Every year, right about this time, for the past six years, we’re usually sowing seeds, or we’re at least fixing to. This arctic polar freeze of a winter, however, has rendered that all but impossible. My planting shed is frozen shut, so I’m not sure if I have seed-starting mix from Johnny’s in there or not. And I’m not wholly certain about how many seedling trays I have either.

As I go through seed catalogs and ponder what to fill all our rows with, all the while stuck in limbo, there is one thing I can do: I am officially committing to high yield/high consumption/low waste. Like, tomatoes? We got that. Tomatoes are a success story at Victory Farms. And, even with 80-100 plants every season, we’ve done very well with managing yield and loss. This makes me less interested in low-yield plants (such as broccoli) and, beyond that, any plant that I waste (and by waste I mean winds up in the compost or rotting on my sill).

I have a better idea of what will wind up in Victory Farms, but it’s nowhere near set in stone. I’m just trying to get there by studying shopping lists and our crisper in the down months. Getting back to yield, I’ve done so-so with peppers, even though I grow more than 50 plants each year. I think I’m going to scale way back, but go big on the love and get them in the garden way earlier and harvest much more regularly. I think I can increase production and ultimately increase it with the peppers if I can grow an amount that I can really micromanage and see how they respond.

It all feels like wild speculation while the garden resembles the tundra. I am so grateful that Curt hauled in 10 bales of straw to protect the beds.