So I tested my carrot seeds and they're germinating at an excellent rate! I put them in a wet paper towel and kept them in a bag, only 5 days later it was already filled with white sprouts, it's awesome. Usually carrot seeds take about 10-15 days to activate, I was surprised by the speed.
I have been, against all advice, recklessly taking seeds from plants that are hybrids, and to explain what this means, I have to go deeper into seed heritage. So there are two types of seeds you can currently buy, it's heirlooms, and hybrids. Heirloom seeds grow into plants that you can collect seeds from, and get the exact same plant, with the same characteristics, granted it didn't cross-polinate with something else. Hybrid seeds come from a genetic mix of plants, and if you take the seed, it will not be the same plant anymore. Hybrids are usually good for production, or have something about them that is convenient to the grower – they might be resistant to disease, or resistant to pests, they might be resistant to high or low temperatures, the fruit might have special taste or color, or otherwise can be stored for a long time.
However, when you take the seed from a hybrid plant, it will not produce the same plant, it might get some genetic material from the mix the first plant was made from, but you cannot know for sure what kind of plant you're getting. It's unlikely to produce the same type of fruit.
Most seeds I see sold in the stores are hybrids, I don't know if it's to prevent people from getting the same plants every year without buying the seed, or because these hybrids are specially calibrated to succeed in our climate. Most plants you buy at greenhouses also come from hybrid seeds, meaning seed collected from these plants will be unknown variety. You can, however, buy heirlooms in special seed stores, or order them online.
All heirlooms start as hybrids, in fact, if you wanted to invent a new variety of a plant, you'd have to start by cross-polinating two plants and getting the hybrid seed. It takes many years to stabilize this type of seed, and turn it into heirloom, a plant that would give you a seed with same characteristic, I think it counts as heirloom after it's been around and stabilized for 30-50 years. So hybrids aren't bad, only unstable and unpredictable, and most people who are serious about growing food aren't going to take risks and will buy the seed that will give them the exact plant they need.
Me, however, I got plenty of time to mess around, and I've been taking seeds out of hybrids left and right. Every single pepper I planted was from a hybrid seed, and I never get the peppers that are same shape, size, or grow at same pace as the original variety, but, they are still extremely good! A bit smaller but sweet and tasty, nothing I could possibly complain about. So I felt very encouraged to take the seeds out of a hybrid broccoli plant, and now I'm taking some from a completely unidentified carrot that happened to be growing in the garden before that spot was mine. This winter I'm planning to grow just a ton of broccoli, carrots, celery, parsley, cabbage and kale and everything except for kale comes from seeds I collected from hybrids, so every plant will be a surprise! I only hope they taste good, and I can handle everything else. These self-collected seeds are germinating so fast, I couldn't believe when my broccoli seeds sprouted from the soil in only 2 days. That is just a good gardening experience. Can't wait to see what I get from these plants.