We just had dinner with our friends from the photo club, Monte & Laurie, and then spent a couple of hours talking vegetables and swapping seeds. It was a ton of fun. They have a couple of those 'greenhouse' type bay windows on their house, and Monte has gotten a bunch of old chafing dishes (warming plates) from various salvage shops. Wired in series in pairs, they put out just the right amount of heat to germinate slightly grouchy stuff like peppers and eggplants, and they make peas go like gangbusters. M & L already have 2 – 3 foot tall sugar peas going outside, yow. I really have to get on the stick!
Monte showed me the Tomato Grower catalog… bad, bad, nasty, bad… must never order from it…ok, how about if I chip in a bit and get 1 or 2 plants from some of the varietals he's ordering? That would be one level of safety^H^H indirection between me and the dangerous Tomato Grower catalog! Look, if we spend $9 or more, we get a free packet of Atzochya yellow tomatoes, an old Russian heirloom… hmm, no problem!
I got some Italian heirloom beans from them that relatives had brought over from Italy, vigorous climbers. “Plant 'em and stand back, or they'll get you in the eye on their way up!”. I also got a look at the Pepper Collection. Holy smokes. They've got a few dozen old prescription bottles each with a teaspoon or two (which is a LOT of pepper seeds) of all kinds of odd or heirloom peppers. Some are from Laurie's dad, who collects seeds, and some are ones they've picked up in their dive and tourism travels, like the ones labelled Peruvian and Brazilian peppers. (Monte said, of the Brazilian ones, “collected those right out of my salad!”) , he's got Thai King Dragon pepper seeds, could probably spare a few!
So M & L are going to start a bunch of stuff as seedlings for me. Not only do they have the 2 big bay windows, and the hotplates, but they do not have little furry salad-samplers roaming the house. Keeping seedlings away from the cats is at least half the challenge here at home!
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