The Midwest and east are in the throes of a winter storm, and – in some areas – it is declared to be the storm of the year with ice, snow and freezing rain. Perhaps you’re snug and warm and reading through seed catalogs waiting for Spring. You’re not alone in this pastime. Back in 1963 on this date, another person waxed nostalgic for warmer weather in Danville’s The Progress Index (pg. 4):
Mr. Burpee and his compatriots publish not only beautiful pictures of perfect vegetables which we intend to gather, but beautiful descriptions of them which are calculated to make the heart glad and the mouth water.
We read of tomatoes (“to-mar-toes” in Virginia, please) weighing two pounds and over and having red, meaty, solid flesh. The plants are large and vigorous. There is also a climbing tomato that will “cause the neighbors to marvel.” It grows from 10 to IS feet tall and often yields two or three bushels to the vine.
In our garden, provided the catalogs are accurate, we are going to have cantaloupes seven inches across weighing four to four and a half pounds. The flesh will be deep orange, thick, firm, juicy, sweet and will have the most delicious flavor.
Our snaps, sometimes known as strong beans, are going to be tender and well flavored; our butter beans, alias lima beans, will yield six to the pod. Both the lettuce and radishes will be crisp, the cucumbers will be.numerous and wilt resistant, in fact everything is going to be lovely in the best of all possible gardens. The only shortage we can predict will be a shortage of adjectives, since the catalog writers have about exhausted their vocabularies.
Anyone can understand how the heart of a gardener is uplifted even in the midst of winter weariness by this beautiful prospect of what is to be as a result of his planting good seed in the good earth.
Stay warm and safe, ya’ll, on this the 27 of January 2009.
