Farm Friday, January 20th, 2023
Seeds are expensive!
I’m home from Honduras and I went right to work on an important January farm project: the seed order!
This week I went through the online seed catalogs of my two primary suppliers, Fedco and Johnny’s. Both are located in Maine, which means they have some experience with seeds adapted to cold climates like we have in Wisconsin. Both suppliers have easy-to-navigate websites that show which varieties are available for immediate purchase.
It is a multi-day process to build a seed order for a diversified 4-acre vegetable garden. First, we have to make a general plan for what we want the 2023 garden to look like. For me, that plan looks a lot like the 2022 plan, with a few minor changes. Then, I have to decide which varieties to buy and how much of each one. We grow about 150 varieties of vegetables, and each one is a unique decision. For example, we grow 20 varieties of tomatoes, each for a specific reason. Once I decide which varieties to grow and how much to grow, then I need to check our supplies of old seed to see if there is enough viable seed from previous years to avoid having to purchase all new seed for that variety. While checking the old seed, I discard any seed that is too old to be viable and sort the remaining seeds into categories.
It seems seed prices go up every year, regardless of inflation, and they go up even more when there is inflation.
Once the order is complete, I need to double-check everything. When I make the big early season order, it qualifies for free shipping and volume discounts, so I want to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. Then I check out and wait for the seeds to come.
We also had plenty of outdoor work to do this week, including feeding the animals and cleaning snow off the solar panels.
I am not tired of photos of snow sliding off a metal roof in a big cake, yet.
Nor am I tired of photos of a little black dog in the snow.
© 2023 Andrew Gaertner. All rights reserved.
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