a good thing to do in February

When you are sick of the gray skies, the brown grass and the cold temps. . . read a seed catalog. 

It is balm for the soul.  Especially if you are reading the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog.  When the bleak midwinter is closing in, you will find an open window, a breeze of sweet spring air coming through.  A dream will emerge.  A yellow green dream that promises fruit, sustenance and provision.  It is there, you can find it to get you through the gray, cold days. 

here are some snippets:

. . . grown in southern Illinois since at least the 1930's, including by friends of  Abraham Lincolns parents.

. . . An excellent keeper, a beet developed before the days of refridgerators.

. . .  A fully savoyed or crinkle variety

. . . Mortgage Lifter by Radiator Charlie (named because the sale of this popular tomato helped pay his house off)

. . . Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad (brought to Ohio by a runaway slave)

. . . produces an abundance of large, fat, tender, fluted pods.

. . . Drunken Woman.   Gorgeous bright green leaves with ruffled- almost fringed- edges in deep bronze.