Seed Saving

I save seeds from as many of my flowers and vegetables as I can, if I feel the need to do it. Some of the flowers re-seed themselves so, unless I’m wanting to plant more in a different location, I don’t bother to save those seeds.

Yesterday I went out and put some of the borage blooms in organza bags and the seeds will fall into the bags. I want to plant borage in a few other places next year and a friend asked for seeds too.

Please excuse the weeds. I’m done with all the plants and as soon as we get a cooler day, we’ll pull out all the pots, dump the soil into the bigger bins, and Vince will run the mower over the spot where the tomatoes were growing. Once the leaves fall and Vince grinds them up, I’ll add some leaves and compost to the soil and use it to refill any raised beds that need refilling. I’ll do a bit more to the soil in the early spring (fertilizer, calcium, etc.) before I use it again.

I was going to place the bags over the sumac to capture the berries but realized they were already dry enough to harvest so I cut the pods off.

Sometime today I will cut the pods off the other plants. I think some of them are dry enough to go ahead and separate the powder from the seeds and be done with the sumac for this year.

I know someone will ask how we use it! We use sumac as a spice. It tastes somewhat like a lemon. I like it on steamed broccoli, asparagus, etc. I also use it in some marinades and Mediterranean dishes.