Saturday, January 24, 2015

Local Saturday - Italian Seeds

A snowy morning in upstate New York.

It's time for some seed daydreaming.

One of the catalogs we ordered was called Seeds from Italy

It advertises itself as "Heirloom Italian Garden Seeds" and, since my husband's ethnic background is Italian, we thought it would be interesting to see what an Italian seed catalog contained.
Some of the seeds are organic ("biologica").  Most, not all, are open pollinated.  Many of the veggies are familiar to those of us in the United States, but others are not a familiar part of our gardens.

Like capers. ("cappero")

Or a zucchini bred to produce mostly flowers.

Or parsley root, a parsley that produces a root that is also edible.  (It is not the same thing as parsnips).  Years ago, I grew parsley root. A supermarket here sells it seasonally in November and December.

This is the fun part of gardening - the dreaming, and the ordering.  I don't know if we will order any of these Italian seeds, but their Italian soaps are interesting, too.

The hard part of gardening is yet to come.  With the ground frozen, there is still plenty of time to dream.

Do you garden?

at

7 comments:

  1. Aletha McManamaJanuary 24, 2015 at 10:03 PM

    Oh, how I cannot wait to start ordering seeds and preparing for my spring/summer vegetable and herb garden! Thanks for the reminder of what is yet to come. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amy BovairdJanuary 25, 2015 at 12:29 AM

    Alana,
    I don't but I wish you could have known my sister. She loved to garden and they had lots of unusual vegetables. All organic. You would have had a lot to talk about. I really enjoyed your post, especially about the daydreaming while the ground is still frozen. =) I like that image, and heaven knows I do enough daydreaming about life in general in the winter. It seems to be the time to do it.
    Amy

    ReplyDelete
  3. NeeciJanuary 25, 2015 at 2:08 AM

    I don't but I would love to. I've always talked about having a garden. In fact, a local church wanted to put a community garden in my backyard and I thought that would be nice. Hopefully they will be able to start this year :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. SuzyJanuary 25, 2015 at 2:34 AM

    Good luck with your garden. Unfortunately gardening isn't one of my strengths or passions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Francene StanleyJanuary 25, 2015 at 5:37 AM

    That parsley root sounds wonderful. I've never sen it here in England, although we have many Italian veggies available. I must look out for it at the market stall.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Betty CarlsonJanuary 25, 2015 at 11:35 AM

    It would be nice to have a garden but has never been practical with my being back in the States most of the summer, and I think I have finally accepted that it may not be for me or I would have done it by now. I really admire people who have one because I know it is plenty of work -- or pleasure, depending on your point of view!

    ReplyDelete
  7. VinithaJanuary 25, 2015 at 12:21 PM

    I love flowers but never tried my hand in gardening. Don't have that passion. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me. Due to a temporary situation, your comments may not post for a day or more-I appreciate your patience.I reserve the right to delete comments if they express hate or profanity, are spam, or contain content not suitable to a family blog.