Grand Funk Railroad

I've been in a rather long funk lately, not dissimilar to the funks you've probably seen all over the Blogosphere, and largely owing to the misery of an interminable winter. But now, it would seem that Spring has sprung, and so I must dust off my more cheerful self and force her to come out of hibernation. She's kicking and struggling all the way.

One way I've been trying to embrace the better weather is by gardening. At long last, we had decent enough weather for me to go out and dig in the dirt without 3 layers on. The orders I'd placed many months ago for bulbs and plants arrived within days of one another and forced me to deal with them. In the last week, I've planted muscari, "Black satin" viola and ranunculus (I've never been able to get them to grow, and I just found out you're supposed to soak the corms first, too late for this planting unless I dig 'em up), and held myself in check at Lowe's long enough to buy only a strawberry jar, 9 red leaf lettuce plants, 6 broccoli plants, and a "lemon boy" tomato plant. I know, buying the plants is cheating, but my seed starting has gotten off to a rocky beginning. I am having measured success with zucchini (damn, those things grow quickly!), cauliflower, cerinthe, and the Mr. Stripey, Brandywine, pink cherry, and regular cherry varieties of tomatoes (plus some roma tomato seedlings my cousin-in-law gifted me with). I failed miserably with pumpkin (absolutely ZERO seedlings! And the seeds are not old), radish (they grew faster than I could pot them up individually, also I am totally lazy), cucumber (only one sprouted, and I killed it with my love, evidently), and broccoli (hence the plants I bought). I'm still waiting on my seedlings from half a dozen of hot and sweet peppers (we are fans of hot food in this house, plus I want to try my hand at making hot pepper/fruit jelly this Fall). I also planted a mammoth (so-called, I reserve my assessment until I see the results) red raspberry, which I am hoping like hell the starlings don't get to. I've attempted these before and they've always been eaten by the birds - I guess this is the year I buy netting to keep them off.

I figure this is the best way to ensure a steady supply of organic produce for the season. The second-best way is a membership in the Red Earth Farm buying club. I've written about buying clubs before, and I have immensely enjoyed my participation in the Winter Harvest program I participated in this year (I'm now hooked on blue and brown eggs -- pretty! and Booby is addicted to apple snitz). My pal Tony has also written about getting a regular delivery of organic fresh produce, and he includes a link to Local Harvest, which will show you which farmers' markets, co-ops, and even online stores are available to you, nationwide. Score! I probably linked to this before, but what the hell, I think it's so cool.