#seed keeping

[bolaneno]

IG credit: @ xalishmedicines

[solarpunkwitchcraft]

The Preservation of Culture Begins With a Seed

Black seed keepers are recovering African American history

Mitchell, 28, who was a board member at the Food Project in Boston before going to work at Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, told Sierra, “When I started farming, it felt very healing to me. It was a way of doing some ancestral trauma healing work, and it felt very important to me that my agricultural practice was related to this.”

Eventually, Mitchell searched for ways to deepen her agricultural practice and knowledge. In 2016, she attended the Northeast Organic Farming Association conference, and while there she couldn’t help but notice that she was one of the few people of color. Looking to connect with farmers of color, she struck up a conversation with a Black elder and asked what his needs were. He told her: high-quality seeds that are culturally appropriate and easily accessible to Black farmers and gardeners.    

[balkanradfem]

First seeds to be germinated this year! You can put your seeds in soil to germinate, but then you can't check up on them to see if they've started sprouting. With this neat trick they will germinate faster, and you can check up on them every day to see where they're at. You put them all in paper towels, with labels so you know what is what, then wrap them up, spray with water, and put them in an airtight bag. Bag is put in a warm dark place, and seeds will germinate in few days tops. Plastic bag makes sure the water can't evaporate and seeds can't dry out, so germination process is more successful. You could also put them in a small pot and then put the entire pot in a closed plastic bag, to prevent evaporation and keep it humid inside.

I started three different types of hot peppers, broccoli, kiwi, and basil, just to see what happens. I don't think you're supposed to plant all of them this early, but I do have plenty of seeds, and am curious to see what will happen. I'll post an update when they germinate!

[seedswap-europe-blog]

Hey guys, a lot of people have asked me if I will swap to the US or if I know of a blog that does swaps there and now there is one! Go see @seedswap-us and get swapping!

[mauricesmall]

Compost Grow your own Mulch Harvest Share Save the seeds Repeat

[seedkeeping]

Are you cleaning and organizing (seeds, or anything) for hours like me? Listen to this seedy podcast while you work! I loved having this conversation with Tagan about seeds, sovereignty, justice, race, ancestors, storytelling, and are non-profits the answer? https://thetableunderground.com/the-table-underground/2018/2/5/truelove-seeds

[regnum-plantae]

small updates

This week has been particularly busy, and my exams are also around the corner so I haven’t really had enough time to write much, but to compensate, here are some news from the past few days.

- I bought a kit to grow button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) indoors and I’ve finally set it up today. Button mushrooms are boring in the kitchen for me, but I’ve always wanted to buy one of these kits online, and when they arrived at the garden centre where I work with the new stock I had to buy the first one! Post to come.

- Today I also checked the batches of seeds I placed in wet towels and sealed bags a month ago and found life! The natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa) seeds I brought from Lanzarote are germinating, and so are those of a yet unidentified shrubby fabacea I found on the beach there. The most surprising germination though, is probably that of the seeds of an Opuntia fruit, a prickly pear, I ate in Milan in October 2016, which had been given to my aunt by a friend of her from Sicily. If all these seedlings survive there will be posts to come about them! 

- We moved the seed racks in work and I noticed two packets of seeds within hundreds are for plants which can grow indoors, mixed cacti and coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides). I bought them mostly because I couldn’t restrain myself, I have never grown either from seed so why not try. We don’t really stock any houseplants so I can’t throw my money that way. 

- I’m doing some more plant related diy. After the windowsill plant shelving I am now turning a small pallet I brought home from work into a coffee table on wheels which I can also use to move plants around the living room or for indoor gardening. If I don’t die before I’ve finished sanding that thing you will probably see me using it in photos of my plants. 

- I bought a katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) a few weeks ago and since it is a temperate deciduous plant I keep it in the backyard at work. It has some potential to be a nice looking natural style bonsai, very similar to what a multi-stemmed mature tree looks like. I’ll be working on it and you’ll get to see the progress. I am also keeping an eye on other small trees in work, but I’m trying to control my enthusiasm, I’d buy too many plants, too often otherwise.

- My kitchen has a door-window that opens onto some awkwardly designed railing. Hanging containers there is not a straightforward process and my next door has tried with precarious results. This year I’ve finally accepted the challenge and have bought some containers. I am planning at least one for kitchen herbs and one for small, soft fruits. Posts to come at one point.  

[foodforestsforever]

Modern Benefits from Ancient Seeds: The Hunt for Wild Fava | Civil Eats

The discovery of millennia-old seeds may lead to a better future for a vital world crop.

Could six, tiny, 14,000-year-old seeds improve the way the world eats today? A physically miniscule finding at a prehistoric campsite at the el-Wad Terrace in Mount Carmel, in Northern Israel, has provided a big clue in a mystery that’s confounded scientists for years—one that could prove important to global crop health and diversity.

After considerable study, it turns out the seeds are wild ancestors of Vicia faba, commonly known as the fava bean. Fava is considered by the conservation organization Crop Trust to be one of the most important crops in some parts of the world. Fava’s health is a critical matter even in places where people don’t consume it very much: it’s the most effective natural nitrogen fixer known to agriculture.

Nitrogen is essential to building nutrient-rich soil, but it’s quickly used up by cereal crops like wheat, which, when eaten in conjunction with fava and other legumes, provide an inexpensive, balanced diet to the world’s estimated 375 million vegetarians. Any crop’s wild ancestors hold important information about how to make modern domesticated varieties more resistant to disease, drought, and other devastating effects of climate change. But traces of a wild ancestor of Vicia faba, long presumed extinct, proved utterly elusive—until el-Wad.

Read the full story on Civil Eats.