In all the years we have been growing vegetables for sale we have seen a lot of our favorite seeds disappear from the marketplace. They are replaced often by something that doesn't grow as well for us. The solution is to grow our own seed of varieties that are particularly valuable to us. Or, we find an unusual chard or kale or bean and want to see if we can develop that characteristic in a new strain. Above Joel is removing the seedpods from some overwintering purple sprouting broccoli. This seed is hard to find in this country as it grows best in Britain and in climates like ours which is similar.
Large seed operations need a lot of fancy equipment to clean and process seed but for a small bunch for our own use the old fashioned way of winnowing by pouring the seed and trash from one container to another in a stiff wind works just fine. The lighter bits of seedpods and stems blow away and the heavier seeds fall into the lower bucket.
In all the years we have been growing vegetables for sale we have seen a lot of our favorite seeds disappear from the marketplace. They are replaced often by something that doesn't grow as well for us. The solution is to grow our own seed of varieties that are particularly valuable to us. Or, we find an unusual chard or kale or bean and want to see if we can develop that characteristic in a new strain. Above Joel is removing the seedpods from some overwintering purple sprouting broccoli. This seed is hard to find in this country as it grows best in Britain and in climates like ours which is similar.
Large seed operations need a lot of fancy equipment to clean and process seed but for a small bunch for our own use the old fashioned way of winnowing by pouring the seed and trash from one container to another in a stiff wind works just fine. The lighter bits of seedpods and stems blow away and the heavier seeds fall into the lower bucket.
AWESOME blog! I loved reading about this post about the seeds, as well as seeing your beautiful weaving and the photo of the squash. Wish I were a better cook and then I would know what to do with the squash!
ReplyDeleteIt is exactly the same here Margaret. You just get a certain variety of broad bean sorted out and know it grows best for you, when you find it has been superceded by some fancy new strain. Very frustrating. I think your saving seed is an excellent idea.
ReplyDeleteI just cut small winter squash in half, take out the seeds and put in a pan face down in the oven. Cook until they are soft and if you like,turn over and add a bit of brown sugar or maple syrup and put back for a few minutes. Joel prefers butter and salt and pepper to sugar. Google for more complicated recipes.
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