Saving Heirloom Seeds & Cross Pollination
Seed saving is the next stage of my self sufficient journey. We have been living of what we grow, forage for, barter for and purchase a few pantry staples such as grains, legumes, oil, vinegar, sugar, spices, coffee and chocolate with the funds we make from selling our excess produce for nearly two years now. I was convicted that if I was to truly be self sufficient I needed to be able to save my own seeds and not rely on seed companies for the core to our subsistence, there is no point having the knowledge of growing food if I cannot access seed. With seed sovereignty under threat (corporations aiming to own seeds through patents) I wanted to make sure that my family not only had the reserves but also the knowledge on how to save these seeds for our future.
We run a permaculture farm and market garden, I allow a lot of my produce to go to seed to feed my bees and attract native pollinators to my garden. The problem with that is that without proper organisation and knowledge of what crosses with what, I can ruin my seed bank. My biggest hurdle has been to learn what I can allow to flower at once to avoid cross pollination.
I have complied the information I have learnt into this document to hopefully help others organise their garden so that you can start saving your seeds confidently too. The seeds that I am focusing on in this document are heirloom seeds, hybrids will not grow true to type no matter how you save the seeds.
With this knowledge us gardeners can be empowered and confident that if there was ever another seed run or seed shortage that we can continue to grow good nutritious food for our families and pass on seeds to those in need. I wanted to make this free to anyone who couldn’t afford it but needed the information. If you are able and feel so inclined I have added a donation button. Please find the PDF document on seed saving below, and please share this post far and wide.