Garden Update

My nemesiseseses (what is the plural of nemesis?)

So this is why the 30 or so pea seeds I put in weeks ago never came up. Little buggers. Take special note of the wee one riding on the shell of a larger one. They'd be cute if I didn't have seeds to sprout. Now the beans and squashes are safely germinating away in egg cartons under the kitchen table and will be transplanted next week if it dries out enough.

This week in the garden has been one of trials and excitement both. In the new raised beds, snails haven't come a knocking yet (touch wood), so I have three lovely zucchini transplants that are flourishing, a row of Walla Walla onions, a row of carrots, a row of parsnips and a row of beets. I'm especially excited about the carrots, which are a delicacy for snails, slugs and earwigs, and they are actually sprouting here! Yay!

On the more somber end of things, I had a disturbing incident with the California Department of Agriculture. I had ordered 6 heirloom tomato seedlings and a ground cherry seedling from Seed Savers Exchange, and was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning the day they were schedualed to arrive. It was a sunny and warm day, but right before a weekend that was forcast to be rainy. Perfect planting weather. On my UPS tracking log, I saw a most unusual entry: "shipment abandoned by shipper and/or reciever". With panic in my heart and lead in my stomach, I called UPS and was told that they had never seen anything like that before. The local branch called me a few minutes later and informed me that the Department of Agriculture Inspector had looked over the shipment and confiscated them. And then destroyed them. Destroyed!!! My tomatoes! As pathetic as it sounds, I actually wanted to cry at that moment. Or hit something. My next phone call was to Seed Savers where they were very kind and informed me that this was because the tomatoes were grown in Wisconsin to organic standards not to the requirement of California. There were apparent concerns by the CDA over Japanese beetles and Colorado beetles (I was assured that Wisconsin is far outside Japanese beetle territory) and rather than risk it, the plants were destroyed. I understand the need to keep invasive species out of California and certainly would not want to be ground zero for a pest invasion. However. It seems that rather than actually inspecting the plants, my tomatoes were discarded on the grounds that they were not grown to California standards. Which makes me mad.

Therefore, this past market day, Mr. Seasonality and I purchased replacement tomato seedlings with a slightly heavy heart. But when I saw the selection, I cheered right up. Call me fickle, but the prospect of raising Black cherries, Marvel Striped, and San Marzano Paste tomatoes had me pretty excited. We also picked up a Yellow Pear Cherry, Green Zebra, Purple Cherokee, and a variety I had never heard of called charmingly Hillbilly. I have 6 more seedlings on the way from a California vendor, so we should be good for tomatoes. I can't wait!

Soon there will be more veggies than we know what to do with, but for now, I'm savoring the dream of tomato salads with fresh mint and basil, steamed green beans with butter, and roasted corn. There is definately something to be said for the anticipation that builds when one is eating seasonally and locally. It, like hunger, is one of the best seasonings one could ask for.