Order your seeds now

ClareBroommaker's picture

If planting time is nearing where you are and you need to order seeds, better get right to it.

Last fall I made a plan to order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed as they are in my state and offer the red roselle hibiscus I want to try for "tea." This morning they had a note on their website that due to an "unprecedented increase in order volume" they had to cut off website ordering, restock, and respond to new needs related to coronavirus. The target is to be open again March 23, late afternoon.

I ordered instead from Pinetree Seeds who also had the roselle hibiscus. Pinetree said that they are not able to ship out seeds for 8-10 days.

It seems like gardening is picking up this year in the USA. A good thing, eh?

Sweet Tatorman's picture

I anticipated there would be a heightened interest in gardening. The same thing happened during the 2008-9 financial crisis. With that in mind, a few days ago I started germination testing on a bunch of seed left over from prior years so that I would be positioned to not buy seed this year if I did not really need it thus leaving it for folks that do. I already am planning to expand my sweetpotato slip production as I anticipate that I may be providing slips to more people than previous years. I have already received a request for slips from someone that has not previously received them but that request preceded the CV thing reaching the general public consciousness.

Blueberry's picture

Picked up a few pounds of Zipper peas back in January . Life is good!

ClareBroommaker's picture

Are those called zipper peas because the pods zip right open?

And do you notice these peas attract paper wasps? I've always seen that with black eyed or purple hulled peas. Durn, I need some more garden space. I actually love to shell peas, especially when still green.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

Zipper peas, a.k.a., Zipper Cream peas are a variety of cowpea that was developed by the Ag school of the Florida University system.
They are the easiest to hand shell of the 7 or 8 varieties I've tried but not quite as easy as it sounds in the asking of your question. Ease of shelling is highly dependent on degree of maturity when picked. Best is when the pod is entirely straw colored. If there is much residual green they are much harder. Even among the ones that look just right there will be a few that are aggravating to shell. I don't inherently enjoy the shelling as much as you do. I make it tolerable by locating in a shady spot by the stream with a cooler of beer and go to it. I do have the typical beer to shelled pea weight ratio recorded in my garden record book but too lazy to look at the moment. From memory it is on the order of 15 lbs shelled weight per sixpack. In addition to their relative ease of hand shelling they taste great and are quite productive.

Beer to shelled pea weight ratio seems like vital information to record for posterity/apocalypse/collapse situations. Glad to see you are on that job.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

As you know, having Zipper Creams is a big deal with me. Currently only have 1/2 lb seed on hand. I went out early today to run a few errands since the forecast couple of inches rain combined with the two I got yesterday will have the creek which crosses the driveway up enough for a couple of days to preclude getting out. Stopped by the local Feed&Seed to check on the Zippers and waited 1/2 hour for them to open only to find they didn't have any. Also asked about Ambrosia S corn and also out. Per the Gal at the Feed store it is a case of not yet received vs sold out. Good news/Bad news. Diesel is cheaper than it's been in years but too wet for any tillage for the foreseeable future.