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Lupine seeds from MAINEsimple
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When Etsy.com launched, it was in response to the precious spray-dried baby's breath wreaths and patchwork toaster cozies one saw sitting on card tables at swap meets across America. Most of the early Etsy sellers were younger women who decided to reclaim embroidery and knitting in the name of punk rock (or third wave feminism). As the number of sellers on Etsy ballooned, the site acquired a certain, er, swap meet je ne sais quoi. But now you can find just about anything there. (Don't believe me? Go look at Regretsy!) That includes foodstuffs and gardenstuffs, too. Here are a handful of nifty things ferreted out from the alternative universe known as Etsy that may also be of interest to people who like seeds, plants, and gardens.
Moss of the Month Club, $50, teresab123
The woman who maintains this Etsy shop jokes about being "hooked on moss," but terrariums are back in fashion, just like lumberjack beards and maxidresses. And faddishness aside, a terrarium is a great way to bring some nature into your living space if you're crammed into a wee apartment or don't have the time or money to devote to a garden or houseplants, since most terrariums are planted with self-maintaining flora like air plants, mosses and lichens. When you consider that some ready made terrariums run up to $1,000 (!) $50 a year seems outrageously cheap for a monthly delivery of "assorted moss and lichens," especially when it may also include "a miniature birdhouse to decorate with moss and lichens," or "a beautiful fern, or moss covered rocks... maybe even a small terrarium kit complete with the container and everything you need to fill it!" Getting your moss delivered also beats crawling around on your hands and knees under the rain gutter to collect your own, don't you think?
Tiny Lettuce Kit, $28 dirtcouture
People grow spider plants and Boston ferns in their kitchens. Yet the idea of growing some lettuce or herbs there is totally foreign for some reason. Well, no reason for that. This kit includes a little wooden box, two crops' worth of mesclun seed, and a wooden spoon. Basically you water the seeds, let the stuff grow, then give it a haircut when you need some greens for a salad, a sandwich or a garnish. Note that soil is not included—that's because what would cost $20 to ship can be purchased for $5 at your favorite local nursery.
Single Note Solid Perfume, $27, from ForStrangeWomen
The woman who makes these perfume lockets lives in Kansas City (yay, Missouri). The violet perfume is pictured, but she also offers amber, rose, vetiver, patchouli, "Tonka," and "Immortelle." (Not sure what those smell like; I don't even have a guess.) Because they're single-note botanicals, you can layer and mix them to your own liking. They last for 6 to 8 hours, and are as natural as you can get, just floral oils or absolutes suspended in beeswax and jojoba. And yes, you can probably put a picture of your sweetheart inside once the perfume's all gone, and wear it as a locket.
Succulents for Terrarium Projects, $36, SucculentGalore
More terrarium filler! Yes, they probably have 99 cent sedums at Wal-Mart. Yes, there are hens-and-chickens growing wild in rock terraces. Yes, you can go pilfer them for your bell jar if you prefer. But that is a pretty reasonable price for a dozen blue-ribbon succulents that just need to be popped out of their pots and replanted in some sort of nice glass container. And if you don't have a glass container, or are looking for terrarium supplies, including tiny porcelain deer, Etsy has that too, of course.
Wild Lupine Seeds, $4.95, MAINESimple
Hand-collected wild lupine seeds from the fields of Maine. According to the seller, they are hardy in USDA Zones 3 and higher, self-seed, and are tough little plants. They also attract pollinators, hummingbirds, and butterflies. She not only gathered the seeds by hand, but carefully sorts and packages them by hand, and includes detailed planting instructions as well as "a secret bonus gift," with every order. There is not much chance I will stop reading or laughing at Regretsy.com, but this really is the power of Etsy in action. As my friend Sam would say, when rocks it rawks.
Gift Pack of Organic Heirloom Seeds, $14.50, TheLittleRagamuffin
These packets include chamomile, chives, cilantro, dill, and sweet basil seeds that are also hand-harvested, but not wild. And as you can see, they come in nifty recycled map envelopes. The woman who sells these lives at the Kirk Estate, a little sustainable farm in Albany, NY, that is (she says) haunted that has been in her family for five generations. She also offers lots of knitted stuff, as well as flower seeds.
Silk/Herbal Shampoo Bar, $5.15, sweetcreekherbs,
A super-duper rich shampoo bar made with silk, avocado oil, coconut oil, castor oil, extra virgin olive oil, jojoba, grape seed oil and scented lavender, peppermint, and rosemary. As Ms. Sweetcreekherbs notes re: the essential oils, "not only do they smell like you are standing in the middle of an herb garden, the charts in the book, Aromatherapy, A Guide to the Healing Art, shows these oils to benefit all types of hair, dandruff, hair growth, cleansing, and scalp dermatitis." For those of you who once washed your Barbie's hair with a bar of Dial and saw the not-so-great-results, do not be afraid of bar shampoo. It can be far kinder to your hair than the detergenty stuff on the shelves at your local drugstore (though because all hair textures are different, your mileage may vary) and it's a great way to avoid going through lots of plastic bottles, which you're going to do even if you buy your shampoo at the local health store.
Persimmon Print from the Wild Edibles Series, $12, Visual Lingual
In the Ozarks, folk wisdom says you can predict the winter season by splitting open a persimmon and looking at the seeds. If they form a fork pattern, it'll be an awful winter. If it's a spoon, mild. (And a spork? A combination of the two.) Cincinnati design studio Visual Lingual created a whole series of prints of edible plants of the Midwest. This one is my favorite (probably because of the seed-utensil tradition) but there are seven others, including dandelion, salsify, Jerusalem artichoke, pawpaw, morel, nettle, and spicebush.
Common Comfrey Antique Print, $24.95, slinkymalinkicat
Another wild plant, traditionally considered edible and medicinal (its use became controversial in the 1970s and 80s) and a completely different visual treatment. This is an original 19th century botanical print by James Sowerby, from Sowerby's English Botany. Sowerby illustrated 2,592 English plants in 36 volumes.
Vintage Daisy Juice Glasses, $45, CaptainCat
If you are a kid of the 1970s, and remember drinking milk out of hippie-chic glasses, maybe you won't be very excited about these. But vintage stuffs like these glasses, which reflect a back-to-the-land sensibility, are the rage now (along with terrariums!). CaptainCat describes the mood of these glasses as "eccentric naturalist," and "perfect for ice tea or mini cocktails in the back garden with a special friend." Perfect, too, for mint juleps made with mint harvested out of that same back garden.
