It seems that in almost every farmer's book or blog there's a good page or two devoted to waxing romantic about getting cosy with their favorite seed catalogs during the downtime of the winter months. Late this fall, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the three that I had signed up for, ready to join the club and experience this supposedly blissful experience first hand. Sadly, after weeks of waiting it appeared that they would not be coming (maybe because our current address is a P.O. box?). Luckily the three companies that we had wanted to buy from also have online catalogs. For the past few nights we've been getting cozy...with the laptop. Although slightly less romantic, it does the trick! We started with bush beans for drying and within moments I was hooked. Transported from our tiny bedroom in Brooklyn to our farm in early summer, we imagined our first full blown garden as we planned what it would hopefully bear.  I have a feeling that in our excitement we may have gone a teensy bit overboard. We tried to stay on the conservative side but also let ourselves play a bit with variety (as in: we eat lots of carrots so we went with an early season variety as well as the fun rainbow variety I couldn't resist for later in the season). 

While snuggled in bed oogling golden beets I realized that I needed to get a move on, step up the studying, and learn how to actually grow these beauties! I've done pole beans and greens in a little yard we had at one apartment several years ago, but that's about the extent of my experience. I've got a lot of learning to do and although most of it is going to happen with my hands in the dirt this spring, I'm trying to get as much in as I can now.