SEED ORDERING 2017 // the local food report

This week on the Local Food Report, my friend Jayde Dilks shared her 2017 seed order. 

Jayde is an excellent example of someone who shouldn't have time to garden, in that you'd never imagine she would. She manages a restaurant year round, full time, and often works both long and late. But the advantage to late, as she'll tell you, is that even if it's long, you still get a bit of your morning free, and morning is the best time for working in the dirt. And that is what I love about Jayde: she is busy, smart, creative, optimistic, and above all practical. 

To that end, her first rule for seed ordering is to grow what she eats in every day cooking, or what her friends will eat. Realistically there's no way she can keep up, so she likes to share, and she also likes to grow things she can preserve. Here's her list:

Boston Pickling Cucumber: This is an heirloom, known for its high yield, solid flesh, thin skin, and short, straight cukes. Jayde uses it to make garlic dill pickles, though seed packets say it's good for just about any kind of preserve.

Russet Burbank Potato: Also known as the "Idaho" potato, this is the most popular potato in America. It has a dry, flaky white flesh, stores well, and is excellent for everything from mashed potatoes to baked potatoes to (best of all!) French fries.

Yukon Gold Potato: Jayde says she tried purple potatoes last year, but they weren't her "cup o' tea" when it came to cooking. Yukon Golds are—as the name implies—yellow skinned and fleshed and makes great hash browns.

Iceberg Lettuce: It's not fancy, but it keeps well and there's nothing quite like the contrast between crisp, pale interior and ruffled, dark outer leaves to make a classic summer salad. It takes a while to get to full size (85 days), but it's worth the wait.

Sugar Lace Peas: These are bush snap peas—which means they don't need staking and won't topple over (like mine always do). On top of that, they're sweeter than the average sugar snap and has excellent yields.

Cute Stuff Pepper: This plant grows apple-size bell peppers that could be green, red or yellow and seed catalogs say they're excellent for petite stuffing peppers, which are one of Jayde's favorite dishes. Plus, as the name implies...they're cute.

Have you ordered your seeds yet? We are expecting a package from FedCo this week. And given the way the weather's warmed up recently...who knows? We might even put some arugula in the ground.