11/01/2025
Brown Envelope Seeds January News Letter
Wishing Happy Healthy New Year!
Hi
Hannah here from the Brown Envelope gang.
Bring on spring time! Still bit early to be sowing but you can be dreaming of all those tasty fresh vegetables you’re going to grow this summer… there will be a summer right?!
The lucky amongst us will have a poly tunnel… out of the wind (ours survived storm Daragh, did yours? It was a miracle our ground cover didn’t end up out on cape clear however!
We’re delighted to see the lemon tree ripening up beautifully in there and Madeline just discovered a few love apple peppers! ‘Can you imagine.. peppers…in January!?’
We were pleased with ourselves for having completed the catalogue by December last year, so its a good time to order yours now, to thumb through by the fire! This year we decided we might try throw some good out into the world by attributing it to our heroes of sustainable agriculture.
Orders have started zooming in for tomatoes of which we have 70 varieties (that’s a serious collection to choose from, maybe we didn’t need that many but here we are! My favourites last year were the Striped Romans (so juicy!) and the Hillbillys, big beautiful gold and pink beefy tomatoes from thought to be an heirloom variety from West Virginia! I could go on and on.. when you get into fresh tomatoes it hard to go back to supermarket bought! ..Ok I also loved the dark galaxies and the Holly Roses.
Onions would be the next thing to get planning for!
We’re trying to produce Cavalo Nero Kale Seed at the moment, we planted it last year and have been on bolt watch, snapping its heads of vigilantly trying to stop it flowering before spring . It thinks it’ll have a beautiful warm Mediterranean spring its in for a shock! If it flowers before the spring we will likely loose the seed through rot, frost you name it, it’ll be done for!
Thankfully our man Jason Horner grew a beautiful crop of Dazzling blue Kale for us which is similar to the Nero and the seeds are up on the website to order.
We’re just in the process of going through our seed banks, to make the plan for this year; we’ll grow out varieties that have been the most popular, things that are running low and things that we haven’t grown for a while and need to be kept fresh and alive! We would also like to hear from you what your favourites are.
Madeline sent the cows away last year before the winter… to the freezer.. So Niki (named after our hero Vavilov) and Ben the PR donkeys have had full roam of the farm, choosing to spend most of their time being nosey in the yard, on the hunt for celery and cardboard (why do they love card board?) They are most unimpressed by this fierce wet and cold spell and also can’t wait for spring.
We’ve been plotting and scheming away for this years events and openings at the farm so keep your eyes peeled, we’re hoping to get the schedule together soon!
Hoping you had a peaceful holiday season
Stay warm and cozy
Hannah and Madeline
