seed saving-greens

Today I cleaned the seed that I had saved from  all of our winter and early spring greens. These were a mix of greens  of various sorts from Russian kale to turnips and collards, but, since we use them all mixed together I figured I may as well plant them all together. Why make more work for myself when I do not have to I have had them on a rack in the living project room drying for the last several weeks and since they somehow got knocked over yesterday I took it as a sign that I better get them taken care of. Besides, I have some herb seeds to come in this afternoon and needed the room on the rack.

I got  the manthing to hold me a pillow case open  so that I could stuff  the dried  plants into it. I then  closed the end of the pillow  case and walked on it for a few minutes, turning it a few times  to be sure I got all the seed pods broke open. When I was done I opened it up and threw out the stalks and picked out the large pieces of chaff. I then cornered all the seed  in the pillow case and then poured it into a cup and then  set about winnowing it so that I would end up with cleaner seed.

 I used the fan and as you can see I also did this in the shack. For those that live in normal houses, I would suggest doing all of this outside because it is rather messy. Since I didn't feel llike unplugging the fan and taking it out side it was just easier to do in the house. On a windy day this can be  also be done with just the wind.

Once This was done I poured the seeds in to  plastic seed baggies and labeled them.  From the 6 plants that I saved for seed I got about a half cup of seeds. This will go a long way in our gardens in the coming years.