Seed Saving 2

Well, with the heavy GM stuff out of the way, onto the actual seed saving. Last year I let coriander and dill go to seed as an experiment. With no patience to look it up in books, a few plants were allowed to bolt, ie neglected, then neglected further until their umbelliferous heads developed what appeared to be ripe looking seeds. Further neglect still, as they were abandoned in a corner of the polytunnel, shoved into brown paper bags.

Last year I periodically shoved my hands into the bags and pinched and squeezed a few seeds to sow alongside my bought seeds. RESULT! The saved seeds actually came up faster and more vigorously than the newly bought in seeds (although the plants tended to even out after that).

Fast forward to now, after spring cleaning the polytunnel, eventually the seeds make it to the kitchen table for sorting. Seed heads crunching between finger and thumb, gently shaking until all the seeds fall. With little twigettes and branches falling too, a colander is drafted in to sort the wheat from the chaff. Why haven't I done this before? As well as deepening feelings of connection to the circle of nature (!); as well as a gesture of silent protest against the vileness of Monsanto and Co biotechnology (see suicide seeds below); this process yielded over 100g of each type of seed from just a few heads of each. Will sow alongside bought new seeds; progress report later in season.

Because I am a beancounter, here are the financials. A normal seed packet contains hardly a gramme of seeds, and costs over €2. Even a wholesale bulk packet of 100g costs upwards of €10. For field scale/more commercial growers these sums still won't add up, as the saving process is quite fiddly, and leaving crops to bolt is perhaps not the best use of space, and risks creating pre-seeded beds. But for the kitchen garden, seed saving is easy, practical, ecological, satisfying, and more high yielding than I had ever realised.