A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

The sunchoke adventure continues. I once again cooked tubers up, this time a much bigger amount. I picked at the base of the plant and got lucky, because up rolled a quite large tuber, and for now I'm not wanting to seriously dig up any plants, I'd like to wait until it's colder.

I was really curious if eating a greater quantity would change my results so to speak. Another stroke of luck, again nothing seemed to happen. I have been guessing all night why this vegetable which troubles so many with digestion is not having that effect on me, or DH or DD. I find it quite puzzling. I talked to my friend who sent them to me in the first place and to my surprise she told me that she experiences no effect either. But she was a raw vegan for a long time, and she's still a vegan though not raw. So her GI tract would have fairly unique bacterial populations. I am no vegan, but I have abstained from all grains except for rice for 14 years, and I'm sure that has to have some influence on this. I have been close to sugar free for the same amount of time too, also a possible clue.

Regardless, my second plate was just as good as my first, so much so that while everybody said no thanks when I offered to share them initially, everyone kept stealing slices from my plate until I finally offered to cook up another batch (which I did). Such good eating! Hard to stop!

 

[Decoy1]

I would love to have one of those seed cleaners @Decoy1! Maybe someday, they probably save a lot of time.

And less seed loss perhaps?

All you need is a handy friend! There are online design plans, eg. Real Seeds. My son made one successfully, but it did take him many hours.

But good luck with your processing. Would a rolling pin crush them more finely and help with winnowing?

 

[flowerbug]

when i was doing more seed winnowing i had meshes of different sizes to let the seeds fall through and then if there was a need to do another round of winnowing i would do the wind drop method on a clean sheet, usually there was a region on the sheet where most of the seeds would land that i could gather and discard the rest.

 

[flowerbug]

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View attachment 78186

looks delicious to me too. that's about how i like to cook turnips.

 

[digitS']

DW saved lettuce seed this year.

It was a first time experience. She had flat baskets set on the greenhouse bench near the open door. I noticed that she was quite involved with rubbing seed on, at least 3 different days.

"Rubbing." Combine harvesters have taken so many people out of the process of seed harvesting that we likely no longer even use the proper terms and don't have the common knowledge to communicate well on the processes. Of course, winnowing is derived from terms related to wind. Air movement would have to be very gentle for lettuce seed.

I have winnowed brassica seed many times but it is likely much more cooperative than many. Not wanting to wait for more perfect air movement when dealing with the task, I have made use of a ladder to pour out the seed onto a tarp below. This provides a longer distance for seed to separate from chaff. It also eliminated the need to toss the material into the air while trying to keep it out of my face.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

My favorite tv knee replacement convalescence channel this year has been CSPAN2, weekend, BookTv and history lecture series. I can lay in bed, half asleep, or working in my bedroom closet and listen and learn.
I have been especially interested in Revolutionary War history, what with ALL of the 250th anniversaries beginning with the Army 250th earlier this summer.
One author has written a book on the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, what they had in common, how they fell out. One thing that they had in common, which I already KNEW was...gardening. In 18th century America gardening was for the wealthy. It required slaves to move enough water to keep even a small patch alive, but they met on more than one occasion to find out about new equipment. Apparently there was a new thresher that they both wanted to know more about, which you reminded me, getting seeds from lettuce, a time intensive task.
This is my favorite episode on Garden Smart, the one where they visit Colonial Williamsburg, VA, and tour the period garden there.

GardenSmart :: EPISODES :: 2022 show38

Episode pages feature show transcripts from GardenSMART television show and plant lists, 2001 to the present day. Gardening tips are offered for the home gardener, in print and video. Garden/gardening articles are added weekly and questions are answered, all related to gardening in the...

www.gardensmart.tv

I keep rewatching it. Here is also a link on Heirloom vegetables, which they recommended on this episode:

Vegetarians in Paradise/Heirloom Gardening/ Seeds/ Plants/Gardens

Vegetarian/Vegan Los Angeles magazine featuring vegetarian basics, vegetarian recipes, vegetarian restaurants, vegetarian diet, vegetarian food companies

www.vegparadise.com

 

[heirloomgal]

And less seed loss perhaps?

All you need is a handy friend! There are online design plans, eg. Real Seeds. My son made one successfully, but it did take him many hours.

But good luck with your processing. Would a rolling pin crush them more finely and help with winnowing?

Yes, it would probably help me conserve seeds too. Every year I winnow lettuce I have so many lettuce seedlings on that ground come spring, so I know I'm losing seeds even though I don't see them fly out with the breeze. So much so now I always winnow over a garden bed so I don't grow lettuce between the pavers or other odd places.

Ya know, now that I think about it DH likes a building challenge! I should casually mention how fun I heard it was to build seed cleaner. He's a designer by profession so that should be right up his alley! I think @Decoy1 you've given me a really great idea, maybe a little surreptitious, but certainly brilliant!

 

[heirloomgal]

DW saved lettuce seed this year.

It was a first time experience. She had flat baskets set on the greenhouse bench near the open door. I noticed that she was quite involved with rubbing seed on, at least 3 different days.

"Rubbing." Combine harvesters have taken so many people out of the process of seed harvesting that we likely no longer even use the proper terms and don't have the common knowledge to communicate well on the processes. Of course, winnowing is derived from terms related to wind. Air movement would have to be very gentle for lettuce seed.

I have winnowed brassica seed many times but it is likely much more cooperative than many. Not wanting to wait for more perfect air movement when dealing with the task, I have made use of a ladder to pour out the seed onto a tarp below. This provides a longer distance for seed to separate from chaff. It also eliminated the need to toss the material into the air while trying to keep it out of my face.

Steve

Yes, when I winnow the lettuce seed I pour the handfuls of seed only a foot or so above my container. Any more than that and I'd start losing much more seed to even a gentle breeze. Those seeds are so light and tiny.

 

[heirloomgal]

My favorite tv knee replacement convalescence channel this year has been CSPAN2, weekend, BookTv and history lecture series. I can lay in bed, half asleep, or working in my bedroom closet and listen and learn.
I have been especially interested in Revolutionary War history, what with ALL of the 250th anniversaries beginning with the Army 250th earlier this summer.
One author has written a book on the relationship between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, what they had in common, how they fell out. One thing that they had in common, which I already KNEW was...gardening. In 18th century America gardening was for the wealthy. It required slaves to move enough water to keep even a small patch alive, but they met on more than one occasion to find out about new equipment. Apparently there was a new thresher that they both wanted to know more about, which you reminded me, getting seeds from lettuce, a time intensive task.
This is my favorite episode on Garden Smart, the one where they visit Colonial Williamsburg, VA, and tour the period garden there.

GardenSmart :: EPISODES :: 2022 show38

Episode pages feature show transcripts from GardenSMART television show and plant lists, 2001 to the present day. Gardening tips are offered for the home gardener, in print and video. Garden/gardening articles are added weekly and questions are answered, all related to gardening in the...

www.gardensmart.tv

I keep rewatching it. Here is also a link on Heirloom vegetables, which they recommended on this episode:

Vegetarians in Paradise/Heirloom Gardening/ Seeds/ Plants/Gardens

Vegetarian/Vegan Los Angeles magazine featuring vegetarian basics, vegetarian recipes, vegetarian restaurants, vegetarian diet, vegetarian food companies

www.vegparadise.com

Vegetarians in paradise, love it!