Bloggers Seed Saving Network

Please take a look at the terrific blogger network of *heirloom* seeds exchange that Bifurcated Carrots got started.

Funny thing is that I have been reading so much Pollan, Kingsolver, Thomas Friedman & Singer I was drafting a post on the importance of seed-saving to safeguard the world's biodiversity ...and...bam! I see this info in BC's blog...cool stuff, everybody's minds seem to be on fire with anger at Monsanto (which I disrespectfully call MonEVIL), Syngenta, Aventis, Dow, Mitsui & DuPont who now control 98% of the world's seeds via the patenting of their hybridized lil' veg-o-Frankensteins...

...but right now I need to catch some Zzzz's, nobody can play superhero while sleep-deprived after all...I will post some utterly frightening bullet points (will try to keep it so that you don't have to run for coffee) that will scare the living hybrids outta you.

Datura Seed Collecting

This is one of the seed pods my Datura currently has. To let them ripe on the plant I put a 'net' (one of those bags where produce comes) and then collect them wearing gloves (all parts of the plant are poisonous).

Datura Seed Collecting

Saving Tomato Seeds

My goal is that one day soon I will no longer have to buy seeds and that the most expensive part of the garden will be water. A couple of rain barrels are on my wish list but, realistically, I doubt I would be able to water our entire garden with a few rain barrels (we have no grass at all and our garden cocoons our home and include the huge strips between the road and the sidewalk) any time soon. Plus, this being Florida the water will inevitably get hot...

Anyway, I was surfing around to find the best tomato seed saving instructions (I had been guessing my way through it up to now) and here is what I found:

http://www.victoryseeds.com/information/seedsave_tomato.html

This is THE best step by step tutorial for saving your own tomato seeds. Check it out!