I have another friend who is interested in the seed swap. Her name is Tracy, and I'm guessing she would choose to be "Miz Kitty". I'm not sure she can get organized in time for this year's swap, but I'm hoping! She has a friend who might be interested also. Her friend is a pro who could probably share a lot of knowledge with us!
They can do just a bit at a time if they can join up and get a few seeds listed by opening day, right? I'm not going to have mine all up by the start either. There's just too many time constraints this year.
OK thank you guys, I went back to the smaller plastic containers that my spinach comes in and had seed germination like mad in 2 days. Apparently those greenhouse/seed starters they sell just aren't for me.
Hey Guys! Ragtag and I are sneaking a bit of computer time during a family visit. Neither one of us is ready, but excited none the less. She brought me some cool little cucumber type things from a new friend from South Africa that are SO cute! She's saving seeds for the swap. Robin, SO glad to 'see' you! Get on that exercise before that insulation becomes permanent... the weight loss is getting harder for me now, first 16 weeks was a breeze, now I'm fighting for every pound lost.
OK, off to dinner. HI! from both of us, and we'll show up for real at the end of this week hopefully, I know I will at least.
Name: aka GardenQuilts Facebook, NGA and the beloved Winston the pug
Congrats on the weight loss! You can think of your progress as health gained instead of fretting over the gradual weight loss. It gets frustrating when you keep dieting but the scale doesn't change.
Now that my heat and electric are back on, I am making progress with the seeds. I harvested the last of the seed pods before hurricane Sandy hit. They have been drying in bags everywhere. I'll list more as they are separated. I don't want to get people's hopes up only to have chaff. That is what happens with my dahlias. They must be sterile varieties or my season is too short for them to set seeds. I have to work up the courage to separate the tubers this year, they are getting big.
Winston the pug is tired of the seed sorting routine. He thinks that the kitchen counter and table are for FOOD! Bella the cat thinks that the bags and seed stalks are cat toys.
Yes, Kelly and I had a little while during our family visit yesterday to talk seeds. She's very conscientious about her diet, even when eating out, and she's looking really good.
The seeds for these little South African cucumber-like vegetables(?) that Kelly was talking about won't be dry for a while, but I'm going to list them, and there should be lots to offer.They are called Agurkies, and maybe Jonna or Tuink can offer some more info on them. From the word alone, I'm guessing that gherkins are derived from them. They look like small cucumbers, but the only way they seem to eat them is as a sweet sort of preserves. Beautiful as a vine...I saw them climbing on a chain link fence...vivid green, not yellowish like my cucumber vines. (There is a bit of a language barrier as I'm trying to learn things from my new friends, since they speak Afrikans.) If I can find some pictures that I took, I'll attach them in a separate posting.
Can someone tell me where the chat thread is? I've lost track of every thread except this one. Is this the one we should use when the trade opens?
Let's see if I can put these pictures of the Agurkies on here:
1st...the pretty green vine on the fence, but the shutter on my camera got stuck. Maybe you can see the color and size of the leaves.
2nd..a jar of the agurkie "preserves".
3rd...Agurkies drying...for seeds for trade.
4th...Agurkies ready to be prepared/preserved. (If I don't get this step done, these will be dried for seeds also!) Can't really see the little "tails" on them, but they are left on, and they look kind of like little mice...about 2" long when they are picked.
Hey Kelly! Thanks for the support, and congrats on your accomplishment! I actually lost this about 18 months ago and felt great, but leaving a job that had me on my feet and walking all day was my downfall. Now I actually have to exercise The reward is feeling great, and being able to garden a lot more And I'll be signing up for those little cukes...
The 'Agurkies' (in dutch we call them Augurken), are pickling cucumbers or gherkins. Here we use vinegar, sugar and some herbs and spices to pickle them.
It's not a lot of work. Warm up vinegar with sugar (as much or as few you want). Put the Agurkies for about 10 minutes in the boiling mix, but don't let the mix boil again. Put some spices/herbs in glass jars. I use garlic, peppercorns, mustardseed and dill, but you can add other things. Fill the jars with Agurkies and add the mix of vinegar and sugar. Close the jars and leave it for at least 3 months. Unopened the Agurkies will stay edible for many years.
Those cucumbers look a lot like West Indian Gherkins to me. I've got seeds, but haven't grown them because they look so small - unless they're really prolific, you'd only get a few jars.
Everyone all set for the start of this thing? Am I? HA! Ok, I sort of am. I'll be adding things as we go along, that's certain. Everything's far from all packaged up.
Good news on the garden front, though. Yesterday was 17C so Duane and I were out all day and he's just about done with the raised bed work. He built a new bed for peas and got the Asian brassica and onion beds tilled with compost and leaves so I can get an earlier start next year.
I know that I will be looking for some particular flowers: portulacas, salpiglossis, salvias, and unusual non-orange nasturtiums to name a few.
I'm as ready as I ever am... ; which basically means that I'm scrambling...as usual. I'm constantly remembering more plants to check for seeds, though by this point the birds probably have had most of those.
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The reward is feeling great, and being able to garden a lot more 
; which basically means that I'm scrambling...as usual. I'm constantly remembering more plants to check for seeds, though by this point the birds probably have had most of those.
I finally took time today to make photos of the glass gem corn. 
