Do you have plans to plant a garden next Spring? You can start thinking about that now! If you get a fruit or vegetable you love, you can save the seeds and plant them next year. Saving seeds can be a big budget saver as seed packets can be $1-5 depending on the variety and brand of the seeds.
We had a really nice cantaloupe from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Liberty Mills Farm, last week. Beth decided to save some of the seeds. She washed them off to get the inside pulp of the fruit off them. You want to wash them off because they will rot if they have the fruit still on them. Then just lay them out on a paper towel to dry. Generally you just need to leave them out a day or so. If you do this with bigger seeds such as pumpkin seeds, they will take longer to dry. Once they are dry, we put them in a ziploc sandwich bag and write what they are, where the seeds were from, and the date. We store seeds we keep like this in the freezer so they don’t get funky. They aren’t processed like the seeds you buy at the store so the freezer keeps them good for the Spring.
Do you keep seeds to plant for next year? If so, what process do you use to store them?
What a great idea! I can’t wait to hear about your crop next summer!
Wow, I hadn’t considered saving seeds like this… though I don’t have a garden yet. 🙂 I want to next year, though, so thanks for the great idea!
This is a super idea. I always wondered how I could keep seeds. I ave washed them off then saved them in a ziplock bag. Yes the became funky. LOL Now I know to throw them in the freezer. Thanks for the great tip!
Wow. Perfect timing, because we just happened to be experimenting with this right now. Last year my husband bought some VERY expensive socalled “Heirloom Tomato Seeds” – he ordered them from some fancy specialty place and the cost of the seeds, including “shipping” was over $15! …
SO, you can imagine our displeasure when we opened the little packet to find there were only 8 (EIGHT!) seeds. We lovingly planted them in the little “greenhouse” my Honey/Hubby built and nurtured them carefully, but only four of the seeds actually took root and grew. With much TLC over the course we harvested maybe seven (depending on what your definition of “edible” is) and a few of them were actually very tasty (compared to most tomatoes) however for all the time, trouble and expense, my Hubby was determined to get his money’s worth so he saved all the seeds from the best of our harvest, dried and frozen them and planted them in our “greenhouse” several months ago…
So far so good: Five of them have turned into truly healthy plants, now outdoors, each in it’s own large pot and are just now flowering. I’ll keep you posted on they do as the season progresses.
(It is fun and even exhilerating. I recommend trying it to any/everyone. It would be an especially fun project to do with your kids.