This has been a bad week. (Mom's birthday excepted of course--yay Mom!) But rather than dwelling on the negative, this post will be dedicated to something I'm always excited about, even months too early--our garden!

Here's what we'll be growing for the first time this year, and the seed company's descriptions. If this is boring to you, just skip it.

Bull's Blood Beets: This beautiful beet has deep reddish-purple leaves! Very sweet and delicious, the baby leaves are a rage in salads. The beets are tasty too, and have pretty pink rings inside.

Ping Tung Eggplants: A wonderful eggplant from Ping Tung, Taiwan. Fruits are purple and up to 18 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. This variety is so sweet and tender, superbly delicious! One of the best Chinese eggplants on the market.

Lipstick Peppers: A delicious pepper with 4-inch long tapered, pimiento type fruit that are super sweet. This fine pepper is early and ripens well in the north. A flavorful favorite with thick, red flesh.

Bloomsdale Long-Standing Spinach: The old standard since 1925, does better in hot weather than most. Glossy, deep green, delicious leaves.

Pineapple Tomatoes (our favorite from the farmer's market): Very large, up to 2 lbs. each. The yellow fruit has red marbling through the flesh and is one of the most beautiful tomatoes we sell. The flavor is very sweet and fruity; good yields!

Japanese Black Trifele Tomatoes: Attractive tomatoes are the shape and size of a Bartlett pear with a beautiful purplish-brick color; the fruit are perfect and smooth with no cracks. The flavor is absolutely sublime, having all the richness of fine chocolate. This was our heaviest producer for 2004. The plants produced loads of fruit all summer long.

Exciting!