seed saving

We only grow open pollinated, heirloom variety vegetables. No F1 hybrids or GMO's here. We buy seeds every year because we want to support our seed houses but we don't really have to..we could make our own seeds and use them. Our vegetables grow true from the seeds they produce, no wonky weirdness here.

Leeks are a cool weather crop. In the heat of the summer they will bolt..they go to seed and look..funny. Sometimes bolting will have an effect on the flavor of the vegetable, usually causes it to turn bitter.

We bought leek seeds the other day at the Rodale Institute. And we have seeds here that came from some leeks that got away from us over the summer and bolted. We will use our saved seeds to experiment with, to see if December is too late to start leeks in our hoophouse or if we can grow them out in the dead of winter. Part of the allium family, a leek grows the cool, round flower at the end of the stalk. Inside that flower, which we hung to dry since the summer, are the seeds. Homer has made his own seed sifter and yesterday found out that this many flowers produce about a thousand seeds. All those seeds are now planted and covered with a bit of homemade compost. Fingers crossed we get leeks this year..they are beautiful and delicious..