Operation “Be the Squirrel” {Gardening Chronicles 2012

This years big garden project has been a fun one….
I like to call it “Operation Be The Squirrel”
Definition~ Save all the seeds I can from my heirloom plants, herbs and flowers and preserve them for next years garden.

Yes…I am that cheap.
But I do have other reasons.
Impending global doom?  Ok maybe as a side note this maybe a very good reason…but not really one of mine…this year.
Because it is fun?  Ya..it is.
Because I am teaching the kids how to collect the seeds and preserve them?  Ya…that is another side benifit.
How about because seeds are free?  Yep…this one is my favorite!  I will just keep going back to it.

How about this…did you know that if you use a hybrid plants seeds that the same plant with the same size/taste fruit will almost never happen?  I mean really..they have cross bred and messed with out grocery store veggies to the point that some of these veggies have seeds that will no longer reproduce another plant.
That scares the crap out of me personally…just because I can imagine the effects of this 20 years down the road.
Most only look at the food in their cart today.
Perhaps this has alot to do with my heirloom seed fascination?

I did notice one thing for sure.  I purchased two type of dill this year.
One was an organic heirloom seed version…the other plant I picked up at Walmart.
Both plants grew big and beautiful…

Both tasted yummy …
Both gave me seeds.  But I realized something once I started collecting them.
I kept them in two seperate containers and never let them cross.
This was the box shop seeds:

and this was the heirloom seeds

You can’t really tell the difference until they are side by side…

Now was left with that lightbulb moment where you can really see the difference.
Could they be two different varieties and the tags were just wrong?  Could be…I never say never.
My curious side though will be replanting them next year on two totally different ends of the garden to see what they produce in the end.
Will they produce beautiful large, tasty dill plants again?
Will one plant be smaller, less tasty?  That would be my guess.
This shall be continued…gardening is nothing but a great big science experiment ya know!

Wanna see my stash?  It’s kindof all over the place right now…

I have them in baby food jars, Kombucha jars, ziploc bags, mason jars….you name it…
I grab what I think will keep them safe over the Winter.

I have dried a ton of herbs this year as well and have them equally all over this joint.
Food is tasting VERY yummy around here!
This week…moving onto canning tomatoes and peaches.