Yesterday, there came in the mail a seed catalog, it was forwarded from the old address. But alas, we are not in the market this year for a new collection of seeds. I dare not open up the pages. This year we don't get the opportunity; the pleasure of first going through the collection of last year's seed packets, and some from years prior to that, to select which packets hold seeds that can be expected to germinate this season, and then to select from the new year's catalog which seed packets to order for the new year; lettuces and radishes and peas and beans and broccoli and zucchini and cucumbers, oh my. It is almost time to be thinking about getting the seed bed ready to put in peas, but not this year.
I will especially, I think, miss putting potatoes in the ground. I will miss the pleasures of cutting the potatoes into pieces making sure that each piece has at least one eye, more are better I think, and placing the pieces into the ground. Then later in the spring checking for the first shoot reaching the surface and turning from white to green as it breaks above the ground and gets strength from the sun. Some hills are always slow to get a shoot up to the surface. And later in the summer poking around below the surface to check for any new little potatoes. It is always fun to cheat on the season a little to steal a few of the little new potatoes before their time. But those are ones that are especially flavorful and sweet.
I recall following along after my father, being eager to gather up the potatoes as he pried up the soil with the spade to expose the potatoes hidden beneath the soil , and being eager to count how many came from hill to search out the record setting hill. That was always after the green vines were withered brown after the frosts of the autumn season. Sometimes it was difficult to tell jsut where the hill was. Then there was the chance of thre spade cutting through one of the potatoes. There was no cheating of the season in my father's garden to gather the especially sweet, little new potatoes.
Maybe it will be safe for me to sneak jsut a peak at just a few of the pages in the new seed catalog. I know it is sitting on the table downstairs.
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