Let's Build an Ark

The summer absolutely flew by...I certainly didn't get the opportunity to blog to the level I had hoped for this year. We did have a great blessing this summer as our oldest daughter got married....planning an pulling off a wedding was a whole new experience.

Now we are into Fall and changes are rapidly occuring. Days are getting shorter and much, much colder. Seems to be an early winter coming and with it a close to the gardening season.

Usually by this time of year you are pretty tired of weeding, watering, chasing bugs, etc. and if you are like me you have many other places to expend energies before the really cold weather sets in, but I discovered years ago as a kid that efforts you put into the garden in the fall is just as important the steps you take in the spring to get the soil ready to plant.

First thing I do is go through the garden and pick all of those plants left for seed. These are marked earlier in the season...a piece of white rag tied around the base of the two or three Okra plants and corn stalks, summer squash left to get big and orange, tomato's that are a bit overripe, etc.

Saving seed is a vital part of building your ark. Seeds from year to year are you assurance that you will have the ability to grow food and feed your family. There is nothing magical about it...it's been going on since man started farming. The only requirement is that you grow only open polinated (heirloom) seeds and not hybrids. If the sed is a hybrid, the seed package will say so....it's required by law.

Some of the seeds I collect through the year. Lettuce, brocolli and spinach when they "bolt" (go to seed) in the early summer. Potatoes have been dug and stored and we will used some of them for "seed" next year (more on planting potatoes in another article).

The process is pretty much the same...for the Okra, corn and bean plants, I simply leave alone and they will dry out within a couple of weeks after the first frost. You can't leave them much longer than that or the "critters" will start finding them. They do have to be "rattle dry" (beans and okra rattle in the pods. If the weather turns wet or a couple of weeks have passed and they are stll not completely dry, I just pull up the entire plant an leave it in the garage or shed and it will dry very nicely. Once dry, I simply shell, or shuck and put the seeds in a paper envelope, seal in a container (old coffee containers work great) and put in the fridge.

For tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peppers and other fruit where the seed is in the plants flesh, simply seperate the seed from the flesh , lay them out on newspaper or papertowel to dry for several days and then follow the same procedure of the envelope and fridge.

The reason for the fridge? the lower you can keep the temperature of the seed the longer it will remain viable. Nothing shortens a seeds germination life quicker than heat.

This is also the time of year I look for seeds for next year. Some great deals can be found at nursery's and feed stores! Stock up!