Gearing Up For Spring

Quiet time on the farm is over. After the relatively laid back days of December and early January, with only the routine chores of feeding the animals (apart from shopping for a new farm and putting this one on the market, but that's a story for another day), it's time to look ahead towards spring. The first thing on the agenda is the annual seed order, which we traditionally do on the Martin Luther King holiday, since Kris has that day off from work. This year, we will be starting the following plants in the greenhouse: 14 varieties of slicing tomatoes, 7 varieties of plum tomatoes, 9 varieties of cherry tomatoes, 18 varieties of hot peppers, 12 varieties of sweet peppers in assorted sizes, shapes and colors, 9 varieties of eggplant and 8 types of basil. As usual, we will be doing lots of heirloom varieties. In addition to all of the usual suspects from past years, we have added two new ones this year -- Turkish Orange eggplant and Scotch Bonnet peppers -- based on customer requests. Greg will be starting the first seeds in mid-February, and the plants will be ready to sell just in time for the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival the first full weekend in May.