LH 167: How To Save Seeds From Your Garden

LH 167: Tips for saving your backyard food garden seeds

Preserving the flavors of the season doesn’t have to stop when that last canning jar lid has “popped.”

If you know how to save seed from your own food garden, you are truly self-sufficient and can save your favorite plants to grow, harvest, and repeat again year after year without ever opening a seed catalog. 

Saving seed is also a great way to share your garden with others. By saving seed, you can give your favorite flavors and best producers to others by handing them a tiny envelope of potential. What a great gift for a fellow gardener, or a friend thinking about starting their own garden.

In today’s episode, I interview author Julie Thomson-Adolf about some of the best ways for us to save our own garden’s potential each year…in seed.        

You will learn:

• The many benefits of saving seed
• The difference between open-pollinated & hybrid seed
• What is meant by the word “heirloom”
• How to dry harvest
• Why you would want to ferment some seed
• The best way to dry a “wet” harvest seed
• Tips for saving seed to prolong viability
• And SO much more…

Julie Thompson-Adolf:

Julie Thompson-Adolf is an obsessive organic gardener, author, nature nut, eco-adventurer, animal advocate, and seed lover.

As an experienced garden and travel writer, Julie is best known for her brand and blog, Garden Delights. She practices a “seed-to-table-to-seed” approach, starting her plants from seeds, creating delicious meals and beautiful bouquets from the harvest, and saving seeds to plant in next year’s garden.

Julie began Garden Delights during the recession. Listening to friends worry about how they would feed their families if they lost jobs hit home: she realized that many friends had no idea how to grow their own food.

Empowering people to grow from seed to garden to table became her mission. After all, nothing tastes better than a sun-warmed, homegrown tomato!

Along with garden writing, Julie documents the international adventures of her family and exploring off-the-beaten-path destinations with her Swiss husband and dual citizen children. She lives in Moore, SC, with her family, which along with her human children includes many furry and feathered babies.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

Starting & Saving Seeds* – Julie’s Book

Garden Delights – Julie’s Website

Seed Saver’s Exchange

Related Episodes:

Organic Gardening Hacks

Transcript:

Click here for the full transcript for Episode #167

*denotes an affiliate link