Guess what came in the mail today!! Thank you so much Tracy, I'm very happy with my new seeds (especially the corn)- gonna need more garden space.

My tomato/pepper and squash seeds will go out tomorrow. I wonder how many times one bubble mailer can travel cross country? Thinking about reusing this one because it doesn't look too bad.

Thanks again!!

YAY!!! I got my package today :)

It's so full of great items...gotta go through and figure out where to put them all lol :) My garden is going to be HUGE!!! But it will also help with the community garden.

Acres- I'm very sorry to hear of the pay cut...that's a really hefty blow. If you need any seeds at all, please let me know. I have a huge bulk order of staples coming in next week that I purchased for our community garden- Most are heirlooms and there are Peas, Pole Beans, Winter & Summer Squashes, Pak Choi and a whole bunch of other stuff, so please if you need anything at all, don't even hesitate to ask. I can send you a list of what I have coming in if you need any seeds.

Thank you for the "Best Hand Writing Award" :) That's so sweet!

Thank you so much for hosting this swap. It's been fun and a real treat in the end :)

I also got my package today. Thank you so much for going above and beyond--I'm thrilled!

Got my mailer today and I am very pleased!!!

Thanks so much everyone, I got many things I needed!!!

Wahoo!!

Acres,

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe the package you sent me!

sweet corn, savory, sugar baby watermelon, sweet basil, zucchini squash, sparkler radish, cajun delight okra (YEA!), bulb fennel, red siberian (I think... tomato?) purple tomatillos, pomegranate, royal acorn squash, snow peas (going in the ground this afternoon!), peppermint, cabbage, pooona kheena cucumber, carrot, patty pan, blue lake 274 bush beans, prize head lettuce, blackberry, siam queen basil, hollybrook lusscious muskmelon, ground cherry, snapdragons (yea, more BOY seeds for my son), beefstake tomato, casaba, cucumber, herb cress, red ace beet, cilantro, collards (I guess I forgot to mention, this is the one and only thing I won't eat! I have a goatee, but I am not a goat! LOL! My neighbor will love it though), calendula seeds, heirloom paste tomato, radish, sweetie melon, bushbreen beans, 83 pound pumpkin, peas, lettuce, golden hubbard (YEA!), jubilee watermelon, broccoli- calabrese, green bell pepper, blue hubbard squash (YEA!), annatto/ achoite bixa orellana saffron substitute, red burgundy okra (YEA!), marketmore cucumber, lemon belm, spinach, field jack pupmkin and a pack labeld white storm pak clevy? not sure what that one is.

I also won the coveted MOST TAPE USED! award.

Thank you for hosting. If you have a breather now and want to join the Cut That Out swap, we have plenty of time and room left. Thanks again.

Mark

Acres - If you would like a bunch of Sweet Anise/Fennel or Florence Fennel, I have lots of it. It's wonderful many cooks and chefs recommend slicing it in dishes where you use onion. It's a completely different flavor and a very nice change. Use the bulb as you would an onion bulb.

Also have a bunch of sweet basil if you want any. It's wonderful with Tomatoes, on pizza, in salads, with pasta and so much more. There are many types of basil as well. Sweet spicy, flavored...just depends on your taste.

Would also recommend Savory, Rosemary, Thyme (there are a whole bunch of different scented ie flavored thymes) As with Basils. Lemon balm is a very useful herb. It's prolific as heck (in fact, more than peppermint), but it's great to steep in hot water to help with an upset stomach or headache. It's also great to use in lightly flavoring some dishes. Used to have to make tea for my ex in the AM, after a few too many the night before. It takes the hangover away.

Oregano is another great herb to grow. Fresh oregano is so much more tasty than dried store bought.

Many herbs, greens etc can be grown indoors in the winter as well. Pick up one of those trays with the clear lid. Sow a mix of beet seeds, mustard seeds, leaf lettuce or other edible greens seeds and mix them up, sow them in some soil in the bottom of the black tray. Let them grow a few weeks in a warm well lit room. You'll have baby greens for salads in only 2-3 weeks. And I use the sugar beets (after all, I purchased a pound of them last season...gotta use them somehow lol) and let me tell you...talk about tasty greens!!!! It sure beats the cost of a $2.00 skimpy head of lettuce.

What a great surprise for a Friday afternoon-my seeds came today! What a great selection-some things that I had on my "need" list & some great new things. Thanks for a great swap & I hope the job situation works out. Thanks again!

Acres,

I have a stevia cutting coming on the Cut That Out swap. Once i get it growing, I would like to send you some cuttings. Use it instead of sugar. Grow your own sweetner!

Growing herbs depends upon what your tastes are. I grow basil like I would lettuce. I mix spinach, cinnamon basil and sweet basil and don't use any dressing. Throw in a few stevia leaves! OH MY! Your tongue will beat your teeth out to get more!

Want chives and/or garlic? Let me send you some if you want any. I have starts of both. the chives will spread very quickly. I planted a 2 inch pot two years ago. Now the patch is over 12 inches across. The garlic grows well too. Cut the tops and put in your dishes, salads, soups and stews. Then when I want the cloves, I pull up a head, replant one or two and then use the rest.

Does that help any?

There are such sweet people on this site ya know. I am really happy that you all are really liking what you have received in your mailers. I have such much fun doing it.

Dirtdiggin- I know your in the wow swap did you send your mailer out yet. Hint hint the fennel sounds good. I have a few herbs growing like rosemary, thyme, oregano, fever few, valarian, for some reason my lavender keeps dying. and I love lavender. Its purple you know LOL. I am going to work on my flower beds and if you cant eat it or do some tihng with it.. its out of there. well unless its purple and really pretty.

Mark - I cant do the cut it out swap I dont have any cuts lol that sounds weird. any who I have a few sevia seeds and plan on seeing if it will grow. Thanks for the ofter to join the swap.

Acres

What do you feed / bribe your postal people with? LOL! I received my package today. What a great surprise! Still need to spend some time looking at the variety of seeds.

Thanks so much!

Acres,
Received all the seeds in the mail today... what a wonderful selection. Can't wait to start planting.

I managed to wipe off the name on a 1" square plastic seed package already. Does any one know what the
'Italian A????ti Herb' could be?
I know it is not arugula
There might be a name at the bottom
'a??? - 2009' could be alex - 2009

Thanks, Marco

Acres - Nope haven't shipped the WOW yet...was waiting for updated lists...good thing I made notes from pattys swap lol so you're in for a surprise :) I'll put some notes in for you too :)

I think I need to bribe my postal workers, since people in NY and CT are getting their packages before me, and I'm waaaay closer to CA, LOL! They always overcharge me for my bubble envies too ... grumble, grumble. Maybe it's because I'm in a small town with no big cities nearby?

Anyway, I am getting excited just listening to what everyone got!

Thanks, Acres, for all of your hard work!

Bonnie

Misskimmie reporting in... I got my package today! It's so much fun. Thanks to all who sent in seeds. I got some wonderful surprises. Acre thanks for all of your hard work.

((((Big Hug))))

kim

Dont feel bad Bonnie. I was expecting to have 3 packages when I got home from work today (this one, Patty's and Earl's) and found 0 !!!

Think the small town thing has something to do with it too, though. Should be tomorrow I hope.

I received my seeds today, too. What a great selection. And I got all my wants. Thanks for all the seeds and to a great hostess.

Don (dem_pa)

I seem to be suffering from "small town mail" as well....lol! I even called my husband from work today to see if it was in (he is home when the mail runs).....he thinks I am crazy :-)

Hey, big WOW! from me, too, because I got my package in the mail today. What a great selection. Tracy, you did a bang-up job. I requested interesting beans and you sent a selection of 9 varieties. The 2009 garden is going to be fun.

Thanks, Tracy for hosting this swap and doing an amount of work that I can't even imagine for a bunch of people you only know by funny nicknames over the internet. And thank you, all of you people with funny nicknames, for sharing. You're a great group.

Wow! I am getting excited reading your posts!

Macro - I think your seed pack might be Italian Agretti??? I just ordered some recently. thehills

I got my package today! Thanks, Everyone. I got a nice selection of goodies.

Thanks so much, Acres! I got my package today, too! What a great variety of things in there! I know you put a lot of time into this and tried very hard to please everyone, so again, thank you very much for being an awesome host. I think it's great that you tried to match to our wants on top of just giving us a mixture of seed varieties. THANK YOU!

By the way, that Agretti sounds AWESOME! From what I understand, it's fairly rare to get seed for it, too, so woohooo for you! Okay... Off I go to add that to my page! LOL

Blessings,
Angela

I got my package today too, I love it, more cool tomatoes, and everything! Thanks for hosting this swap, you did a greeat job! Chris

Hi Acres! I received my package yesterday - thanks so much! You did a wonderful job with this swap - I am so happy with what you selected for me. I love radishes and peppers - and you sent me such a wonderful variety among scads of other veggies/herbs! My veggie and herb garden will be so much fun this year, I can't wait for the snow to melt here so I can do some planting! Thanks again. - Lisa

I got my package today. Thank you everyone for the wonderful variety! Can't wait to wintersow some more!!!

I got my envelope today! Thank you so much. I am having fun looking the different varieties up and making notes for planting. And since I live in southern California, I am even going to plant some today too! I grow a lot of what we eat, make all our bread, juice, jams, and do a lot of freezing and canning. I also have chickens which besides eggs helps on the composting too! Yesterday I had fun making blackberry scented brown sugar body scrub for everyone for Valentine's Day. So thank you for widening the variety of seeds I have to plant this year. I really appreciate all of your time and effort.

Diana
w9yards

Thanks so much for everything everyone. I got my package today, and like everything in it....well except maybe radishes LOL, but they'll make trading fodder. Got a bunch of nice stuff, cant wait for spring!

howdee

soo glad everyone is so happpy with there mailers and sellections of seeds.

I actually dont even live in a town my area is so small. The main town I shop in an do my post is so small it does not even have a stop light. Talk about living in the sticks lol

Acres

Got mine today :-) Great selection, thanks so much :-)
Melissa

Got mine today too, thanks so much !!!!

~Wendy

Yay. The package came in the mail today. I thought it might. I figured three days from when Purple said she mailed it. And... what a great day for it to come. It was at least 65 here in GA today... AND... we are forcasted to be in the upper sixties for the next few days. The other day we barely got above freezing and our lows were 13 and 16 with lower wind chills. I'm glad for this warm up. I washed the car, cleaned some pine straw off the square foot garden, started de-weeding an area (again) in front of the gas tank for some flowers and winter sowed a couple things. I'm toying with a seed organization tool too - one of those sets of small drawers. I just need to clean it a little bit. I'm going to do that now.

Tracy, thank you for all your hard work. Happy growing. :O).

- Jonathan.

I got my package on Friday, and I was too exciting and forgot to report in here. ha.
I loved everything in my package~~Thanks Acres!

I loved it all, but especially wanted to say thanks to those who sent in blackeyed peas - they were on my wish list, as I am moving south (hopefully SOON!)

Acres

Got my package in the mail yesterday. Thanks so much. I got such a large variety I think I will have to make a larger garden than I intended. I can't wait to plant my garden.

Pat

Howdee ya all

Glad most of you are happy with what ya got. I did my best and worked with what I had. This may be the last Acres all edible swap... You just cant make everyone happy.. (grumble grumble)

Acres

Say it isn't so Tracy! I've really looked forward to your swaps!

Oooh, Tracy, don't stop doing it. I'm in for next year already! Thanks so much for the fantastic seeds. You totally rock. Seeds were exactly perfect for me.
BTW: I'm so sorry about your hubby's job. I will be praying for you guys. I can't imagine cutting .50 out of our budget.

Thank you, Thank you!! I got a wonderful package on Saturday! I can't WAIT to get some of these in the ground! Spring, hurry up! It's been so windy, I haven't been able to finish my greenhouse. :(

Bess
BTW, I got one tom in a little red plastic ziploc that didn't have a label... Ideas, anybody?

I wish people weren't so insensitive. Whoever said whatever was said Tracy, just ban them from future swaps. I was very happy with my selection, dont let one person take away from everyone else being so happy.

I agree, Tracy! Where else can you get this kind of variety along with things that you pick out that match wants on your list???? If I had to buy each one of those 50 different things, I'd be out a whole lot. This way we can send in some things we have and get back a whole bunch of things we don't have!

Blessings,
Angela

Letting you know Tracy I received my mailer on Saturday!!! Sorry I didn't post sooner, but hosted a baby shower on Saturday and had 30 women at the house till well into the evening. However, when all had left except for mom and my sister Jackie we looked through my mailer. My sister left with a big smile on her face, because I was able to share some great seeds with her that she can direct sow this spring. I will also be starting some of the seeds indoors to share with her and others. We both thank you and look forward to the new variety of veggies in our gardens.

Tracy I sure hope you continue with this annual swap. It was my first time joining and I am a happy camper. Where else can we try so many new seed varieties for just the cost of a few postage stamps or what 2 packets may cost at the store.

Thanks again Tracy and to everyone who participated!
Sandy

you'll never make everyone happy, i think its great that everyone on here seems very very happy with what they got, folks should know when they sign up that they really don't know what they'll get back, if they are expecting certain things in return they should just stick to one on one swaps

i loved this because i was never sure what i would get, and was very pleased with the variety of things i recieved

the few things i got that i don't need i'll just reswap to others

i was vary happy participating!!

Hey, Tracy, are you a middle child by any chance? We MK's have this obsession about making other people happy. As much as people have tried to tell me that you can't please all the people all the time, for the longest time I took every dissatisfaction personally. Then one year, at one of the music teachers' conferences I attend regularly, one of the speakers put it in perspective for me "Even Jesus only got 11 out of 12".

The nature of these swaps is supposed to be fun & surprise. I choose to send my best available seeds to each one, but depending on whether it's the first or 20th swap I've participated in, and what I've gathered/purchased along the way, it varies. I've sometimes gotten more mixed marigolds back in a swap I've sent "premium" (in my mind) seeds to, and you know what I've discovered? Often, those mixed, open-pollinated marigolds produce the best plants of the year.

You did a FINE job with this swap - whether or not you choose to do it next year (everyone deserves some time off occasionally!), don't let one sourpuss spoil this year's for you. If I am able to get settled in SC in time this year, I will send you pix from my 2009 vegetable garden - otherwise, it will be 2010 (yes, the seeds will last that long).

Well I think you did a wonderful job Tracy! :) I had more time this morning to really go thru my pkg I rec'd and I am very happy ! :)

Thankyou!
~Wendy

Howdee all

Of course I'm going to continue the Acres Edible swap unless the economy gets soo bad I cant afford the extra seeds, tape postage or whatever else it takes to put on this swap each year. I believe I was just hurt a little yesterday and went over and posted my feelings. Bad bad Acres.. Every one in this swap has been great. I can not get upset and one person for speaking his or her feelings. I would probably feel bad if they did not speak there mind.

No one will ever be banned from my swaps. I , myself will just add more guidelines to my swaps so every one is clear that swaps are chance and you may or may not get what you wish for. I also have addressed some other issues above in the main post. I hate rules but they seem to help.

Carolynp - not a 50 cent an hour pay cut a hour 5 dollar an hour pay cut lol going to be ruff but we always make it because hubby and I have each other and great friends and gardening.

Knot-worked-acres - tomato in red bag was sent in unmarked and listed as such. Might be fun to see what ya get.

Sandysgardens- Are you going to be a mom soon? That is awesome. I just have my 4 legged kids. (dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens)

Drippy - Nope not a middle child more like a single child I have not talked to my only sibling my brother in what 2 years. Not my choice. I will look forward to the garden pics when ever you choose to share them. My garden pics are on MySpace check them out the link on my profile on this site.

Happy sorting and happy gardening I'm off to enjoy the sunshine

Acres

Tracy, I received my seeds today all I can say is HOLY COW! THANKS SO much, there are a few in there that I will gift to my friend because they are unnamed varieties but they will take them and are happy with them (not that I am not I am just leaning more toward named varieties) and I can pass them along to someone who appreciates any varieties of veggies and it makes me feel good to know I can share something! So it wasn't an issue with or for me.
AT any rate the named items I received are wonderful and items I wanted, you can not get any better then a swap likes this. There is no way we can purchase the amount of seeds we receive from swaps and have the variety that swaps allow us to have. Even though there are small amounts of things like beans I figure it is an opportunity to grow them out for seeds for next years garden! No point in trying to trade for more when I have enough other things to meet the food demands of my family this year already with the varieties I purchased for plantings and next year I will just have more diversity in my available types of various veggies!

Tracy hon, I am sorry about the lost income. That is a major blow, I have no doubt that you and he will be just fine, having each other is the most important thing in life the other is just technicalities! Hang in there, it will be rough going at first but all will be fine in the end.

I GOT THE MOST HELPFUL AWARD!!!! THANKS TRACY!!! LoL

I got my package this week. I'm always thrilled with the variety that I get as I usually only have tomatoes to send. thanks everyone for helping with the rest of my garden.

great swap!!

Barbi

I was out of town until late Monday night...after being bumped from my flight I was too tired to look at the mail...Tuesday morning was a great pleasure to open my packet!! What a blessing with the variety. It is clear Tracy that you put a lot of thought into trying to give variety & also fulfill our wishes! It will take a while to look up everything but what a pleasure that will be! Half the fun is anticipating this year's garden :-)

My thanks to all for sharing to make this successful!

Acres! I got my package today! Thank you so much :-)) It is always so fun to go through and start looking up all the different varieties, and thank you for all the extra effort you must put in to find us all things from our wish lists. Such a tremendous amount of work and thoughtfulness. Thanks again. thehills

oh and btw.. I got the longest wish list award. Not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud! *chuckling...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!
~Wendy

I didn't get an award... :-(

Although, I'm kind of glad I didn't get Wendy's award! LOL! I bet I was a close runner up, though! hahaha

Blessings,
Angela