The Christmas season typically provides a chance for folks to reflect on the happenings of the year just past and and to dream of things to come in the new year ahead. As Christmas quickly approaches, the staff at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds hopes that all of you can look back with satisfaction over the past year and can look forward to the new year with hopes and dreams of something even better. As for us here at Bakersville, we are thankful for the good year that we have had. We continued to expand on the farm, having added even more gardens, a new machine shop, and a new media center. While we never know exactly what to expect in any given year, the quest is always on to find and preserve even more rare heirloom seeds. Jere and Emilee Gettle are planning a trip abroad next year to do just that.

The National Heirloom Festival that we planned and sponsored in Santa Rosa, California, gives us cause to both look back with satisfaction at having created a successful event, and to look forward to making the 2^nd National Heirloom Festival even bigger and better in 2012.

Christmas time in the Ozarks means that it is also winter time. For many people, that means it is time to kick back by the fire and take things easy while the weather rages outside. For the staff here at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, it means it is time to kick into high gear for the next several months. Most customers have had the 2012 catalog for 2-3 weeks by now and are already placing their seed orders. The staff has been busy, as apparently there are lots of lucky folks out there who will receive Baker Creek seed assortments or gift certificates for Christmas. Once the holiday season winds down, the seed orders will pour in as you at home begin to take action to bring those garden dreams to fruition.

We don’t entirely give up gardening during the winter time, though. Our green house provides at least a little taste of freshness during the winter months. What a treat it is to still enjoy figs, pink bananas, guava, and papaya growing right here.

Jere, Emilee, and Sasha Gettle, along with the entire Baker Creek staff, wishes all of you happy holidays followed by a new year filled with many blessings and successful gardening.

Sagami Hanjiro cucumber is a traditional Japanese variety used primarily for slicing. The name comes from Sagami, an area in Japan, and “Hanjiro” means two-toned. This cucumber is dark green and lime green.

Little Green eggplant produces neon-green fruits that are sweet, mild, and firm. This is a new introduction grown from seed sent to us from the former Soviet Union.

Aswad eggplant is an incredibly delicious Iraqi variety from our friend Nael Aziz. The satiny, dark purple-black fruits get up to 3 pounds or more.

Cambodian Green Giant eggplant is a large, round, flat variety from the kingdom of Cambodia. We collected this variety in 2004 when we were touring this once war-torn southeast Asian country.

Golden Crispy melon is a commercial variety that was discontinued in the early 1980′s. Small oblong to pear-shaped fruits are incredibly sweet and uniquely aromatic.

Uzbek Sweetness melon is an early melon from Uzbekistan. The golden skin encases pure white, sugary-sweet flesh.

Lemon Drop hot pepper is a seasoning pepper from Peru. It ripens to a clear lemon yellow and has an uncomplicated and slightly citrus-y heat.

Omaha Pumpkin squash is an Oscar Will Seed Company introduction, dating to 1924, but collected much earlier from the Omaha Indians. It matures early with tall, cylindrical, upright pumpkins which make cute Jack O’ Lanterns and good pies.

Tsungshigo Chinese tomato is a small, reddish-chocolate colored grape-shaped tomato with a sweet earthy flavor. Seed came originally from a Chinese commercial vendor.

Purple Pear tomato is a great snacking variety. Pear-shaped fruits are about 2 ounces and colored a deep purple-pink. Seed was originally received from our Ukrainian correspondent.

Abu Rawan tomato is another variety contributed by expatiate Iraqi seed collector Nael Aziz. Having a sweeter taste than most Iraqi tomatoes, this has solid, all-purpose flesh and will take the heat.

Ivory Pear tomato is a new staff favorite. Cute little 1-ounce fruits are ivory-cream in color and shaped like little pears.

 Pilcer Vesy tomato Is a classic, huge, yellow beefsteak type that we received from Russia. The fruits are a lovely lemon yellow and have fantastic flavor.

Dwarf Queeny Mixed hollyhock is compact and ideal for bedding use and containers. Huge, fully-double blooms are all along the stems.

Tall Orange Sun sunflower sports clear yellow-orange, six-inch, fully-double flowers that look like super-sized chrysanthemums perched atop plants that reach 4-5 feet in height.

Be sure to look at our newly updated website www.rareseeds.com. You will find flip versions of our 2012 catalog and sample issue of the Heirloom Gardener magazine for your browsing and reading pleasure, as well as many more photos, slide shows, and videos. We are also excited to offer iPad versions of both our 2012 Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog and the Heirloom Gardener.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and successful gardening in 2012!

Kathy and the entire Baker Creek staff.

Kathy McFarland is a Baker Creek employee and a life-long gardener.

Project Eat

School gardens chock-full of organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers have been sprouting up throughout the nation for years. Children and youth from preschoolers to high school students are getting their hands in the dirt, planting what they eat, learning the nutritional value of fresh, pure foods and learning to enjoy them—from the snap of a just-picked carrot between their teeth to the sweetness of garden-grown strawberries, plump, ripe and flavorful.
School children across the map are also learning to prepare simple meals with their harvest and these nutrition-packed schoolyard-grown foods are making their way into school-provided lunch offerings.

There are several organizations leading the way in this garden-growing, healthful-eating movement—far too many to mention them all—but we were able to check in with a few recently to find out what’s new in this nationally satisfying ever-growing trend and to look at ways that school garden programs can share their knowledge and resources with each other and with schools wanting to start sowing their own seeds.

Edible Schoolyard Project

If you’re a San Francisco Bay Area resident, an avid cook or even mild foodie, you’ve heard of world-renowned chef/author Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, and if you’re involved in a school garden program, you may also know about Waters’ Edible Schoolyard program. Established in 1995, the program began as a small garden and kitchen classroom at The Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, California. It now includes a one-acre garden at the middle school and an expanded kitchen classroom as well as lunch programs at the 16 schools in the Berkeley Unified School District, an affiliate school garden program in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a network of affiliate programs throughout the country.
This past summer, the organization changed its name to the Edible Schoolyard Project and is in the process of expanding its focus to create a means for school garden programs across the nation to share their knowhow and resources with each other and with anyone interested in growing a garden, teaching children about raising their own food, cooking simple, healthful meals, and much more.

Edible Schoolyard Project

“There are so many people doing this work and recreating the wheel,” says Kyle Cornforth, director of the Edible Schoolyard Project. The new push for the Project will be to “get everyone together, working on the same page.”
The organization’s Web site (www.edibleschoolyard.org) is in the process of becoming an educational hub where school garden programs can register (for free), create a profile and share what they are doing. Information for all sorts of specific needs will be available, such as a recommended gardening curriculum for third graders, how to hold a plant sale, simple recipes children can tackle using organic produce, how to manage volunteers as well as the all-important how to get funding.

When a school registers at edibleschoolyard.org, a pin will drop on a map on the Web site, explains Kyle, showing where that school is located in relation to other participating schools. This will make it easy for Web site registrants to find school garden programs in their area to network with.

The Edible Schoolyard Project will bring to their new Web site more ideas on how to get California standards-based education into the garden, and, when applicable, common core standards-based education (for the nation’s schools) into the garden as well as Edible Schoolyard standards-based curriculum, shares Kyle.
“We can bring these standards (curriculum requirements) alive in the garden in an enjoyable way,” she says.
Although the new Edible Schoolyard Project Web site will not be fully up and running until the beginning of 2012, school garden projects and others interested in growing pure foods can go to www.edibleschoolyard.org now to join this network of school garden programs and begin receiving newsletters and informational emails.

Project EAT

Project EAT (Educate, Act, Thrive), a program of the Hayward Unified School District in Northern California’s East Bay, focuses on nutrition education and physical activity promotion through garden-based nutrition education and cooking classes for preschool to 12th grade students.
The program has grown over the years to include over 25 elementary schools in the area as well as high schools cultivating small-scale farms whose produce is donated to local food banks and churches.
One of the program’s biggest strengths, according to Katy Pearce, teacher on special assignment for Project EAT, is its collaborative approach.  Every Wednesday, educators from the participating school gardens meet in groups to exchange ideas and share hands-on support from creating the irrigation system for one school garden to building raised beds for another.
“This networking extends to grant seeking and building funding,” Katy adds. “Gardening groups also use us as a resource.”
Katy has melded history and food to incorporate California standards-based curriculum with learning opportunities in the garden at the school where she teaches. Her garden-based program, “Beans that Made America,” covers food origins and introduces heirloom bean varieties dating back to when American colonies were formed.  She has also introduced seed saving and healthy cooking ideas.
Project EAT educates parents about nutrition and healthy eating as well. The key is to share resources, Katy stresses. A resource she highly recommends is the California School Garden Network (www.csgn.org).
Katy also invites schools from across the nation to contact her with their questions about Project EAT and about starting similar programs. Katy can be reached via email at kpearce@husd.k12.ca.us or by phone at 510-723-3130 (ext. 43220).

Slow Food USA’s School Projects

Slow Food USA has a broad focus. In addition to its support of school garden and school food programs, its work includes increasing biodiversity and creating access to good, clean, and fair food for all people.  For this reason, the organization has “far greater capacity and expertise to build curriculum for integrating the garden into the school day,” stresses Emily Anne Vaughn, an associate manager at Slow Food USA. The nonprofit also offers a wealth of those resources to its members, she adds.

Seed to Table

Emily also shares some sobering information: “The upcoming generation of children is getting a raw deal. They’re the first generation in history to have a lower life expectancy than that of their parents, and that’s largely traced to preventable diseases that stem from poor nutrition. Establishing a healthy connection with food at a young age is a critical component of reversing that abhorrent trend.”

The good news is that after Obama’s “Our Time For Lunch” campaign (Dec. 2010) and his signing of the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act into law, the nation has seen a greater surge in school gardens and school food reform (changing cafeteria options, integrating cooking and nutrition education into the school day, and reducing vending machines), Emily shares.

“We’ve seen explosive growth in the number of school gardens our chapters manage in the past few years,” she adds. “Our chapters and their members lead programs that teach children the values of growing, preparing, and eating fresh, healthy and delicious food. They lead cooking classes, build and support school gardens, and work to improve school lunches. Slow Food programs reach over 33,000 kids each year and support 300 different school gardens.”

Schools looking for ideas and templates for their garden and food programs can find many resources at www.slowfoodusa.org   Two garden initiatives that really stand out are Slow Food Denver’s Seed-to-Table program, which teaches students about growing fresh fruits and vegetables for an understanding of the agricultural cycle and an appreciation of the taste and quality of food raised responsibly and with care, and Slow Food Temecula Valley in California, which provides support and academic resources for agricultural education through the creation of edible, organic gardens at its local schools.

“We believe that every child deserves to grow up knowing where food comes from, how to grow it, cook it and share it, and how to be healthy,” stresses Emily.  Part of this focus includes the introduction of seed saving and growing heirlooms, indigenous foods, and other biodiverse cultivars,” she adds. “We were so thankful this year to receive a generous donation of heirloom seeds from Baker Creek. These seeds were sent to over 80 of our school garden programs, many of which work in multiple gardens.”

Gary Paul Nabhan has been called “the father of the local food movement” by Mother Earth News, yet he’s referred to himself as being more of a “weird uncle.” Perhaps he’s both, and after talking with Gary and visiting his Website, one may also conclude that he’s a “best friend” to endangered seeds and foods, from grains to heritage livestock, although you’d still only have a fraction of the story.
Gary is an internationally celebrated nature writer, seed saver, conservation biologist, sustainable agriculture activist, orchard-keeper, wild forager and Ecumenical Franciscan brother in his hometown of Patagonia, Arizona near the Mexican border. And, he is author or editor of 24 books, many translated into other languages. Also, for his writing and collaborative conservation work, he has been honored with a MacArthur genius award, a Southwest Book Award, the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, The Vavilov Medal, and lifetime achievement awards from the Quivira Coalition and Society for Ethnobiology.
Gary works most of the year as a research scientist at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, and the rest of his time goes to serving as co-founder-facilitator of several food and farming alliances, including Renewing America’s Food Traditional (RAFT) and Flavors Without Borders.

If you’re lucky enough to catch up with Gary, you’ll learn that his current focuses read like his list of accomplishments—there are many and they’re all important in preserving the earth and our pure food sources. There is also a strong emphasis on collaboration in the conservation of heirloom seeds, produce and heritage livestock breeds, bringing together seed savers, growers, farmers, ranchers and chefs who work together to bring these pure, non-GMO, nutrition-rich, flavorful foods to public attention.
“Saving heirloom seeds is one of the many steps in getting those foods back on our tables,” says Gary.
Heritage grains are a current focus of RAFT. White Sonora Wheat, introduced to Arizona in 1690, is at the top of the list and is currently being raised on conservation farms from seeds Gary received from a Southwest farmer and saved for years. And true to RAFT’s collaborative approach, these farmers are communicating with growers of our oldest flours; the crops will be milled at a historic mill; and the resulting heritage wheat flour will be used by chefs in recipes that preserve the original flavors and uses of the grain. Throughout this conservation process, information will be exchanged, stories of this regional food and its food producers will be shared, and publications will be created to document all. Also to be conserved in a similar way is the oldest corn variety in the U.S.
An important belief behind RAFT’s mission is that “the best assurance for continued diversity in our food supply lies in connecting the stories, flavors, fragrances and textures of these foods to larger audiences, so their eating, purchasing, and recreation habits once again support the food’s producers.”

Gary also stresses our collaboration with the land, adapting to climate and land availability. He farms an heirloom orchard with 50 varieties of rare fruits and nuts evaluating them for climate change, global warming and other erratic weather as well as for bugs and disease.
“With climate change, we’re going to see crops diminishing,” he says. “More and more, we will be emphasizing drought tolerance and ‘place-based’ seeds.”
One such focus is on place-based seeds of desert terroirs and the foods that grow in these hot, dry climates. Desert foods actually taste stronger and have more pungent flavors, Gary shares.
Another area of focus is the well-being of the insects and animals that aid in the growing of our food crops. It’s estimated that “pollination services” provided to our crops and rangeland forages by bees and other animals is valued at no less than $15-20 billion a year in the United States—at one time provided to us “for free.” Recent studies show that these valuable services need our help in the form of providing pollinators with food, sheltered nesting areas and pesticide-free habitats.
Gary invites everyone to be a co-designer of our food systems, to plant aesthetically and grow nutritionally potent foods. “We all need to redesign with the climate change, join groups, collaborate; and each of us needs to be plant introducers and promoters.”
Find out more about Gary Paul Nabhan, RAFT, and what is being done to preserve our heritage foods as well as how to farm in collaboration with the land and changing climates at http://garynabhan.com/i/
and http://www.vaviblog.com/about-2/gary/

Susan Audrey is a Northern California writer, editor, photographer and artist. She can be reached at tosusanaudrey@gmail.com

“As an avid gardener, I always enjoy perusing The Baker Creek Seed Company’s catalogue and have had great success growing the excellent rare seeds I order from it. Now Baker Creek’s Jere and Emilee Gettle have written a book that is sure to inspire, educate and inform new gardeners eager to cultivate their understanding of heirloom seeds, the land, and the sustainable good foods we derive from it.”       —Martha Stewart

“These are the people on the cutting edge of food culture.”

—O, The Oprah Magazine

Order your copy today

Plump tomatoes, luscious strawberries, hearty squash — more and more Americans are flocking to green markets for abundant fresh produce, enjoying harvests from their gardens and pots, and eagerly scanning seed catalogues to plan next year’s plantings. The number of households growing food crops increased 20% between 2008 and 2009. By 2010, there were four times as many farmers’ markets in American than in 1994.

Now, the man the New York Times calls “the Indiana Jones of seeds,” Jere Gettle , and his wife, Emilee — key participants in the grow-your-own-food revolution happening in America — have written THE HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally (Hyperion; October 2011; $29.99), a cornucopia of their knowledge and experience and the first comprehensive guide to heirloom gardening. Whether your growing space is five feet or five hundred feet, THE HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER is an invaluable resource of planting, growing, harvesting, and preparation tips on 50 amazing heirloom varieties, plus a primer on the centuries-old practice of seed saving.

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Why heirloom seeds? Because heirlooms are “pure” seeds, passed down through the generations, which haven’t been genetically modified. They taste better and contain more nutrients than genetically modified, mega “hybrid” varieties and — importantly — reproduce properly, which many genetically modified and hybrid plants can not do, forcing farmers to buy new seed every year.

Jere and Emilee Gettle run the nationally renowned Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, helping to save flavorful and nutrient-rich heirloom varieties — some that have been grown for thousands of years — from extinction. Gardeners from around the world send them seeds they feel are endangered, like the Iraqi man concerned that varieties would be lost in the upheaval of war, and the olive-green Malakhitovaya Shkatulka tomato secured from a remote corner of Siberia in Russia . The Gettles sell more than 2 million seed packets a year, promoting pure, healthy food that is free from genetic modification and toxic chemicals.

Raised by homesteaders who lived off the land, almost entirely self-sufficiently in eastern Oregon , Montana and Missouri , Jere became fascinated with seeds, sunshine, and soil. He learned to read from gazing at seed catalogs for hours with his parents. At 13, Jere noticed that nearly 15% of his favorite seeds were disappearing. By age 17, he was in business, creating a handwritten price list of unique heirloom seeds and selling them from his bedroom. Emilee was in the garden when she was two years old, learning a love of growing vegetables from her grandparents and parents. Today, they share a passion for getting America ’s food supply back to its wholesome roots.

In THE HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER, written with Meghan Sutherland, Jere and Emilee provide seed sources, history, and fascinating stories, too, like where the Mortgage Lifter Tomato got its name, how broccoli became popular in America after World War I, and how potatoes originated in Peru thousands of years ago and were introduced to Europe after the Spaniards conquered the country. They also offer:

· An A-Z guide to growing 50 heirloom vegetables, from the superfood grain Amaranth to Watermelon, with growing tips, seed saving, uses in the kitchen, and pest and disease control for each

· Suggestions for varieties that will thrive and surprise, like the Winged Bean, stunning striped Chioggia beets from Italy, the tasty giant Cape Gooseberry ground cherry, Chocolate Habanero peppers, Japanese Giant Red mustard greens, Blue Hubbard squash, Red Bartender radishes, and much more

· Gardening tips for country and city and how to use traditional methods such as mulching, irrigation, nontoxic organic sprays, plus crop-by-crop guidelines for picking and winter storage

· Jere’s early searches for “new” old varieties of tasty heirlooms in Mexico , Thailand , and Guatemala , where he found a favorite tomatillo, the Purple from Cobán

· Preparation and meal-usage ideas, plus nutrition information on the heirloom varieties, and more

Gorgeously illustrated and a captivating and informative guide, THE HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER is Jere and Emilee Gettle’s invitation for you to join them in living a sustainable, delicious, and health heirloom life.

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About the Authors

Jere and Emilee Gettle run the nationally renowned Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, selling more than 2 million seed packets a year, and offering more than 1,300 different varieties of seeds from more than 70 different countries. Their Baker Creek headquarters, located in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri , includes 176 acres and six gardens. They employ over 50 people full time, and oversee two other retail operations—a seed bank in Petaluma, CA, and the oldest continually operating seed catalog company in New England, based in Connecticut —key participants in the grow-your-own-food revolution happening in America. The Heirloom Life Gardener is their first book. For more information, visit their web site, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, or follow Jere on Facebook and Twitter.

Order your copy today

There is no doubt that everyone who attended the National Heirloom Expo is a winner! We so much appreciate all of our sponsors who helped to make this dream come true. And what a dream it was! More than 10,000 people came together to celebrate pure and non-GMO food.

With more than 70 speakers, including internationally acclaimed speakers each evening, audiences had many choices of topics to hear. Many presenters were speaking to standing-room-only crowds.

Children’s Education Day was filled with all kinds of activities for the kids: everything from potato sack races to fun and games and contests and freebies. Schools were invited to enter produce displays into competition. Maryland Certified Professional Horticulturist Elizabeth Olson and Urban Oaks Organic Farm General Manager Michael Kandifer of New Britain, Connecticut, who judged the school displays, were more than pleased with their quality. School winners were Northwest Prep School, taking 3rd place and Salmon Creek School, receiving 2nd place. Two schools representing different age groups each received 1st place ratings: Cesar Chavez Middle School and Tennyson High School. Teachers, parents, and students are to be commended for their good work.

In addition to the school displays, the Hall of Flowers was filled with many more displays to be admired and judged. The following winners indicate the quality of those displays: Best of show prizes were awarded to The Great Pumpkin Patch, Redwood Empire, and Soda Rock Farm. Farm booth winners were Quetzal Farm, Cedars of Marin, and Green String Farm. Tomato honors were awarded to Soda Rock Farm, Wild Boar Farms, and Volkerts Ranch. Winners in the squash category were The Great Pumpkin Patch, Bear Creek Pumpkin Patch, and Levi Zook of Pennsylvania.

In the General Vegetables category, honors went to Early Bird Place, Oak Hill Farm and Indian Valley. Fruit category winners were Redwood Empire California Rare Fruit Growers, Monterey Rare Fruit Growers, and Durst Organic Growers. Educational Farms receiving honors were Bio Tierra Biodiversity Research Gardens, Summerfield-Waldorf School and Farm, and Growing Your Greens. Landscaping winners were Dan Pozzi, Daniel R. Gibbs, and Sonoma Compost. Exceptional category winners were Hector’s Honeybees, Bloomfield Farms, and Marans Chicken Club.

Individual winners were chef Ray Duey, Los Olivo’s Homegrown Garlic, and Early Bird Place. The Diversity of Products winners were Southern Exposure–Seed Exchange, Dean York Gardens, and Tierra Vegetables. Finally, the Worth Mentioning category honored Elizabeth’s Finest, Guy Family Farms, and Tristano’s Tolay Twisted. All winners are congratulated and recognized for their fine work.

No exposition celebrating food would be complete without the traditional judging of jams and jellies–and that includes the National Heirloom Exposition. Judges Emilee Gettle, Kathy McFarland, and Debbie Gettle had a difficult time determining winners of the many jams, jellies, sauces, etc. entered for competition. They finally awarded the Grand Champion rosette to Jessica Walsh of Staley Mound Farm in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, for her Basil Banana Pepper Jelly. Reserve Grand Champion honors went to Catherine Thode of Sebastobol, California, for her Pink Pearl Applesauce.

Many other winners placed in various divisions. In the Dried Produce category, Jessica Walsh of Staley Mound Farm in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, took 1st place for her Sun Dried Tomatoes. In the Pickles category, 1st place was awarded to Anea Botton of Sonoma Valley, California, for her Chow Chow Mustard Pickles. Jessica Walsh of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, took 2nd and 3rd places respectively for her Pickled Hot Peppers and Sweet Pickled Banana Peppers. Jessica Walsh impressed the judges of the Salsas, Etc. category to place 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively for her Zesty Salsa, Candied Jalapenos, and Bruschetta in a Jar. Jessica Walsh also dominated the Jellies category by receiving 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places respectively for her Basil Banana Pepper Jelly, Habanero Gold Jelly, and Mulberry Jelly. The Sauces category winners were 1st place Catherine Thode of Sebastobol, California, for her Pink Pearl Applesauce, 2nd place Anea Botton, of Sonoma Valley, California, for her Nectarine Mustard, and Jessica Walsh of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, for her Pear Butter.

Jams category top honors went to Jessica Walsh of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, for her Strawberry Jalapeno Jam. 2nd place was awarded to Cynthia Perez of Madera, California, for her Peach Habanero Jam. Jessica Walsh received 3rd place for her Hot Habanero Gold Jam. In the Syrups category, Anea Botton of Sonoma Valley, California, received 1st place for her Raspberry Soda Syrup. Jessica Walsh of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, received 2nd place for her Mulberry Syrup, and Ana Botton of Sonoma Valley, California, received 3rd place for her Key Lime Soda Syrup. Baked Goods category top honors went to Cheryl Madrigal of Calistoga, California, for her Zucchini Bread. Organizers of the National Heirloom Expo greatly appreciate all contestants who entered foods for judging.

The premier National Heirloom Exposition was an unqualified success and will lead to another one next year. Please continue to watch the National Heirloom Exposition website for more winners of this year’s expo and for more information about future expo.

All these floral treasures should be planted after summer heat wanes; planting can continue right up until the ground freezes, or through December in the mildest climates.

The method is pretty much the same no matter which spring-flowering variety strikes your fancy. They all favor a rich, well-drained garden soil. Before planting, work up the bed, breaking up any persistent clods of earth and removing large rocks. A thin layer of compost and a sprinkle of bone meal or phosphate rock is all the amendment needed if you start with ordinary garden soil. Work the soil as deeply as possible, because to do their best, bulbs need surprisingly deep planting.

Planting methods vary according to the gardener’s preference. For a few bulbs, a trowel or gardening knife is used to remove soil, to create a deep but not necessarily wide hole to receive the bulb. Once the hole is made, all that remains is to insert the bulb and cover with loose soil. Be sure to plant your bulbs right side up! Most have a flat plate or depression on the bottom or root end, and a point on the top end, where the new leaves will emerge in spring. After a few weeks in cool soil, the bulbs begin to grow the roots that will support next year’s plant, so allow at least 2-3 inches of loose, enriched soil below the bulb when planting, since the roots will mostly grow down, not upward.

For larger plantings, use a dibble instead of a trowel. This is a tool, cone-shaped and open at both ends, that you plunge into loose soil and then pull back out. The shape of the tool allows it to “grab” the soil in its path, which stays inside the dibble when it is pulled up. This leaves a neat hole the right size and depth to receive the new bulb. Place the bulb into the hole, nestle it into the loose soil, and then knock the extracted soil out of the dibble and into the hole.

Remember to plant the bulbs deeply enough. Typically they should be buried from 2 to 4 times their diameter. So a two inch bulb goes 4 to 8 inches deep. And do firm the soil over them when planting is done, and cover the bed or row with mulch to deter weeds and prevent freezing and thawing from “heaving” the bulbs out of the soil, which could otherwise be a problem where soil does not stay frozen all winter.

Gardeners often plant larger-flowered types, like tulips and daffodils, in straight rows along sidewalks or in front of the house. Such formal planting has its place, but tulips lined up like soldiers often look incongruous in today’s informal gardens. A better approach is to distribute the bulbs randomly within a bed, giving a more natural appearance. An easy way to accomplish this is simply to gently toss or dump the bulbs onto the soft, freshly worked soil, and plant the bulbs where they land. Daffodils are especially convincing in a naturalistic planting, and crocus may be planted this way right into an existing lawn, so long as compacted soil is worked up immediately around where the bulb is to grow. Both of these types will multiply annually, and where you plant a bulb this fall, you will have a small clump if you leave them in place for several seasons. Don’t trim their leaves after they bloom; the plant gets its energy from this year’s leaves, and stores it in the root for next year’s flowers.

Tulips and hyacinths, however, often “run down” in a couple of years. Few of us have soil and conditions as ideal as the Dutch fields where these types are usually produced; the bulbs will flower for a year or two, but eventually succumb to the harsh realities of most North American climates.

So give these charming beauties at try–their cheerful color is so uplifting in early spring, before most flowers from seeds are even getting started!

Click here to purchase your bulbs now, like the parrot tulilps featured in this week’s post! More will be added over the next few weeks, so keep checking back!

You cannot miss Rob Keller’s Mobile Bee Observatory! Along with
Connolly Ranch, Napa and the St. Helena Montessori School, Rob will be
available to talk to people at various times during the day at the National Heirloom Exposition. Rob Keller’s artistic practice is inseparable
from his work as a beekeeper and teacher. Through the Napa Valley Bee
Company, he raises awareness about the honeybee and the importance of
strong genetics for local indigenous bees to flourish.

Rob shows off his bees

Keller breeds and cares for bees, managing three large scale apiaries, teaching
sustainable beekeeping, and creating art projects that raise awareness
about the importance of bees.

The mobile bee observatory

The Mobile Bee Observatory is a honeybee ecology classroom on wheels.
With the help of a Creative Work Fund grant, Rob Keller furnished a
28-foot Airstream trailer with a floor-to-ceiling observation hive and
a honey tasting station. Keller has traveled to Napa and Sonoma County
schools, museums, county fairs and other venues sharing his knowledge
of beekeeping and extolling the beauty and importance of the honeybee.

The observation hive

Keller hopes to take the Bee Trailer on John Muir’s historic route
through the Yosemite National Park along which Muir wrote letters,
essays about bees, and books telling of his adventures in nature and
wildlife, especially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.

Havin a look

Rob and the crew will be at the Heirloom Exposition on all three days.
While there he hopes to complete an over-sized mosaic skep which will
have a honeybee flying on either side. Enjoy watching them work!

Bee Mosaic