Grocery Store Discoveries: Unusual Garden Seed Sources

Do you only buy garden seed the traditional way, or do you look for seed you can sow in more unusual places...like the grocery isles, bulk bins, ethnic markets and feed stores?  If you only buy seeds the traditional way you're missing out.  Not only can you save money by looking elsewhere, but it can be a real adventure.  Beware though, it is a teensy bit addictive.

Clues on the packaging.

The other day I snatched up a great deal on an 8oz bag of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods "Premium Poppy Seed" for $2.00 at a local liquidation market.  Yes you can find seeds there too.  Anyway, Bob's 8oz bags go for $3.39 each online, plus shipping.  Even at that price these seeds are a steal compared to buying the stuff in those little bottles for twice that price or seeds a single seed packet which would be at least that much if not more.  See, I told you it was a great deal.  And it ends up my bag of seed is about 1.5 cups worth which is a ton-o-seed but we love "poppy-seed-anything" around here so it won't go to waste.  If I told you my first thought when I spotted it was cooking I'd be lying though.  I snatched up these seeds mainly to see if they were viable seed I could plant.  Yes, that's right...I wanted to plant them. 

To find this out I would need to test the seed to see if it was alive, or in gardening terms "viable".  To do this I sprinkled a few seeds between two layers of moistened paper towel, then wrapped it in plastic wrap and stuck it on top of the freezer where it's nice a warm and waited a couple of days.

Sqweeee!  Look at 'em...they're sprouting!

This morning when I checked on of my little science project and found the seed was indeed viable (yippee!).   This is day three and there are better than 50% of them sprouted, with more on the way.  That means I can sow them and have my own crop beginning next summer.

Testing seed for freshness is also helpful if you are using them for cooking as the freshness seeds can effect their flavor, or as is the case with dry beans, determine whether we should even use them at all.  Dead dry beans do not absorb water and you can break a tooth on those puppies.  Other seeds used for oils can go rancid with age so if it doesn't sprout it could be dead which could also mean rancid and save you from ruining that lovely meal you are planning to use them in. Freshness dates are your only recourse with those.

So the general rule when it comes to viability is the lower percentage of seeds that germinate, the less fresh the seed is.  You can test any seed that has not been pasteurized with heat which would kill the germination.   Oh and one more thing...this is a great science project for the kiddos too. Get your kids hooked on this and you may find them scouring the stores for seeds to sow too.  I'm not trying to be an enabler or anything.

Poppy seeds are only one of the many types of seed you will discover that you can grow.  There are many dry (horticultural) beans, flax seed, wheat and other grains, chia (these are really yummy) and much more.    I wanted to start with Poppies because not only the seeds, but the pods for crafting and before that the beautiful flowers with soft grey/green foliage and I figured something in this mix of things might encourage you to give it a try.

Well, it seems I now have enough poppy seeds in that jar to sow a whole field of poppies so I guess I'll have to get busy and bake something.  Lavender lemon poppy seed bread or maybe some short bread cookies sound pretty good don't you think?.  Stay tuned, I'll be posting a recipe next.

Happy Gardening!


Copyright © 2013 by Patty Hicks
All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.

Ground Cherries; Kid Food In The Garden

Meet the Ground Cherry - Physalis pruinosa

Have you ever eaten a ground cherry before?  I recommend you try them if you haven't. They are becoming more popular again and are in my opinion one of the more delightful kid-friendly veggies we can grow in our gardens.

Sweet fruit with a complex flavor

These interesting plants have been grown in American gardens for nearly two centuries and were first documented in 1837 in Pennsylvania.  However it is only recently they have been rediscovered and have again found favor with gardeners.  Native Americans and the settlers loved them and they were important enough for settlers to bring seeds with them across the Oregon Trail.  Actually, until I became interested in plants the pioneers brought across the Oregon Trail I hadn't heard of them before.

Ground Cherry is closely related to tomatoes and has just a hint of that relationship in its flavor which is a complex mixture of sweet pineapple, vanilla, ripe plum and tomato, (hard to describe but so good).  The plants produce an abundance of small fruit that look like miniature tomatillo, another close cousin.

Ready for little hands to gather up.

When the fruit is ready to be harvested the husk turns a ripe wheat color, the little stems let go of the branch and the ripe fruit falls to the ground in its little protective husk...thus the name ground cherry.   There is no question as to when the fruit is ripe that way and that papery husk protects the fruit from the soil like a candy wrapper making it perfect kid food!

Look Ma!  No dirt!

Husks make little handles.
What fun!

Ground cherries can be used in pies, preserves, salsas or chutney and best of all eaten fresh and warm from the summer garden.

Seeds for next year?  Sure why not!

If you want to save seed for next year here's a little photo tutorial to help you along.

Smash fruit in water in a dish

Seeds are sticky, water is a must.

After a few rinses just seeds and water left.

Pour onto a couple of coffee filters to dry.

Coffee filters work best to wick away the water from the seeds so they dry quickly.  Be sure the seeds are kept in the shade while drying.  I put mine on my kitchen counter near the window but not in sunlight to dry.

When the seeds are dry you can package them up in little seed envelopes you can create yourself or use #1 coin envelopes like I do.  Store them in a dark, dry, cool place until time to sow for next year.

Speaking of sowing...these plants will self sow in moderate to warm climates if fruit is left on the ground, just like cherry tomatoes.  The seedlings transplant easily so either way, whether you collect and save seed or just leave the fruit on the ground, you can have more plants for next year and probably some to share with your garden pals.

Happy Gardening!


Copyright © 2011 by Patty Hicks
All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.

Kid Friendly Ground Cherries

Are you looking for veggies that are kid friendly to add to your garden?  Here is one that is perfect for the kiddos...Ground Cherries!  There are a few varieties such as the heirloom "Aunt Mollies" or newer "Pineapple" ground cherry and though it looks like a miniature tomatillo it tastes a lot different and makes a sweet treat for little ones in the garden.  Here let me show you.

What could be more perfect than a fruit that falls to the ground when ripe and is protected by its own little paper husk?  No worries about if its not ripe.  It tells the kids when its ready for them to eat!

They just pick one up off the ground, peel back the protective husk which also makes a handy little handle...

Gold means they are sweet and ready to eat.

and bite or pull the fruit off the husk with no mess, no fuss and toss the husk on the ground.

Saving seeds from them is easy too!

Light reveals the little seeds inside the Ground Cherries.

Smashing the fruit gets seeds on your fingers, a little water will rinse off into the bowl.

Water helps separate the seed from the flesh of the fruit.  Pick out large pieces first.

Seed is washed clean with a couple of careful rinses...don't pour water off too fast or seeds will wash away too.

Inexpensive coffee filters help quickly dry seeds for storage

The seeds tend to stick to the filter a little bit when they are finally dry and can be unstuck by lightly scratching them with one's fingernail.  Then all that is needed is to pour the dry seed into an envelope or small container for storing.

Ground cherries self sow like cherry tomatoes do so if you leave fruit on the ground it will produce some seedlings for you.  Personally I like plants that self sowing...its simple, just let nature takes it's course and there will have plants with no labor...save maybe transplanting the seedlings if needed.

So if you have a friend who has them ask for some fruit to save seeds from or if you need to purchase seed,
Nichol's Garden Nursery, Territorial Seed Company, and Baker Creek all sell seeds for this sweet little plant so plan on adding them to your garden for the kiddo's next year.

Anyone Wanna Swap?...The life and garden of the seed saver.

Are you bad at cutting off spent flower heads?  Has this task been on the bottom of your “needs to be done” list all summer and now you are staring at dead flower heads everywhere.  Take heart!  I’m here with good news!

Enula, my Enulam I have so forsaken thee!

It has been one of those years for me too, but I’m not going to sing the blues about it, NOPE not this gardener!  There is a blessing in those tatty looking flower heads.  You see the truth is this, they little seed factories…and I love seeds because they grow into more plants!

I don't know about you, but I would like some more of that Kale please.

If you are completely OCD about clipping off every spent flower head and yanking out every leafy vegetable before they run to flower, and if you hate to see any plant go to its final resting place…and I’m not talking the compost heap here, then you will not be able to collect seeds from your own garden.  All of this seeming tatty-ness that many of us classify as visual unseemliness is very necessary if our plants are to be allowed to go to seed.  I know, I know; that wasn’t what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth!  Honestly it’s not all that bad once you get used to it.

Go ahead...I dare ya.  Tell me what is not to love about this seed head?

Being a seed saver I’ve learned the value of living with a little “tatty” in the garden.  Personally it has help me, a type-A, “gotta have it show-ready” type of gardener, to actually relax and enjoy the seasonal progress that God intended in the garden and know that I will still live even if I am not “in control” of every leaf and flower.   The other amazing thing I have discovered is that most people, as in 99.9% of people, who visit the garden, really don’t see all the “tatty” that I do.  How that happens I have no clue, but they seem to see right past the tatty and on into the beauty.  I absolutely love that others are blind to what my critiquing eye sees and what a revelation that was for me the first time I experienced it.

Do you see what I see?  Do you see what I see?  A weed, spent blooms, ruining my view, oh I wish I could see like you.

When those spent flowers that never got cut off  completely died and are allowed to finish doing what they are designed to do, they will produce those seeds I keep talking about.

Astrantia major with the promise of...MORE ASTRANTIA MAJOR PLANTS!  WOO HOO!

Some plants will produce a lot of seed, others not so much.  Flowers are the most prolific.  So what you say?  Free plants I say!  And now you ask what happens if you save all that seed?  What on earth are you supposed to do with it if you do not have acreage to plant all that seed on?  WHY SWAP THEM OF COURSE!

Oh, just a few thousand seeds I gathered in yesterday.

Seed swapping has been going on for centuries all over the world.  For some reason we sometimes get the idea that it is new thing...but it is not.  Maybe I’ll write about that sometime but lets get back to business here.  We gardeners swap our seed bounty with each other, hold seed swapping parties, trade through online seed swapping groups and even hand them off to the cashier at the grocery store and total strangers if they’ll take them.

Preparing for a seed swapping party can be a lot of fun!

Honestly, we don’t care as long as someone wants to try growing them and hopefully will be happy with the plants once they are grown.  Now that makes us about as happy as a gardener can get.  This affords us bragging rights that the plants they are growing because...they came from “our” seed that "we" collected.  Oh its not what you think, we are just proud to have sown plants we love into the lives and gardens of others. 

Don't touch that lettuce!  Someone you know might love to have some of that seed!

We learn a lot about plants as we grow new plants from seed. We talk to gardeners who have grown the plants the seed came from and who give us tips that will help in our success in growing it.  This same information we will pass along to the folks we will also share seeds with from these plants.  Another thing, we get to show off what we have accomplished and most all the time, share the lineage of where that plant or plants came from…so and round and round it goes.

Some for me and some for you and some for, oh...whomever.

Basically I guess you could say that we gardeners are a somewhat out of control bunch; a mutual appreciation/admiration society, with a bent towards enabling our gardening addicted friends to continue to practice our common interest while encouraging others to get on board and start gardening too. We are often generous to a fault with what we know, what we grow and love to share with others, especially with other gardeners who also have stuff to share, like all those seeds that they have more of than they can or will ever use.  Most of us are a little bit compulsive about not wasting the seed or maybe its just that we cannot bear to see good seed go to waste, whatever the reason there is a whole lot of seed swapping going on.  How about you, wanna swap?

Seeds Seeds Seeds!

I don't remember exactly when I started saving seeds.  It was probably back when I was taking horticulture classes and working in the garden at a local historic site about a dozen years ago or more.  I remember one year where I saved over 95 varieties of seed which even today blows my mind.  That is a lot of seed!  All I know is there is not a year goes by that I don't save the seeds from something.  This year was no different.

(Clockwise starting top left) Lychnis coronaria 'Angel's Blush', 'Bijou' lettuce, can't remember but its a nice perennial for shade, Blood Sorrel and Poppy.

This afternoon I spent some time going through the garden, cutting ripe seed heads so I could save the seed.  The cutting of the seed heads is always nice quiet work and brings back the memory of the flowers in all their glory. It stirs gratitude in my heart for this gift of seeds for future plants too as the seeds spill from the heads into the buckets and bags I am gathered in. The extracting of the seeds from the head is not quite as cathartic work and takes a bit more patience, but the end result is worth the effort.  Seeds to sow and seeds to share.  It is a good thing to know how to do and so I decided I would give you a look into what it takes to harvest, clean and store lettuce seed.

Lettuces rarely cross pollinate making them great to save seed from.

Lettuce is one of those plants that rarely if ever cross pollinates so if you have a lettuce growing in your garden that you enjoy you can let it go to seed you will be able to grow that same variety from your collected seed.  The variety I saved seed from this year was one that actually wintered over very nicely in my garden and grew well even with our excess spring rains.  It also holds well in the heat and doesn't get bitter as easily as some and one more thing...its a knock out beauty with amazing wine colored leaves that don't fade ever!  Now that is a lettuce worth keeping.  Finally it is no longer available in U.S. seed catalogs so I would have to order it from across the pond in the U.K. making me even more thankful I have saved seed for the past few years.

As a plant lettuce comes in basically two forms...loose leaf, which is a mound of leaves called a rosette or a head like Romaine and the old standby Iceberg lettuce many of us grew up on.  When the plant begins to bolt, or run to flower as some call it, the flower stem in the center of the plant emerges instead of leaves making the plant appear to be stretching upward.  This is what you want to see as a seed saver.  This process can take a while so don't expect to see flowers for a few weeks once the plant begins to stretch.

Bijou in flower early July

Lettuce beginning to bolt

Next the flowers open...soft yellow flowers which in the case of my Bijou lettuce looked quite nice against the burgundy leaf color.  The flowers don't open all at once so you have some time before you have to start thinking about harvesting.  After the flowers fade you will see these cute little puffs of fuzz, somewhat reminiscent of dandelion which is in the same family as lettuce.  Once you start to see the puffs form you can sit back and watch and wait as the plant continues to flower. Lettuces have a lot of flower heads on one plant and not all of them open at once.  The reward, if you are patient, will be a bounty of seed.

Bijou Lettuce with seed heads and flowers in late July

You can harvest the flowers as they form the puffs but here's the deal...lettuce, like dandelion, has this white sap that is sticky and gets all over your fingers and the puffy stuff and seeds making harvesting in this fashion a real pain so I don't recommend it.  What I found was that the slightest bump of the flower stems made that sap flow out in little dots all over the stem and flower head...it was a nightmare.  The sap needs to be tried up before you attempt harvesting the seed and as long as that stem is connected to the plant it's gonna will flow.

Because of the annoyance of the sap during my early seed harvesting attempt, I decided to it was best wait until the plant was pretty full of puffs and nearly done flowering before trying again.  When it was finally time I cut the whole head off the plant, placed it in a paper grocery bag and set it on our back porch for about a week to dry up the sap before again I attempted to harvest the seed.  I suppose I could have waited a bit longer to cut the flower heads off but I get paranoid about the seed falling to the ground as we get some pretty stiff winds in our area this time of year so I erred on the side of safety.

Once the sap was dried up I was able to cut the branches off the main stem so I could work with them much easier.  I think at this point I would recommend laying the branches out on a cloth of some kind to dry a bit more...a step I did not do and I think made it harder to get the seed out because some of the heads were still damp making it harder to get the seed out.  You could probably use an old cotton pillow case if you wanted to for this and hang it up in a drafty location where it wouldn't get wet to completely dry.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot.  While I was cutting the stems I found these little guys feasting on the leaves.  They weren't bothering the seed heads so I left them alone until I was ready to cut the side branches off the main stem.
 
The only ick factor in this whole process for me really was accidentally smashing one or two during this process.  Some were really tiny so keep your eyes peeled for them during the seed cleaning process too.

The birds love these larvae so if you have a feeder that gets good traffic just put the in it and stand back.

Once the stems were dry I took them a couple at a time and rubbed them between my hands, rolling them back and forth and rubbing the flowerheads with my fingers to dislodge the seed if it was being stubborn.  Like I said...it takes a bit of patience...and a bit persistence sometimes too.  The seeds sometimes do not release readily so the rubbing and pinching of the heads helps in this process.  There  are a small amount that fall off naturally so if you only wanted a few seeds you could just shake the heads over a sheet or pan.  I'm greedy when it comes to seeds as I like to have seed to share.  That is in part why I like to take the time and I also enjoy the process.  Peaceable work with profitable rewards is always a good thing.

The stuff you don't want in your seeds.

The end result of all the rubbing is a pile of part seeds and part plant material which then need to be separated out.  My favorite tools for this process are those wire kitchen strainers and a baking pan or small jelly roll pan. 

Kitchen strainers are a great tool for separating seed from plant material.  Hold your free hand at one side of the strainer and tap the strainer gently against your palm like you would a tambourine.

For the lettuce seed I used my larger colander sized wire strainer and then a smaller, finer meshed one with a handle on it.  Be sure to start with the larger holed strainer first and go down to the finer after.  You want the seed to be able to fall through the screen mesh so be sure you don't use too fine of a strainer.  If plant material falls through (which it almost always does) don't get excited, there are a couple more steps before we're done here.

Plant material that made it through the strainer.

Here is what you will have after you have strained the seed.  (Note: Not all lettuce seed is white, some is black)  This Bijou lettuce made it easier to distinguish the plant material from the seed as it was purple when dried.  Notice that there is also a bit of that fuzz left in the mix too.  To remove this you need to winnow the seed which will remove some of this unwanted material

Winnowing is basically letting the breeze carry the lighter plant material away from the seed.  You take the seed and slowly dribble it into the container letting the breeze do all the work. In order to not lose some of your seed during this process make sure to have a large enough container to catch the seed in and be sure the breeze is not too strong.  For a catch container I recommend using one of the larger plastic tote storage containers or you could do if over a large piece of cloth like a table cloth or sheet.  If you only need a few seeds saved you can use a 9x13 pan like I did here and it works pretty well. If you don't have a breeze make one yourself by using a fan or blow across the seeds instead.  Take care to see that your seed is not being blown away in this process.

After the winnowing there was some heavier material still mixed with the seed.  To separate it out I just held the pan at an angle and tapped it or shook it gently while stirring the seeds to release the unwanted material from the crowd of seeds.  The seeds will stick (because they are flat) and not roll while the other material will be rolling downhill and collecting along the side of the pan making it easy to remove.  This is probably the most time consuming part of the whole process.  Now I have to confess I get a little ODC here and want to save "all" the seed possible and will spend way too much time and effort at times to be sure I don't lose any seed.  Thankfully I didn't do that this year and the winnowings went into the compost heap.

Once the seed is clean (relative term here as we don't have those fancy mechanical cleaning machines that really get it clean) set them out on a coffee filter to dry them further which will help them to not mold in storage.

Sunflower seed gift envelopes I created

You can store them in paper envelopes (try making your own) or in jars.  I don't recommend ziploc bags as the seed sticks to the side of the bags, foil pouches work too.  Those little envelopes they use for stamp collecting work really well too.  Personally I have found coin envelopes to be really handy to use.  You can get them at local office supply stores like Office Depot or Staples.  Whatever you store them in be sure there are no places the seed can escape from like those unglued corners of envelopes.

Next I store the seed in a cool, dark, dry place to ensure they stay viable (alive).  In my propagation class at college we were taught that 13% humidity and below 40 F is good.  I just store my seeds in a box and tuck it on the floor in our office where it is cooler.  That works nicely since I don't have room in my refrigerator or freezer where some folks store there seed.  TIP:  You can place a couple of those desiccant pouches that come inside shoe boxes into your seed box to help keep them dry while in storage. 

So have fun gathering.  I'll post some seed packet ideas soon.

Copyright © 2010 by Patty Hicks

All rights reserved. No part of this blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. All reviews must include author's name and a link back to this blog.