My Trip to Comstock, Ferre & Co. + Free Seeds
The first place we visited on our trip through New England was Comstock, Ferre & Co. They are the oldest continuously operated seed company in the United States, they started back in 1820. Comstock, Ferre was recently purchased by Baker Creek, one of my favorite sources for heirloom seeds. They had just reopened before we visited (in early October) so I was happy to be able to stop by.
The store was beautifully decorated for the season both inside and out; Indian corn, pumpkins, gourds and all other sorts of things. There was quite a wonderful display out front of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.
The inside was filled with Baker Creek Heirloom seeds along with a lot of beautiful antique things from the original store. There were large wooden cabinets with seed packs glued to the fronts of them and big wooden filing cabinets labeled with seeds varieties. There was also a sort of museum in one room featuring old seed saving, sorting and packaging equipment. I was told they are hoping to use this equipment when they start selling Comstock, Ferre Seeds again.
While I was visiting, Jere Gettle, the owner of Baker Creek, happened to be there as well (what are the chances?). We chatted for a while and he told me all about their plans for the future for Comstock, Ferre & Co. They’re hoping to turn the grounds into a show garden and the store will focus on heirloom varieties from New England. They plan on using the grounds for community and educational events.
In a world dominated by GMO’s and genetic contamination, I’m a big proponent of growing heirlooms. I’m very thankful for the things Baker Creek does to help preserve heirloom plants. We would be in quite a quandary without companies like them preserving these wonderful fruits, vegetables and plants for us to grow in our gardens. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m especially fond of Baker Creek seeds, I have found them to have a wonderful selection of quality heirloom varieties.
Jere very generously offered to give me as many seeds as I wanted to give away here at Chiot’s Run. I picked a variety of lettuce and tomato seeds, since these do well in almost any garden and are a fabulous place to start for any new gardeners. I have 10 prizes to give away, each winner will receive a pack of tomato and a pack of lettuce seeds (all heirlooms of course). All you have to do is comment below for a chance to win some heirloom seeds for your garden.
Are heirloom varieties an important part of your garden? What’s your favorite heirloom vegetable to grow?
WE HAVE WINNERS for the free seeds:
Annie
Dave
Grant
Ashley W
Veronica V.
Michelle M.
Canned Quilter
Seren Dipity
Lee
Amanda Daja
If you didn’t get my e-mail use the contact me button on the sidebar to send me your address so I can mail out your seeds!
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The First Frost
Funny that I blogged about not getting frost yet yesterday (written Sunday evening) and we woke up to a temperature of around 30 or possibly lower. Generally our first frost date is October 15, but we can have frost anywhere from the end of Sept through the end of October. Last year our first frost was in September.
There was a fairly heavy frost yesterday morning. I always like the first frost, I especially love it when it comes on a sunny morning, everything sparkles in the sun and the air always seems clearer. I love the way the frost outlines everything in crystals, it’s really quite amazing. I’m always inspired to get out and take some photos when I see the first frost gracing the gardens.
We often get frost later than others around us because our gardens are surrounded by tall trees and we live on top of a hill. It has to be a fairly heavy frost for us to see any in our gardens. It’s nice to have the protection from the frost, but I’d rather have more sun in my gardens.
When do you usually get your first frost?
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Protecting the Winter Garden
If you remember, last year Mr Chiots and I installed hoops over my raised bed specifically for protecting crops from our cold NE Ohio weather. Since the night time lows are starting to dip into the 30’s and the days are barely getting into the 50’s, I figured it was time to cover the beds with greenhouse plastic.
Although we have yet to have our first frost (woke up this morning to our first frost and a temp of 30) here at Chiot’s Run (which is pretty late for us), Mr Chiots and I spent some time on Thursday afternoon covering up the beds that are filled with spinach, celery, arugula, leeks and other winter veggies. The small greens inside were doing well, they were all seeded in early October.
I also covered the carrots and cabbages that are planted in my mom’s garden with a floating row cover. I also have my cold frame to move over on the of the beds, I have some fairly mature spinach, daikon radishes and winter greens in that bed. It will be interesting to monitor their growth under the plastic and the other coverings to see which works best. Here’s hoping for delicious veggies long after frost!
What do you use to protect your crops?
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Quote of the Day: Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Right now those colors are particularly fabulous!
What’s your favorite color in nature?
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How Do You Choose?
I must admit I get really annoyed this time of year by political ads in the mailbox, signs on every corner, and commercials on TV (so glad I don’t have cable any more so I don’t have to hear them). Every day I open a mailbox full of fliers, and most of them are negative. I wish there were something like CatalogChoice.org for political mailings.
I wonder if these ads actually do anything, are people swayed by them? I know I’m more put off than anything, especially if the flier is negative. One local senator has been sending a flier almost every week for the past 6 months telling us how great he is and how much good he’s doing. In the small print on the back of each flier is says “This mailing was prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense”. You can believe he’s not getting my vote for wasting all my tax money telling me how great he is.
The older I get and the more I read about campaign funding and revolving door politics, the less political party affiliation affects my voting choices. I agree with different ideologies from many parties and find myself not really falling into any one. I focus on areas that are important to me, mostly agriculture and food. When I try to figure out who I’m going to vote for, I spend some time online looking up who’s funding each politician and their previous jobs and spouses jobs. I find a lot of great information on OpenSecrets.com as well as a few other places. Generally I vote for whoever gets the least amount of corporate funding. If all candidates get lots of corporate funding, I usually vote for those that aren’t getting money from companies like Cargill, Monsanto, Syngenta, GE and big pharma companies.
How do you choose who you’re going to vote for? Do ads and fliers sway you to one candidate or another?
