Egg Shell Seed Starters

 As I was doing a little Easter shopping online I came across some ceramic Easter eggs that had seedlings in them that you could water and then they would grow. This got me thinking that real egg shells would actually be great seed starters. They have tons of calcium in them so you can just put them directly in the ground and it will give your new plant a calcium boost. So I thought I would give it a try. Jacob was the expert at cracking the eggs at the very top, keeping the rest of the shell in tact.

Then I simply gave the shells a good rinse. The kids helped me fill them with soil. We used a large needle to poke holes in the bottom of each of them so we could simply fill the egg carton up with water and they could stay moist from the bottom up. We filled our egg shells with pepper seeds. We really like peppers around here and use a lot in our canned salsa recipes. We planted a big variety this year. I hope they do well.

A couple of weeks later we had pepper plants peeking out of each one of our egg shells. Yay! Success! When I planted my peppers, I gave each shell a little squish and put it directly in the ground. They make perfect, organic, and completely biodegradable seed starters. I am thinking this is a great idea. I will be starting a bunch of seeds in egg shells for next year's garden. 

Seed Saving: Pumpkin

 Pumpkin week has been so much fun. I have enjoyed sharing some of our favorite recipes with you. There are many more, it was really hard to decide what to post. I can't end the week without a short post on saving pumpkin seeds. It is so easy to do.  I was so excited when I cut open this pie pumpkin to can and see how many seeds it actually had in it. I decided to save them all for planting. 

All you have to do to save pumpkin seeds or any type of winter squash for planting is to scoop them out of the pumpkin, remove any pulp, rinse them, and then allow them to dry completely before putting them away for storage. These seeds came out really easily and they had hardly any pulp on them. I put them into a colander and rinsed them really well. Then I laid them out on a towel to dry for several days. That was all there was to it. I am looking forward to planting them in the spring.

Whole Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

In the fall, freshly roasted pumpkin seeds provide a nutritious seasonal treat. Pumpkin Seeds have many health benefits. Pumpkin seeds are a highly concentrated source of energy,  so you should eat them in small amounts to avoid weight gain. They do offer heart-healthy fats, protein, fiber, zinc, potassium and iron. Eating pumpkin seed kernels can help you meet your requirements for these essential nutrients. One oz. of pumpkin seed kernels contains 8 g of protein, 4 g of total carbohydrate and 2 g of fiber, according to the USDA. Whole roasted pumpkin seeds provide more than twice the amount of fiber as the kernel alone, 5 g per oz. The fiber in pumpkin seeds can help regulate digestive activity and bowel function. Because they are an energy dense food and highly nutritious, pumpkin seeds would make a great addition to your food storage and would also be a great item for your 72 hour kits. 

Whole Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

 Whole Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
 

Scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin and soak in a mixture of about 1 cup water to ½  tsp. salt. This helps remove any leftover pulp. Rinse and dry off seeds. Toss seeds with olive oil and season as desired. We like ours salted, kosher salt is really good. Roast in a 400 degree oven until golden brown.

Sweet Potato Blossoms

Sweet Potato Blossom

Our Sweet Potatoes have had a couple of blooms these last couple of weeks.  The blossoms are very pretty and are not very common.  In fact propagators who try to cross various breeds have a hard time with the blooms and have try to force them to bloom.

So my first thought, "I want to collect the "true seeds" they will produce, and then next year just plant the seeds rather than starting slips ".

It turns out that if the bloom becomes pollinated its seeds if planted will not be true to parent, or will grow "junk" tubers.  Just like if you plant the seeds from an apple core you may end up with 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 that makes a good eating apple similar to it's parent.  This is why apples and so many other plants are propagated with cuttings, grafting or in the case of sweet potatoes, slips.  For now I will stick to growing my own slips for sweet potatoes, but I will enjoy the blooms when they come.

Tomatillo Time

So for Mother's Day I was pleasantly surprised with this gift: two packages of Tomatillo seeds. I was actually very excited - it was the perfect gift for me. I became so excited with all the wonderful things I was going to make with my own home grown tomatillos, including canning green enchilada sauce.

Tomatillos also know as Husk Tomatoes love the hot weather. They originate from Mexico and are a favorite in Mexican Cuisine. Tomatillos belong to the solanaceae or nightshade family of fruits and vegetables, which also includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, etc. They have similar growing characteristics to that of a tomato. One difference is that this fruit grows inside a paper like husk.

 


When I returned home from our extended visit to Utah I arrived to find most of my garden dead :( as I had expected. But I was delighted to see that my tomatillos where flourishing :). They were filled with wonderful yellow blossoms and there were tons of little solitary bees feasting on their pollen. This morning, I was so excited to finally discover that my plants are producing fruit. Hurray! I had read previous to planting them that you need to have more than one plant in order for them to be pollinated. I have three and I have no idea if they are the yellow or the purple, but hopefully one of each.

I adore these tomatillo plants, they are actually really beautiful little plants. They are much more delicate and more ornamental looking than a regular tomato. So I'll bet you are wondering how a tomatillo stacks up against it's cousin the tomato - nutritionally I mean. Well, here is what I learned: Tomatillos are actually a bit more nutritionally dense than a regular tomato. They contain more minerals than a tomato of the same weight. They are of course low in fat and cholesterol free and contain very few calories. They are a great source of fiber, vitamin A & C and folate. They also contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which we know are good for our heart. One thing that a tomatillo does lack that tomatoes do contain is lycopene, which is a powerful antioxidant. But tomatillos contain different antioxidants know as withanolides, which also contain anti-bacterial and anti-cancer properties. This is an example of why God has given us the counsel to eat every fruit in its season, as they all contribute different amazing things that He has created for our benefit and good.(Doctrine and Covenants 89:11) This is part of His "Word of Wisdom" to us.

Of course, in the near future I will be posting about all of the exciting new things I will be making with my tomatillos so check back with us or sign in on the sidebar to receive an e-mail each time we post something new.

Harvesting Coriander

Cilantro plant that has gone to seed.

 You may or may not know that Coriander is the dried seed obtained from a Cilantro plant. I was successful at growing cilantro in my garden this past fall and I was so excited. We love using cilantro in our cooking. It is especially good in fresh and canned salsa and other Mexican style dishes. Coriander can also be using in cooking in either the whole or ground form. Jacob loves Coriander and so we let our cilantro go to seed in hopes of harvesting a bunch for him. It actually had a bunch of beautiful little white flowers on it when it seeded that the bees loved.

The green seeds are the Coriander.

The little green seeds are the Coriander.  I left my cilantro plant in the ground until nearly all of the green coriander had turned a nice brown color and then I harvested it just like I did my dill seed.

Upside down in a paper bag for easier harvesting.

I simply cut it off and placed it upside down in a paper bag and then I let it dry for about a week longer in the bag. 

Brown seeds are dried coriander.

You can shake the bag and crunch it around a bit and remove a lot of seed, but some of it is still a little stubborn so we took most of it off by hand.

Removing the Coriander by hand.

I enlisted the help of my 4 year old. He is such a good sport to help his mom, especially when it comes to harvesting seed.

 After we pulled all of the seed off I used a couple of different sizes of colanders to remove as much of the leaves and stems as I could.

We were really able to get a lot of seed off of our plant, which makes us so happy. It was well worth the effort. This much coriander seed at the store would run you anywhere from $6 to $10.  Jacob is very excited and can't wait to make some Biltong with it. I am sure there will be a future post with photos of him hanging meat all over my house to dry.

Harvesting Dill Seed

Dill like most fresh herbs has many health benefits. One of the great things about fresh dill is that it is excellent source of vitamin C.  Both the leaves and the seeds from dill can be utilized. I have been enjoying the leaves from my dill all winter long and now as the temperatures have warmed up my dill has finally gone to seed. So it is time to harvest the seed.


 Dill is very easy to grow. I remember as a kid my mom always talking about how hard it was to get rid of dill once you got it growing. I really don't know why she wanted to get rid of her dill, maybe she didn't like the location it was in. I was thrilled to see my dill go to seed in anticipation of bottling pickles in a couple of months.

A very easy way to harvest dill is to wait until the the stems have dried and mostly turned brown. Cut each stem off and place it seed side down inside a large paper bag.  After cutting all of your dill you may want to let it dry for several more days inside the paper bag before removing the seeds.
 




You can shake the bag to remove some of the seed, but I found that a lot of the seed still doesn't come off.  Instead pinch each stem between your fingers and just gently remove all of the seeds.

 I had my little guy help me out and we worked over a large bowl pulling all of our dill seed off.

We had quite the harvest in the end we have nearly 2 oz. of Dill Seed. Now I can hardly wait to make pickles.

This small bottle of dill seed (0.85oz.) cost me upwards of $3.00. I harvested twice that much off my dill plant this year. I won't have to buy dill seed ever again.

Seed Saving: Cauliflower and Kohlrabi

We harvested seed from our Cauliflower and Kohlrabi last week. Kohlrabi is one of the new things that we planted in our garden last fall. We really enjoyed it and definitely wanted to collect some more seed from it. When our Cauliflower from last fall went to seed it grew so tall, I could hardly believe it. It was up to the roof line of our house probably 6 feet tall and had tons of seed on it, so we let it grow because it was great forage for the bees in the spring. Finally the seed pods where fully ripened and we were able to harvest the seed. We got a ton of seed and my little guy helped me to harvest it all. You collect the seed from Cauliflower and Kohlrabi in the same way that you harvest broccoli seed. Check it out here.

My little helper.

We harvested over 400 cauliflower seeds.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

I printed these cute seed packets online for free.

This week I made some really cute and very inexpensive Teacher Appreciation gifts. I usually do handmade gifts for every occasion not only does this save money, but it makes the gift just a bit more special.

I added a personal message to the back.

These gifts are so simple to make. You can use some of your newly collected seeds or pick up some inexpensive seed packets at the store. I found the idea and template for the watering can here and the seed packets I printed from here. I made two sizes, a larger one for my daughter's teacher at school and some smaller ones for the teacher's at our church. They turned out super cute and minus a bit of paper, some ink, and some time, they were free.

Organizing Your Seeds

My shoebox full of seeds.

I had some fun organizing and getting my newly collected seeds taken care of this week. I keep my seeds in a small shoebox and try and keep them organized according to planting times. I think in the future I would like to use some sort of index card filing system, but for know I just keep them grouped together.  I know as my seed collection grows I will need to do some more organizing work. I love the fact that you can print free seed packets online. There are some really cute ones available or just some that are plain and simple.Plus they come in various sizes. Here are some links for some of the ones I like to use:
http://maggiewang.com/2006/06/06/lots-of-seed-envelope-patterns
http://www.gardensandcrafts.com/seedpackets.html

                                                                                                           I like to include the planting dates on my seed packets.

There are some really cute ones available in all different sizes.

Our Focus on Gardening

  If you have been reading our blog for aw while you might be wondering why so many of our posts have to do with gardening.  One factor we consider is where to put our efforts into many of self sufficient options. One of our focuses has been with gardening, we do eat every day after all.  Over the last few years an especially this last year we have been moving away from as much of the processed food as possible.  We have always ate pretty healthy we cook meals nearly every night and rarely ever use those "box" meals.  We now almost never use them and make most meals from scratch.  We are even trying to avoid a lot of the canned goods from the store.  This takes either a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables or home canned (bottled) foods to accomplish this.  However it is hard to do this when, we don't always had the money to buy the good fresh fruits and vegetables.

  A garden is a way we can provide ourselves with more fruits and vegetables than we can otherwise afford.  Gardens can be extremely productive and very very cost effective.  Additionally these foods will be of higher quality and more nutritious than can ever be found in the stores.  We can even surpass the "organic" foods, with foods we produce that are far better than any "organic" food you can find.  We can plant varieties that can't be found in the stores because they don't ship well.  There are an untold number of gems out there to find grown and enjoy.  There are some wonder foods full of antioxidants we can grow in our own yards, at fractions of the cost of the new "super foods" marketed in the stores. 

  There have been proven benefits found from working in the soil including increase serotonin levels, anti depressive affect as well as causing addiction.  Yes I said addiction, just check if you are listening, but gardening is addicting.  Especially when you start to harvest and taste what these vegetables really taste like.  When you taste a home grown tomato you pick ripe off the vine you will wonder what that thing is they call tomatoes in the grocery store.

  It is inspiring to plant these little seeds only to watch them grown and bear fruit.  It is fun to learn what makes a certain variety excel and what pests are causing issues with it.  What happens if we plant it over here or next to this other plant.  After your season growing jump online and order some free seed catalogs. Spend the winter reading them and learning, planning and dreaming.  Plan to try out some new things next season.  I love to do this, I pour over the catalogs all winter.    

 When we garden, even if it is in some pots on a balcony of an apartment we are gaining a little bit of independence and a level of self reliance.  Any effort we make in this effort helps us along this path.  I have a friend that was explaining to me that he had a seed bank in a #10 can among his food storage.  He indicated that it could plant a 1 acre survival garden if he ever needed it.  The issue is he does not garden now, he has no green thumb he says.  Well if you have gardened a little bit you know that you will have troubles, you will kill plants, you'll over water, overlook pests, plant things in the wrong area, plant too soon or too late etc.  All of these happen in good garden beds even excellent garden beds.  Expecting to just plant seeds when you most need them and gain a harvest is a little bit naive.  You may well be able to harvest some but with even some basic experience gardening he would be better able to pull a harvest out.

 You know one thing that keeps people from gardening is the fear of failure.  When you garden you will have failures, count on it, but you will also have successes.  Start out simple, pick up some vegetable plants from  from the nursery or even home depot and plant them.  You will find it enjoyable and you'll love the results.  Get out there kill some plants, plant some seeds to deep, water too much, learn by doing.  Most people will only have 40-60 growing seasons in their adult life, that is not many opportunities to learn and try to master this art.  Every season, you will have even more success and increased harvests.  But, you must start sometime.  Please make it this year.  Or if you are already a gardener try to incorporate some new things to your garden, explore other methods of growing, help someone new get a small garden started or even share a corner of yours with a friend.

Seed Saving: Broccoli

Broccoli plant that has gone to seed.

Cole Crops include a variety of plants belonging to the Cruciferae or mustard family, including Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi and Kale. These crops enjoy cool seasons and are highly nutritious.



Our family loves Cole Crops. This year we have learned to harvest the seed from these plants so we can continue to grow more. The seeds from these plants can all be harvested in the same way.




Here is how you harvest the seeds:

Fully ripened Seed Pods

1. Allow your broccoli plant to flower (it is best to reserve one plant just for seed, do not trim this plant for consumption, just allow it to flower). After the plant flowers small green pods will grow.  Allow these pods to fully ripen on the plant before harvesting your seeds.  The pods will turn a light brown color and dry out. Once the pods are brown you can pull up the plant. Green pods will rarely produce viable seed, even if they are allowed to dry after the plant has been pulled.


2. Inside each pod are tiny black seeds (broccoli seeds). You can open each pod individually, but there is an easier way to harvest all of the seeds.  Simply put all of the pods into a paper bag. Smash the bag with a mallet or walk on it or simply crunch it with your hands, this is what I did. The seed will separate from the pod shell and fall to the bottom of the bag.


3. Now you can simply pour your seeds into a suitable container and store in a cool, dark place. We actually store our seeds in the refrigerator.

In each pod are tiny black broccoli seeds.

Place all the pods in a paper bag.

Smash to separate the seed from the pod.

The seed will fall to the bottom of the bag.

Harvested broccoli seed.

Becoming a Seed Saver

With each passing season Jacob and I are becoming more and more proficient gardeners. We learn something new every time we throw a new seed into the ground. In an effort to become even more Self Reliant in the area of gardening and food production we knew that it would be very important for us to learn how to save seeds. Yes, seed is fairly cheap and we can buy seed, but our goal is to move closer and closer to becoming completely self reliant. We really want to be prepared so that if there comes a time when we have to depend on ourselves to grow our own food and seed is not available to purchase we will have the skills and knowledge needed to provide for ourselves and our family. I have really loved learning the art of seed saving. There is really so much to learn because all seed cannot be saved in the same way.  One of the websites I have utilized in my efforts to learn this skill is the site for the International Seed Saving Institute. It gives basic seed saving instructions for 27 common vegetables. I will also be documenting the things we are learning about seed saving, so you can use our blog to help you in your efforts to learn how to save seeds as well. Good Luck!