Going to Seed with Dan Brisebois

This wraps up my second year writing about farming and seeds. Let’s go back and see what happened these last twelve months with

• The main topics from 2011
• The most popular posts of 2011
• The most clicked pictures of 2011
• My favorite 2011 posts
• And some plans for 2012

2011 post topics

This year I wrote less about growing  and more about cleaning and storing  specific crops

• Radishes
• Turnips
• Beans
• Brassicas (also here)
• Garlic  (curing and  storage)

I wrote about two farm I visited

• Southern Exposure Seeds
• Even’star Organic Farm

and seed tools and techniques I use

• Modified  winnowing buckets
• Growing lettuce under tunnels
• Seed packing scoops (also Filling seed packets)
• Improving varieties
• 10 steps to clean seeds 

I also wrote a series on planning for seed production.

Most popular posts of 2011

The three most popular post were

1. Building caterpillar tunnels
2. Harvesting garlic bulbils
3. Growing chufa nuts

Interestingly they are all posts from 2010.

The 5 most popular posts written in 2011 were

1. Visiting Even’star Organic Farm
2. Garlic storage
3. The 2011 Tourne-Sol seed catalog
4. Saving bean seeds
5. And the Ste-Anne garlic festival

Most Clicked Pictures of 2011

1. Sprinklers
2. Drip Tape
3. Hooks to support plastic in caterpillar tunnels
4. Mizuna plants
5. Caterpillar tunnel ridge line

Folks love irrigation and tunnels! Again the most clicked photos in 2011 were all from 2010 posts.

Here are the most clicked photos from 2011 posts

1. Seed scoops
2. Winnowing bean seeds

My favorite 2011 posts

My favorite posts this past year was comparing spring 2011 and 2010. It wasn’t until I compared images from the same dates in both years that I really could understand how different the weather had been.

My other favorite post was about the seed packing scoops I’d acquired. I loved writing how 15 scoops smaller than a teaspoon were going to change my life. I also loved that when I saw Patrice Fortier (from La Société des Plantes) at the Seedy Saturday in Montreal he told me that right after reading the post he ordered his own set.

Plans for 2012

I realize I’ve posted less in 2011 than 2010. It’s been a busy year and much of my writing energy was diverted into two other directions:

• the new Tourne-Sol website,  which will be up in the next few weeks with online-store, blog, pictures, and more!
• and my involvement on the Canadian Organic Growers board of directors, as we looked for a new Executive Director (and found a great new ED!)

But with these commitments almost completed, I’m aiming to post more regularly through 2012. I’ll catch up on a couple of posts I’d planned for 2011: mainly cleaning lettuce seed,  my 2010 trip to Greta’s Organic Seeds, and more comparisons of different garlic types.

Also, the Eastern Canadian Organic Seed Growers Network is planning a big seed conference in Montreal on Nov. 10-11, 2012. I’ll be posting more as the details become clearer.

If there’s anything you want me to write about, do leave a comment or send me an e-mail (goingtoseedblog@gmail.com).

So thanks for reading this past year, and I hope you enjoy the next year of posts!