🌱 Seeds and thought-starters for cold days 🌨

Hello friends, how is the New Year treating you?

Winter has suddenly arrived in New York. There’s something delightful about truly cold weather. It takes the burden of post-work productivity right off one’s shoulders. Just surviving the nastiness of a commute and getting home to a cup of tea (or🍷, 🥃, 🍺) seems perfectly enough.

If you have a little pile of seed catalogues or plant mags waiting for you, even better. I can’t say enough about the cosy optimism that comes from a winter day spent inside, under blankets, catching up on one’s reading. Which is a Smith’s song right? (Sort of, but we’re 100% agreed that nature IS a language and we can read.)

Winter supplies, check!

Could we suggest…

If you need a reminder that Russia can be a force for good, read the first 3 paragraphs of this article about seed vaults and the ultimate vote for diversity made by Russian seed scientists during WW2. Perhaps as an act of hope, consider planting this packet of spinach seeds, developed by Hudson Valley Seed Company and the Organic Seed Alliance to be “the heirloom of tomorrow.” Seeds are literally everything and that includes the future. Let your optimism be edible!

Finally, did you know there’s a seed bank on Staten Island run by NYC Parks that gathers and propagates native flora for restoration projects? Dang, I’d say “crushing it” but “threshing it” feels more appropriate. 🤓

Founder Seed Bank site photo by Robynne Heymans

Just in case you missed the latest on Biophilia Magazine

Check out lenna pettersson’s portrait of a lady slipper orchid gone dormant, for a dose of real beauty to suit your post-holiday mood. Gather some amazing pro-woman energy from my interview with Sarah Owens, who is one amazing animal, gardener, bread-baker, and fierce female. Finally, if you’re staring at your poinsettia wondering what to do with it now, consider that it’s a shrub from Mexico, bred by German immigrants in LA, popularized by Bob Hope’s Christmas special, and realize: that plant is a true American hybrid. And then maybe compost it.

Stay tuned

I’m prepping a quick guide to seed catalogues, Lenna is readying advice on how to propagate succulents. Anna might share some plant pics from her trip to Australia, where roo-paws just…grow. Outside. And much more! We’re loving all the ways winter let’s us set store, take stock, and start again.

❄♻️❄️️