STARTING SEEDS FOR MARKET

Finally got around to starting seeds! Why so early? Because suddenly, not only are we selling about every egg our girls produce (for eating AND hatching), but we have people inquiring about any produce we might have available. Thought long and hard, and decided to grow basically only what we eat ourselves or can store to feed our livestock (chickens and goats) over the winter. There are exceptions (like brussels sprouts ... ick).

How I do it:
Start with Jiffy Peat Pots, add warm water and wait for them to rehydrate. Gently pull apart netting on the top, and insert a label (popsicle stick with seed type written on it in ink), and sow seed. Cover seed according to seed size. Place in a plastic shoe-box container from Wal-Mart, put on lid, and place on top of a heating pad (set on warm / low). Then be patient! Keep moist. Once they start sprouting, take off lid.

Here's what I started yesterday:
5 tomato, roma
5 tomato, beefsteak
7 tomato, yellow pear
10 pepper, bell, kaleidoscope mix (various colors)
2 pepper, hot serrano chili
2 cucumber, spacemaster (bush)
2 squash, summer, early prolific straightneck (yellow)
2 squash, summer, striata d'italia (zucchini)
2 okra, clemson spineless
2 eggplant, long purple
3 cabbage, early golden acre (white)

I didn't have any seeds for my favorite (Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato ... it's orange and sweet and juicy!) so I placed an order. Should be here by next week. So... probably next Monday, I'll start those seeds and some herbs like basil, mint, parsley and dill.

Stay tuned. I'll keep you updated on how our plants are doing, what our biggest sellers are, and so forth.