introducing heirloom roots munchie patch! + seed swap score

for a long time i’ve wanted to come up with a name for my garden. something cute and fun, like the local farm/CSAs “peaceful belly” and “earthly delights.” i finally sat down, brainstormed and came up with something original that i love: “heirloom roots munchie patch!” a google search for “heirloom roots” surprisingly reveals no previously-staked-out websites or brand names, and “munchie patch” returns only five results, most of them concerning pot. i added “munchie” in honor of my furry garden helper, since that’s his nickname, but it’s open to interpretation.

some other garden name contenders included: “seedspring harvest,” “dew dance garden,” “barefoot regatta garden,” and “jardin de v’espérez belle.” i love the last one, but it sounds stuffy and it would take a lot of explaining to deliver the full meaning: “vesper” is a word for evening, and a vesper bell is a bell rung in the evening. “belle” is french for beautiful, and “vesper” reminds me of the french word “espoir,” which means “to hope.” so, taking some serious liberties with french grammar, “jardin de vous espérez (shortened to ‘v’espérez’) belle” can *creatively* be interpreted as “garden of your beautiful hope.” i’m out of breath just typing that. it obviously doesn’t fit the “cute and fun” parameters.

reed’s working on drawing a logo for the munchie patch. i would do it myself but i’m certain what he comes up with will be a thousand times better than anything i could draw. when he’s finished i’m going to screenprint it on tote bags and t-shirts!

the reason i suddenly, urgently wanted to commit to a name was so that i could include it on seed packets. i never got around to roasting my sunflower seeds from last summer, so i packaged them to give away at today’s seed swap.

i typed out all the info and gardening specs on my typewriter, scanned them in and put them together with a picture of the flower on a background photo of its seeds. then i cut up paper grocery sacks and sewed them together with the seeds inside and the labels sewn on at one end.

the grocery sacks are made from recycled material and are compostable.

i made some empty ones, too, and filled them up at the swap.

next season i’ll try to be more diligent about saving larger quantities of seeds to trade and give away at swaps. last year (with just a few exceptions) i only saved enough for myself and sometimes a few friends. i felt sort of cheap just giving away sunflower seeds. they went fast, though, i brought around 50 packets and i think they were almost gone by the time i left.

the seed swap was awkward but alright. i picked up a few awesome seeds, like fish peppers! (here’s a fantastic article about them by william woys weaver.) those caught my eye in seed catalogues but i never ordered any. i spoke with a woman who grew some and she said they’re crazy hot, so i probably won’t want to eat them but the plants are beautiful--the leaves are variegated white and green, and the peppers are multicolored and striped. apparently some seedlings come up 100% albino, but they won’t survive because they can’t photosynthesize.

i also picked up some neat squash, beans, corn, lettuce, and a whole bunch of seed packets--they set out a huge box of commercial seed packets from last season to dig through.