The Importance of Cultivating And Growing Your Heirloom Seeds
In preparation for this year's garden, I discovered a few foundational reasons why to use heirloom seeds and what to look for:
The prospect of heirloom gardening and saving your seeds can seem overwhelming, especially you a novice gardener. You will need some good material or a mentor to guide you. If you break the learning down to 3 categories, it will keep things clearer - planting properly, preserving the harvest, and preparing the seeds for the next planting.
Food Inc.
Food, Inc.
Amazon Price: $5.83 (as of 06/01/2012)
Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the
livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat, how it's produced and who we have become as a nation.
Why Heirloom Seeds - The Health Dangers of Genetically Modified Foods
Portable Greenhouses Can Be Very Useful For Heirloom Gardening
A greenhouse can be very helpful in getting your garden started off on the right foot, or for extending the outdoor growing season. Another benefit of the smaller greenhouses is that you can garden all year round. Place the greenhouse on a sunny porch or in front of a south facing window. Put your salad veggies and greens and some other smallish plants in containers on the shelves. Voila! Fresh salad all year round.
Perfect For Year Round Indoor Heirloom Gardening
Use This Mini Greenhouse To Grow Your Salad Fixin's Inside During Colder Weather
NEPTUNE 4-Tier Mini Portable GREENHOUSE Green Grow Hot House
Amazon Price: $46.99 (as of 06/01/2012)
Ideal for year-round gardening A transparent plastic covering, wire grid shelving and a roll-up door for efficient access. Greenhouse comes with clear plastic cover Sets up in minutes, easy to assemble interlocking steel tubular frame(comes with instructions for assembly) easy to disassemble and store, the shelf can be removed Wire grid shelving allows air to circulate Heavyweight plastic covering has zipper and roll-up door for easy access Covering increases greenhouse temperatures.
Easy Green Houses -For Indoors And Out
Heirloom Seed Prep
For me, the most daunting aspect of heirloom gardening was preparing the seeds for the next planting. There are a few good books on the market for detailed instructions, but nothing beats free video for the overview...
Saving Heirloom Tomato Seeds - How To Video
Preserving The Harvest
For preserving your heirloom seed garden harvest, there are several choices: canning, dehydrating, and freezing. Most gardeners will use a mix of these three methods along with making use of a root cellar.
Root Cellar Storage
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
Amazon Price: $7.01 (as of 06/01/2012)
This book is considered one of the best on the subject out there. Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet!) and the step-by-step advice in this book.
Make A Solor Dehydrator
The Solar Food Dryer: How to Make and Use Your Own Low-Cost, High Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator
Amazon Price: $9.70 (as of 06/01/2012)
The Solar Food Dryer describes how to use solar energy to dry your food instead of costly electricity. Comes with complete step-by-step plans for building a high-performance, low-cost solar food dryer from readily available materials. With your own solar-powered food dryer, you can quickly and efficiently dry all your extra garden veggies, fruits, and herbs to preserve their goodness all year long. We will be trying this!
Preserve With An Electric Food Dehydrator
Excalibur 3900 Deluxe Series 9 Tray Food Dehydrator - Black
Amazon Price: $249.99 (as of 06/01/2012)
The Excalibur Dehydrator allows you to dry anything evenly and efficiently. The unit can dry all fruits, vegetables, meats, and more! Make fruit leathers and home-made jerky - FRESH! The Excalibur has a trademarked horizontal-airflow drying system which dries foods perfectly evenly on all the trays.
Why Survival Garden?
Be Prepared For Emergencies With Organic Seed Sprouting Kit
Living Whole Foods Handy Pantry Organic Food Sprouting Kit
Amazon Price: $139.95 (as of 06/01/2012)
Sprouts make the perfect survival food! Loaded with protein and living enzymes, these can keep you healthy during any situation. Certified organic, with a high germination rate, this product is a massive 16 lbs of dry packed oxygen free seed which grows over 200 lbs of sprouts. For Couldn't be easier - 20 year shelf life and complete food storage sprouting kit. Just add water!
Seed Sprouter
Sprout Garden 3 Tray Family Sprouting Kit - Includes: Sprouter, Drainboard, Covers, 3 Sprouting Trays, 2 Oz of Certified Organic Alfalfa Seed, Instructions. Grow Healthy Fresh Sprouts in Your Own Kitchen!
Amazon Price: $24.50 (as of 06/01/2012)
The "Sprout Garden" includes: 4 -drainboard / Covers 3 -sprouting trays w/ drain holes 1- 2oz package of certified organic alfalfa sprouting seeds - Full sprouting instructions and a "LIFETIME WARRANTY"! If this sprouter becomes defective ever in the lifetime of the purchaser,parts will be replaced indefinitely!
Everyone Needs A Survival Garden
If you do a search on heirloom seeds or survival gardens, no doubt you'll find "doomsday" information. I'm not here to debate that. Consider this a "survival" garden, where you you are in control of your seed and have more to plant in subsequent years can get you through tough financial times. You'll also be prepared and able to help others should a disaster situation arise.
Survival Seed Bank
Buy Heirloom Vegetable Seeds
Heirloom Seeds- Salad Greens
Planting A Garden This Year?
Heirloom Seeds- Salad Veggies
Heirloom Tomato Seeds
Heirloom Seeds - Fruit
Container Garden Extreme
No Room Or Time For a Conventional Garden? Try Containers!
What Do You Love About Gardening?
For me, the best thing I love about gardening is the taste of the tomatoes, ripe and fresh off the vine. My grandfather would grow them organically and I would eat them all day long.
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VickiSims
Apr 1, 2011 @ 2:38 pm | delete
- It is so much fun to watch something you planted grow and everything tastes so much better when it is fresh from the garden. Great information about heirloom seeds and the concerns about pesticides and genetically engineered foods. Blessed by a SquidAngel
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ulla_hennig
May 29, 2010 @ 10:53 am | delete
- I am no gardener myself, but I think your lens is very useful to anybody who loves gardening!
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About The Author
Heirloom Seed Garden
by mmkellis
Maureen lives with her husband and four sons in Upstate NY. She is a total foodie, home renovator, and loves to travel with her family. more »
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Seed To Seed
Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
Amazon Price: $15.63 (as of 06/01/2012)
Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds. Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale.
