Reverb11: Day 7, Seasonal

Seasonal. This prompt immediately makes me think of February. That's when the garden catalogs start to come in the mail. My favorite one from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is really quite special. They have the largest heirloom seed collection in the world. The business was started by a young guy (I think he was in his teens when he started saving and trading seeds). Now he's married with a young daughter and really making an impact on the seed growing world. They recently bought a seed company in Connecticut. In California they bought an old bank in Petaluma (click the link to see the photo--very cool) and turned it into a seed store.

Baker Creek's catalog each year is coffee table worthy. It's beautiful. It has opened my mind (and my garden) to really strange things. Round cucumbers? Small baby cucumbers that look like mini watermelons (1" long)? Oh yeah, they have that. And more.

I try to eat as seasonally as possible and visit farm stands and farmer's markets. We do canning and some years are better than others. This year we made refrigerator pickles and dilly beans. Sadly, we did not make any tomato sauce. If anyone has a good recipe for tomato sauce that cans well please do share. :)

What was seasonal about your 2011? Do you also eagerly await the first seed catalog (we start our seeds indoors in March). Do you have a favorite farm stand? I'd love to hear what was seasonal about your year: it could even be some sort of seasonal tradition like apple picking, making snowmen, or chopping wood (I helped stack wood this year).
(Photo source: www.rareseeds.com)