It’s that time of year again. We are going through what will probably be our last cold spell of the winter. The daffodils are blooming and the bees have stopped taking sugar water. That also means it’s time for baby chicks and seed starting.

I stopped by Tractor Supply and they had their first batch of chicks in. I was hoping to add some Giant Blacks and Plymouth Barred Rocks because the few I have left are getting older. They only had 3 Black Giants left and no Barred Rocks. I grabbed the Giants and added 3 Production Reds and 6 Black Alstrops. We have never had Alstrops in the past but I read that they are a good free range breed. All of our chickens and turkeys are free range so we lose a few birds every year to predators. The dogs can’t be everywhere and the hens like to nest away from everything. For this reason I always buy a few chicks, run some of our eggs through the incubator as well as let a few hens set. This allows us to stay ahead of the predators and by allowing the hens to set I believe we are raising a more savvy chicken. If they make it through one or two springs they know how to avoid being dinner for a fox or coyote. It seems like every year we are adding a different breed of chicken to the mix and I do mean mix. We have some strange looking roosters running around here. Most will end up in the freezer or packed in canning jars but we will let a few hang around. We are not interested in a specific breed of chicken. We like the variety of shape and color.

This week I started a few seeds under the lights. I have some broccoli, cauliflower, cyan and bell pepper, and three varieties of tomato. The tomatoes I chose this year are Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter Yellow, and Aunt Ginny’s Purple. This is the first year for the Purple so we’ll have to see if we like them. I should say if I like them because Lisa doesn’t eat them unless they are in a sauce. As for me, it doesn’t get much better than a summer time fresh off the vine tomato. I left room in the tray so I can start some more seeds about a week before these plants are ready to transplant. If you look close you can see one broccoli and one tomato plant. The broccoli sprout is in the back on the left and the tomato is in the front on the right. The tomato leaves haven’t seterated from the seed case yet.

Next I have to start my sweet potato slips. If you haven’t started your own slips it is a very simple process. I use toothpicks and canning jars. I stick three or four toothpicks around the middle of the sweet potato to hold it in the top of the jar. Fill the jar with enough water to keep the bottom half of the potato submerged. You will start to see roots first but after a while several sprouts will spring up from the top of the potato. Once these get to be about four or five inches long you can cut them out of the potato. Make sure you get a little piece of the potato with the slip. Place these in a shallow dish of water for a few days and they will start to sprout roots. After the slips have their own roots you can plant them in the garden providing the ground is warm enough. I have found the slips are pretty hardy and will continue to grow in the dish if the weather doesn’t cooperate and you need to hold off planting. This is my third year of growing sweet potatoes and I started with two potatoes from the grocery store.