A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

The sieve seems like a good idea. The smaller seeds are difficult I've found. and I haven't a good way yet to separate the small bits without losing too much seed (imo) in the process. I do love the hairdryer set on low at a distance, works so well to clean things up, but I've also blown out my fair share of seeds with it too. I'm using it for the amaranth, which has small seed but not that small, and I can see I'm losing a bit. I sometimes ask myself why we need to get the seed so clean, it looks nicer, but I don't think there are many practical benefits for such purity. At least, that's what I tell myself.

Well I can think of a few. For one, the cleaned seed takes up less space (since all of the dross is gone) Second, cleaning allows you to check that no OTHER seeds have gotten mixed in (like weeds).

And third while it is possible for the vegetable matter to turn into mulch, it is equally possible for it to attract mold, which can easily spread to the developing seedlings and kill them. It's why I have to wash citrus pits and fruit stones even if I am putting them in the soil as soon as they leave the fruit; the leftover juice acts as a mold magnet.)

 

[heirloomgal]

3rd year selecting for larger and larger chufa tubers. It's taking time, but it's working!

 

[heirloomgal]

Some of the surviving peppers from the vole assault. I'm grateful for what I've been able to harvest.

Here are the 'Bola' peppers, which I think is a variety for making the powder Pimenton de la Vera. I may try to dehydrate these and see what that's like. These survived because they were grown in the garden. The plants actually got really huge and were quite loaded, so much so that one of the plants broke in July, taking all the immature peppers with it.

A de-hybridized version of the 'Gypsy' pepper. I grew this one in the garden as well, not the greenhouse. Still, voles tunneled into some of them to get the seeds. Lucky that I got these, and that they can ripen off the vine so well. I'm rather surprised that despite being grown outdoors, in partial shade that it still achieved grocery store size.

'Trontarolo', a pepper variety from Italy I'll grow again I liked it so much.

'Sweet Melrose', nice production on these. It's a great pepper, though I didn't like it quite as much as some of the others - mostly because I don't care for this longer shape. It is certainly lives up to it's name, it's quite sweet, and was very good on pizza sliced in thin rings.

The little 'Nora' ball pepper.

Ñora Pepper, a delicious Paella ingredient

The ñora pepper is red and round and normally dried in the sun. It is used ground in countless dishes and products in Spain like Paella or Galician Octopus

www.spainfoodsherpas.com

 

[heirloomgal]

I ate my first home grown little purple fig today. It was INSANELY good. Way beyond anything I expected.

 

[heirloomgal]

I found an older bowl of the paprika 'Bola' peppers and I think they might be able to dry down all on their own, without the dehydrator!

The 'Kampanaki' Greek peppers which were grown in ground with crowding from other plants, as well as in partial shade. I'm lucky I got anything, but I'm going to try again now that I have more seeds. I started with 10. Such a unique pepper. Good size for a single Greek salad, my favorite use for raw peppers.

'Habanada' peppers, which I haven't tried yet. But I have tried the 'Sweet Datil' peppers which are another heatless hab I grew this year, and they are superb finely chopped with fish. I baked sole in parchment for supper this week, and put a big pinch of the peppers on each piece along with a pat of butter, some Cajun seasoning and a few coriander sprigs. I will grow that pepper just for baking fish in the future. And I wasn't a person that cared much for habanero flavor. I guess I just needed to find the right way to prepare it. The Habanadas are bigger, but less productive than the Datils. We'll see how the habs compare in flavour.

Finally got all the new tomato seeds from this year put into envelopes & filed with DS's help. Will wait another month and then slip some Ziplocs over the envelopes. Oh feels great to have this done and alphabeticalized. Haven't grown this many tomato varieties in quite a few years!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Only bit of news is that, the night before last, I was picking over my container of African rice (Oryza glabberina) and noticed there are actually two kinds in there, short grain (most) and long grain (a few).

I pulled them apart and, for a while thought the stuff might have gotten contaminated with standard Asian rice, since there are places where both are grown together (I have since discovered African rice is basically as diverse as Asian, and has both short and long grain varieties, so they all could be African.

Still, it's probably good that I separated them given how different short and long grain rices tend to cook (short tend to be stickier than long).

I also discovered that African rice is an upland rice (i.e. can grow on regular ground) an needs WAY less water than Asian (the only catch is it's only about half as productive, and a bit hard to polish all the way.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Only bit of news is that, the night before last, I was picking over my container of African rice (Oryza glabberina) and noticed there are actually two kinds in there, short grain (most) and long grain (a few).

I pulled them apart and, for a while thought the stuff might have gotten contaminated with standard Asian rice, since there are places where both are grown together (I have since discovered African rice is basically as diverse as Asian, and has both short and long grain varieties, so they all could be African.

Still, it's probably good that I separated them given how different short and long grain rices tend to cook (short tend to be stickier than long).

I also discovered that African rice is an upland rice (i.e. can grow on regular ground) an needs WAY less water than Asian (the only catch is it's only about half as productive, and a bit hard to polish all the way.)

I have a couple seed packets of rice, haven't planted them yet though. All upland rice types I believe, though some of the growers tell me that kiddie pools are sometimes used for growing various types. Probably better production in the kiddie pools. Rice and corn are about the only two grains I eat, so I've always wanted to grow them, but it would be a novelty thing I guess. Just not enough space in my garden to grow all the rice we eat in a year, even though we don't eat that much of it. It would be fun to grow some rice though! Have you had success growing rice @Pulsegleaner?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Have you had success growing rice @Pulsegleaner?

Not really, but I have never really TRIED seriously. I've only made attempts twice before. The first was when I was a kid and poured a package of Forbidden Rice (a black short grain kind with a seriously high anthocyanin count, originally reserved for the Chinese emperor), into a flowerpot and watered it. It grew but I didn't get any heads becuase none of them had any room (I had poured the whole pound bag into the pot, as opposed to a few kernels).

The second time was when I included a few grains I had found in my searches in my X-pot (the pot I reserve each year for seeds I can't identify). One of them grew, but turned out not to be rice (I still don't know WHAT it is, as yet, I have seen no grass head exactly like it (imagine if you took a head of Sicilian Ryegrass and glued small rice grains in between each of the "forks" in the head.)

So far, that's it really. I've got the same problem as you, no space to grow decent amounts of grains. Plus, I can't even put the heads in a vase for display anymore, since the cat will hone in on any grain heads (no matter WHERE I put them, he would jump up on the fireplace mantle to get to them, or the tops of high cabinets) and try to chew them to bits (which, given how sharp the awns of many grains can be, I don't want him to do).

And, of course, on the flip side since grains are wind pollinated tiny amounts wont produce much since most of the pollen misses the plants and gets wasted.)

Actually, besides the rice, I think I only have two other samples of small grains; a small jar of ancient einkorn (Triticum monooccum boetica) and a seed pack containing grains from one last head of Tibetan naked barley from when I grew the Kusa seed society landrace of that.

I still FIND a few wild oats (Avena fatua) when I do seed sorts of things like coriander, but planting that seems sort of pointless (especially when it can basically become an invasive weed).

I've always WANTED to grow Shot Wheat (Triticum avestium sphaeroccum) but the only strain I have been able to get my hands on (the Kusa 1066 one, which is the same one Salt Spring Seeds has*), does not seem to like it here (it got totally DESTROYED by sucking bugs, and, in the end there wasn't one head that was presentable or one grain that would not be defined by the industry as a "tombstone" (withered, aborted, or otherwise no good for eating or growing)

 

[heirloomgal]

And, of course, on the flip side since grains are wind pollinated tiny amounts wont produce much since most of the pollen misses the plants and gets wasted.)

Oh! I had no idea that grains were all wind pollinated! So it isn't just corn, wow, I didn't know that. If I ever grow the rice I have I'll keep that in mind. Good info!

 

[heirloomgal]

The first was when I was a kid and poured a package of Forbidden Rice (a black short grain kind with a seriously high anthocyanin count, originally reserved for the Chinese emperor), into a flowerpot and watered it.

I would never have guessed that this could work; I assumed that rice we can buy on the shelf has had enough processing to render it no longer viable as a growable seed. Sort of fascinating that you got such a unique and pretty type of rice to grow that way, even if you got no further seeds.

I've an eye for that Utrecht Blue wheat, in the photos I've seen it's so striking and beautiful. I'm still tempted to grow it, but as a celiac that would probably be a lapse in judgement. Then again, it's not like I plan to cook it, more like stick it in a vase. I dunno, there is just so many interesting things to try it sort of falls lower on the list I guess.

After my little amaranth experiment this summer I'm tempted to try other varieties. It was such an impressive plant and so many people asked me for seeds for it, being that they were growing in the front yard. I wouldn't eat the seed heads, but the flowery tops are eye candy. There is a pastel pink one I'd like to try, 'Flamingo'. I wonder if they can cross pollinate? Being a grain, and thus wind pollinated, I'd think yes?