Okay, back to the seeds. Here’s what I got at last week’s seed swap, as transcribed from various printed and hand-scrawled labels:
- Japonica Striped Maize
- Corn – Sweet / Guarijo Red
- Pole Beans / Fortex
- Bean – Royal Burgundy (Bush – Stringless)
- Cushaw Winter Squash
- NM Indian Squash (Placitas)
- Pumpkin, small sugar
- Halloween Pumpkin
- Watermelon – Hopi Yellow / Bakers Creek Heirloom
- Amaranth (hand-spooned from an open bowl, courtesy of the Garden’s Edge)
- Tomato, Slicing / Costoluto Fiorentino
- Tomatillo De Milpa
- Pepper – Easy / Ancho Gigantea / Capsicum annuum
- Chile Velarde
- Lettuce – Radicchio Rossa di Treviso (Cichorium intybus)
- Carrot – Atlas (Daucus carota)
- Chives, Common
- Helianthus maximiliani / New Mexico Sunflower
Choosing these particular seeds involved a mix of careful forethought and jubilant spontaneity based on what others happened to have arrayed on the library’s tables. Now that they’ve joined me in awaiting the season’s final frost, I can turn my attentions to figuring out precisely where each one will go out there and why.