WellFarm Garden Chat
Seed saving from 2009 cucumber crop
This is my first attempt at posting to a blog. We live on a farm in Kentucky and a few friends get together here every couple of weeks for Garden Chat. I am Dale’s sister and we share project notes and outcomes via phone, mail and now this internet blog. Fun to trade info and keep in touch. Our parallel interests have developed intuitively and we can agree that genetic pre-disposition has little to do with it. Maybe the California sunshine inspired us early in life?
Barn and workshop on a Spring day in Kentucky
Our shared farm projects are cheese and yogurt making, cooking with herbs, dehydrating garden harvest and seed collecting. I am becoming the ‘dehydrator queen’ and chose the WellFarm moniker for fruit and vegetable snacks for kids and weight watchers eating on-the-go. I have not ventured into livestock or brewing as Dale has. Members of our group are from Parker Mountain farm down the road and they raise Tarantaise cattle and lambs. Godspeed Farm, our immediate neighbor has constructed a 6 hen condo providing fresh eggs that are splashes of color never seen in a supermarket. So little by little we are sprouting a farm micro co-op and marvel at the quality of our simple, new ventures. As empty nesters we invite young married couples into the fold to support their interests in natural food, farming and organic product choices.
Currently we are reviewing our seed inventory to prepare for ordering. In addition, we have tree (nut and persimmon) and vine planting aspirations (blackberry and raspberry). Since seeds are this week’s topic, here are some amazing numbers I calculated for the mighty backyard cucumber. It gives us an idea of the exponential value of a single seed and the abundant provision we have entrusted to corporate interests. Seed saving is of great value and becoming more critical each year as heirloom lines are bought up, controlled and/or destroyed to the benefit of genetically modified seed marketeers. I became determined to save our seeds after learning more and can now be perceived as ‘nutty about seeds’. Rightly so when you digest the following:
Q: How many cucumbers do I need for seed* in 2010 so the yield in 2011 supplies enough cucumbers to provide one seed for each citizen in the United States? (300 million population)
A: 3 cucumbers
300,000,000 seeds come from a 3,000,000 cucumber supply next year. 3,000,000 cucumbers can be harvested from 300,000 plants.
300,000 seeds for 2011 plants require 3,000 cucumbers this year. 3,000 cucumbers can be found on 300 plants. 300 seeds come from 3 cucumbers holding 100 seeds each.
*Key: 1 cucumber holds 100 seeds and 10 cucumbers harvested from 1 plant. A single seed can yield 1 million seeds in 2 seasons. Yes there is waste but this gives us an idea. So we start with 4 cucumbers in case 1 million seeds don’t sprout? Oh well.
Save one seed – reap a million blessings!
