Introduction-The World’s Largest Potato | Wombat News | Book News | Awards | Schedule for 2008
The March Garden…what to plant, the dreaded flower flop, and a lot more than you probably ever wanted to know about how to collect vegie seed
A Few recipes… Spicy Oven Chips, Zucchini Fruit Slice, Savage Salad Dressing, Chilli Cordial, Ginger Cordial, Squashed Ant Biscuits
(NB. No ants were harmed in the making of these biscuits).
The World’s Largest Potato
I think I may just have eaten the world’s largest potato. Well, part of the world’s biggest potato, anyhow. Bryan and I had part of it for dinner last night- his was mashed, mine was baked. Then I added most of the rest to a giant pot of leek and potato soup, and baked the last piece to have with a tomato and vegie sauce.
It was only as I swallowed the last mouthful (which was delicious, thank you) that I realised that if I’d had any sense I’d have weighed the spud before we ate it, or photographed it, or at least Googled ‘giant spuds’ to see how big potatoes can grow.
This one took up about a third of a vegie box. I’m not sure why it grew so massive. All the potatoes were good this year. I put in about eight varieties, including some purple-fleshed ones, which were yum but didn’t give much of a crop. The giant was a Kennebec- basically the usual potato you find in supermarkets, but the ones out of your own garden taste as different from a supermarket spud as a home gown tomato is from a pink golf ball.
We had lots of normal sized Kennebecs too, plus a few interesting shapes that you never find in supermarkets- spuds with wasp waists or knobbly heads etc. And then this whopper.
Ah well. It was a fitting end for a potato. May it rest in peace.
Wombat News
They are big, fat and happy. In fact they all look like sumo wrestlers. Thank goodness stuffed wombats won’t want to wrestle much. They just eat, leave very large droppings, and go back to bed, though a few have been digging a bit. It’s been a VERY good year for wombats.
Most of the droppings are enormous- and dark green. But there were some small droppings on the front steps this morning. Which means that a young wombat has finally got the courage to leave its droppings where the others can see and smell them, instead of hiding them under the zucchini leaves. We expect to hear howls of wombat rage tonight, as Mothball yells off the intruder.
Book News
A Rose for the Anzac Boys is out this month. Am terrified for it- it was a hard book to write, almost impossible to leave behind. It’s the story of three girls who volunteer to help on the ‘western front’ in World War 1. It’s also the story of what I’ve come to think of as ‘the lost army’, those thousands, even tens of thousands of volunteer women who did so much of the feeding, and transporting the troops, as well as caring for the wounded. The official histories talked of the official units. But letters and diaries from survivors paint.... not a different story, just another one as well.
Those whispers from the past are very hard to put away.
The CBC in Brisbane will launch A Rose for the Anzac Boys on April 22, and there’ll be another launch at the CBC Conference in Melbourne on May 4.
It’s a good book. I don’t think I’ve ever said this about any of my books before. But this is one to stand by.
Awards
The CBCA shortlists are just out. Both ‘Pharaoh, the Boy who conquered the Nile’, and ‘The Shaggy Gully Times’ have been short listed- Pharaoh for older readers, and Shaggy Gully for Younger Readers, Shaggy Gully is a ‘notable’ in the picture book section too. And many many thanks to all involved!
Special thanks, too, the fantastic team who worked on both books, especially Emma Kelso who pushed me into making Pharaoh a far better book than it could ever have been without her, and the team of Jennifer Blau, Natalie Winter, and of course the wonderful Lisa Berryman and Liz Kemp. The names of Bruce Whatley and myself may be on the short listing, but that was one book that was very much a team achievement. (We were all even more or less sane by the end of it. Well, mostly.)
The Shaggy Gully Times has just been given a White Raven Award, too. It’s an international award, given to books that deserve worldwide attention because of their universal themes and/or their exceptional and often innovative artistic and literary style and design. The titles are drawn from the books that the International Youth Library in Munich receives every year from publishers and organizations around the world and only 250 titles make it on to the list.
Schedule for This Year
I’m afraid I won’t be able to manage much more than the list below. (It doesn’t include things like dentist’s appointments, family affairs etc.) I usually receive at least one invitation to visit somewhere each day, sometimes more. Much as I’d love to, I just can’t do them all- or even most of them. Mostly I choose events with the biggest audience, and ones that don’t need more than 4 hours travel to get to.
Please forgive me if I can’t come to your town, school or event- it doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. I probably will be visiting Brisbane again this year, though, too see family, and may do a couple talks while I’m there.
April 22/23: a few talks in Brisbane
April 22 CBC launch of a Rose for the Anzac Boys in Brisbane
May 2: CBCA Conference Melbourne
May 4 launch of a Rose for the Anzac Boys at the CBCA Conference, Melbourne
July 25-29: 2008 Byron Bay Writer’s Festival
August 17-19: 2008 Book Week talks Adelaide
August 25-27 Melbourne Writer’s Festival
Nov 9… Open Garden workshops at our place- contact the Open Garden Scheme (They take all the bookings and do all the arranging).
The March Garden
Jobs for March
. Most gardens look good in March. Contact the Open Garden Scheme and wander round local beauties to borrow good ideas for your own garden.
. Plant spring bulbs. In hotter areas choose heat hardy bulbs like freesias, belladonnas, ranunculi, grape hyacinths, day lilies and Jacobean lilies.
. Plant a strawberry bed or remove dead leaves and old runners from existing plants. Mulch them all well! For those with no garden space, a giant hanging basket makes a great strawberry bed!
. Take leaf cuttings of African violets, rex begonias, gloxinias and pepperomias. Place the leaf with the veins pointing downwards into the potting mix. Roots will form at the ends of the veins.
. Use a broom to knock clusters of spitfires from native shrubs. Sweep them into a dustpan, tip into a plastic bag and throw in the rubbish. (No poisons necessary!)
. Water camellias well for blooms in autumn and winter.
.divide agapanthus and other large clumped plants. One big clump can give you twenty new plants!
. move shrubs and small trees while the weather is cool, but still arm enough for them to put out new roots
. take rose cuttings: - snappable wood about as long as you hand. Fill a box with clean sand and plant so just the top third is poking out. Keep moist and in semi shade; pant out your new roses next winter
. keep pots of succulents dryish- if they die over winter it may be too much moisture, rather than cold that kills them
. leave pumpkins in a sunny spot I.e. the shed roof or on paving) for a few days to 'cure' so their skins will harden before storing them (on their sides- moisture collects in the tops and bottoms and the pumpkin may rot)
. pick off African violet, rex begonia, gloxinia, pepperomia leaves. Poke the leaves veins downwards into clean sand till the leaves are half covered New roots will form at the ends of the veins- and by next spring you'll have new plants to pot out.
What to Plant in March
New veg to try: coloured chard- just like silverbeet but with brilliant yellow pink or reed stems, long white radish- very mid tasting and fast growing ornamental kale- frilly and coloured but can be finely chopped to make a stunning coleslaw, sweet, tiny red mignonette lettuce, crisp fast growing Japanese turnips
Hot climates.
Plant to eat: garlic, macadamias, avocados, bananas, custard apples, lychees, sapodilla, star fruit, paw paws, mangoes, passionfruit, citrus, strawberry plants, capsicum, carrots, chilli, cauliflowers, eggplant, okra, potatoes, silver beet, sweet corn, zucchini.
Plants for beauty: hibiscus bushes, calendula, poppy, primula, snapdragon, sunflower, salvias; fill bare spots with ferns.
Temperate:
Plants to eat: garlic, macadamias, avocado trees, citrus, strawberries, beetroot, broccoli, broad beans, cabbage, carrots (mini or 'French round' carrots mature fastest), cauliflower, garlic, leeks, parsnips, spinach, celery, fast maturing Asian veg like tatsoi, pak choi and mitsuba.
Plants for beauty: bulbs, including liliums, agapanthus, iris; multi stemmed jonquils, heat hardy tulip varieties, flowers like alyssum, dianthus, pansies, primulas, salvias, poppies, sweet peas, stock. Grevilleas for nectar for the birds (Superb and Robyn Gordon and her relatives bloom throughout the year)
Cold climates:
Plants to eat: garlic, strawberry runners, broad beans, spinach, onions, seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, fast maturing Asian veg like tasto, pak choi and mitsuba.
Plants for beauty: bulbs like daffodils, jonquils, tulips, anemones, hyacinths, freesias, ranunculi, seedlings of Iceland poppy, primulas, pansies, polyanthus, sweet peas.
Controlling the dreaded flower flop!
Question: How can I get my flower arrangements to look more professional? Mine flop all over the place!
Answer: Okay, I admit I am not the world's most artistic flower arranger but ANYONE can get a professional florist's look for their flowers once they've acquired a few professional accessories! All can be bought from most garden centres and florists.
Oasis foam: This is firm green sponge. Cut it to shape, place it in a bowl, dish or basket lined with plastic wrap, then poke the flower stems into it. They'll stay put perfectly! (Not suitable for soft-stemmed flowers though - they break.
If you desperately want to arrange soft stemmed flowers in oasis use a skewer, chopstick or other handy implement to make a hole first and then gently push your stem into the foam block.)
Glass marbles: Fill glass vases with these, and then poke in flower stems. Once again, the flowers stay exactly where you put them!
Florist's wire: This is great for stems that want to go THAT way, not your way and long stemmed flowers like roses and tulips that may droop.
Collecting vegie seed
Most vegetables are easily grown from seed. Some also respond to cuttings, division or layering. Vegetables seed is easily collected, easily planted and easily stored; yet most vegetables grown in home gardens are still planted out from small plastic punnets of standard varieties sold at the garden centre.
Why grow from seed?
The seedlings you buy, prepacked and luxurious from greenhouses and the use of soluble fertiliser, are not necessarily the varieties you want to grow or eat, and may not have been grown in the way you’d prefer. The seedling industry makes its profit from ‘reruns’ - seedlings that die and are replaced. Punnet seedlings may look healthy, but very often they’re not hardy. A day in the hot sun and they’re dead, or they may be hunted out by snails tempted by their soft nitrogen-rich growth.
Commercial seedlings are rarely organic, they may introduce pests or diseases, they may be forced in glasshouses and not hardened off, or they may be too early or too late for your area. They are also expensive. While the cost may not be much per punnet, it can add up. Even a small vegetable garden needs at least twenty punnets per year; $40 buys only a few punnets, but a lot of seed.
The main reason I raise my own vegetable seedlings, though, and collect my own seed or use seed from seed banks or friends, is because there just aren’t enough good commercial varieties to choose from.
Seed varieties are standardised, perhaps three varieties of tomatoes, one of silver beet, two of onions, and may not be the ones that grow best in your area or you prefer to eat. It reinforces the tendency in our supermarket-dominated society to accept an unvarying hard pink tomato variety, for example, and shy away from any variation. I’ve seen children and adults wonder if yellow zucchini, purple beans or white eggplant are edible, or what was wrong with silver beet with shorter, paler leaves than the commonly grown dark green and rather coarse Fordhook Giant.
I love round zucchini (wonderful dense textured fruit that even kids adore, especially baked, or red freckled lettuce hat survive our hot dry summers, or the yellow fleshed red skinned carrots that take almost any amount of drought. And you just can’t get those as punnets of seedlings.
Home gardeners are the major force in keeping some of the old-fashioned vegetable varieties alive - varieties that don’t travel or keep well, or vary from the accepted vegetable norm.
Reasons for saving your own vegetable seed include:
Saving money: One backyard can provide 95% of a family’s food- free- as long as you collect your own seeds.
increasing the availability of old-fashioned and non-commercial varieties;
a sense of independence: I prefer to know that my garden is independent
of multinational packagers, seed patenters and chains of seed merchants;
personal satisfaction: when I look at the plants in my garden which I grew
from seed there is enormous satisfaction in knowing that they are mine,
from seed to harvest;
better stock: when you keep your own seed and grow your own seedlings you can discard any weak seedlings, keeping only the strongest. In this way you can gradually build up a collection of plants which are suited to your area.
Collecting vegetable seed
Vegetable seed is free for the taking, but the taking is more difficult in some cases than others. If you want your veg to come true to type and not produce weird shaggy monsters instead of well-behaved cabbages, you need to know what you’re doing. A bit, anyhow- and it isn’t difficult. (Did anyone ever tell you about the birds and the bees as a kid? Well, this is the ‘bees’ bit…how the bees, and a few other pollinators like wasps, beetles and some birds, help plants have sex.
Plants have male and female bits. They are fertilised by the exchange of pollen from the stamen (male bit) to the stigma (female bit) of flowers. Some plants pollinate themselves. When this happens (and the plant is not a first-cross hybrid) the seed will probably produce a plant that is true-to-type.
When pollen is transferred between different plants, cross-pollination occurs. Offspring may be true-to-type if both parents were the same, but they won’t be true-to-type if cross-pollination occurs between plants of the same species but different varieties. Some plants are both self- and cross-pollinated, either by wind or insects.
Most vegetable seed sold today is hybrid; it is produced by crossing different parents. Hybrid seed is more profitable to sell as it can be patented and many hybrids respond well to high levels of artificial fertiliser. By and large, the companies owning the seed rights produce the fertiliser.
Some hybrids are excellent. Many aren’t. They are sold because more money can be made from patented varieties, or because they have easily marketed characteristics - such as tomatoes that are round, firm and last forever, even if they have little flavour; or beans that crop in a couple of weeks and then are finished, which is excellent for the commercial grower who wants a large crop in a short time, but not for the home gardener who wants a long picking period. As a general rule, though, there are many exceptions. I find the old-pollinated varieties have a better flavour and texture than the hybrids and are more resistant to pests.
Most hybrid seeds are inbred to ensure the desired characteristics, and there is very little variation. Hybrid seeds are more vulnerable to new diseases or pests, simply because if one plant of one variety is susceptible, then all plants of that variety will probably be susceptible. I’ve noticed this with zucchini as well as a whole range of other vegetables. When one of my hybrid zucchinis gets powdery mildew they all get it, and die within a few days of each other. On the other hand, my open-pollinated plants are more variable. Some succumb early, some later, and some seem untouched. As a home gardener you should look for variations that show which plants suit your garden, and keep seed from them.
Ensuring your plants are true-to-type
Self-pollinating plants should be grown at least 3 metres apart to ensure they grow true-to-type. Even then cross-pollination may occur, but it should be less than 1 per cent. Self-pollinators include lettuce, beans, peas and tomatoes.
Cover flowers with a paper bag so they don’t cross-pollinate.
Cross-pollinating varieties need far greater isolation. It’s hard to ensure true lines if plants of the same species are growing in the neighbourhood. You need about a kilometre between plants to be really sure, though as long as only one variety is flowering at any one time you are safe. As most gardeners don’t let their vegetables flower (with the exception of plants like peas, beans and melons), you are usually fairly safe.
The alternative is to cover the flowers with paper bags during the pollination stage, and use a fine paint brush to brush the pollen over the stigma and stamens of each flower. Keep them covered till fruit begins to set. Sweet corn, beetroot, spinach and silver beet respond to this.
Actually, cross-pollination may not matter. In practice there may only be a few varieties of each vegetable in your district, so any cross-pollination may well produce an acceptable plant. With careful selection of only vigorous seedlings you may come up with an improved variety.
Hybrids
Hybrids are the first offspring produced by repeated crossing of two or more parental lines. The next generation of seed is not true-to-type, and the variety may deteriorate rapidly - though you may not regard the change as deterioration. I find self-seeded, once-hybrid hollyhocks, for example, produce plants that I value more than the originals; they have small, single cups and clear, fine colours. However, as a general rule, it is a good idea not to save seeds from hybrid plants, as the results will almost certainly be unpredictable. Hybrids are usually marked as such on seed packets.
Selecting plants for seed
Choose only the best parents. Don’t choose the first that go to seed, or you may find that offspring also bolt early. With peas, beans and tomatoes, however, you may wish to encourage early seeders.
Processing and storing
Plants with fleshy fruit, like tomatoes, capsicums, melons, pumpkin and eggplant, are picked when ripe or over-ripe. The seed is scooped out, soaked till it is free, washed, cleaned and dried.
Dry seed, like beans, peas, corn, silver beet, spinach, carrots, lettuce and parsnip, should be allowed to dry on the plant. In wet weather, pull up the whole plant and hang it upside down under cover until the seed has dried out. Sun drying is best. Oven drying over 40°C tends to cook the seed.
Large seeds are best left to dry on the plant.
Dry the seed to as a low a moisture content as you can, around 4 per cent to 5 per cent is best, with 15 per cent the maximum. Place it in a dry container and store in a cool, dark place. Don’t put seed in glass jars, as it will probably rot. Wrap it in paper and aluminium foil, then store in envelopes or matchboxes.
Give the seed a viability test to check the level of germination. This can also be done just after the seeds have been dried, so if most fail the test you will have time to hunt out a new batch. To test viability, scatter a few seeds on a damp towel. Cover with another damp towel and leave in a _warm, dark place for the correct germination time of the plant. (If you don’t know the germination time, hunt out a commercial packet of similar seeds and read the time of the back.) Even if you get poor germination the seed may still be useful, after all it is free; just scatter it more thickly.
Rats and mice love to eat drying seed and can devour your entire supply in a night.
Insect repellents to put with your stored seed include well-dried eucalyptus leaves, dried cloves of garlic, bay leaves, dried cloves, lavender, pyrethrum flowers, rosemary branches, tansy leaves and derris dust.
Commercial seed is usually treated with fungicides such as Captan. Fungicides shouldn’t be needed if the seed is dry and well stored, but a little powdered sulphur could be used as an alternative. A few grains of rice in paper will absorb moisture.
Deliberate cross-pollination or hybridising
Seed can carry cells from two different plants - its parents. Each seed on a plant isn’t necessarily the same as any other seed from the same plant, even though pollination may be by the same parent. However, the seeds should be very similar. Seeds that are very similar to their parents are called true-to-type. The more the plants have been inbred to concentrate certain characteristics, the less variation there will be.
Some flowers have both stamens and pistils, and can pollinate themselves. When this happens, the seeds will be true-to-type, though in practice there is always a small amount of cross-pollination from wind or insects.
Other plants have both male and female flowers, and some, like asparagus, will have male and female flowers on different plants. Some plants, like avocados, have male and female flowers that open at different times, so that they must be cross-pollinated by a different variety. Cross-pollinated plants, of course, will vary more than plants that have been produced from one parent, but if both parents are alike the difference is small.
Remember that even true-to-type seedlings probably won’t be exactly like their parents, though the difference may be so small that you won’t notice it. The only way to get a plant exactly the same is to grow a bit of it, such as by cuttings, division or grafting.
In general, seed from one parent will be almost identical to that parent; seed from two similar parents will be very similar; and the more inbred the plants, the more similar the offspring will be - and most modern varieties are severely inbred to get the desired characteristics. Plants closely related to each other, but not of the same species, may also be mutually fertile. In this case, some of the offspring will resemble one parent or the other, and some will not look much like either.
If you want to cross-pollinate, you will need to transfer the ripe pollen of the male to the female. Look for pollen-bearing stamens. Pick them out with a pair of tweezers and transfer the pollen to the stigma below. This should be done when the stigma are tacky to touch, so the pollen will stick. If it doesn’t stick, try again in a day or two. When the ovary (the seed pod) is ripe, the seeds inside will contain the characteristics of both parents. But you won’t know which characteristics until the plant grows. Remember that the more similar the parents, the less change there’ll be in the offspring.
Inoculating legume seed
The ability of a legume to supply nitrogen to the soil depends on its association with certain bacteria called rhizobium. These stimulate the roots to form nodules in which the bacteria multiply. Neither the plant nor the bacteria can fix nitrogen by itself.
No grower should take it for granted that the right bacteria will be in the soil at the right time and in the right place. If you want the best results from your legume crops or are relying on nitrogen-fixing bacteria and green manure crops for your nutrients, it is better to be safe.
Most large seed companies sell the right inoculant for the legume varieties they stock. Note these, or ring and ask. Some provide seed already inoculated. (Don’t bother asking at your local department store, and even most nurseries won’t know what you are talking about.)
Once you have grown the legume with the right inoculant, enough of the bacteria should remain in the soil if you plant the same variety next year.
The inoculant usually comes dried for mixing with seed. Commercial growers often pellet the seed, and coat it with finely ground hydrated lime and a sticking agent like gum arabic or gum acacia. In the home garden, try wetting the seed with slightly sweetened milk to get the inoculant to stick. It is a good idea to lime the soil a few weeks before you use inoculated seed, so that the bacteria aren’t destroyed by acid soil. Dolomite and wood ash can be used instead of lime. Don’t use strong fertilisers like manure, urine or strong liquid manure, and certainly not artificial fertiliser, just before or after you use inoculated seed. Leave a few weeks breathing space.
Don’t expose inoculated seed to sunlight more than is necessary, as sunlight will kill the bacteria.
The following crops benefit from inoculation: peas, beans, broad beans, soybeans, lucerne, clover, vetch, lupins, mung beans, peanuts and tree lucerne.
An easy seed regime
It’s easy to collect most of your seed; it’s only when you try to collect every bit that it becomes exhausting. I limit myself to collecting seed that is simple to save; that is expensive to buy; that needs to be fresh; or that I particularly value and can’t get any other way.
The most expensive seeds are peas, beans and broad beans, because of their weight and bulk. Luckily, these are perhaps the easiest for the home gardener to collect and store. Pumpkins, melons and zucchini are probably the next most expensive but are also easy to collect. Corn is more of a problem, as it is difficult to get a non-hybrid variety and it cross-pollinates easily. But unless you are in a country district where someone is growing maize, cross-pollination shouldn’t be a problem for home consumption.
Leave the corn seed on the cob and wrap it in a paper bag.
Some seed I always let self-sow, with patches of plants springing up, virtual perennials, that I need do no more to than pick and thin out. Radishes, parsnips and foliage turnips need a lot of thinning out. For slow germinators like tomatoes and carrots, you need to mark a place to leave vacant or they may get crowded out by spring growth.
The following plants can all be left to go seed, with the seed falling and germinating naturally so you can pick the result: carrot, silver beet, radish, beetroot, parsnip, celery, daikon or long white radish, spring onions, foliage turnip, parsley, leek, Chinese cabbage (not true-to-type), Italian parsley, red and green mignonettes, cos lettuce, turnip-rooted parsley, hollyhocks, corn-flowers and calendulas.
In practice, these get shifted round the garden as seed blows or as I transplant the surplus elsewhere. These self-seeding patches are my most productive part of the garden. The plants are hardy and self-selected to be best suited to this area. They grow and propagate with minimal attention - just a few loads of mulch to keep down the weeds and keep up a good supply of slow-release nutrient.
While tomatoes self-sow without encouragement, they should be trans-planted because of the risk of disease. A strong garlic spray on the stem and soil when the tomatoes are young may prevent disease. One neighbour kept her tomatoes in the same place for over 12 years. She had a hen run just above, so seed and manure washed down into the garden; it was the most luxurious garden I’ve ever seen.
Vegetables from cuttings
Tomatoes grow easily from cuttings. Either take a healthy stem and plant it to about a hand’s depth, well staked to prevent rocking, or stake down a branch while still attached and wait for roots to form. Often, sprawling tomato branches root naturally. Cut them off and replant them for a succession of tomatoes, or plant the top of a plant in autumn, take it inside for winter, and plant it out again to grow large in spring.
I have heard that capsicum, eggplant and potatoes can be grown from cuttings. I have tried and failed, except once with eggplant. They are still worthwhile experimenting with.
Grafted vegetables
Grafted tomatoes are available commercially. They grow massive, and if planted in a mild spot will often bear for 18 months or more, giving a much earlier crop in the second year. Beware, though- a lot seem to be badly grafted and the graft may break down. The rootstock also seems to be simply too vigorous, and many- if not most- growers find that they get large crops of hard, barely edible small fruit, while the grafted bit vanishes.
A tomato grafted onto a potato plant will give you both fruit and tubers- but not much of either!
It is very easy to graft your own tomatoes. Choose a vigorous rootstock, like tiny Tim or cherry tomatoes that are cold-tolerant, or a climbing tomato, and graft on your favourite variety. I have heard of tomatoes being grown on native solanums like wombat berry, which is frost-tolerant, and they produced for about 3 years. Tomatoes can also be grafted on to potatoes for a double crop, though the only time I tried it I got fewer tomatoes and fewer potatoes than from other plants nearby. However, I am a clumsy grafter and perhaps my plants were set back. Someone with a more delicate touch may have better luck.
Vegetables for seed collection
Artichoke Artichoke seed is easy to keep. Let the artichoke grow until the thistle-like seed turn fluffy and can be easily pulled out, or keep the whole dry head in a paper bag. Sow in spring.
Artichokes are usually self-pollinating, and I have found they come true-to-type, though others have found a lot of variation in seedlings (possibly they are becoming more uniform with inbreeding). Artichokes grow very quickly from seed and will often fruit in the first year. They germinate easily, so just pull out any that don’t thrive or produce good fruit.
Seed is viable for at least 2 years, probably more.
Asparagus Asparagus plants produce seed from 2 years old - a lovely dance of bright red berries among the fern. Pick the berries when soft and red, mash them, wash the seed away from the pulp, dry in the sun for a day, then move the seed to a dry spot indoors for a couple of weeks. Alternatively, soak the red berries for 3 days then plant straight away. The berries are borne on the female plants; the male plants produce thinner stalks.
Asparagus cross-pollinates. A few years ago this didn’t matter, as only one variety was commonly grown. Now there are more varieties, so separate them if you want true seed. In practice cross-pollination may simply produce welcome variety. I’ve found self-sown seedlings to be more vigorous than any bought seed or plants.
Seed is viable for 2 to 3 years.
Bean Bean and lentil seed is one of the easiest to collect. Beans are self-pollinated and rarely cross unless they are planted very close together. Scarlet runner beans seem to cross-pollinate more easily, and more space should be kept around them. As they crop through the whole season, or at least in the cool months of spring and autumn, try to save seed that set when no other bean variety was flowering.
If you are trying to protect a very rare bean seed, keep the varieties about 20 metres apart for safety. Normally, however, this is not necessary. I have been saving bean seed for many years; and as far as I can tell, it has all come true-to-type.
Let the pods dry on the plant for at least a month after you last picked them to eat - leave them longer, if possible, until the pods are brown and brittle. If frost will damage the beans before this, uproot the whole plant and hang it under shelter so the seed can mature. Dry the pods after picking, shell the
beans, then dry again before you store them. They should be hard to touch. The bigger seeds will give better plants next year, as they will have larger food reserves.
Store bean seed in paper bags, cloth bags or old matchboxes; not in airtight jars as it may rot. Bay leaves, lavender or garlic cloves will help keep away weevils. Large amounts of seed can be stored in dry wood ash to keep away rodents.
Seed is viable for 2 years, though I have germinated seed kept in a matchbox in the cupboard for 6 years.
Cabbage (Red cabbage, Savoy cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage)
Most of these readily cross with each other. They are pollinated by insects and need a good kilometre between varieties to ensure they grow true-to-type. Otherwise, you may find you have peculiar cabbage-brussel sprout or broccoli-cauliflower offspring. I have collected cross-pollinated seed several times. All the results were strange - including a brussel sprout plant with a cabbage top as tall as my waist, and soft loose cabbages that went to seed without heading. In spite of their appearance, all were edible, though not good enough to warrant keeping the strain.
If you want to keep seed in the home garden, the best way is to only grow one variety for seed a year. You can also make sure they don’t flower at the same time by cutting the flower heads off. Otherwise, try pollinating them by hand. Cover the flower head with a paper or calico bag stretched over wire;
staple it onto the plant. When the flowers are open, take off the bag, brush the flowers with at least three other flower heads, and then replace the bag.
Seeds are viable for 3 to 5 years.
To prevent seed-borne cabbage disease, immerse the seed in hot water at 50°C for 15 minutes before you dry it for storage
Beetroot Beetroot is wind, and sometimes insect, pollinated. It needs up to a kilometre separation between varieties. Never collect seed from plants that bolt up in the first year - wait till spring.
Beetroot cross with silver beet, so don’t let them go to seed at the same time. Cut off the silver beet flower heads until the beetroot is finished.
Seed is viable for 3 years.
Broccoli (see Cabbage)
Capsicum (see Peppers)
Carrot Carrots are insect pollinated and need about a 100 metres between varieties. Let seed ripen on the stalks and store without threshing in paper bags. I have let my carrots cross-pollinate haphazardly for about 10 years; the resulting carrots are hardy, long, pale orange and sweet. (*I also grow several heritage varieties, like white and yellow carrots, and very hardy yellow carrots with a red skin. All these are much more drought hardy than commercially carrots). Carrot seed usually matures in late summer, which is too late for self-sown carrots unless you choose an all year round variety.
Seed is viable for 1 to 3 years, depending on the variety.
Cauliflower (see Cabbage)
Celery The only way I can grow my own celery is to let it self-seed; seeds sown in our cool springs takes so long to germinate. Celery is insect pollinated so different varieties will cross. In the home garden this probably doesn’t matter, as varieties are not likely to be flowering at the same time, and any cross will probably be good anyway. However, celery can cross with celeriac, so don’t let them flower at the same time. just cut back the celery flowers until the celeriac is finished; more celery flowers will keep coming.
Don’t collect seed from plants that go to seed in the first year, but rather choose the latest plant to seed in spring.
Be careful harvesting celery seed. Once it is ripe, it falls
quickly. Use a newspaper spread over the ground to catch it.
The seed is viable for 3 to 5 years.
Seed-borne celery disease can be prevented by immersing the seed in hot water at 48°C for 15 minutes before you dry it for storage.
Chicory Chives (see Onion)
Choko These are usually self-pollinating plants, though, to be sure, keep different varieties slightly apart. Treat them like lettuce seed.
The choko seed is in the choko. Chokos need to be fully ripe before you pick them for sprouting. Leave them in a dry dark place until the new shoot starts to poke out of the centre of the top of the fruit, then plant the whole fruit in a frost-free spot.
Choko seed only keeps till the next spring; and often not that long. If chokos start to sprout early, slow them down in the refrigerator, or plant them in a big pot on the windowsill or patio until the frosts are over.
Corn (Sweet corn, maize, ornamental corn) Corn is wind pollinated, and requires at least 70 metres between varieties, though if you grow your corn in a tight bunch with a trellis of beans between it and the next lot, the seed from the innermost plants may be good. I often grow sweet corn as well as maize (which sprouts from the mulch) and ornamental corn. Even with a lot of care I often get cross-pollination, though some years, with no care at all, seed I’ve
kept for the chooks has accidentally sprouted and turned out true-to-type.
You can also separate corn varieties by weeks, instead of space, by planting early, mid and late varieties. However, unless you are isolated, the corn may still cross with your neighbours.
Corn can be easily hand pollinated. As soon as you can see green tassels through the papery leaf coating, put paper bags over the cobs (not stockings as the pollen can blow through them). As the tassels develop in the bag, they will shed pollen that can be collected each evening or during the day. Sprinkle this pollen on the other tassels. Make sure you put the paper bags back so that no outside pollen gets caught on the tassels. This means that your patch of corn only breeds with itself - not with pollen blown in from elsewhere.
Let the cobs ripen fully before you pick them. Corn is ready for seed about 3 to 5 weeks after it is ready for eating - the kernels will look slightly shrivelled.
Maize and ornamental corn are much harder and flourier than sweet corn, though both can be eaten when young and tender. Even if you do end up with a sweet corn-maize cross, you can still eat the result- but it will be very tough and dryish unless you pick the cobs when they are quite immature. I once had a cross that tasted like sweet corn with the colour of ornamental corn; it was good to eat, but few guests were game to try blue, red and orange corn.
Let the ears dry on the stalk. I’m lazy and store the whole ears dry in paper bags, scraping the seed off only when I want it. Seed can be easily removed from the cob.
Most commercially available corn varieties are hybrids. Beware: it’s not worthwhile saving seed from them unless you are prepared for the offspring to be radically different from the parents.
Seed-borne corn disease can be prevented by soaking the seed before sowing in a solution of 25 g copper sulphate to 1 litre of water.
Cress Cress plants will cross, but there is unlikely to be more than one variety nearby. Seed can mature at any time in warm weather, so you may get a few harvests a year.
Cucumber Cucumber should be slightly yellow, almost rotting before the seed is ripe. Don’t worry if the frost gets them, they’ll just rot quicker and the seed will be easier to wash out. Don’t let the cucumber go brown though; it should still be whole and yellow.
Scrape the seed out into a jar and ferment it for at least a week, stirring every day until it sinks to the bottom. Wash the seed and dry it in the sun.
Cucumbers are insect pollinated and cross easily. You probably need about 100 metres between varieties, or you may end up with interesting crosses between long green and apple cucumbers, and others. Again, make sure you don’t save seed from hybrids; I have tried, but always with bad results.
If you want to grow several sorts of cucumber, cover the flowers with a paper bag and fertilise them yourself with a thin paint brush, or by rubbing one or two male flowers over the female flowers.
Seed is viable for 5 to 10 years.
Dandelion These are usually self-pollinating, though to be sure, keep different varieties slightly apart. To be safe, mow wild dandelions in the lawn while yours are flowering so that they don’t cross-pollinate. My dandelions have improved with selection, as 1 have rooted out all but the best over the past few years.
Seed is best used within 2 years.
Eggplant Eggplant is self-pollinated and insect pollinated, so crosses with other varieties are possible. Keep at least 20 metres between varieties to be sure, though for home use any crosses will probably be good.
Eggplant needs to be over-ripe for seed collection, starting to turn almost pale again after being almost blackly purple. The seed inside will be hard and black. Scoop out the seed, wash several times to free it from the flesh or ferment the flesh for a couple of days until the seed comes free, then dry as quickly as possible in the sun to prevent germination.
Eggplant that has been picked and allowed to shrivel in the cupboard will often have produced ripe seed in the meantime.
Seed is viable for about 3 years.
Endive Endives are self-pollinating. Harvest the seed heads when the hulls are dry and crisp.
Endive seed is viable for 5 to 6 years.
Garlic Garlic rarely sets seeds. When it does you can plant it, but you will get much smaller bulbs than if you planted a clove. Cloves are best planted in autumn for larger bulbs, but can really by planted any time when the ground is warm.
Kohlrabi Most of these readily cross, and a good kilometre is needed between varieties to ensure they grow true-to-type. On the other hand, only one variety is likely to be flowering at any time.
Seed is viable for 4 to 5 years.
Leek
(see also Onion) I always leave a few leeks in the garden to go to seed, and let the seed fall naturally to grow into large clumps of slender, tender leeks around the old plant. I save other seed to plant in spring to get the really fat leeks.
Leek seed is viable for 3 years.
Lentils (see Bean)
Lettuce These are usually self-pollinating, though to be sure, keep different varieties slightly apart. Again, with lettuce, don’t select seed from early bolters. The stalks of seeding lettuce may need staking to stop the plant from falling over. Lettuces are prolific seeders; one plant can produce 30000 seeds. Save seed from a few lettuces and mix it to increase your gene pool. I generally have lettuce varieties that will grow all year round, like red and green mignonette. One or more varieties are usually going to seed, with the seed falling naturally; this way there is always a succession of lettuces.
Let lettuce seed dry on the plant till the hulls are crisp. Cut off the dry stalks and keep them in a paper bag, or crush the pods and keep the seed inside.
Lettuce seed is viable for about 3 years.
Maize (see Corn)
Melon (Rockmelon, watermelon, mini melon, honey dew melon) Watermelons won’t cross with rockmelons, but other varieties cross easily. Melons are insect pollinated. To be sure, you need about 100 metres between varieties, though in practice any reasonably separate melons will be safe. Always collect melon seed from non-hybrid varieties, and make sure you don’t have two varieties intertwining.
My melon crosses have always been bad. Once I had a wonderful crop that was completely bitter, and another lot was tasteless. Melon seed will germinate as soon as the melon is sweet - plants don’t have to go soggy-ripe like cucumbers and zucchini. You can either spit out the seeds as you eat the melon, or scrape them from the centre. Dry them and plant in spring. However, you will get better germination and keeping if you put the seed with a little pulp in water for a week until it ferments. Rinse the seed well, dry it and store in a sealed container.
Melons can be hand pollinated if you want to grow several varieties. Try to pollinate the first female flowers - they will be the ones that look bulbous round the base, as though they have small fruit there. Rub them with a few male flowers, and then cover with an old stocking round a wire coat hanger until the fruit has set. Take the stocking off before the fruit gets too large. Not all flowers set on melons anyway, so be prepared for at least a half to two thirds to fall off.
Mustard Mustards cross-pollinate, so you will need a good kilometre between varieties to ensure they grow true-to-type. Both black and white mustard seeds are sold. However, mustard is a rare crop in suburbia, and you may be lucky enough not to have anyone letting mustard flower near you.
Okra This is mostly self-pollinated, but if you want to be really sure of a pure strain, cover the plant with a paper bag or nylon stocking so that it is pollinated with its own pollen. Collect seed from the pods. Cut away the flesh and dry the seed in the sun.
Onion (Onions, chives and shallots) Onions are insect pollinated, and need at least a half a kilometre between varieties to be sure they don’t cross (though in the home garden you could take a punt that no one else in half a kilometre will have onion flower heads at the same time). I have found that separating different onion varieties using trellises with climbing peas and beans is enough to ensure reasonable true strains for home use.
Separate onion varieties so that they don’t cross-pollinate. Place a trellis of climbing beans or peas between them.
Onions are biennial. Leave the bulbs in the ground or plant them again in winter to resprout. They may need to be staked once the seed head forms so that they don’t fall over. You can also plant bought onions and let them seed. Onion tops will sprout and may form a seed head, but probably won’t be sturdy enough to carry a seed head without falling over. However, you can try.
Pick onion seed as soon as it turns black and starts to fall out of the seed head. Do this at once, as onion seed falls quickly when it’s ripe and you may lose it.
Seeds are viable for 2 years.
Leeks may cross with onions. If you have both flowering at the same time, use paper bags and a paint brush as before, though, in the home garden, an onion-leek cross may be interesting and even worthwhile trying to achieve.
Parsnip Parsnips need isolation from other varieties, but no one else is likely to be growing any and there is little range on the market. Even when you do get a cross you may not notice. I always let my parsnips self-seed - a seed head in autumn, well staked, will still be dropping seed in spring. Parsnip seed is only viable for one year, which is why many people have trouble with germination. The trouble isn’t in your gardening methods, so forget about putting hessian, etc. over parsnip beds to help the seeds along - you just have dud seeds. Fresh parsnip seeds grow like a weed, and can become one.
Pea Peas are self-pollinating, though sometimes insect pollinated, and easy to collect. Leave a few metres between varieties in case of insect pollination, though by and large seed seems to be true-to-type. Let pods dry on the plant. Pick the pods, dry in the sun for a few days (don’t leave them in the dew or rain), pod the seed, then dry again.
Seed is viable for 2 to 3 years.
Pepper Peppers usually self-pollinate, but sometimes insects pollinate them as well and crosses are possible, though not likely. Chilli peppers cross-pollinate more than sweet ones, so keep them about 20 metres away from other varieties.
Make sure capsicum and peppers are as ripe as possible, almost rotting, before you use them for seed. They need to be washed and dried quickly to prevent germination; sometimes you will find a capsicum seed that has germinated in the capsicum. Use the same separation technique as for tomatoes to prevent disease, though seeds just scraped out and dried and stored in an envelope are fine for home use.
Seed is viable for 3 to 5 years.
Potato Potato seed, the berries on top of the plant, aren’t seed potatoes. Seed potatoes are disease-free potatoes planted to grow more potatoes.
There are conflicting reports about potato seed: some people say it isn’t fertile, while other gardeners claim to have grown it. (I have done so once.) I suspect that fertility varies. Seed does definitely grow, as new varieties of potatoes are grown from cross-pollinated potato seed.
Planting potato seed is much slower and more inconvenient than planting tubers, but if you have been growing two varieties next to each other, or pollinate the flowers yourself, you may get a new variety. Try and see. (Remember: the berries are very poisonous - don’t leave them where children may think they are fruit and eat them.) Plant seed in spring. The potatoes produced from potato seed plants are very small, but can be planted the next year to get bushes with good-sized potatoes.
Radish Most radishes cross readily, and you need a good kilometre between varieties to ensure they grow true-to-type. In practice, this may not matter to the home gardener. My radishes have been self-sown for 16 years, and have grown hardier and lustier. Even though there are at least three sorts growing at any one time, none appears to have cross-pollinated.
Radish seed forms prolifically in capsules. Pick these capsules when they are pale yellow and dryish; keep them in paper bags till spring or shake out the seed and store that.
Seed is viable for 5 years.
Rhubarb Rhubarb seed is easy to collect, but plant division is an easier way to get plants true-to-type, especially if you don’t know if your rhubarb plant is a hybrid (even many nurseries don’t know what variety of rhubarb they are selling). Still, seedlings are a fast way to get a lot of rhubarb plants, and you can always pull out those that don’t do so well. Never collect rhubarb seed from a plant that goes to seed early or often, or your new plants may do the same.
Seed is viable for 5 to 6 years.
Salsify Salsify self-pollinates. Pick the seed as it ripens over summer; don’t wait till it all ripens or it may shatter and you’ll lose some. Dry the seed for 2 weeks before storing.
Salsify seed is viable for only 1 year; if you want good germination you need to save your own seed and use it fresh.
Shallots
(see Onion)
Silver beet Silver beet is wind pollinated, and needs up to a kilometre between varieties. Never collect seed from plants that bolt in the first year - wait till spring. The seed is easily collected in spring, or you can dig up the plants as they go to seed and hang them upside down, with a paper bag over the top, and collect the seed in that way.
Silver beet cross-pollinates with other silver beet varieties, but only three varieties are easily available and only one is common. Any crossing will probably give you good silver beet. Silver beet can also cross with beetroot, but this is fairly rare.
Seed is viable for 3 years.
Sorrel Fresh sorrel reseeds itself naturally all over the garden. It will cross-pollinate with other varieties, so theoretically a cross with wild sorrel may be possible, though I haven’t seen it happen.
Seeds are viable for about 3 years.
Spinach Spinach is wind pollinated, but it is unlikely that more than one variety will be grown near you. Pick the seeds as they ripen and turn black. Pull out any plants that go to seed early so that they don’t pollinate any of the later ones, producing offspring that bolt early the following year.
Squash (see Zucchini)
Sunflower Sunflowers are usually-self-pollinating, but can also be insect pollinated. To be sure, keep different varieties apart. Sunflowers may cross with other varieties nearby, but usually don’t. I have found mine true-to-type, even though I grow two varieties close together.
Seed is viable for at least 3 years.
Tomato Tomatoes are self-pollinating, unless you have two varieties growing right next to each other (even then seeds will probably be true-to-type). If you want to make sure that rare varieties don’t cross, have about 50 metres between them.
Let tomatoes get squashy ripe, scoop out the seed into a glass jar and ferment it for about 5 days. The fermentation
isn’t necessary for seed to germinate, but will help keep seed free of bacterial disease. Good seed will sink to the bottom. Don’t ferment too long or the seed may start to germinate. Wash it clean and dry thoroughly.
Tomato is very easy seed to keep; I have heard of seed germinating from frozen tomatoes and dried tomatoes. We always get a good crop from the chook yard and spring compost. Seeds are viable for 3 years.
To prevent seed-borne tomato diseases, tomato seed can be soaked overnight in garlic spray, or simply chop a garlic bulb up finely in a cup of water and pour this over the seed.
Turnip Turnips readily cross, and you need a good kilometre between varieties to ensure they grow true-to-type. On the other hand, my foliage turnips have been reseeding themselves for years - if they have changed at all, it’s for the better.
Turnips may also cross with rape, if you have a paddock of rape nearby, and sometimes with mustard, radish, Chinese cabbage or even the wild turnip weed. However, I have had all of these growing near my flowering turnips and have noticed that the bees seem to prefer only to go to one crop at a time. As I said, I don’t appear to have had any cross-pollination.
I simply collect seed from the last turnips to go to seed in spring; when the seed heads are dry I cut them off and wrap them in newspaper, and plant next spring.
Seed is viable for 5 to 6 years.
Zucchini Zucchinis need to become ‘overmature’, in terms of eating quality, before the seed is ripe. The fruit should be enormous, as large as it will grow, and starting to pale. The seeds inside will be large and tough.
Most zucchini seed sold is hybrid; it definitely doesn’t come true-to-type if you keep it. I have tried several times and the results have all been bad, not even edible. Buy open pollinated, non-hybrid seed if you want to keep your own seed.
Zucchini varieties cross-pollinate. Keep them separate or pick off the male flowers on one plant (the ones that don’t have small zucchinis on them) until the female flowers on the other bush set fruit. Tie a loose band around that fruit so you know it has had the correct pollination.
Scrape zucchini seed out into a jar and ferment it for at least a week, stirring every day until the seed sinks to the bottom. Wash the seed and dry it in the sun.
Seed is viable for 5 to 10 years.
Seed from the supermarket
If you don’t have a garden to harvest seed from, try the supermarket. Your range of varieties will be limited, but the seed will be fresh and much cheaper than that bought in packets.
Beans and lentils (dried) These will only germinate if they are reasonably fresh, and haven’t been irradiated. Choose fresh-looking lentils or dried beans, with no dust at the bottom of the packet, or signs of insect damage. Soak overnight and then plant them. I have done this with soy beans, chick peas, lima beans, red kidney beans and green and brown lentils. It doesn’t work with dried peas, though, as these may be partly cooked before they are dried.
Beans and peas (fresh) If the peas in each pod are large and swollen, the seed is probably ripe enough to germinate. I have had more luck with peas than beans; beans are usually picked too young for the seed to be really ripe (peas should be too, but aren’t). Plant at once, or dry them to keep.
Beetroot Plant the whole beetroot, leaf end up and pointy bit down. If it isn’t too old it may start to shoot again and go to seed.
Broad bean Large, fat broad beans may be ripe enough for seed. Make sure the seed is fully formed inside.
Cabbage Plant the cabbage in spring, as long as it has some stalk left and it hasn’t rotted. Take off the bottom third leaves first, to make the stalk longer, and plant it up to the next lot of leaves. Pack the soil around it firmly. I get about a half success rate - the others rot. Keep the plants in semi-shade so that they don’t dry out in hot sunlight. Remember that they don’t have roots to feed them, and must be kept moist. Stake them when they start to shoot.
Canary seed Canary seed will give you millet - small fine seeds that can be added to stews or bread, or fed to the canary. Sow in spring through summer.
Capsicum The seed of dark red capsicum, which is so ripe it seems thin skinned, can be dried and sown. Most capsicums in the shops, however, are still green. These can be left till they turn red, then the seed harvested. The riper the capsicum is though, the more chance there is that the seed is large and ripe enough to germinate.
Carrot Your children may have done this: choose a dark orange, thickish carrot and cut off the top in a piece about as long as your thumb. Place the piece on wet cotton wool and it should start to sprout. Plant this out in the garden so that just the top is showing. By the end of the season it should have gone to seed. Keep it staked so it doesn’t fall over.
Alternatively, plant the whole carrot back in the garden and wait for it to shoot again. This will give you a better base for the seed head.
Choko Choose the largest choko you can, preferably with the seed just starting to poke out the top. Leave it in a dry, dark, well-ventilated place until it starts to shoot. Plant it in spring with the shoot upward. If it is shooting strongly in mid-winter, plant it in a pot inside in a well-lit spot. Shooting can be slowed down in the refrigerator, or you can plant the choko in a pot in mid winter, and keep it growing inside near a well-lighted window till you are ready to plant it out in spring. .
Corn Very ripe corn (and this sometimes appears in supermarkets), which is too chewy to be tasty, can be dried, kept and sown as seed. Very ripe corn should have each kernel slightly separated. Beware though, as it is almost certainly hybrid and will not come true-to-type.
Cucumber Most cucumbers aren’t ripe enough have mature seed to plant. If you do find one that is yellowing, however, you might try the seed from it. Germinate it on blotting paper or cotton wool first to test without wasting potting space.
Eggplant Sometimes you find an eggplant that is very dark, ripe and has dark seeds in it. These can be planted. Eggplant can also be left in the cupboard until it starts to wrinkle - the seed may ripen inside. If you want to collect seed, choose the largest, darkest eggplant in the store.
Jerusalem artichoke Plant artichokes once and you’ll always have them. Choose the fattest tubers you can. Keep them in a dark, dry place (not the refrigerator) and plant in spring, or leave them in a temporary pot on the windowsill if they start to shrivel during winter.
Kumera Kumeras are New Zealand sweet potatoes, not real sweet potatoes. They are more cold tolerant. Choose fat tubers. Plant after the frosts are over and keep weed-free.
Leek If leeks have enough of their roots left (and many have), soak them in water overnight and plant deeply, hilling up round
the sides and staking to keep the plant stable. The leek should start to grow again and will go to seed very quickly.
Melon and pumpkin The riper the melon or pumpkin, the more likely that the seed will germinate. (You can tell if a melon is ripe by looking at its shape- melons should be evenly round, not bulging at one end. Pale streaks or white seeds may also mean that it has been picked too soon. The stems should also come clean off the fruit when it’s ripe.)
Unfortunately, most really ripe melons and pumpkins come mid or late season --- the early ones are rarely ripe enough - so that when you do get the seed it is too late to plant it. Dry it for next year. Melon and pumpkin seed should be hard shelled when it is ripe (unless it is pepita or triple treat pumpkin seed which does not have a hull).
Mushroom Mushroom spores are the small black specks that fall out of the underside (gills) of mature mushrooms. Make sure the mushrooms are kept dry, at room temperature, or they may rot before shedding spores. Leave the mushrooms on a piece of white paper, which will show the spores when they fall out. Then place the mushrooms in a paper bag to collect the spores. Store the spores in a paper bag, in a dry place.
In their natural state, mushrooms come up in autumn, in shady, moist areas. However, inside you can grow them year round. Press the spores into moist compost, and keep this in a warm, darkish place: near the stove or the hot water service is perfect.
Onion Take a healthy looking onion, not squishy in the centre, and plant it so that the pointed side is upwards, just poking out of the soil. Wait. Two times out of three it will start to sprout again (if it hasn’t been artificially treated to stop sprouting). These sprouts will eventually go to seed; and the seed can be harvested.
Parsnip (see Carrot)
Potato Technically, it is illegal in most states to grow potatoes from any but certified seed. Don’t grow non-certified seed in a
potato growing area - you may spread disease. Aphids can carry potato virus for many kilometres, and it is unfair to growers. Choose healthy looking potatoes; avoid ones with long shoots as these may be infected with a virus.
Choosing your seed potatoes from the supermarket also gives you access to gourmet varieties, most of which aren’t sold in garden centres as seed potatoes and have to be ordered in bulk (even then they are hard to get hold of). Look for waxy yellow potatoes, or white-fleshed perfect baking colibans.
Radish Radishes can be planted again, up to their necks in soil. They should start to shoot quite quickly and this shoot will form a seed head.
Sunflower Choose a fresh looking packet of cockle seed. Plant from spring through summer.
Sweet potato Choose tubers that have started to sprout - many sweet potatoes are chemically treated to stop sprouting. Buy organic potatoes if you can.
Tomato Choose ripe red tomatoes, then leave them on the windowsill to ripen further. When they are too squashy to even consider eating, treat as for home grown tomatoes.
A Few Recipes
Spicy Oven Chips
Peel spuds.
Cut into slices one way, then cut those slices into chips.
Spread 1 tb oil onto a baking tray.
Turn the oven onto its highest setting.
Place the spuds on the tray. Scatter on ground cumin, coriander and chilli, or mix 1/2 tsp curry paste with the 1 tb olive oil
Bake till golden brown in the oven. This will take 5-20 minutes, depedning on how many spuds you have used and how moist they were and how much sugar that variety of poato had- sweeter varieties go brown faster, and burnt faster too. Check every 5 minutes.
if you cook two trays at once wait till the top tray is brown then change places with the bottom tray, as things don't brown well on the bottom of the oven.
Use an oven mitt or folded tea towel and beware- hot chips and fat are easily spilt.
Edward's Savage Salad Dressing
NB. I don’t eat this dressing- it’s savage enough to bust down a fort. But strangely many guests (mostly males) seem to love it- and many kids adore it.
3 cups balsamic vinegar
quarter of a cup virgin olive oil
6 cloves chopped garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaped tablespoon French mustard
Mix.
Apple Pancakes
1 cup grated apple
1 tb lemon juice (optional- sprinkle it on the apple so it doesn't go brown if not using right away)
half cup SR flour
2 tb castor sugar
1 egg
half cup milk
Mix dry ingredients; add apple then milk; stir till smooth. Drop spoonfuls onto a hot greased pan; cook till bubbles appear; turn; cook other side till golden brown. Serve hot with butter, or maple syrup and icecream, or lemon juice and sugar, or cold with butter and possibly jam.
Zucchini Fruit Slice
185 gm butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 and three quarter cups plain flour
1 and a half teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1 cup chopped dates
half cup chopped sultanas
half cup chopped walnuts
half cup coconut
2 cups grated raw zucchini
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs; mix in other ingredients. Spread into greased and floured tray; bake at 200c for 30-40 minutes. Test with a skewer. Cool a little before turning out of the tray. Cut into slices with a sharp knife while still warm, but out of the container, so help prevent crumbling.
Ginger cordial
1 cup grated ginger (don't bother to peel)
2 cups sugar
1 tsp citric acid
2 tsp tartaric acid
3 cups water
Simmer ginger in the water for 15-20 minutes, or till really gingery. Drain off ginger; add sugar; boil 5 mins; add other ingredients. Bottle. Add a little caramelised sugar if you want it to be dark brown- I don't bother.
Add ice and water for cordial, or soda water or mineral water for ginger ale. Store in a cool place. Throw out if it looks or smells odd.
Chilli cordial
24 chillies, fresh or dried
3 cups water
2 lemons
2 cups sugar
2 tsp tartaric acid
Simmer chillies for 15-20 minutes. Scoop out. Add sugar; boil 5 mins; add other ingredients. Bring to the boil. Bottle. Keep in a cool place. Throw out if it looks or smells odd.
Squashed Ant Biscuits
No, these are not made from repelled ants...they just taste good, and the poppy seeds look like squashed ants...well, they do if you're a kid, and into gruesome things.
I make these biscuits when I want something a bit more decorative and show offish than just choc chip bikkies.
1 and two-thirds cups plain flour
125 gm butter
quarter cup iced water
1 tb poppy seeds
Rub butter into flour, add water and poppy seeds, and mix gently. Roll out and cut into rounds. Place a little filling in the middle and fold in half, so they are little half circles with the filling in the middle.
Place in fridge for an hour; bake at 200C for 20 minutes.
Filling
10 fresh dates or 10 tb currants, or a mix of both
A third of a cup of water
half cup chopped macadamias
2 tb jam
Simmer chopped dates or currants in water for 10 minutes. Drain well; add other ingredients.
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