643: Nifty Nightshades.
A chat with an expert on seeds.
At least ten times a year we have a live Seed Saving Class with Bill McDorman, the Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, Ketchum, Idaho. He got his start in the bio-regional seed movement while in college in 1979 when he helped start Garden City Seeds. In 1984, Bill started Seeds Trust/High Altitude Gardens, a mail order seed company he ran successfully until it sold in 2013.
Come join us for the next live class, or catch up on our previous classes through our podcast episodes. Either way you will expand your seed knowledge and gain new perspectives on your food system.
Register anytime for the next event.
Register Here for the Monthly Seed Saving Class with Live Q&A
In This Seed Chat:
This is the September 2021 class discussing nightshades. We are so glad the deadly nightshades aren’t! Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and tomatillos. Easy to save the seeds and so many reasons to. And the good news is that these plants are self-pollinating so no worries about your plants “getting crossed up.” Everyone’s favorite vegetable, tomato, could become your favorite seed saving variety. Plant, pick, save seeds. Oh and eat the fruit. Really!
CHAT HIGHLIGHTS:
– Most people grow tomatoes at one time or another.
– Uniformity is not the goal of seed saving.
– Most tomatoes pollinate themselves before the flowers even open.
– Epigentics – Plants changing, in real time, to adapt to climate conditions
– Wet harvesting of tomato seeds– how to do it and why you want to
– Ways to harvest pepper seeds
– Did you eat out and taste something you loved? Save those seeds!
– A “hybrid” might not actually be a hybrid, even if it is labeled as one.
– Joseph Lofthouse’s “Beautifully Promiscuous Tasty Tomato Project” – sponsored by World Tomato Society
– Bill recommends The Empire of Red Gold, a movie about the centralization of the tomato industry
– Is a dehydrator good for drying seeds?
– How to save eggplant seeds
– Landraces have diversity and are adapted to a place
– Plant many; save seeds from the few.
– Encouraging genetic diversity
– Fermenting seeds for too long
– Ideas for diversity in small spaces
– Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance
– Bill’s favorite color tomato
– Support Urban Farm U! Click HERE to share a review, purchase a course, or make a donation.
Click here for Seed School Online
www.urbanfarm.org/nightshades
*Disclosure:
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