Time Warp, Part 1 of 17: Liz and Lilac (4/21/12)

When there is lilac to be had from Wild Boar Farms, I have trouble resisting. Not surprisingly I bought too much again this year, but luckily Elizabeth was around to make use of what was leftover after several happy deliveries and a little event (sadly not photographed : (. Here they are, along with hellebores from Napa and (totally rocking) foxgloves from Pacifica.

Local Lilac Special! Order Yours Now!

Ladies and gentlemen of the City of Napa, your weekend could be about to get a whole lot more lilac-y.

When I called our local tomato baron/hybridizer, Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms, last week to inquire whether he had any lilac for Easter, I was just a bit early.  (This weird weather, you know). But his crazy beautiful double variety (shown above, from last year) will be ready this weekend! Good things come to those who wait.

If you're ready for a serious lilac fix, now is the time to place your order. I'll be making a limited number of deliveries throughout the City of Napa early Sunday morning between 7AM-9AM. Petite (but super fragrant!) arrangements start at $65, including tax and delivery.

Please email info@themonkeyflowergroup.com or call 707-418-8615 for more information or to place and order.

I'm looking forward to bringing you some of Brad's lilac soon!

P.S. Brad will be speaking at Tomatomania this Saturday, April 14, at Cornerstone Gardens in Sonoma. If you're in the mood for an outing, I'm sure it will be a wonderful event! And look for Wild Boar Farm's tomato seedlings in these local nurseries, too!

Get Ye to the Stanly Lane Nursery!

Okay, folks. If you are on a quest for mad hott tomato selection in the Bay Area, look no further. Remember Brad of Wild Boar Farms and lilac fame? He's partnered up with D&S Produce to bring you scores of unique varieties of vigorous little seedlings at Stanly Lane Nursery, each with their own mouth-watering descriptions and photographs, for your procuring pleasure. I should have posted this weeks ago, because the sale only goes through May (see hours below), so get to it quick! You don't want to miss this : ).

Resistance is Futile!!!

 

There is nothing quite like two buckets brimming with gloriously plump local lilac to blur the line between "want" and "need".

We'll get back to the personal implications of that reality momentarily. But first, let me tell you a tiny bit about Brad of Wild Boar Farms.

Brad knows tomatoes. Loves tomatoes. Appears to eat, sleep, and breathe tomatoes, to the fullest, 10 months of the year. Unfortunately, said tomatoes only generate income for a portion of those 10 months. So to support his tomato habit through the lean Spring, Brad started dealing in lilacs (which he also appears to love). For some years, he "chased the lilac trail" with strategically placed growing grounds all the way up to Lake Tahoe. Apparently that was less romantic than it sounds, so now he roams closer to home, with enough varieties at different elevations and micro regions to extend his season over a few months. Which gets him into tomato time.

I hope to introduce Brad, his farm, and new Napa nursery at greater length in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, back to those two brimming buckets. Even though I had already purchased "enough" nice double dark lilac from Stockton (seen dwarfed in the background, below) to fill my orders, I couldn't resist buying just about everything Brad, fearing rain, had harvested from one of his small lilac patches in Napa the evening before our first meeting.

Don't worry, it went to good use.