Lets Make Some Seeds!

Now you may be forgiven for thinking that we have terrible design skills at our house if you judge us by this photo! However, we are collecting seeds...kale seeds to be exact.
We had a bumper crop of kale this year. We had three different kinds on the go - Tuscan Kale, Curly Leaf Kale and Purple Kale. The purple kale is still going strong, however the other two types went to seed a while ago.

Purple Kale

Since we had such a great crop this year we thought we would attempt to catch seeds for next year. It is extremely simple to collect seeds and is very satisfying when your caught seeds turn into produce. You really feel like you have grown the produce from scratch. Furthermore, if you collect seeds from a strong crop you are more likely to get a strong crop the year after as well. So how to collect seeds...

1. - Let the kale go to flower in the garden.

2. - Continue to let the kale flower and then form seed pods.

3. - Allow the seed pods to dry a little on the plant.

4. - Pull the plants out of the ground and place them upside down in an old pillow case. Hang the pillow cases up somewhere dry and out of the direct sunlight. Once again our verandah was perfect. At this time of year our verandah doesn't have room for humans with all the drying of veges and seeds going on!

5. - Allow the seed pods to dry so that they crack open and let the seeds fall to the bottom of the pillow case. This can take a few weeks. To help this along you can gently hit or shake the pillow cases.

6. - Collect the seeds, store them in a paper bag (a small envelope works really well), and have them ready for planting next year.

You can also do this with herbs and instead of using them for replanting you can use them in cooking. For example, you can do this with coriander, fennel or dill, just to name a few. Instead of keeping them in a paper bag keep them in an airtight container. To get the best flavour use the seeds within 6 months. Imagine how much better your cooking will taste with home grown, fresh seeds!