After many weeks of low key worry, the state finally got back to us and confirmed that we’re licensed to sell plants for another year! This time around there are additional compliance agreements (and fees) that are required but I’m very hopeful about this season. Next step is getting accepted to some new markets we’re looking to attend, maybe a festival or two. Now I just need to have the weather play nice so I can be on time for spring shipping and inspections.
Someone gave us a setup for doing puree storage for our almost six month old, so we’re looking to add more veggies to the plots for making our own baby food - I would love some suggestions for some veg with interesting colors for her to experience. I’ve got a carrot medley waiting for the snow to melt, and some awesome purple potatoes, but would love some more ideas!
What’s growing on with you all?
Just potted my new set of chiliplants. Yellow, red, purple and black fruits if all goes according to plan. (It never does. Chilies always get infested with something.)
Hopefully I can save enough fruits to make a few batches of hotsauce to carry me through next winter. ;)
Some snowdrops came out during the last days, other than that I didn’t notice anything. Need to trim the apple tree soon - just ate the last apples from last year :)
There are so many ways and “styles” of pruning fruit trees - how do you like to do yours?
As far is fun veggies go, I grew some “carnival” beets last year that had really fun patterns when you cut them open. They were very tasty roasted!
My seed order from Fedco recently arrived and I’m thinking about planting some radish and/or lettuce inside to get things going. Also eagerly awaiting some high-bush blueberries coming later this spring!
The solid ice we’ve had for the last couple weeks is finally melting, and I biked to work for the first time today since before the holidays, so that was nice! I’m excited to see things start to come up again soon, and to go on another crusade against the garlic mustard once it starts showing its face in my yard
Oooh, we haven’t tried beets but she’s been loving the sweetness of the squashes we’ve given her. Great call!
I think I’m waiting on witch hazel from fedco, I should go check receipts … Which blueberry cultivars did you pick? We have some 'Duke’s and 'Jersey’s but have found a ton of random highbush as we’ve been renovating the woodlot.
I went with a “Bluejay” and “Blueray” to start with, though I’m hoping to add more (and other berries) each year.
The beets were a few different colors, but here’s one of them -
Those. Look. AMAZING
My green onions survived the winter and suddenly my mint started coming back too :)
That’s great! I love early onions, they make those last bits of winter so much better. Is your mint potted, or are you a madlad/y like me?
Spring onions and mint are in the same raised bed. Funny thing is the mint is from one plant I bought from some random Amish stand whereas the spring onions are just from those I cook with. The mint somehow went insane and took over the whole bed. This is the first time mint has actually been invasive for me and I love it.
Sadly not too mad in that regard
I also do mint in the beds! People think I’m crazy but it’s yet to be a problem for us. We use it often though, so there’s always an outlet for it
I love it being a problem! It’s so refreshing. What else are you growing
Not a comprehensive list:
- Apples
- Pears
- Blueberries (high- and lowbush)
- Plums
- Persimmons
- Two types of blackberries
- Five types of raspberry (3 cultivars of R. idaeus, R. occidentalis, and R. oderatus)
- Four types of Mentha mints and three varieties of Pycnanthemum, or mountain mints
- Serviceberry/shadblow/Amelanchier
- Hardy kiwi
- native Passionfruit
- Elderberry (five cultivars now)
- three kinds of Monarda, also called Bergamot (but it has like a dozen “common” names)
- tons of herbs, medicinals, and flowers
- veggies of all sorts
Wow, this is an awesome list! Thanks for typing it out in such detail. You must live more southern to grow such tropical fruits.
We’re sitting around 43.30° N and under roughly a foot of snow right now; we’ve had a warm spell recently that melted some of it =)
The passion fruit we’re growing is Passiflora incarnata and the hardy kiwi is Actinia arguta, in case you also live in a northern climate and are interested in some tropical type food plants.
