Savoring Summer by Saving Seeds
The harvest moon in September marks the time of the most abundant harvest as well as the beginning of fall. And while we feel excited for the change of seasons, we’re also a little sad to say goodbye to summer.
Naturally, we try to hold onto the warm, sunny days of summer just a little longer. One way we savor summer is by preserving fruits and veggies in jars of jams and pickles. Another way is by saving the seeds of our favorite plants.
Plants complete the season by making seeds and passing on their wisdom to the next generation. And we, just like many other animals, help to spread and sow seeds. This is our way of thanking plants for their generosity for sharing with us sweet and nutritious fruits.
Seed saving is something that comes very naturally to us because our ancestors had a close relationship with plants through many, many generations. In fact, all of the delicious food we have today is thanks to our ancestors’ diligent work of selecting the very best plants, saving their seeds, and planting them again and again.
Now it’s our turn to save seeds.
The first thing you do is go to your garden (or a friend’s garden if you don’t have one) and look closely at some of your favorite plants.
Take note of how they look. Are the leaves green or brown? Standing straight or bent over close to the ground?
You may notice plants with dried flowers or with seed pods.
Snip a dry stem and shake it into the palm of your hands.
You may notice that seeds look very different from plant to plant. Some are big, some tiny. Some are fuzzy and some smooth. Some have hard shells and some are light as a feather. This is a perfect opportunity to explore and play with seeds.
Now, let’s harvest these seeds and save them for planting in spring. Every plant is different so the technique will vary from plant to plant. In this post, we will share an example of saving herb seeds. Here’s how we processed basil seeds for storage (with the help of our little one):
Snip flower heads from plant. For kids: Break, bend stalks.
Let flower heads fully dry in paper bag. For kids: Help to shake the bag like a rattle.
Remove flower heads from stalks and roll between fingers to release seeds. For kids: Have fun doing the same, or just tossing them around. There are so many seeds, we’re ok with losing a few for the experience.
Place everything in a dish or basket with about 1-2” high walls and gently blow off the chaff. This is called “winnowing.” Just like the wind is winnowing the autumn leaves from the trees right now. For kids: Help blow.
Pour remaining seeds into a seed packet and store in a cool dark place for later. For kids: Draw on the packets or label them. Rattle the packets, but make sure they are sealed properly (we speak from experience).
You can follow these same steps for saving lemon balm, mint & sage seeds.
Did you enjoy this project? Was there a seed that you especially liked? Let us know in the comments!