Mel had some interesting musings about food on her blog yesterday. Supermarket shelves have a very limited variety of vegetables, selected for qualities such as longevity more than for their flavour. That is a far cry from the wide variety found in seed catalogues.

I am sure that taste is the not only driving factor behind what seed catalogues offer; speed of growth, disease resistance and other factors (probably including appearance) doubtless come into play. However, food you have grown yourself does taste sweeter. More varieties, far less time from picking to preparing to eating and probably a psychological boost from consuming the fruit of your own labours.

I did some more work on my own seed list yesterday. I had already identified those which were out of date (I want to use them up – any that germinate will be a bonus!) and was moving onto plotting out recommended sowing and harvesting times (as much as they count for anything with the changing climate).

Next comes the task of figuring out what goes where in the available space in my garden. With February well underway (the earliest indoor sowing date for many of the seeds) I need to keep up the pressure and get my plan together. Home-grown veg does not taste so good while it is still sitting in the packet, whatever variety the seeds may be!

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