I still love a seed catalogue

     I try to go paperless but the mail order companies won't let me.

It doesn't matter which boxes I check or uncheck when I order something, my post office box is going to be crammed full of catalogues within a couple of weeks.

Go directly to recycling!  Do not collect an order!

Still, my primitive child brain is switched on when I see a seed catalogue.  I carefully search for edibles that can survive in my hateful Florida yard, mark lots of pages, draw stars next to potential candidates, dog-ear pages, and organize my thoughts on the enclosed paper order form.  

Then I sit down in front of the laptop and join the current century.

The fabulous new (for me) benefit of double-checking my order on line is that this seed company offers an Amazon-like rating system with reviews written by people who have grown the plants in many different climates around the world and what their thoughts were on the taste/texture/etc. of the produce.  I had a particular Thai melon picked out until I read that the texture was unpleasantly mushy.

Scratch it off the list!

Here are the finalists:

Strange as it may sound, I believe I have been fed Mexican Sour Gherkins by a friend who is adept at foraging and he foraged them from the back of the parking lot at J.B.'s Fish Camp in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.  These are described as having a cucumber-like taste with a touch of lemon, huge yields, and perfect for tossing into a salad or pickling.  I'm in love!  Just grow for me!

I also ordered the Boston Pickling Cucumber, an old heirloom dating back to 1880.  I realize the climates of Boston and Orlando don't match up but cucumbers aren't usually too picky.

I love the delicious little heirloom cherry tomato that regularly volunteers in my back yard but it cannot be stored.  The moment it is picked, it splits, so I usually enjoy it right off the vine whenever I make the rounds of my veggies.  I want another tomato to compliment it and in my yard, the quicker it's ready, the better chance it has of evading the nematodes. 

I kept flipping past the Purple Bumble Bee because I found the typo in the photo annoying but that's not the tomato's fault so I added it to my order.

Of course I love the color but the selling point was a description of being crack-resistant and "unfazed by temperature extremes".  

Bring it on, Bumble Bee!

For my greens, I ordered the Ragged Jack kale, a pre-1885 heirloom that received good reviews from people growing it in warm climates.

Now for one of the nixed entries:

I'm fairly adventurous but I have an innate distaste for anything with the word "burr" in its name.  This plant seems to have it all including a USA pedigree starting in 1793 and a history prior to that of thriving in Jamaica, but I look at the fruits and I think 2 words:  prep time.

That's ok.  I find I do better if I limit my gardening adventures to a few new experiments a year.

I hope to have lots of new veggie info to post by summer!