This is one of those not super exciting homestead projects unless…….. You’re like me! I am finding joy in every new homesteading task that comes our way. Saving seeds was a skill I was planning on acquiring early on, but when those pickle worms came in a started destroying everything I thought they were going to take the one cucumber I had left on the vine to mature. Luckily, they left it alone for whatever reason and it was able to grow to full maturity. This is part of the reason I was so excited to save seed this year. Not only is it my first time but I was seriously concerned I wouldn’t be able to so it was a nice surprise.
(the end product! Hopefully viable seeds)
We could buy seeds every year, after all they aren’t expensive why go through the trouble? The biggest most important reason for us is that it fits right in with our life philosophy. Why would you want to depend on something else when you can do it yourself? We want our homestead to be as self-sustainable as possible and seeds are a HUGE part of the homestead. There is a lot of focus paid to the animals of the homestead. Let’s just face it the animals are way more fun! But the garden really should be the focus in my humble opinion. In a world full of fast food and huge plates of meat, fruits and veggies are undervalued. Even in the homesteading world (especially small homesteads) we have forgone natural diets for our livestock in favor of packaged corn and soy. On our homestead we desperately want to feed our animals from our property and a large garden is how we plan to do it. I don’t know about you but when I can save seeds for FREE and then use those seeds to feed my animals for FREE, which means I can get eggs and meat for FREE(ish). I’m all over that. (Disclaimer: I know this will take time and we probably can’t feed 100% from our garden, especially during the winter but it is a goal I am working towards).
Seed saving equals better plants. It is known throughout the gardening community that saving your own seeds leads to better plants. Just like with animal husbandry you can chose to save seeds from the strongest, best producing plants you have thus saving stronger genetics for the next season. This selective seed saving will also help tailor seeds for your specific area and climate. For example I like to buy seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. They are located in Missouri (though I believe they grow plants for seed production in many areas). Their seeds are not perfectly suited for our area but over time they could be based on the natural selection of the plants when they start out and then which plants we decide to save seeds from.
(This is from our Sumter cucumber plant. It was by far our best cucumber plant this year. Least amount of pest problems and a good producer)
I’m going to hit you with a what if scenario next guys so watch out! What if SHTF? What if your favorite seed company goes out of business? What if the organic heirloom seed supply gets infiltrated any army of GMO seeds? If you’ve been following us you know we fully intend to prepare for a SHTF scenario but most people would probably laugh at that. Scenario 2 seems much more likely though. Businesses go out of well…. business all the time. Number 3 I’m willing to guess has already happened to some extend and if you don’t care about GMOs then you’re all good to go. Personally, I’d rather not and the longer GMOs are produced the more of our food supply will be contaminated. I feel more comfortable having control over my seeds than trusting a company, even an amazing family owned company to do it for me. (Yes I do know I have trust issues).
Now this last one I have yet to experience but I have been told that seed saving builds community. I’m sure that is true if you live near other people who value home grown food. Otherwise this one may not apply. So there it is, in a gigantic nutshell why we want to save seeds. Plus we think you should save seeds too!
My first seed saving experience was so easy. I thought it was going to get difficult because every time I try to do something everyone says is easy something weird happens and it all goes wrong.
(finished seeds on the screen)
The first step for cucumbers is to soak them in water for 3 days, stirring once a day. I’m pretty sure I forgot to stir them once, turned out not to be a big deal. After that I took a broken window screen, laid it between my grill and a shelf so that air could get at the bottom and the top. It took about a day, even in the crazy humid weather that is south GA and it was done! Super easy.
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