We took a little road trip today to Wetherfield, CT to visit Comstock, Ferre & Co. to buy heirloom seeds for this year’s gardens.
We’ve wanted to go for a while now, and I’m so glad we went!
Comstock, Ferre & Co. has been in the business of selling seeds for over 200 years. (You can read their history on their website.) In 2010, Jere and Emilee Gettle, who own the fabulous Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, bought the store and properties and brought in Amish crews to restore the buildings.
The store now sells both the Comstock seeds and Baker Creek seeds, as well as a wide variety of locally made artisanal foods and hand crafted items.
When I stepped into Comstock, Ferre & Company, I fell in love with the place. Not just because it was like a candy store to us seed-loving kids, but because of the smell. It smelled like history. It smelled like the library in my town used to smell before they refurbished it. That’s another old building. It smelled of wood…and work…and age…I don’t know how to describe it. But it makes me happy.
I would have taken more pictures, but my camera decided it didn’t want to work when we arrived there and got out of the car, so these few pictures were taken with my phone. Grrr.
Anyway, you can see Bill and the kids perusing rows of seeds in the picture above. We found what we needed, and then we browsed a while after that, finally picking out a few other new things to try including melons again, even though we have never successfully grown melons ever. Bill vows not to bother trying again and then when the seed catalogs arrive he decides to try one more time. So keep your fingers crossed for the melons this year!
We’re planning to go back there on June 3rd for their second annual Heirloom Festival. The first one (last year) celebrated Comstock, Ferre & Co.’s 200th anniversary, and I’m glad they’re going to make this a yearly event, because we couldn’t go last year.
The people working there were friendly and helpful, and we left with some advice about growing melons (the roots don’t like to be wet), 25 packets of seeds, and a bottle of hot sauce that features the bhut jolokia pepper, also known as the ghost chili, ghost pepper, or Naga Morich. Apparently it’s THE hottest pepper out there, and we plan to grow them this year. Currently the seeds are out of stock at Baker Creek but should be back in a couple of weeks. (We learned that the first batch weren’t germinating properly so Baker Creek cancelled their order. Hoping the second round is successful!)
Anyway, that’s a little bit of what’s been going on around here. Now I’ve got to go finish getting dinner ready.
How was your weekend?
