Last year, the only seeds we saved were from a handful of sweetpea pods that lived in Chris M’s jacket pocket all winter long (incredibly, they were viable and grew into beautiful, fragrant, long-living sweetpea plants!). This year, although far from perfect, we did a little better. As plants in the garden began going to seed, we gathered some of them up and left them hanging in the garage, under balconies, and poking out of the top of old planter pots and sandcastle-making buckets. This afternoon, Chris M, Kai and I decided to pass some time separating the tiny seeds from their dried husks and pods. We made DIY seed packets (and a big mess) while covering the kitchen table in bits and pieces of dried plant material. It’s a slow-moving process, separating dried seeds from their pods, but that’s one of the benefits that our farming ‘style’ allows us – lots of time to experiment and play around with back-to-the-land-type activities. We packaged up seeds from dill, radish, mustard greens, tatsoi, lamb’s quarters, onion and tobacco plants; as well as snap peas, beans, and magnolia tree seeds. Goal for next year: to keep the seed pods better organized so we don’t end up with DIY seeds packs that read ‘mustard greens and/ or tatsoi’ or ‘1000 year old tobacco from Harold Steves OR Salt Spring Seeds’ :)
