Everlasting Kale?

The garden holds many surprises.   I'm sharing my seed-saving tips for cabbage-type plants again, with an update on one incredible "dwarf" Blue Curled Kale plant.  

Our beautiful 3-year-old kale plant - July 25, 2013.

Never did I expect that this plant would still be with us, but it's here and going strong after 3 summers and 2 cold and snowy winters.  We’ve had 2 years of seed production from this everlasting friend, and its blossoms nourished many bees and pollinating flies again this spring.  Who would have known that a member of the humble cabbage family would have such longevity programmed within.  I'm wondering if the seeds will have this characteristic, too. 

Kale Blossoms

My kale friend thrives in a well-developed food web in our garden, where Mother Nature has some built-in pest controls.  This single plant fed generations of white cabbage butterflies; I use it as both a lure and a relocation plant, saving the new crop of kales in the vegetable garden from being ravaged by waves of voracious caterpillars.  Those "pesky" butterfly larvae feed the birds - this kale is regularly visited by cardinals and house finches, who gobble up the fat worms. Predatory wasps also hang out in the kale, where they lunch on plant-eating insects.  Today, I pay tribute to one surprising plant friend and agent of biodiversity in our organic gardens. 

SAVING SEEDS MAKES GARDENING AFFORDABLE

Kale seeds are ready for  harvest - July 18, 2012.

July 18, 2012:  My organic Blue Curled Kales shared a bountiful seed crop this week. I grow out just one member of the cabbage family each spring, since they happily cross-pollinate with their cousins. Kale is a biennial which grows a stout rosette the first year, then sends up a flowering stalk the second. I started these plants from Botanical Interests Seeds back in January of 2011. When 3 of these guys lived through last winter, I knew we’d get seeds this season.  

The tall flower stalks fed countless bees and butterflies this spring while adding structural interest in the flower garden. When kale is ripe, the pods turn brittle and shatter easily, releasing the dark colored seeds. Immature pods are soft and pliable. Resist the urge to harvest before the pods are brittle; they may mold due to their higher moisture content and when planted later on, fewer seeds will germinate.  To harvest, hold a bowl under the seed pod and rub it open to release the seeds into the bowl.  Remove the bits of pod, let the seeds sit in the bowl on your counter for a day or two to make sure they’re dry, then package in paper envelopes and label with seed type and date. When properly harvested and stored in dry, dark conditions like a closet shelf, kale seeds can be kept for up to 5 years.

Kale Seeds

I harvested nearly 1 oz. of seed in about 10 minutes last night.  That’s the equivalent of 9 seed packets in the store!  At $1.60 a pkt, I have $15 worth of seed in this batch.  As we learn to close the loop to our own sustainability through activities such as seed saving, gardening becomes both affordable and empowering.  Happy Harvesting!

If seed saving isn't your thing yet, seed from this very plant is currently for sale on my Healing Garden Herbs Etsy shop.  Happy Shopping!

Saving Seeds for Food Independence

Lettuce blossoms and seeds

Lettuce is a common fresh food and very easy to grow.  It makes sense to allow a few lettuce plants to go to seed in the garden and claim your independence from purchased seed.  Saving lettuce seeds is an exercise in being present. Every few days, more golden blossoms ripen into fluffy parachutes, and a new batch of seeds is ready to fly. That’s when you have to be there!  Small-scale backyard production keeps you in touch with these big events.

Lettuce flowering stalk

Lettuce plants are beautifully contradictory beings.  They equip their seeds with parachutes to help them fly away on the wind, AND they ooze a sticky sap, latex, that temporarily glues the newly released seeds to anything that blunders through the lettuce patch, bruising leaves and stems.  These opposing traits ensure that the seeds can be carried by both wind and animals – very clever! I’ve been watching this year's seed production since late May, when it became too hot in my Kansas City garden for lettuces.  They love cool weather but grow tall and develop a very bitter flavor if the temperatures hit 90.  That single tall stem produces many tiny yellow flowers resembling mini dandelions, and the family resemblance is no coincidence since both plants are in the Asteracea family.

Lettuce seeds in bowl

Seed-saving guides describe lettuce seed harvesting as a complicated and messy process requiring bagging and various grades of mesh screen. In the sustainable backyard garden, it’s done easily and with no special equipment.  To harvest lettuce seeds, break off the fluffy-headed seed pods and keep them intact.  Back indoors, rinse the sticky latex off your fingers, then hold the seeds by the fluffy end and gently pull and twist the pod at the opposite end to release the covering from the individual seeds.  Brush the seeds into a bowl, let them sit on the counter for a day, then package in paper envelopes labeled with seed type and date. I harvested 5 grams of seed from a single lettuce plant, the equivalent of 5 seed packets in the store, for a savings of $10! Keep them in a cool, dry, dark place and your lettuce seeds will populate your garden during spring and fall for the next 3 years.  

 

When we set aside a few of our vegetable plants for seed production we’re one step closer to self-reliance through food independence. Imagine every yard with a small backyard garden and neighbors sharing produce, then trading seeds.  It seems beautifully contradictory but it makes perfect sense: true food independence achieved through neighborhood inter-dependence. I believe we can make this dream a reality, and the time is now.