Baker Creek Seeds

I'm always on the hunt for a good seed company for my garden. I've tried just about everybody including the big guys like Burpee and Stokes, down to more of the specialty, smaller companies like Pinetree. This year I tried someone new.

January and February are always looked forward to as the time when the seed catalogs arrive. It's a lot of fun, during an otherwise miserable time of year, paging through each offering deciding on what and how much to buy. Planning the garden and re-planning the garden fills many a chilly winter evening.

This year was no exception, except that I received a catalog from Baker Creek http://www.rareseeds.com/ , a new source (new to me, they've been in business since 1998. Jere Gettle started the company originally as a place to save and preserve rare heirloom seeds. Eventually, the company sprouted like the seeds they sell into a company that now offers 1275 varieties of rare seeds through there catalog sales and at there in the Ozark hills near Mansfield, Missouri.

The catalog (pictured above) was a stunner. Magazine size, with big glossy photos it served as part catalog, part coffee table book. I eagerly poured over the many pages, selecting a nice variety of seeds to order and placed my order at their online store.

My order arrived in one week. Included was a cash refund for an item they were out of stock on, and a gift packet of lettuce seeds. I was nicely impressed. The other companies I ordered from had not yet shipped my seeds, with one company delaying for over one month due to "excessive business" causing a strain on their system.

The first seeds in the ground were the six lettuce varieties, a variety of arugula, and two varieties of swiss chard that I purchased for my kitchen garden. We sowed them in line in 1/2" trenches and have been rewarded with nearly 100% germination and fantastic harvests. The quality of the lettuce, arugula, and chard is amazing, pictures don't do it justice.

We've been enjoying fresh salads for the past month and look to continue to enjoy them for weeks to come. The varieties of lettuce and cress planted make for a wonderful taste and texture to the salads, the arugula has an especially good flavor.

Tonight we intend to harvest some of the beautiful swiss chard to add to the dinner salads.

Baker Creek Seeds is my new #1 source of seeds. I see no reason to use anyone else. Since Baker Creek only sells heirloom varieties, Shelley and I also intend to save quite a few seeds this year in anticipation of next years garden. It will be our first foray into seed saving, however, the quality of the plants grown from Baker Creek indicate that we should be very successful.

Getting started

The path to a microfarm has been long and varied as described in my first blog. I didn't even know what a microfarm was until I watched a video by The Dervaes Family called Homegrown Revolution. The Dervaes' manage to grown 6,000 lbs. of food every year on 1/10th of an acre. They use traditional organic gardening, no funny business, or super fertilizers, only hard work and lots of planning.

That video inspired me and Shelley to approach our garden with a similar goal in mind. We developed a plan where over the next four years we intend to "liberate" our yard, turning it from grass to food growing gardens.

The plan will develop across four distinct stages and goals requiring lots of labor and funds. The cost is why we are spreading it over 4 years. Some of the intended additions, like peach trees and apples, will be an initial large expenses. We both have vowed to not incur any new debt in the creation of our farm so the credit cards stay put.

Last year our garden consisted of two seperate areas comprising twelve to thirteen 4' x 8' raised beds. These we refer to as the lower gardens, they exist at the farthest point from our house in the backyard. Additionally, we have four grape vines on an arbor/fence, 12 gooseberries in a patch along the east side of our house, and a small kitchen/herb garden right outside the back door in two small patches.

This year we began the project. We added 200+ square feet of garden above the old gardens. These are in an area that was a perennial garden. We removed the perennials and added more raised beds. We also removed a 10' x 10' slate patio, converting the area to squash beds and recycling the patio material as a garden walk-way.

This year also saw some permaculture additions. We added two more grapes to the arbor, and two kiwi bushes.

We currently are growing 118 tomatos (paste, cherry, and slicing), eleven different varities of summer and winter squash, two different melon varities, pickling cukes, three varities of cabbage, two varities of pole beans, fava beans, eggplants, six varities of lettuce, two varities of swiss chard, three varities of sweet peppers, and two varities of hot peppers.

This year we hope to produce and harvest 50% of our families food needs for the year. We will increase this target goal each year.

At the end of this season we will start the next phase of the farm. We need to remove a maple tree and an ash to make room for a 6 dwarf apple trees that we intend to train onto a fence. We need to finish removing the remaining perennila bed to make room for a blue berry patch, and we are tilling up the next garden section of 40' x 40', so we can hit the ground running next spring with already amended soil.

The final two phases include a peach orchard in the front yard, a more formalized herb garden, and a shed.

Origins - June 17,2009

Well, this being my first attempt at blogging, and actually my first attempt at writing anything of note, I ask for a bit of patience. Hopefully, you'll find something of value from what I write that will spur you on to your own endeavor at microfarming, or even just a simple garden.

My path to microfarming has evolved over the past 10-12 years. I began gardening at my old house in Lodi, Medina County, in the usual way, some tomatoes, a zucchini or two, beans, broccoli, etc... Gradually, however, the size and scope of my gardens have changed, as has my motivation for doing it.

I started gardening for the same reason most people do, to have some fresh veggies, enjoy the outdoors, relaxation, etc..., also I owned a large Victorian style house and gardens seemed to be a requirement. We spent endless hours planting perennials, ferns, and other flowers before jumping into vegetables. Working with the perennials began to build in me a great love of gardening, awakening a skill that I didn't know I possessed.

The Lodi garden consisted of about six raised beds 4' x 8' in size. I used raised beds after reading The Victory Garden: The Essential Companion by James Wilson, Bob Thompson, and Thomas Wirth. It was, and still is, an invaluable resource on all things vegetable gardening.


Sue and I moved from the Lodi house in 1997, settling in a small ranch style home in the Chippewa Lake area (still Medina County). The yard was all grass with some maples, a pine, and a gum tree. I saw potential in the far backyard for a really nice, large garden, even though my entire lot was on less then one acre.. I set about building a 50' x 50' garden of raised beds surrounded by a split rail fence. Garden style is very important to me, I simply can't have a square plot of dirt, a garden needs form and beauty in my mind. A garden must inspire and charm those who work or visit it, feeding the mind and soul as well as the body.

The garden flourished and the harvests were huge. The wonderful harvest got me thinking that perhaps a garden, even, on a small lot could provide a large part of my families diet if done correctly. As a matter of necessity we began to store the food we grew, canning and freezing most of the harvest. What we weren't able to grow we purchased in bulk for a local Amish produce auction in nearby Homerville.

Sadly, my garden only existed for one season. The realtor had mislead us on the size of our property. When we moved in, there was only soybean fields behind us. The grass was mowed and maintained up to the fields and the former residents even erected a light post at the very edge of the lawn. We came to find out that the light post (the spot we were told our property ended at) was actually 75' off our property line. My entire garden was located off our property, the land on which it existed had been sold to developers for a new sub-division (apparently there were not enough sub-divisions in Medina County, we needed one more), which meant my garden had to go.

When our vegetable garden was lost, we decided to focus on a smaller perennial garden we had started in an area where an old willow had recently fallen. We also installed a four grape, grape arbor on the true back line of our property as a screen to the new development.

We were happy planting and tending the new flower garden and raising our three children. We spent time adding perennials, learning the tricks of a partial shade garden bed (although to be truthful, I never quite got that one right), building a patio, and planning more gardens. All that came to an end when Sue was diagnosed with leukemia. I buried Sue in July of 2009 near the beautiful rhododendron's in Lodi cemetery, where we loved to walk when we lived in Lodi.

Sue's death also destroyed any desire for gardening in me. It was like something died in me when she passed away. I no longer spent time in the garden, choosing to spend time indoors watching movies and trying to forget. The gardens faded, their former glory now only dimly seen amidst ever encroaching weeds and grass. That was fine with me, I existed in much the same way as my old gardens.

They say "time heals all wounds", even though I'd like to strangle the person who coined that idiotic statement, there is a kernel of truth. As time passed I was able to forget some of the pain, and like Spring brings renewal, new life came to me in the summer of 2007. I had decided I had enough of the spiritual weeds that choked my soul and began to rebuild my life. That rebuilding began with a new vegetable garden, started near the ruins of the old garden, and leaped to life with my finding Shelley.

Shelley also came from a bruised past. We met online in the fall of 2007 and were married in the early winter of 2008. She loves gardens and the outdoors, her strength and enthusiasm were a tonic for me and all the old dreams I had for my gardens were brought back to life. She is the love of my life and my best friend. She has inspired so much in me and made me a much better person. My mind races at the thoughts of all we can do together (you should see our to-do list). I am truly alive when next to her, whether working in the garden, a project in the house, or simply enjoying a quiet evening out back with a glass of wine.

Shelley and I started the garden rebuild, together, in 2008. It was a tough year, both with the weather and the transition from single to married. It was especially a challenge for Shell coming from and empty nest to a house with three children, the youngest being 7. We persevered, although the garden work suffered a bit, and have begun to thrive.

That takes us to today and the beginnings of a microfarm. As I stated at the beginning, hopefully you, the reader, will find some wisdom in my journey, perhaps a spark of inspiration that will push you out the door and into the garden.

Todd