I am so excited about our seedlings this year.  Last year's tomato plants were tall and spindly and didn't even last a day after I transplanted them outside into the garden.  Using techniques I've learned through The Vegetable Gardener's Bible our tomato seedlings are thriving.  They look so happy in their little containers, I can barely contain my excitement (please pardon the pun)!  Soon we'll be needing to move them into yet another container so they can have more room to spread out.

Transplanting left and right normally isn't my thing.  I know its important to have plants in big enough containers, but we rarely have enough pots to go around.  This year we're reducing the amount of juice and milk containers we send to the recycling center by using those as our planters.  We just cut the tapered tops off, leaving a decent-size vessel that we can fit either three seedlings initially, or one for the second transplanting.

The tomatos we're growing currently are "paste tomatoes"- so they boil down into sauces and pastes much quicker than other tomatoes that have a lot more liquid in them.  We're planning on growing regular tomatoes as well, so we will have our own canned, diced tomatoes and whatnot for soups, chilis, etc later in the year.  But I thought these would be a good start.

I just transplated our hot peppers on Wednesday as well.  They are still fairly small, but they take longer to germinate compared to the tomatoes (which seemed to sprout after only a couple days) so I'm not too concerned.  Last year the hot peppers that we started failed miserably...but I'm sick of buying chili powder so I'm determined to get a good pepper crop so I can dry and grind up my own.

Once all of the tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs had been successfully transplanted to their new 'pots' I started the next round of peppers and tomatoes (and rosemary).  Although it doesn't seem like alot right now, so we're going to order another couple seed packets of tomatoes to be sure we have enough (hopefully) to keep us covered until next year's crop comes in.

After realizing that we have 1000 square feet of garden the other night I've been kind of cutting loose with my ordering plans.  I added black beans and kidney beans into my shopping cart so hopefully we won't have to buy those this winter either.  I also ordered 12.5 pounds of seed potatos from Fedco today, who came highly recommended from a friend of ours.  I got a combination of storage potatos- and knowing how many potatos we eat I sincerely hope this will provide enough for us.

We'll order the rest of our seeds from High Mowing Seeds, I've got my shopping cart all filled, all I need to do is check with Kyle to be sure he doesn't want some strange something-or-other that I hadn't thought of.

Yeah I know.  We're solidly within the Winter months here in Northern Vermont.  We're looking at subzero temps again this weekend- at night at least.  I haven't been getting out to enjoy the snow enough so I've been wishing it away.  I just keep thinking about Spring plans and I'm ready to get started.

I can't even start our seeds until March (even that is a little optimistic).  Not that I've bought them yet (you know if I did they would be planted by now).  I've got my shopping cart at High Mowing Seeds saved so when I'm ready to order I can just click the checkout button and we're gold.  I've got a nice selection of everything from peas and beans, to onions, potatos, sweet and hot peppers, carrots and celery, spinach and salad greens to name a few.  The more I think about them the more I want to just click that 'checkout' button.

The other thing I'm itching to get going on is our poultry order.  We decided that we're going to get another lot of cornish x rock broilers this Spring so they'll be ready for slaughter early in Summer, then we'll probably get another bunch later in the Summer for slaughter in the Fall.

We're going to get another dozen egg layers, Silver Laced Wynadottes, I think.  I know, its just two of us and you're probably wondering what we're doing with almost a dozen eggs a day as it is.  Well, for your information, we've been selling around four dozen eggs a week, and I'm pretty sure we could sell more if we had enough to get rid of.  Not to mention that I've been looking forward to freezing some quiche's but haven't been able to because we're selling the main ingredient.  And I don't have enough eggs to eat for breakfast every day- only enough for the weekends.  This isn't much of a problem as I don't normally have time to eat before I leave for work (I typically take some fruit and cottage cheese for a later lunch at work) but I wouldn't mind having the option.

Also on the poultry order will be the turkeys.  We haven't decided yet how many we'll get, and we haven't settled on a breed, but they're in our radar.  I really want to go with the Royal Palm turkey but Kyle would rather have the standard Large White turkey...you know, the kind that won't even fit in your roasting pan with the cover on...yeah that one. 

My thing with the Royal Palm turkeys is that they're a heritage breed, not a commercial one, so they're better foragers and wouldn't require as much commercial feed.  Although, I guess they are a little smaller than most other heritage breed turkeys...so maybe we could compromise a little.  I just love those black and white markings.  Anywho. 

So the plan is to place our poultry order in March (or February and request a later ship date) so by the time these little guys and gals are feathered in a bit we'll be able to stick them outside as much as possible.  The sooner we can get them living outside and fending for themselves the better.  I do love a good grass-fed egg/chicken/turkey.

The last thing that is on the radar is our start into pork production.  We decided it was time we really start getting serious about this whole "self sufficient" thing.  So, we'll be buying a handful of piglets as soon as we can construct housing for them, and erect some sturdy fencing.  The plan is to keep them in a little grove near the house where they can dig up the ground all they want.  Once the little piggies are gone we're going to convert the space into a future buck pen so we can have our goat breeding done on site.  Unless we decide to get a breeding pair of pigs so we don't have to keep buying piglets year after year...which really would make more sense.  Either way- I'm going to insist on heritage breeds for the pigs, for sure.

So that is our plan for this spring.  Until then I'll just have to keep watching it snow...rushing out to the barn to collect eggs before they freeze, planning sledding parties, and drinking obscene quantities of hot chocolate, trying to make the best of it.  Because, lets be honest, as soon as the summer heat hits we'll be thinking back to these frigid days and long for the crisp, cool air once more.

New years eve, Kyle and I had a lovely evening of bonfires, margeritas, hors d'oeuvres and Alfred Hitchcock movies.  Standing around the fire, being dusted by snowflakes, we played fetch with Ollie until he could no longer find the frisbee in the dark and the snow.  The girls were warm in their barn, watching the festivities from the comfort of their window seat.  The new year was rung in without bells or whistles.  No ball drop, party hats, crowds, or bar bills.  Just us kids down here on the farm, standing around a fire in our muck boots, drinking frozen drinks out of authentic German steins in the crisp winter air.  In hindsight it probably would have been a little more pleasant if we were drinking hot drinks- like mulled cider...oh well!  We've got plenty of winter left for that.

We were gifted a beautiful, homemade, cedar storage bench that Mom made herself.  It is taking up residence at the foot of our bed and it is just absolutely beautiful.

The rest of the weekend was spent snowblowing (both with the john deere and the wind), shoveling, and staying cozy in the house when we could.  We brought our tree out to May and Chutney on Sunday but that was about as ambitious as we got.  The wind and the snow made spending time outside a little less than lovely.  I had grand plans of working on the guest bedroom but settled for making some awesome breakfast burritos, spicy homefries, and mamosas before spending the rest of the day in sweats with Kyle, watching Psycho and back episodes of Lost online at Netflix.

I did start shopping for our seeds for this year's garden.  We're going to be buying them from High Mowing Organic Seeds just a few towns over from us in Wolcott.  They're a great local company that sells organic seeds at fair prices- we like them.  Now my only challenge is going to be to wait to start the seeds once they arrive...I'm ready but if we start them now we might have a full-fledged garden in our house before Spring even shows its lovely face- not a good idea when you've got cats and dogs just dying to find something new to dig in.  Although, maybe I'll start some herbs and hot peppers just to get my gardening fix...good idea, I think I'll spend my break shopping.