In Love with a Seed

This year is the first year that I am saving seed, and I have to say that the experience of saving seed is perhaps one of the most intimate expressions of love and care for a plant that I have ever experienced.  All plants have seeds that hang on the plant as they flower and dry out in the sun. They hang them out and bloom in a glorious show.  Some are more modest than others.  Take the radish, kale and collard flowers - dainty exetentions of themselves that flag in the air in subtle pink, white and yellow flowers.  Small by themselves, but take a little bunch of them and they make a gorgeous, quickly fleeting, bouquet that tickle the kitchen table and feed the thankful early spring eating bees.  And that's just one example of the flower.  There are bigger ones, of course- like the sunflower and zinnia or the cock's comb that have these brilliant flowers.  All beautiful capsules for seeds!  So, now, in this moment of beginning to collect seeds, I am finding I am getting to know a whole other side of plants that I was hidden to me previously.  

The process of saving seeds is one of gentle caressing.  Of rubbing your thumb along a plants' chin, gazing deeply into its face, and through a gentle gesture- the plant shares itself with you so that there will be many more of them in the future.

Collecting seeds is a huge reminder, as well, that Scarcity is a MYTH!  You may only start with one packet of beans, but then grow the beans, and then you get all these pods, and those pods are filled with seeds, and then grow those seeds and then they grow pods and become seeds- and it just goes on and on and on- expanding exponentially!  I had experienced this by growing my own garlic from seed.  A few years ago, when I moved from Vermont, I brought with me maybe 20 heads of garlic for seed, then the next year, I saved most of them for seed- maybe eating about a 1/4.  And this year, I had so much garlic, I feel pretty sure it'll last me through the year- with seed included!  I am excited for next year!

It's incredibly empowering the way that Nature truly Provides!  Another example happened this weekend when I was with a group building a swale.  We were about to reseed the swale with some annual rye grass one of the people had on them, and then he saw the wild mullein I was admiring, all dried up and gone to seed- and he said- hey, is there still seed on the mullein? let's plant that in the swale!  And so we did, and it was a beautiful thing.  Because we didn't need to go to the store to buy some seeds that were useful for our survival- NO!- it was right in front of our face saying "Hey, I want to grow and reproduce!"

So there you have it.  What is to be gained and explored and learned about engaging with plants on their seed level is more than I can know at this point, but I can say it is such an enjoyable way to learn their signatures.  In the process of starting to collect seeds of many sorts, and seeing all their variable shapes, I am just reminded of the color and multitude of this planet.  Woowee- are we lucky!

Another thing I wanted to add before I shuffle off to bed, is that, in the process of collecting seeds I am finding myself with a new form of currency!  Whereas, before I may have felt like I had way more Calendula and Mexican Sunflower seeds than I could possible have room to grow- why save them- I now can remember that the annual seed swap organized by the Cleveland Food Not Lawns is not far away- and if I show up there with a few jars of these seeds (and crops that did well despite the drought!)- well, I'll have something very valuable to share with another person.  Saving seeds is a way of engaging with the community- a way I had not prior considered.  And man, am I grateful to be now.

With that and the waxing moon, I'm off to bed!
Goodnight.  -Diana