Burpee day

My green thumb is driving my mind these days, and it's imploring it to hurry up and get those seeds ordered. So, that's today's assignment. I've never ordered seeds before, mainly cuz I've never had a seed catalog show up at my house. Well, around Christmas time, I looked up seed catalogs on the Internet and found a couple of old reliables. I ordered two, knowing full well I'd be hearing from these folks every year until long after I've turned into dirt.

The catalogs finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, and after thumbing through them, I found the Burpee edition to be much more reader friendly, at least for my simple mind. So, I carried it with me from room to room----even to the thinking throne----and circled a few "must have's" along with the standard veggies and flower packets.

One of the more intriguing items among the offerings of new varieties like Big Mama Lima Beans, Mango Tango Impatiens and Red Lightning Tomatoes was the Maple Sugar Sweet Corn. In fact, I think I'll order a 100-seed packet and give it a try.

It's a "new Burpee exclusive" ready to eat in 78 days. Who wouldn't want to try it after reading the following description?

"We knew from the first bite that we had a winner. This utterly unique yellow hybrid had us at 'hello.' It boasts sugar levels truly beyond belief, while retaining full texture and creaminess of older types.

"We like it grilled to bring out the most of its maple candy flavor. Petite 6-8" ears fit neatly on your plate. The size also allows for great husk protection, so each ear is a perfect specimen of kernels packed to the very tip."

Well, I can't wait for the late August days when Bill barbecues up some Costco tri-tip steaks, smothered in Stubbs Moppin' sauce to go along with a tossed green salad (topped with Litehouse Honey Mustard dressing, of course) and Maple Sugar Sweet Corn, freshly picked from the garden. We've got lots of stages to encounter before sitting down to that yummy meal.

First and foremost, is completing the seed order today. I'll drive to the post office and drop it in tomorrow's mail and then wait patiently for the UPS man or the mailman to come in the driveway in a few weeks to hand over the seeds.

After I've checked out just what a real live Burpee seed order looks like, I'll again wait patiently for North Idaho's ever-unpredictable spring to offer me a window of opportunity for preparing that garden dirt with the rototiller and rake, along with another year's worth of Rambo and Casey's home-produced horse apples. I might even go get a load of well-aged and well packed Colburn manure, compliments of my sisters' 13 Arabians. I've heard that Arabian manure breeds superior corn.

Then, when the last snow starts melting from Baldy Mountain, it'll be time to stick those Burpee seeds in the ground and then to pray---a lot---that an extra blast of winter doesn't freeze 'em to death or that rain doesn't rot 'em to death. Once they're up, I'll give the plants the best tender loving care I can muster, and we'll all wait, with mouths watering for harvest time in August.

Just thinking about it on this winter morning, I can already taste that grilled maple corn, smothered in melting Imperial margarine. And, those fresh tomatoes, and the sweetness of a baked Idaho potato, straight from the ground. Yum. Yum.

In the meantime for the next several months, we'll survive on packages of cut-up lettuce which turns brown with its first breath of air and tasteless hot house tomatoes---but there's always that Litehouse Honey Mustard to fool us into thinking we actually like the salad.