Aren’t flowers awesome? It’s the end of January which means the start of planting the spring garden. Wyatt-Quarles and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange are the two local seed brands super excited to plant from our local farmer’s market. People love them. The Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has the HEIGHT printed on their seed packets which is super helpful if you like potager style gardens. It makes you laugh to start pretty seeds when it’s snowing outside. Speaking of cool North Carolina food things, our local Weaver Street Co-op has fantastic fresh baked breads and wheat berries. Their bread miller, Carolina Ground, has come out with a lovely cookbook called aptly Southern Ground by Jennifer Lapidus. They also sell at the...
Citrus season means marmalade and fresh baked goods to warm up with tea and embroidery. Seeing outstanding fashion come off runways and red carpets. Jennifer Lawrence in her Golden Globe flower dress won the internet this week, but grassroots marketing and word of mouth goes to Wuthering Heights which opens Valentines. Given that this comes out right at the end of peak orange season, Florida and California have to be thrilled at a British period show getting positive buzz. It really ties into the 1800s floral and fruit embroidery bead trend. Wonder if we’ll see some promotional deals with Sunkist or jam companies with actors to promote British and American swag? Most of the books from Jane Austin, etc. are...
What makes good soil? January is our gardening reset month. Raking tons of mulch for an Italian herb garden, resealing the shop roof, and fixing the pathways in a warm spell makes you reflective. One of the first questions being: why does every winter gardening book suggest doing repair projects in winter especially putting in pathways for wheelbarrows, but Lowes, etc. don’t run sales til March? Neighbors have been busy installing new decks, trellises, and painting trims. Seems like a missed marketing opportunity. For thousands of years, humankind from Plato to Francis Bacon dabbled in growing better plants. Folk wisdom answers are: add manure, wood ash, blood/bone meal, lime, and other soil amendments. Old gardeners here baby their fruit trees...
Second year deep mulch is slowly going in between winter snow and rain for Italian herbs. Rows of rosemary to protect baby heirloom strawberries hopefully in a few months. Strawberries are one of the coolest fruits out there so this may require lots and lots of careful taste testing.Yum. Just finished reading a great book on CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) called Sharing the Harvest by Elizabeth Henderson and Robyn Van En. We’ve ordered from the Produce Box, but didn’t realize how popular CSAs are. Given the number one request is for named/personalized cotton bags (12”x14”) to keep root vegetables for campus programs and city programs, you’ve got to think some NC State engineers or non-profit leaders who are interested in...
It’s fruit tree planting season. The British are known in the US for having the best apples, but need to do more research into the color changing types like Surprize Apples which are lovely golden outside and sweet pink inside. Fruit makes some of the most beautiful embroidery. Expect to see this along with color dying next year with a modern tech twist. Blame Foundation, Apple’s scifi tv show, but the costumes are GREAT and the fashion technology gets you thinking how you could use it. The epic tailors in the show combine ancient handsewing with modern nanotechnology and special eyewear…smart glasses…for seeing their work for the very wealthy. Need to look into the new apps for transposing photos you...