More Seed for Spring

I found my 2010 copy of the Bountiful Gardens catalog today (it was delivered to an old address). This is a great place to find heirloom seeds, many of which can't be found anywhere else, like quinoa. If you can look past the endemic hippy-dippy Green zealotry in the catalog and the website, then I recommend you look to them for things you can't find elsewhere.

Due to budget considerations at the Freehold, my ever-understanding wife and I probably aren't going to be able to buy any more seed for the garden until we get paid again at the end of the month. But if I had the money to spend, here are a few things I would get from Bountiful Gardens as soon as possible:

• I mentioned quinoa above. This grain is frequently touted as the "supergrain of the Andes." A staple of aboriginal Americans for centuries, quinoa is high in protein and can prosper in harsh conditions. Interestingly, I noticed today that BG has the grain labeled with an "H," their in-house designation for a plant that requires warm weather to grow, whereas I had always heard that quinoa requires cool weather. The seed is cooked or made into flour, but first has to be rinsed to remove the soapy coating, which is poisonous and protects the plant from predators. This rinse water supposedly is good for cleaning wounds and makes a good laundry soap.
• BG offers flax. The culinary type, not suitably for clothmaking, which is too bad. Flaxseed is highly nutritious, but I would like to get some for its oil.
• Amaranth. This is the anchor grain for my proposed system. I plan to grow quite a bit of it, if I can. I will someday devote an entire post to the topic of amaranth.
• Hulless barley. For beer and bread, and no threshing required.
• Good King Henry. A perennial green with qualities like spinach.
• Strawberry Spinach. Another green, but this one also grows an edible berry. I have never seen it outside of the internet, but would like to have some in my garden.
• Iron Age wheat. Hard to find, expensive, and hard to process. A vanity purchase on my part, and I should probably leave this off the list.
• BG also offers Atlas cotton. This would be worth growing for future economic reasons.
• And a million more.

Does it show that I really like looking at seed catalogs? Bad times are coming, I really believe that and every seed that I buy today may save my family's lives tomorrow. I only wish I had a little more liquid cash to work with.

In other garden developments, I got my second order from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Tuesday. Due to the aforementioned cash shortage, this box contained only two disassembled dovetail hive bodies and a smoker. The only things I lack to truly get started are a veil, something to feed sugar water with (I am fairly confident I can figure out an inexpensive alternative to what the catalogs offer) and probably some pollen patties, just for insurance. I can get honey supers and the frames for them after the season starts.

And of course I still lack bees. I have been in contact with beekeepers in three different local areas who sell nucleus hives. It looks like they will cost around $80 each, and I will need two to start. I will make final arrangements at the end of the month before I can blow my voluminous county paycheck on luxuries like groceries or the mortgage.

I encourage readers almost everyday to garden. I know it is hard to pass up purchasing something fun like ammo or a cool sight, but this really is something everyone should be doing. It can only help.

Thought for the day:
"We don't let them have ideas, why would we let them have guns?"
-Josef Stalin

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass