Hello everyone! First, I apologize for not getting a post up last week, we’ve been out of town and things have been a little hectic. One of the places we went to this past week was the 16th Annual Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Spring Planting Festival! (say that ten times fast) For those who are not familiar with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, they offer the largest heirloom seed selection in the United States. Their selection includes over 1800 heirloom varieties from 75 different countries. I first discovered Baker Creek when I got into hydroponics and switched from buying young plants at my local garden center to starting everything from seed. I wanted to grow unique things that I couldn’t find at my local nursery and the seeds from Baker Creek fit the bill. I have grown numerous different plants from their seeds and all have had excellent germination rates and good health.

Since Baker Creek is relatively near us we decided to venture out to their Spring Planting Festival this weekend. We were not disappointed! In fact, I was not mentally prepared for the awesomeness that this festival provides. Seriously. If you live within a state or two of Missouri I would highly recommend making a journey to their festival. It’s once a year and attracts over 10,000 visitors, vendors, and artists. Not only was I able to stock up on seeds (that were all on sale) and some of their live plant offerings, but we were able to take advantage of all the different plant vendors that had hundreds of different varieties of vegetables, herbs, and fruit trees. I’m not talking your regularly garden variety (ha!) veggies and herbs, these were some unique varieties and offerings. The focus at this festival is definitely expanding and protecting the genetic diversity of edibles. There were probably a couple hundred different tomato varieties, as well as things like Mugwort, Wormwood, Valerian, Kag Dum Papaya, Toothache Plant, Flower Passiflora Foetida, Garden Berry Orange Master Pomegranate, Marsh Mallow, and Naranjilla. At one point in the afternoon my friend and I decided we just had to leave because we literally did not have room to grow any more and we would not be able to stop ourselves from grabbing new and interesting plants.

Next year I definitely plan on going armed with a game plan and a bigger wagon! In the mean time I can console myself with the 28 new seed packets I picked up along with the following collection of young plants: Naranjilla, Berggarten Sage, Seascape Strawberries, Sweet Annie, Chocolate Mint, Strawberry Mint (smells divine!), Apple Mint, Orange Mint, and Kentucky Kernel Mint. I can’t wait to use all the different mint flavors for different infusions, cooking, and making some ice cream. Again, if your in the region I highly recommend a trip to Baker Creeks’s festival. In the mean time, happy May! I hope all your spring planting is going well and wish you all a bountiful crop!