I want to start off by saying that we are all healthy here on the farm and hope that you and your family are as well. What a very strange message this is for me to write! While following the world events that are unfolding, it is as if we are all active participants in a story line of one of the endless numbers in the Sci-Fi / dystopian post-apocalyptic genres that have been pouring out of the studios for decades.

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Dear Gardening Friends,

I have always worked at keeping a connection to the past and respecting history. History is an integral part of the life path I chose to follow. Perhaps it chose me.

Part of maintaining this connection is to reminisce about experiences, events, and the special people that have been a part of my journey. Dr. Carolyn Male was one of those characters woven into my story.

The past couple of weeks have really caused me to reflect on our history; Victory Seeds^® history, that is.

Throughout the history of civilization, philosophers, theologians, and scientists have all described, in one way or another, that there is, "... nothing new under the sun." The old idiom that history repeats itself is true to a certain extent, but if we study, the patterns do not exactly repeat, they "rhyme."

Back in January of 1999, about six months after founding the Victory Seed Company, we packed our then young family into our minivan, along with two borrowed AST laptops, and headed out to a beach house on the Oregon Coast that my cousin owned and graciously made available. Over the course of three days, using an old HTML editor called HotDog, we created our first web site.

The Maritime Northwest Edition

Our weather is generally transitional at this time. Enjoy the beautiful sun breaks, but keep on alert for the downpours. Stop, appreciate, and enjoy the beautiful flowering that is happening all around.

The Maritime Northwest Edition

The winter finally comes to an official close later this month. Time to start putting all of your winter dreaming and planning into practice. In general, it is still too early to plant many species of garden vegetables, but with protective measures and scoping out micro-climate zones in your yard, experimenting is always fun.

The Maritime Northwest Edition

Don't get carried away and start planting your whole garden if we happen to get a week or two of "false spring" weather this month. Although the days can reach into the 50s, the nights still are likely to return to the 20s and 30s. That said, even more seed varieties can be sown this month in the tunnels or cold frames that you set up in January. Many other plant varieties can be started indoors on heat mats and under lights.

Its stalks are sturdy, can grow quite tall, and produce ears that are eight inches long with sixteen to eighteen rows of kernels in varying colors. Like other flint/flour types of corn, 'Petmecky' can be harvested young and eaten as roasting ears. However, it is generally allowed to mature on the stalks, dry, and is then ground into corn meal or flour. Its ears are also quite ornamental.

A "grain corn" with a long and interesting history, it was once relied upon as a primary source of sustenance for a community in the Texas Hill Country. It is also a perfect example of the Victory Seed Company's core seed preservation mission in action, as well as how long it can sometimes take to get endangered varieties into folks' gardens.

Although the primary mission of the Victory Seed Company is to preserve rare seed varieties and to keep them available to gardeners, we also believe that by sharing a portion of our time, talents and property, we are helping to make our world a better place. Charitable work is a primary part of our lives, both personally and as an organization. Your orders directly support this work. You can read more on this subject by clicking here.

One of the projects that we help to support is the community garden at a local grade school. Normally, Denise takes care of getting seeds up to the school but this time we were asked to both come and at a specific time. We were expecting a small meet and greet.

When we arrived, we were surprised to see that the whole school was waiting for us with a beautiful banner that was signed by all of the students thanking us.

I get asked this question on nearly a daily basis.  And frankly, there is not one easy answer to give.  There are just so many variables involved.

You need to realize that nearly all gardening models and methods are an unnatural act!  They are an attempt by us humans to control and modify the very design of the natural world.  That is, we are trying to lord over nature.^[1] Don't believe me?  Stop doing any gardening or yard work and see what its natural state reverts to in one year, five years, or longer.

I suppose that the logical starting place for answering this question is to determine the specific germination and cultural requirements for the plant variety you are interested in growing.  Learning where various plants originated from is a useful bit of knowledge for a gardener to possess.  For example, if you know that watermelons originated in Africa, you can make a very good guess that they require heat to thrive.  More information on vegetable origins can be found by clicking here.

. . . always a let down to read.  They usually are either obvious, boring, self-serving, amateurish, a waste of time, or some combination of all of the above.  This post will likely not disappoint you in that manner.

Yes, this is the first post of what I hope will be a long tradition.  I am a fairly disciplined person and if this communication tool proves to be worthwhile (and by worthwhile I mean not a waste of my time and yours!), then I expect that this will remain a good place for you to visit from time-to-time to check-in and see what is happening around the Victory Seed Company and on the farm.