Growing our own food is an obvious rung on the ladder of food security. Less obvious, to me at least, was the benefit of saving seeds. For most of my gardening life, I’ve gone merrily along browsing store seed racks and pouring over seed catalogs to plan my food gardens. I rarely gave seed supply a second thought. But … what if one day there weren’t enough seeds to go around? As unlikely as that seems, it happened during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, which set me thinking about how we get the seed to grow the food we eat. Here’s a post I wrote in January 2021.

Searching for Seeds in Mid-January

Why Save Seeds?

Are there other reasons to save seeds beyond making sure that we have the ones we need to grow next year’s garden? Absolutely. Here are a few:

• Inflation Protection. Buy a variety once, then grow it always. Saved seeds are forever free.
• Purity. If our gardening is organic, our seeds are too.  
• Local Adaptation. Over the years our saved seed strains will become uniquely adapted to our garden’s particular soil and conditions.
• Conservation. Saving seeds from rare and heirloom varieties preserves them for the future, both for cultural heritage and for genetic diversity. (Does it scare you that the big four seed companies not only control availability and price, but can genetically engineer and even patent seeds? It makes me decidedly uncomfortable.)

Saving My Seeds

My summer learning project was to expand my seed saving skills. I set a goal for myself to learn how to perpetuate our supply of food beyond my usual pole beans, claytonia and dill. Selecting plants to save seeds from, then letting the seeds mature, collecting, drying and labeling them doesn’t take much extra effort. I can attest that the results are extremely satisfying.

Now with one year of intentional seed saving under my belt, I have this collection of seeds saved from plants I grew.

Beans–Fortex Pole • Beans–Gold Rush Bush • Calendula • California Poppy • Cilantro • Claytonia • Dill • Lettuce –Lolla Rossa Leaf • Lettuce –Parris Island Cos • Parsley • Parsnip–Hollow Crown • Pepper–Hot Hungarian • Pepper–Marconi Rosso Sweet • Pepper–Sugar Rush Peach Hot • Shallots–Zebrune • Squash–Bush Delicata • Squash–Butterbush • Tomato–Bonnie Best • Tomato–Sweet Million Cherry • Tomato–Italian Heritage

These mainly represent beginner level seed saving. In other words, not difficult at all. This year, saving lettuce seed had the biggest learning curve but now I’m an expert. It’s easy once you know how, right? Of course, the biennial parsnips and the zebrune shallots just happened, and I didn’t isolate the squashes so they might not turn out to be quite what I hope. All part of the process. I will learn more skills next summer.

I’m filled with joy to have so many home-grown seed packets. My list is not very impressive yet compared to a seed catalog, but if these formed the sum total of my garden next year, we wouldn’t eat too badly. Of course, we don’t just eat from seeds. I watch for every opportunity to expand my edible perennial collection, which so far consists of strawberries as well as walking onions, culinary and medicinal herbs. I also divide and plant the bulbs of garlic and shallots, and sow saved tubers like potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes (careful, you’ll have them forever).

As well, I rely on my very welcome volunteers to round out the menu: claytonia, mustard greens, tatsoi, parsley, tetragonia, purslane, dandelion, lemon balm, California poppy, calendula and chamomile. It never hurts to let a favourite plant go to seed directly in the garden. Of course, you have to learn to recognize the seedlings so you don’t pull them up along with the weeds. Spring finds me on my hands and knees carefully thinning and clearing the space around the new babies.

How to Get Started with Seed Saving

When you are choosing your seeds, you must look for heirloom or open pollinated varieties. Seed catalogs should specify this; avoid anything with hybrid in the description since they will not come true to type. It’s important to select plants that are suited to your own climate and area. Significant factors are days to maturity, zone compatibility and resistance to local disease (powdery mildew and tomato blight come to mind). Ideally, choose seeds grown in your own region when possible.

By the way, when you do save your own seeds, be sure to label them well with the year and the full variety name. It’s much more satisfying to remember that you’re growing heirloom Winter Luxury pumpkins than to keep referring to them as Grandpa’s pumpkins. Seed banks and exchanges cannot accept unnamed varieties. Being able to share from your abundant seed collection, whether on a large scale or simply with family and neighbours, is lifegiving.

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Helpful Resources

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My friends, if you grow food, and haven’t yet saved your own seeds, I hope you feel encouraged to give it a try next season. You will not regret it, I promise.