Late Summer Seed Saving

Gardening is a funny thing here, to which I don’t think I’ve quite yet acclimated. The tomato plants that had been piddling along all summer with just enough fruit to snack on are dying back. But then those tomato starts we planted in May that never really grew with the heat are up and flowering.

The green beans are continuing to give what they can. The summer squash have finally bit the dust, but the basket full of round green fruit still sits on our kitchen floor awaiting mealtimes.

This lettuce variety, Grandpa Admires, held on through the heat quite well so we wanted to save its seed for next year. Every now and then when we’re in the garden it’s a revelation, this whole seed to plant to food to seed again cycle. A miracle, really.

And the ease with which seed saving can occur on vegetables such as this lettuce is so shockingly simple, even we can do it. An old, clean supplement bottle works well to keep out the light and a quick scribble with the sharpie is all it gets before going into our big seed bucket.

There are beans on plates on our counter, squash seeds drying out in the shade, and herb flower heads in bags awaiting their time in the dirt next year.

And this herb here, if you can guess what it is, is one of the most lovely-scented, health-giving, easy-to-grow plants we’ve had around here in, well, ever. I will have to tell you more soon.