Seed Catalogs - The Review

I must live at the end of the Earth. After jealously reading about everyone else getting scads of seed catalogs in the mail, mine have finally started rolling in. So, things that I have noticed/decided:

1.) Open pollinated varieties are almost non-existant. Hmmmm. I wonder why? Is it because there was crop failure, people just aren't interested in them anymore (I find that hard to believe), or are more nefarious things afoot?

2.) Territorial is scaling back its offerings. I compared the 2008 catalog to an old 2006 catalog, and found fewer lettuce, carrot and, most shockingly to me, ultra-early, extra-early and early tomato varieties. They were my sole source of tomato seeds that will survive in our barely-reaching-80-degree summers! Wah!

3.) I'm looking more toward jumping ship from my beloved Territorial/Johnnies to someplace like Fedco, who seems to be fighting the good fight. At least Fedco seems to be trying to shake itself off of the Monsanto monkey.

Well, at any rate, I'll be shopping online more, which is probably better for the environment, but it's not as nice as curling up under a blanket on a cold, stormy day, and drooling all over the catalog dreaming of summer tomatoes, while looking at the perfectly sliced ones on the pages of a catalog. Drip.

Have a fun, safe night tonight. I guess those in the UK are already in the new year. Let's hope it's a better one than the last!

Seed Catalogs

Is it just the mail system around here, that can't manage to get the current local grocery store ad to me until after I've gone shopping, or have I been blacklisted?

I have only received one seed catalog, and it's from a place I've never ordered from, and probably never will.

Maybe the mail carrier is carrying off with my seed catalogs....

Bah.

Christmas Frenzy

Okay, I'm over myself. Finished all of the shopping, half the presents are wrapped, baked up some bread (we were completely out), made a batch of S'more Thumbprint cookies, sent brownies and more cookies with Mr. E to work, sent off the long-distance cards....

Tomorrow we're baking gingerbread, both people and a house. I'm also heading to the library to pick up Crunchy Chicken's book club book, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, and my regular book club book, Three Junes. Thing 1 has a friend coming over as well, so the morning will be spent tidying up after today's baking frenzy, and preparing for another one.

Tonight I'm (hopefully) finishing up the cards. That'll be one less worry. I always do cards where you pop the photo in. One year I had the audacity to hand stamp cards, and everyone complained. Where's the photo of the boys? So, back to purchased cards it is. I suppose if I were creative, I'd stick the photo on the cover of a card, but I like the framed look of the purchased cards.

So, what's left to do? More cookies, candy if the weather cooperates, which it looks like won't happen, finish wrapping, Saturday we torch the tree, Sunday we flop, and then the Xmas gauntlet arrives; 24th eve at the in-laws, Xmas morning with the boys, then race down to my parents. Anyone else have a gauntlet to run?