Libraries

"In providing this clarification, Pennsylvania sets a precedent to protect and encourage seed libraries throughout the commonwealth."...


"The Act was originally applied to a seed library at the Joseph T. Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, PA, which severely limited its operations as a result."...


"PASA Executive Director Brian Snyder issued the following statement: “We need regulation in the seed industry to protect farmers and other, more casual consumers. But we also need communities working together to make our food systems more accessible to all people. Seeds are a basic element of human life and wellbeing. Without this kind of informal cooperation among neighbors, that wellbeing is very much at risk.”"


This Simpson Library story was a frustrating one, so it is wonderful to see a fairly quick and sensible resolution from the PA Department of Agriculture. Lets call it a win for the "little people", the home gardener and the heritage seed savers of the past 10,000 years of seed saving. Woah!  That's huge!

Last year's lupine seedlings from a neighbor's seeds.

Many states have seed libraries within libraries and other community places. If you want to learn more, you can start at the Seed Library site and see all the ways you can get involved.

I'm also attaching the links below so that you can read the related articles to their fullest and be thankful of the work the mentioned organizations accomplished.

https://www.pasafarming.org/news/seed-libraries-in-pennsylvania-allowed-to-engage-in-free-seed-exchange

https://smallfarmersjournal.com/seed-libraries-in-pennsylvania-allowed-to-engage-in-free-seed-exchange/

http://seedlibraries.net/

P.S. Plant your peas tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day. No "two feet of snow" excuse this year for us.

Welcome Spring

Last Saturday - the Ides of March - my father would have been 101 years old. 

To celebrate his life, I scratched a few furrows in the little raised bed that was still partially frozen, and planted peas. Since then I've gotten a few more flats seeded and now its officially time for gardens to get going.

Red Currant Tomato

Pansy

 My window sills have a few seedlings started in January and February, but now its time for the big push. 

Lupine

The humorous part though, is I don't have a big enough garden for all that I'm starting. As a matter of fact, the yard is a mess from the garage construction, and still has a massive pile of snow from the plow.  

But hope springs eternal - at least for the gardener!

Gardening With Your Garbage and Recycling

Part of this post is old hat. I have been reusing containers for seed starting for years.

Tube holders from a medical lab.

For an Earth Day project 24 years ago, I had my daughter's first grade classmates all bring in a small container to start marigold seeds. In our unscientific study using milk containers, plastic cups, tin cans and detergent caps, the ones started in the detergent caps tended to be deformed. Hmmm?

We crushed egg shells and stirred up coffee grounds to add to the bottom of the pots just to start talking about compost and feeding the earth. It was pretty basic, messy and fun, and yielded at least one flower for each student. Before school let out for the summer, a lovely garden was planted at the school entrance.

So look what has started in my Cracker Barrel "green house". Lupines from the farm garden. I think they are the purple ones, but we will have to wait and see. Usually I have such a hard time starting lupines, but these are at 50% germination so far, and in 10 days. Pretty pleased if I do say so. As soon as the first seedling popped, I moved the container from the warm spot, to the cool window sill, to try and keep them from bolting. Lupines are a childhood memory for me, so I love to see them in the garden.

This time of year I start to horde all the used plastic silverware that shows up at parties and wherever, and clean it to use as plant markers. The Popsicle sticks are okay for starters, but they rot and disintegrate by the time some of the early starts get into the garden.

I do find them handy to help me keep track of the seeds I collect, and have the labeled, flat little stick ready to go with the seeds.

Wisteria Seed 

How many times have I wrapped seeds in a napkin or old envelope, leaving myself a part of the flower or plant as a hint, only to open it up and puzzle over where it came from and what it is. By then the "hint" is a brown, dry crumble. So labeling fast is smart, but I'm still learning that lesson!

So here is something new that I learned and tried, just a week or so ago. Growing Romaine lettuce from the stem or the heart. The article says to leave a couple inches and perhaps a leaf or two. I had already used this lettuce, and this stem was plucked out of my compost after the reading of the article. I figured, "What the heck!" and threw it in my bowl with some water. And just to be clear, this lovely bowl was found in the town's recycling shed.

One week later, and fresh water every day or two, there are four new shoots. I can't wait to see how this goes. The suggestion is that I can put this in the garden when the temperatures are appropriate. That's such a long way off, but I may try a container from my recycled collection.

Pepper seeds from last night's dinner.

I grew up growing carrot tops in water, and bean seeds in cotton balls in egg shells. At my school in Sheffield, England, the class was called "Nature". What a nice way to learn science.

Below is the article that I saw, and if you search "things that grow from garbage" you can have a lot of fun till spring really arrives. Meanwhile my seed order went in last night, so there is more fun to come.

Garden with Garbage: 10 Foods You Can Grow from Scraps

http://earth911.com/home-garden/grow-food-from-scraps/

Really - Alright

Phew! We're back online!
I have all sorts of blogs in my head and photos taken, but then I couldn't open Blogger. I think it started a month ago with a fix for one problem, that caused another issue, and next thing you know, I'm getting messages from my computer that I have to go online to decipher. Well, I'm back - at least for now.

I always like to start January with some seed starting, and so I had to go and hunt for my supplies in the yet to be organized basement. I started a few seeds with dreams of the coming spring and my newest garden.

This is a memento of  my herd. Weird maybe, but so be it. 

I thought it a neat image in the snow.

When the polar vortex come through, even the dog wanted to stay in and quilt. We have a few projects underway and I'll have to download those photos from another camera to show you.

So lets hope I can get on a roll and catch up with you.

Happy New Year - a bit late!

Gray Spring Day

Even with a gray sky and brown grass, the farm looks beautiful to me. With the occasional steady rain the past couple of days, I found the inclination to get some more seeds going.

These are some of the pepper, eggplant and tomatoes that I got started above the wood stove heat about a month ago. Now they are under the under-cupboard kitchen counter lights. There are a few more seedlings upstairs in the cooler bedroom, along with artichokes. Those are probably more trouble then they are worth, but I want to give it another try and get them in the hoop house sooner this time.

I finally got my Burpee order in, although I took a chance and got two orders of raspberries that will ship later. My mom has been bugging me to get some other varieties so I did - Fallgold and Heritage. This time I had better choose their placement more wisely. The last raspberries were encroached on by gardens, fences, and then passing goats.

I wanted to try a couple different peppers and tomatoes. I had some almost seedless yellow tomatoes last year that were very tasty and great for slicing, so I am trying the new seedless hybrid. I also wanted to get the little currant sized HoneyBunch tomatoes last year and they ran out of seeds. The supply lasted for me this year, so lets see if they are as good as they say. I hope this isn't a late start. I had half this order together a month ago, but I knew we would be away when I was warming the seed trays, so I started some store bought and leftover seeds that I liked on those days I needed some dirt on my hands.

I tries those little "inflatable" pots that you add water too, but apart from being fun to watch for the first five minutes, I'm not too impressed. The germination has not seemed particularly good either.

At least the chives are coming in strong and fast. I'd better start using them in some crepes or soup. It'll be nice to be able to step out the kitchen door and snip some bits of fresh green for dinner.