Today is one of my favorite days in the garden season!

I would have to say that my favorite day in the garden is the first ripe tomato of the season. My second favorite day just might be today - the day the new Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Catalog arrives!

As I stated last year, Baker Creek has my favorite seed company catalog. This year's catalog is even bigger than last year! It is full of rare and unique heirloom seeds. There are detailed descriptions and loads of beautiful color pictures!

You definitely know what you are getting when you order from them. I never get the feeling that they are hiding anything or are trying to make their varieties sound better than they really are. Everything that I have grown from them has done well and has grown just as they describe. Their 2 foot long Chinese Red Noodle Beans were amazing. Baker Creek helped me grow many colors of heirloom tomatoes - red, yellow, orange, green, black and white. This was fun to do in the full size tomatoes as well as with the cherry tomatoes.

If you are not yet familiar with Baker Creek, you really should visit their website. They are located in Missouri but have collected heirloom seeds from around the world. The owners of the company are Gere and Emily Gettle and they are great people. Here they are pictured in the front of the catalog with their daughter Sasha:

I was lucky enough to meet them because another cool thing about them is that they host many garden festivals at their site. They have built a whole little town called Bakersville to host these occasions. My family and I drove about 12 hours just to attend the Spring Planting Festival earlier this year and we had a wonderful time. I posted about our trip when we returned home. In that post, I put on a record 30 pictures of the Baker Creek Festival! You can see that post here.

I would love to go again this year - maybe to their end of summer harvest festival!

Well, I better end this post so I can start looking at this new Baker Creek Catalog! How will I decide what to buy? I think the size of the garden will have to be doubled again this year!

I can already tell that I'm going to like this year's edition even better than the previous years because their are several pictures of little Sasha with the veggies.

How cute - and have you ever seen such big cabbage heads?

Comments

[December 19, 2008 at 01:16 PM]

Hi, before I even opened your post I knew....SEEDS
I so agree! It is a feast when you finally are allowed to order your seeds. I have a silly rule that I'm not allowed before new years eve, I don't know where I got that from...
I wish you a great and happy weekend/ Tyra

[December 19, 2008 at 08:43 PM]

I have already received a few of my own favorite seed catalogs but will be busy with family until after Christmas, so they are neatly stacked and waiting.
I ordered from Baker Creek for the first time last year. My only complaint was that they don't put the info on the seed packets and you have to go to the website to look it up. I hope they will change this, as I am too busy for this during gardening season.
Have a Blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!

[Scott]

I don't know how I missed them, but I have never heard of Baker Creek before. I have one of their catalogs on the way though. Thanks so much!

[December 20, 2008 at 07:24 PM]

Pouring over the seed catologues makes spring seem just that little bit closer doesn't it. I love it also.

[December 21, 2008 at 05:52 AM]

What a great looking catalog. I love your photos of it. I will have to take a look at this one - on-line. I do all my ordering on line. It is such a nice time of year. I'm enjoying putting together a seed list. I can just imagine next summer's garden.... I'm looking forward to the days getting longer.

[December 22, 2008 at 10:45 AM]

I just LOVE reading through the catalogues this time of year and getting excited planning what I am growing next year. I have just bought some Bulgarian Giant Leeks and some yard long runner beans! Happy Christmas Marc ! xxx

[December 22, 2008 at 04:32 PM]

great tribute. I am going to go over and check out their website. There are a few catalogs that truly brighten my days. I saw those (or a similar) red beans in either Johnny's or seedsavers and they caught my eye.

have a good day planning your garden.

[December 26, 2008 at 11:13 PM]

I'm glad to see you've had good luck with their seeds...I want to order some stuff too. I really enjoy "real" seeds that haven't been altered by science.

[December 29, 2008 at 05:08 AM]

I'm awaiting my favorite catalog here! I think the company has started slating just after Christmas rather than the busy days before. After such an unusual weather year here, I'm looking forward to 2009 gardening.
Paula

[rhonda je]

Hi Marc and Renee. I've never seen such a beautiful seeds catalogue. Look at all those watermelons! And that man next to them is a delight. Are you planting a larger garden this year? I think there would be a market in the neighbourhood for fresh local vegies. You may be able to sell your excess, especially as they're organic heirloom vegetables.