The garden begins!

From such humble beginnings will come delicious delights! We have invited chard, arugula, cabbages, kales, and lettuces to awaken from their slumber. They have acquiesced, and there are tiny taproots beginning to crack through the testa.

Marie and I have been busy in the garden; we've been forking, hauling, mulching, forking, hauling and mulching. Kevin has been building us a greenhouse so we can start more of our own bedding plants and passively heat our house, too.

The winter has been unusually accommodating this year, so we are done with almost all of the beds. We're going to put carrot seeds in the ground after the cold spell this weekend.

We're really excited about this year's garden. We're doing several more varieties of tomatoes this year--35 to be exact. We're also adding two new varieties of cucumbers, but we won't be trying Hmong Red cucumbers again, as they were a total flop. We have a new Yard Long (Chinese Noodle) bean--Purple Podded, which should look stunning with the Red Yard Long beans we grew last year. We're hoping for significantly more pole beans this year--yellow, purple, green, and striped.

The greens bunches will be mind boggling. We're adding Pink Lettucey mustard and Green Wave mustard, as well as a new mix of kales from FedCo. On the lettuce front, we've added the Freedom Mix.

The mustards and lettuce are all from Wild Garden Seed. They are one of the producers involved in the lawsuit against Monsanto. We are proud to support many of the producers fighting for our liberty and the future of our food supply.

We are months ahead of where we were this time last year. This year we're armed with our broadfork and a full season's experience. We're also getting an above ground pool to use as a cistern.

God willing and the creek don't rise, 2012 should be a fantastic year here at Purple Maize Farm.