Wednesday, January 18, 2012

New Year, New Dreams

This is a dangerous time of year here at Kopp’s Crops – the time of dreaming, not doing.  The time of year when we’ve forgotten how tired we were of bees, trees, and veggies to freeze by the end of last summer, and we start thinking about expanding our operation.  When “what’s another 50 tapped trees?” and “I mean, is it really any more work to keep 20 hives instead of 10?” become part of the daily conversation.  Everything seems possible, and the reality of the work involved is far enough in the future that it seems manageable.  It’s seed catalog season.
Now that the Christmas catalogs and sales flyers have cleared out, the seed catalogs are weighing down the letter carriers’ pouches and filling the Kopp family mailbox.  The Jung’s catalog is our favorite – it’s like the seed version of the Neiman-Marcus catalog; page after page of stunning photographs that make us want to buy, buy, buy!  But just like the Neiman-Marcus one, Jung’s tends to be the catalog that we wish from, not what we buy from.  Last season, we bought many of our seeds in bulk – by the pound, not the teeny little envelope.  The cost per seed is significantly less, and we can store the extra seeds for several years.  As long as we keep the seeds cool & dry, the germination rate only decreases 2-3% each year.
Before we place any orders for the year, we need to get a handle on what our current seed stock looks like, so last week we pulled the leftovers from last season out of the cellar and took inventory.  After portioning out this season’s seed needs, we vacuum-sealed our 2013+ seeds to keep out moisture and keep the seeds from rotting.  Looks like we’ll be set on lettuce, carrots, beets and green onions for the next few years!  How many beets can you ougrow with a pound of beet seeds?  Let’s just say that we expect to be eating beets grown from these seeds at our daughters’ graduations!