Monday, March 28, 2011

Onions, already?!?

Yesterday was a wonderful day.

We spent the better part of the afternoon outside; both boys, Chris, and I, and did so prepping the garden beds for planting. Planting! Can you believe it? For anyone living inside zone 4 as we do, they will agree that that is a pretty impressive accomplishment. At this time of the year, the ground in most places is still frozen solid.

What is even more remarkable is the fact that we also planted our first crop of the year: onions! We planted them in one of the covered raised beds, and the difference inside was astounding. The air is much warmer within the covering, and is so moist that the inside walls have beads of condensation on them. When we started tilling the earth we got another surprise: it was so warm much warmer than even the air inside that it released steam every time we turned the earth over, and is full of worms! I don't remember there being that many worms in the beds even in the summer, so they must have been drawn to the heat.

In other exciting news, we received our other vegetable seeds too! We ordered them from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a company that works with smaller organic seed farmers, and even tests their seeds against GMO's. Now I am not sure how I feel about the GMO seed and food debate, and I am sure I will cover that in another post in the future. However, I do like the fact that the seeds are grown in a pesticide-free environment and that they are heirloom-variety (assuming we can figure out how to harvest our own seeds in the Fall). As an added bonus I appreciate that the seeds are collected in partnership with smaller community-based farms throughout the U.S. and developing countries, and are therefore helping to support the local farms and their inhabitants. It's just a shame none of them are Canadian! (Though I think I may need to start researching more local seed producers, or start learning how to harvesting the seeds ourselves!)

I also finally took some video, and will share it with everyone below. Unfortunately the "free" software I was using was only a 30-day trial version (though nowhere was that stated when I downloaded it!), so we're on the hunt for some new software that is decent enough yet will not cost us a small fortune. In the meantime you'll have to bear with us as we share our unedited version with you!

6 comments:

  1. I found a local Ontario company that provides organic heirloom seeds.

    http://www.cottagegardener.com/

    I just recieved my first order from them. I love the fact that they are heritage, pesticide free and local.

    Congrats on the onions. I live in Zone 4 as well and have only started seeds indoors.

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  2. Thanks! That's wonderful news; I'll look into them for next year! (And after that, I'm hoping we'll be ready to harvest our own...)

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  3. I love Baker Creek! I got a bunch of seeds from them also. Congrats on being able to get some gardening in. I'm in 6a and it's been freezing here! :)

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  4. Hi, loved the blog, not sure what zone we are in, still 3 feet of snow up here. But great on being able to plant onions at least. Loved the Mother Nature doll idea, I think I'll have to try knitting her. And the Market Bag, great idea.

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  5. Thanks, everyone!

    Deerknitter; both Mother Nature and the produce bag were fun to knit, and were things I wanted to make for our family anyway. I am just glad other's can try them out as well!

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