I took a terrific spreadsheet that Johnny Select Seeds put together and offered up on their home page and added a little bit more to it.
I added a few more vegetables that they missed, a couple of usage notes on the first page and a harvest date tab to offer some guidance as to when things should be coming out of the garden and into your kitchen. Obviously using a model like this to predict the harvest is a little bit like trying to predict the weather – if you get close, you did all right.
The file is Excel and isn’t exactly the most dynamic approach – you have to update things on each page… ideally, I’ll get back to this and have a single page for the vegetables and then have the data dynamically sorted based on inputs on the first page… then again – Johnny Seeds saved me a lot of time with this jump start… and, uhh ohh… my leeks aren’t started yet! 
Take it or leave it – it’s a slightly polished for my own usage tool (so I can plan crop timings for the CSA) – I think gives a little more information than the original. Maybe… but I’m biased!
Here it is – Planting / Seed Starting / Harvest Target Workbook
Hey – ever hear of Local Harvest (localharvest.org)? It’s a great site that helps people connect with local food / farmers. This might be the best farm on there – http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M34913
If you know them – you should write and honest, non-ballet stuffing review… if and only if you have actually purchased and/or used their chickens or produce. We are all about honesty and transparency – so please contribute only if you CAN and only truthfully.
For all the interest we have had in our super small trial CSA this first year – we also get asked lots and lots of gardening questions year after year. One of the most common questions is “How do you know when to start your seeds?”
Well – I started working on a tool for general consumption on the internet a few days ago… only to discover that Johnny Seeds has done the heavy lifting for me (rather everyone). So follow the link, here grab the spreadsheet in the upper right corner of the screen, and put in your last frost concern date. The rest is simple – two tabs of info, sorted in two ways.
Really – it couldn’t be easier. Now – if only it would weed too!
I have to say that this is one of the coolest little kitchen gadgets we have bought in a long – long time. Not the toaster but the innocent little crock located right next door to it. It’s called a Butter Bell – and if you use butter – you need one (buy it here).
Why do you need one? Well, simply put, one of lives often missed pleasures is the spreading of fresh, creamy butter on toasts or homemade breads. Fighting with stick of hard butter from the fridge just isn’t the same. And don’t get me started on those nasty butter substitutes that “look” like you think butter is supposed to look and “spread” like you think butter is supposed to spread.
That’s just gross. There’s nothing yummy, natural, or overly healthy about those hydrogenated spreads of strange oils, colors and flavors that try and approximate the real thing.
While I’m not advocating some sort of “all butter, all the time” lifestyle, I do think good organic butter is a real treat. And what the butter bell does is use cool water to seal the butter from the atmosphere – keeping it fresh at room temperature. As you can see, the butter is packed in the top of the bell where it’s yummy-ness waits for you to separate the 2 halves and display it’s golden goodness.
I have been making homemade bread for years – and I have to honestly tell you, this little investment in butter storage makes that first warms slice all the much more tasty.
