Information

Pollinator has a minion!

Sweety the Metallic Green Sweat Bee

Pollinator

The

Glade Telenine
Owner:

Marcus

Age: 14 years, 1 month, 3 weeks

Born: February 28th, 2010

Adopted: 14 years, 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Adopted: February 28th, 2010

This pet has been nominated for the Pet Spotlight!

Statistics

Level: 9
Strength: 15
Defense: 10
Speed: 10
Health: 10
HP: 10/10
Intelligence: 12
Books Read: 9
Food Eaten: 2
Job: Register Clerk

Welcome to the Garden

Introduction

Why Save Seeds?

Tools and Equipment

Peas and Peppers

Cucumbers and Gourds

Tomatoes

Using a Seed Stock

Helpful Resources and References

Introduction

It's the end of the growing season, and the plants in this community garden are sure showing it. Tomato vines that once proudly stretched up and around their cages are now turning brown and wilting. Bright red and orange peppers stick out among all the green, still perfectly edible, and there are dried-up pea pods on another plant that definitely wouldn't taste good. Among the vines growing along a trellis hangs a plump, orange cucumber, a little like a blimp in appearance. Too tart and seedy to snack on, now.

A stout telenine with a patched-up satchel hanging from his shoulder works away between rows of raised beds and recycled rainwater collection barrels. He plucks pea pods from their stems and stows them away. Then he moves onto the tomatoes, where he searches through the dead branches for bright red fruits. He's clearly engrossed in his work. After a bit, his ears flick and he looks up at you with a grin.

"Hey there!" he says. His tail wags rapidly. "You wanna learn how to save seeds? I promise it's easier than you think, and it's well worth the effort!"

He looks pretty eager to share with someone. Well, maybe you have some free time...

Why Save Seeds?

There are lots of good reasons to save seeds!

First, if you're gardening already, you can save money on plants and food. Instead of buying baby plants, you can grow them from seeds yourself. It takes a little extra time and care, but one plant can produce hundreds of seeds, that could grow into hundreds more plants. You'll soon have more produce than you know what to do with, too!

So what should you do with all the extra fruits and veggies you have now? It'd be sad to let them go to waste, and produce has a shelf life of only so long after it's picked. Why not share it with your friends and neighbors? You can give them the fresh produce to do whatever they want with, or you can make a delicious recipe from scratch. It's a great way to grow your relationships and connect with your communities, or help out a person in need!

Speaking of recipes, I've found that growing my own vegetables really inspires me in the kitchen. Now that I have so many tomatoes to work with, I can make all sorts of curries, sauces, soups--and more! Growing food can give you the resources you need to become a true gourmet chef, especially as you learn more about the different varieties you grow, or hybrid plants with unique and surprising flavors!

Besides learning about what you can make with your produce, you'll also likely learn other useful skills, too--like how to preserve foods, how to compost, what sort of plant diseases to look out for and how to treat them, what different types of insects and creatures do in your garden, and more. It's also hard to avoid developing a deeper connection to the place you live in while you're gardening! When I started growing my own food, I learned so much about the ecosystem around me, and felt immense satisfaction whenever I harvested veggies and herbs.

If you save seeds, you're also planning for the long-haul. If you ever experience financial stress and have a stock of seeds ready, you could plant them and supplement your meals with healthy, fresh produce--which is typically pretty expensive to buy. Growing your own veggies and having your own seeds can give you a sense of security in case things get difficult in the future. You'll also be helping the environment by providing habitats for pollinators, and by relying less on produce that is trademarked by abusive corporations, sprayed with harmful pesticides, and shipped in from miles away.

One of the biggest benefits of saving seeds is that it gradually breeds plants that are resilient to your local ecosystem. Each generation of seeds that survive hot and dry weather or cold snaps will be more likely to survive those same challenges in the next generation. You can also choose to save seeds from your most delicious veggies, so their flavor is more likely to pass on to the next generation. Pick your sweetest strawberries, or your spiciest peppers, and you can cultivate a garden that's hardy to the weather in your community, and specific to your tastes!

It's never too late to start saving seeds!

Tools and Equipment

Saving seeds doesn't have to be expensive--and it shouldn't be! Humans have been saving seeds for thousands of years, well before electricity or complicated equipment. While some specialized tools can help, we're going to focus on the easiest methods for seed saving first so that you can get started quickly. If you find that the things listed here aren't working for you, try out different supplies to see what's most effective for you.

For extracting and preparing seeds:

Knife - any will do, just make sure it's sharp!
Spoon - to help scoop out seeds, especially from pulpy vegetables, but your fingers also work
Mesh strainer - some seeds should be free from pulp, and this helps you wash them
Shallow tray or pan - for drying seeds out. You can even use recycled lids so you can keep using your cookie tray!
Jars - used to separate good seeds from bad ones, induce fermentation in some seeds, and more!
Gloves - besides keeping your hands from getting sticky, you should also wear gloves when working with hot peppers

For storing seeds:

The most important thing about storing seeds, especially long-term, is to remember this: what do seeds need to sprout? Seeds need warmth and wetness, and if we want to store our seeds to grow them later, we need the opposite: a cool, dry location. Emphasis on the dry! Properly-stored seeds can remain viable for years--as long as pests don't eat them!

With that in mind, you can use plastic baggies, mason jars, plastic storage bins--really, anything that prevents dampness and pests from getting in. I like to recycle containers that I already have, such as pickle jars, plastic butter tubs, and more. Just make sure that they're clean and dry before putting any seeds in them!

When you've saved your seeds, be sure to label them! Seeds can look very similar to each other, especially if the plants are related to each other, or different varieties of the same vegetable (like sweet peppers compared to spicy ones). Use permanent markers or sticker labels to note what plant the seeds are from, as well as when they were collected. Feel free to get creative and have fun with it!

To store seeds, you'll need a cool, dry, dark space. Basements and pantries are perfect, and high places can keep seeds away from pests. Inspect the space you plan on keeping your seeds, and look out for signs of pests, like droppings or nests. Glass containers are more pest-resistant than plastic, but could shatter if they're dropped. A freezer is actually a perfect place to store seeds, since it keeps the seeds viable longer, and is much more difficult for pests to breach. Seeds also don't take up much space, so you won't have to dedicate your entire freezer to your stock.

While seeds benefit from cold temperatures, you never need to bake your seeds in the oven. In fact, using an oven to dry seeds faster may actually damage them, so they can't grow in the future. It's best to simply keep them away from hot spaces.

Peas and Peppers

Saving seeds is generally a pretty straightforward process, but saving the seeds of peas and peppers is generally easier than other seeds. The biggest challenge is being patient, knowing when to pick the vegetable from the plant, and protecting the veggies from getting snacked on by other animals in your garden!

You probably already know what pea seeds look like--the seeds are what we eat! To save these cuties, wait until the pea pod has dried out on the plant. It might take a few weeks after when you'd normally pick the pods for eating. The pods will turn brown and shrink so that you can see the peas inside, and may even rattle if you shake them.

Once the pods have reached this state, pluck them from the plant, pop open the pod, and let the peas roll onto a shallow dish or plate. Put them in a safe space to let them air dry for four to six weeks, then bag, label, and store.

Peppers are more flamboyant than peas when it's time for their seeds to be collected! The veggies will turn from green to bright yellow, orange, red, or even purple. Many peppers are still good to eat when they ripen, so don't let them go to waste when you're collecting their seeds. After removing the pepper from the plant, cut a circle around the step on top. Carefully remove the stem, and you'll see a cluster of hundreds of seeds. It's helpful to do this step over a plate so that seeds can be caught.

Use a spoon or knife to scrape away the seeds off of the inside of the vegetable. Arrange them in a single layer in a shallow dish, and allow them to air dry for four to six weeks. After they're dried out, bag and label the seeds for storage!

Be cautious while saving the seeds from hot peppers like chilies or ghost peppers. Wearing gloves can prevent skin irritation and burns, and be sure not to touch your eyes after handling the peppers!

Cucumbers and Gourds

Did you know that people typically eat cucumbers before they're completely ripe? This is because these veggies turn very bitter and tart to the taste when they ripen, and they have numerous seeds that get in the way of our sandwiches and salads. So, we need to let the plant's fruit ripen before removing it from the vine. Once the cucumber looks like a chubby, orange blimp, cut it free and then cut the cucumber in half along its long side. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon, like you're making two long boats. From here, you can wash the seeds off, removing as much pulp and flesh as you can. Arrange the seeds in a shallow, flat container, and allow them to dry off in a cool, dark spot before storing them. And you can still eat the ripe cucumber--you just might need to find a different recipe! I like pulverizing the leftovers into lemonade.

Gourds, like pumpkins and squash, are very similar to cucumber. They might be a little harder to cut into, but you can follow the same directions for these as cucumbers to extract them. If you celebrate Morostide, it's fun to roast pumpkin seeds for a delicious treat! Make sure to save some for your stock, though--let them dry completely, until they snap apart when you bend them. They shouldn't be soft when you test this. And as always, whenever you add seeds to your stock, accurately label them!

Tomatoes

Saving the seeds of a ripe tomato make for a fun gardening project. These seeds take a little bit more work than other veggies, but it's not a lot more--I promise! When you have a nice, ripe tomato, remove it from the vine. It should come away readily when you pluck it. Now, slice the tomato in half, from the top of the tomato to the bottom and along the stem. Use your trusty spoon to scoop out the seeds, gathering the pulp as well, and transfer them to a clean, glass jar. You should have enough liquidy pulp that the seeds can float around in the mix. If there isn't enough pulp, add up to a cup of water to the mix. Cover the top of the jar with a paper towel or cheesecloth.

Here's the fun part! We're going to let this mixture sit for a few days in a warm--but not hot!--spot to let them ferment. Tomato seeds need to ferment for a bit to become viable. Check them each day until a covering of mold grows on top, and you see bubbles rising in the mix. The tomato seeds will also sink to the bottom of the jar when they're ready. Remove the mold (it should stick to itself), then add some water, and shake the seeds until they're clean. Viable seeds will sink, and the seeds that won't germinate will rise and float around, so you can separate them. Strain and rinse the viable seeds before spacing them evenly in a shallow pan, and allow them to dry. Yes, tomatoes take a little longer than other seeds, but it's worth the effort! Oh, and don't forget--label your seeds when you store them!

Using a Seed Stock

Once you've got yourself a good stock of seeds, you might be wondering, what else you can do with them besides letting them grow next season? After all, growing all of the seeds would give you way more veggies than any one person needs! Here's some ideas for other ways to use your seed stock.

Share seeds with friends
Trade seeds with others to get different varieties of plants
Plant them and let them grow into seedlings, then give them away
Feed your animal neighbors
Create art, like using seeds as beads, or shakers in a rattle
If you do have the means, plant an even bigger garden, and share the food with everyone you know

Seeds represent possibility, and possibilities are endless! Talk to the people around you and ask for their advice and thoughts, and you might get some more ideas!

Helpful Resources and References

Much of what I've learned here comes from the Seed Ambassadors Project. They create helpful guides for saving seeds, particularly in the midst of the ongoing climate crisis. I highly recommend checking out their zines and articles, and printing out a copy for yourself, or sharing it with your friends.

Another excellent resource is this page from the University of Minnesota Yard and Garden website. These folks also go into the weeds about the mechanics of pollination, hybrid plants, and more. If your local university does research in agriculture or botany, check out their department website for more information about plants that can be grown locally!

Finally, if you want to see how this connects to the bigger picture--our ecology, culture, and economy--I invite you to read this article about why agricultural giant Monsanto sued farmers for doing what farmers have done for thousands of years: saving seeds.

There are countless resources about gardening, seed saving, and how to leave a gentler imprint on our local habitats out there. The ones listed here are just a start in your agricultural journey!

Credits:
Background art adapted from a public domain William Morris design
All other art by Marcus
Writing by Marcus
Profile template by Lea
Coding help from spacemage