Look what came in today’s mail — new seeds! This order is from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (I also have some herbs coming from my beloved Seeds of Italy).

Of course, its snowing again today, but I did eat the first overwintered scallions out of the hoop house for breakfast, and the spinach, komatsuna, arugula and bok choi are sprouting out there so in a couple of weeks, greens for breakfast. Sigh. Can’t wait.

In the meantime, I ordered a few new things — a couple of new tomatoes: Cherokee Purple, Stupice, Koralik, and Reisentraube — all short season, all fairly small sized tomatoes. I’m also going to plant Jaune Flamme (my very favorite), Princess Borghese, Galina and something else I can’t remember but I pulled when I went through the seed boxes last week before ordering. Mountain Princess maybe?

I ordered more Hungarian Hot Wax peppers because they were a huge success last year (and I forgot to save seeds). I loved loved loved them in Michael Symon’s Pickled Peppers, and I ordered a Tunisian pepper in garden solidarity with their recent revolution, a jalapeno called Santa Fe Grande and a green and yellow striped pepper called Fish Pepper, which apparently Thomas Jefferson grew (and is traditional in the Philadelphia area). I’ll also replant cayennes, which did pretty well, although they had to live in the hoop house under plastic for about 6 weeks to ripen, and the Turkish Aci Sivri that I love. This year, I’m going to put the Granpa’s Siberian peppers, which are little tiny hot hot hot peppers, in pots, so I can bring them in in the fall. I have a hunch they might overwinter well in the beloved’s bay window.

I ordered a few replacement packs of spinach (one of the few veggies the beloved will eat) and some lettuces, as well as a curly blue kale that looks interesting. A couple of new cucumbers (cornichons this year?), a tomatillo (another one I have to save seed for next year) and a free packet of carrot seeds round out the vegetables.

As for flowers, I ordered a bunch of different sunflowers — mostly pale and multi-head types. They grow really well here as long as I keep the chickens out of the flower beds. And I bought a bunch of old marigold varieties — I’ve become a huge fan of the marigold — they keep bugs away, and they smell good, and I love the old fashioned stripey ones.

So, this weekend, time to clear off the garden bench and plant tomato and pepper seedlings! The earth is still motoring around the sun (even if world events do seem really alarming right now) and in my best Voltaire-ean manner, I’m going to tend to my own garden, see what I can grow to feed my friends and loved ones.