Free Seeds!
We are excited to announce that on Tuesday, March 2, we are releasing seed bundle #1 to existing Door County Seed Library members. This seed bundle contains 11+ packets of seeds for starting indoors:
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Herbs
- Cabbage
- Onions
- Flowers
- And some bonus packets
We have prepared 250 of these seed bundles -- that's over 3,000 packets of seeds. They are available while supplies last. If you can’t use all of the seeds, please share them with your friends and neighbors.
This is the first of two seed bundles that we will be offering this year. Our second seed bundle, which will be released around May 1, will contain seeds that can be directly planted outdoors.
This year the seed bundles are available through your local Door County Library branch. Due to coronavirus restrictions, you will need to call your local branch to make arrangements to pick up your seeds:
- Baileys Harbor: 920-839-2210
- Egg Harbor: 920-868-2664
- Fish Creek: 920-868-3471
- Forestville: 920-856-6886
- Sister Bay-Liberty Grove: 920-854-2721
- Sturgeon Bay: 920-746-7121
- Washington Island: 920-847-2323
Note: The Ephraim Library branch does not have seed bundles. Please call the next closest branch.
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Seed Savers Needed
Calling all local gardeners - we’re looking for seed stewards to participate in our 2021 seed grow out program to help us to preserve varieties in our seed collection. In this program, you will grow out designated seeds, save the seeds, and donate a portion back to the seed library. This program allows us to maintain our valuable seeds and over time they will begin to adapt to Door County’s unique growing conditions.
This year, we have selected these three varieties for inclusion in our grow out program:
Beaver Dam hot pepper
A pepper so good that Hungarian immigrants carried it with them when they came to Wisconsin. Medium hot, or mildly hot when seeded. The peppers have appealing crunch that is great in salads and fresh salsas. They also go brilliantly sliced into a sandwich or stuffed with a rice or meat filling. This valued pepper is in the Slow Food Ark of Taste, a collection of endangered heritage foods. Help us to keep this Wisconsin Tradition alive. (Seeds need to be started indoors around March 16-30)
Belgian Farmer beefsteak tomato
This Belgian heritage tomato is a tribute to the Belgians who settled in Southern Door. We received these seeds from a donor who has listed several varieties in the Seed Savers Exchange for over 20 years. Here’s what she has to say about them: “They produce 6 ounce very flattened pink beefsteak tomatoes. They have good yields, producing from early mid-season until frost.” (Seeds need to be started indoors around March 30 – April 13)
Ken Paschke beans
A Door County original! Local gardener Ken Paschke has been growing and saving these bush beans for over 55 years! Due to his dedicated seed saving efforts, he has ultimately created a new variety that has adapted to our local climate and soil. These beans are terrific for baked beans and hearty winter soups and are a good substitute for cannellini beans. (Seeds are directly planted in your garden around June 1)
Seed stewards can be experienced gardeners or just beginning to learn about the art and practice of saving seeds. As a seed steward, you will be responsible for ensuring that your seeds are carefully grown and skillfully selected for seed saving. If you are new to seed saving, we will provide the information that you need to successfully save your seeds.
Please send us an email at DCSeedLibrary@gmail.com if you are interested in learning more about being a seed steward.
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March Garden Calendar: Get Ready
With your seeds in hand and your garden planned out for the season, it’s time to get to work! If you haven’t done so already, write down a garden schedule. Make sure to note when you intend to seed, transplant, and harvest each crop, and whether you’re planning to switch out old crops for new ones halfway through the season. It’s common to plant cold season crops in the early spring, then warm season crops to mature throughout the summer, then cold season crops for the fall again. This graphic below from Hudson Valley Seed Co. illustrates the idea well.
In order to plan your garden calendar, you will need to know your last frost date. While technically the average last frost date in Sturgeon Bay is May 11, there's still a 50% chance that we will have frost after that date, so you may want to play it safe and select May 24 (only a 10% chance) or even May 31 so that you're not disappointed by a late freeze. You should also consider the potential microclimates of your specific garden areas. Information from your seed packets will tell you when you should plant your seeds relative to your last frost date.
The other main project of March is to get all your garden supplies ready and cleaned. Don’t make the mistake of trying to purchase garden tools in April or May! Now is the time to make sure your hand tools, seedling flats, potting soil, and pots are in good working order. Your garden space and style will determine what you need. Some may prefer a trowel while others turn to a Korean hand hoe. If you’re a first-time gardener, try to make sure you have some basic supplies, but don’t overthink it. You’ll soon discover what your needs are and what works best with your body and your space.
Door County is lucky to have an abundance of great garden centers. Here are some options to get you started:
Sturgeon Bay
Bonnie Brooke Gardens
Door County Cooperative
Maas Floral and Greenhouses
Northern Door
Door County Landscape & Nursery
Jerry’s Flowers
Sunnypoint Gardens
If you’re feeling all prepped and ready to grow, you can start celery and eggplant indoors the first half of March followed by kale, thyme, onions, peppers, and rosemary indoors in the second half of March.
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Spring Planting Guide (source: Hudson Valley Seed Co.)
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Community Connections: Door County Landscape & Nursery
By Renee McAllister
Gardeners are enduring even during this winter cold snap. We seek out garden centers and garden catalogs until the time when we can plant and garden outdoors. One such place that can help us plant our backyard or outdoor space is Door County Landscape & Nursery -- a full-service garden center providing landscape design as well as a source for native plants. I had a chance to talk with Karen Newbern, Nursery Manager, at Door County Landscape & Nursery. “With many people staying close to home, they would like a place that gives gratification both physically and mentally,” she says. Including natives in an outdoor design is beneficial to bees and butterflies especially, because native plants provide pollen, food and shelter to support wildlife. In this regard, hybrids are not nearly as effective as native plants.
Besides selling native plants, Door County Landscape & Nursery has seen an increase in sales of trees, including fruit trees (cherry and apple) and the always-popular evergreens. Trees help to provide interesting spaces and support wildlife. Since Door County Landscape & Nursery focuses on native plants, your completed space will thrive and provide beauty with species of plants that adapt to the water and soil quality of your outdoor space. They handle design work for both residential and business needs, and they provide their clients with designs that will survive outdoor conditions, last through many seasons and provide a get-away right outside your door.
The busy season for Door County Landscape & Nursery occurs in April and May. That’s when they start plugs of small plants and start planting outdoors. Of course, weather conditions during this time can affect when and how long before installation of plants begins.
If you have questions or concerns on a specific type of plant, they will gladly give you some helpful guidelines to keep it healthy. Just give them a call.
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Plant of the Month: Cherokee Purple Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum
By Brenda J. Wolfe
The Cherokee Purple tomato is probably not the most elegant tomato that you can grow. The shoulders remain green even when ripe and the rest of the tomato has a purplish hue as though sunburned. But don’t be fooled -- this luscious smoky-flavored tomato is the one you want for BLT's and salads.
Cherokee Purple has a Native American history of course. During the early 1900s, a farmer from Tennessee received tomato seeds from a Cherokee tribe. The farmer passed these seeds down through his own family. Only the seeds never had a name, they were just tomatoes. In the 1990s an heirloom seed collector received some of these seeds along with their oral history. He grew them, liked them, and declared they should be called Cherokee Purple.
They are indeterminate beefsteak-type tomatoes. This means that the plants will keep growing and producing until frost, so they will require some type of support.
Although tomatoes are self-pollinators, bumblebees give them a kickstart. Plant snapdragons among your plants to encourage the bees to visit. You will have a noticeable increase in tomatoes, plus snapdragons also flower until frost.
A packet of Cherokee Purple Tomato seeds will be in your first seed bundle with instructions on how to plant and save these historical seeds.
~~Seed-saving notes: Tomatoes have perfect flowers (both male and female parts on the same flower), but occasionally may cross-pollinate. To ensure seed purity, separate varieties by at least 10 feet. To save the seeds, collect ripe tomatoes. Squeeze pulp and seeds into a jar. Add a small amount of water and cover with muslin or cheesecloth. Let ferment 2-3 days until a mold forms. (This fermentation process dissolves the germination inhibitor that encases the seeds.) Add a small amount of water and stir. The viable seeds will sink. Pour off the mold, floating seeds and pulp. Repeat the rinsing and draining process until the seeds are clean. Place seeds on coffee filter on top of paper towels to dry thoroughly.
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Cherokee Purple Tomato (picture source: TomatoFest)
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Book Review: The Magic of Food, by Michael T. Murray, N.D.
By Renee Borkovetz
There really is magic in the food we eat. Michael T. Murray, N.D., author of the book, The Magic of Food: Live Longer and Healthier -- and Lose Weight -- with the Synergetic Diet, goes into great detail about the foods we eat and how they can help or hurt us. The synergetic diet, as Dr. Murray explains, is how whole foods and dietary patterns lead to overall health benefits. Many research studies are referenced and explained throughout the book to help the reader better understand the role food plays in maintaining health as well as to provide evidence in support of a more natural approach to health.
Foods that are recommended include vegetables, fruits, legumes/lentils, nuts/seeds, freshwater fish, and healthy fats. Foods to avoid include highly processed and boxed foods. There is an entire chapter dedicated to recipes and another one to using spices, herbs, and seasonings.
Not only can food be beneficial to health in general, but it can also be used as medicine. Many common medical issues and diseases are listed along with natural recommendations to help alleviate or even cure them. Medical issues addressed include food allergies, acne, digestive diseases, and many more. Each recommendation includes a specific dietary practice, foods to avoid, and foods to add to your diet.
This audiobook is available through Hoopla Digital. To learn more about Dr. Murray and this book, visit https://magicoffood.com/.
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Featured Grower: Taryn Randle
In 2017 while living in California, Taryn Randle felt called to come home to the South Side of Chicago and start growing food in her community. Getting Grown Collective (GGC) has bloomed from her efforts and continues to work on its goal of “progressing towards land and food sovereignty while preparing future generations to build a healthy world.”
Taryn was instrumental in setting up GGC’s two growing spaces, Stem Style Garden and Elevated Garden, which host youth group visits and workdays, yoga classes, health clinics, and garden tours. Her talent for bringing people together around growing food is evident; she says of older volunteers that, “I want to make sure to show up for them because they’ll continue to come back when they have the time and capacity to do so.”
According to Taryn the key to community gardening is that “once it's started up, you got your seeds, you can collect those, and everything can kind of run itself if people have bought into what it is that you are trying to do and they understand it in their heart.”
When asked about her motivations Taryn said, “I’m … trying to activate the imagination and the re-imagination of the world. So there are a lot of things that we’re frustrated with, and I’m just like so, what are we going to do about it?…How do we make sure that our kids are of the right state of mind to be able to handle an unpredictable future?”
To learn more about Taryn and the Getting Grown Collective, check out this interview and the GGC website.
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Taryn Randle of Getting Grown Collective
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Thanks for growing with us, Door County! Make sure to follow us on Facebook, where we will be posting updates on our upcoming seed bundle giveaways! Not a member? Click the Join Now button on our website to join today. Membership is free! Seeds are free!
~~The Door County Seed Library planning team
Note: Information about products, providers, and services contained in this newsletter does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Door County Seed Library.
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