Tag Archives: saving seeds

Momma Bear: Carefully Choosing Seeds This Year

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It’s that time of year again when we are all starting our seeds and getting those gardens back in shape. Last year was our first year gardening — EVER. We had mixed success, primarily because our property is about 80% shade. One thing I learned though is the importance of picking the right seeds. By this I do not mean just picking the right vegetables, but also the importance of using heirloom seeds so I could let some of my garden go to seed and harvest those seeds for the next year.

heirloom_seeds-posterThis year, while surfing the internet for seeds, I came across some interesting articles about seed banks. The National Geographic article, Food Ark, refers to the world seed vault (which I initially thought was kind of a hokey idea). But I kept reading and discovered why it is so incredibly important. I am sure most of the prepper community understand the value of using heirloom seeds, instead of hybrids, for seed harvesting. But, what I found to be both fascinating and horrifying is that 95% of vegetable and fruit varieties have gone extinct in the last 100 years. Mass production, produce values, and hardiness were chosen over variety. While we are busy saving pandas, polar bears, and whales, no one seems to be worried about saving our food. (Another good article is, The Extinction of Food: Why Heirloom Seeds May Be Our Only Hope.)

I am appalled to report that my own heirloom seeds fall into sprng-sgnthe category of hearty store-bought ones. There is nothing unique or special about my seeds. So what can we do to help with this problem? My advice would be that we all seek out these rare varieties, join seed exchanges, and support farmer’s markets and CSA Co-Ops (Community Support Agriculture) whenever possible. Find the uncommon and value its place in our future.

Next I read, EWG’s 2012 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, and looked at a list of what they call “The Dirty Dozen”; the foods we buy and eat that have the most residual pesticides. Again, this was eye-opening information that showed me exactly which of my favorite produce was on the danger list. And worse yet, I am not strict enough about washing my produce. If I wasn’t already a “prepper,” this would be enough to make me seriously consider joining the team!

heirloom-seeds-wordleMy new growing/gardening goal is to seek out a variety of quality seeds, and to grow some of those vegetables on the high pesticide laden foods list that we would normally buy. So this year–in addition to growing tomatoes, cilantro, and green onions from last year’s seeds–I will be growing my own spinach and peppers (two of the dirty dozen). We eat spinach more than most other varieties of lettuce and it grows really well in containers. Additionally we are still on the canning salsa kick so we are really looking forward to the peppers. I will also be networking with some friends in the Pacific Northwest to see if I can get some of their heirloom seeds for next year, and possibly getting involved in the Seed Savers Exchange.

Do you grow any rare varieties?  If so, what?  And would you be willing to share some seeds?!

 

Sarah’s View: Learning To Save Seeds

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When we started gardening this year I hadn’t really thought much beyond learning more and what produce we could get out of it. But, as the season continued I started thinking about next year and, being cheap, I started wondering if I could save seeds from this year’s garden instead of buying more. Turning to my good friend Google, I started researching how to save seeds for our more unique garden items.

The first I looked for was Calendula. I’m not sure why I started there exactly, except that there weren’t many seeds in the seed packet. Not only that, but the Calendula seeds had looked really odd and I couldn’t come up with where on the plant they would be. It turns out, as the petals wilt the center is surrounded by seeds. Now, these seeds don’t look like any others you might have seen, or at least not like any I’d ever seen. But, once I knew where to look they were remarkably easy to harvest. Some had dried on the plant, others I dried in the house and then stored the dried seeds in a small plastic bag. (Plastic isn’t ideal, I’d prefer to use small envelopes so as to prevent moisture building, but the coin envelopes just seemed pricey – see, I’m cheap.)

Once I figured out how to harvest Calendula seeds I was excited to see what else I could save. I next looked into radishes and garbanzo beans. These are both rather easy – they have pods which form on the mature plant and the seeds inside the pods are dried and saved for planting. Granted, we didn’t plant radishes for eating (we planned on them flowering to attract pollinators) so all our plants flowered and then formed pods. If you were growing radishes to eat and still wanted to harvest seeds, you’d need to let a couple of plants flower so they form the pods.

Next, I started researching the herbs. These are a bit trickier as their flowers, and therefore seeds, tend to be significantly smaller and not easily harvested right off the plant. From what I’ve read, the best way is to clip a few of the flowering stems and put them in a paper bag (lunch bag size) and hang to dry. The paper bag helps with moisture control, keeps out light, and prevents seeds from being lost as they fall off the drying plant. I’m still on the drying stage with my herbs, so I’m not sure how successful it will be.

With any luck I can harvest seeds from most of my plants this year. I still plan to buy seeds for spring, but hopefully they will be more for back up as well as to increase the variety in our garden.