Heirloom Seeds

self seeding herbs, vegetables, and flowers

I assume you mean what vegetables will self seed. If that assumption is correct then you might want to scrounge up a August/September 2010 issue of Mother Earth News, page 98, Self-Seeding Crops You'll Never Need to Replace. 34 self seeders: Herbs; basil, chamomile, cilantro, cutting celery, dill, parsley. Vegetables; amaranth, arugula, beets, broccoli raab, carrots, collards, kale, lettuce, orach, mustards, New Zealand spinach, parsnips, pumpkin, radish, rutabaga, tomatillo, tomato, turnips, winter squash. Flowers; bachelor button, calendula, celosia, cosmos, nasturiums, poppies, sunflowers, sweet alyssum, viola.
.
The Article goes into great detail, more than I care to type, and I failed at finding it online.
.
Hope this helps. ...... I know I learned a thing or three.

 

Mother Earth News, article; Self-Seeding Crops. I have succeeded in downloading it and will share, but I will not post it here due to copyright issues.
.
PM me for a copy of the article.

 

I'm partial to exploring things that most sheeple wouldn't recognize as "food".

Millet, for example, is a very versatile grain that doesn't at all look like "people food". It grows readily in many parts of the US. You can cook it up like rice and it's excellent. Or you can use it like other grains in making bread. I wouldn't be surprised if you could make a halfway decent beer out of it.

 

Bird food?

 

.
Millet doesn't come close to the two I named above. Research them. Also there is a great deal of info on Amaranth here at Monkey. Use the search feature. Or go to my profile and go back thru threads started by me .... amaranth is there.

.
It could be said that all grain is bird food. Some bird food is better than others.

 

Yes, I do eat a lot of quinoa. I've had a hard time finding authoritative data on storage shelf life of the stuff, though, so I'm reticent to keep more than 2 years worth stored up for now.

Amaranth is one I haven't tried yet. Will check it out.

 

Just placed an order with them. Really like their selection and.prices.

Smitty

 

I buy my heirloomseed from local mom and pop seed store..lets all remember that the time when there was onlymom and pop stores..then along came wally world and other big stores and forced the mom and pop stores out of business..support your local merchants..the free coffee and socializing there is as they say...priceless

 

Thanks Smitty for the link.

 

I work at a local nursery and garden center and even with my employee discount I couldn't get anywhere close to the prices I found at this place. They are a small business as well, just not local to me....just sayin

Smitty

Thank Falcon, I just reposted it.

Smitty

 

I watched a documentary the other night (The Future of Food) that explained how they are taking patents out on seeds of all kinds, including heirlooms. They explained how they can do this. Is it true? *shrug* You can watch it online at Netflix and decide for yourself.

Or watch it here.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-future-of-food/

My tin foil hat says it's absolutely possible, and probably true. It also thinks we will be invaded from Mexico by drug gangs and Islamic terrorists, so add salt grains as needed.

 

Not sure about seeds but I know you can patent a plant for 7 years. No one can grow or sell your plant without your blessing.

Smitty

 

Just got my seed shipment from survival essentials and am very happy with their shipping, prices, and packaging. Highly recommend:thumbup:

Smitty

 

I know all of us in the Survivor community are interested in heirloom seeds and the fight against big agri-business Monsanto. I found this article this morning, and cheer them on.
.
Willie Nelson: Occupy The Food System

February 17, 2012 by Sam Rolley

UPI​

Willie Nelson has been a longtime advocate of family farmers.​

Country star Willie Nelson is joining the fight against corporatism in America, though his focus is not on the banksters on Wall Street.
Nelson is calling on Americans to occupy the food system, saying that corporate control of food production is destroying soil and putting millions of family farmers out of business.
Nelson writes in a recent statement:

From seed to plate, our food system is now even more concentrated than our banking system. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios hovering around 40 percent, meaning that the top four firms in the industry control 40 percent of the market. Anything beyond this level is considered “highly concentrated,” where experts believe competition is severely threatened and market abuses are likely to occur.
​

Hundreds of citizens joined Occupy the Food System groups outside the Federal Courts in Manhattan on Jan. 31 to support organic family farmers in their landmark lawsuit against agribusiness giant Monsanto. Arguments were heard that day concerning the lawsuit by 83 plaintiffs representing more than 300,000 organic farmers, organic seed growers and organic seed businesses.
.

The suit alleges that Monsanto has attacked organic farmers, threatening patent infringement lawsuits if the farmers have any genetically modified seeds on their land. But the organic farmers really want nothing to do with the genetically modified seeds in the first place. The organic farm community contends that Monsanto’s lawsuit threats are simply a ploy to put small, family-owned farms out of business, thus further monopolizing agribusiness. A judge will decide whether the farmers’ suit will go to trial on March 31.

 

Good ol monsatan...

Smitty

 

Unifrotuniately the day of the Family farm is long over, the overwelming regulations of producing food makes it impossible for the smal farm to exist.
I think more and more people will get back into growing their own food as grocery prices increase and quality decress. Lets hope that stays "Legal"

 

If it doesn't stay legal, I'll know USA has become USSR and it will be time for the Revolution to begin. Woe be the fool who comes to stomp this olde fart into the ground.

 

The victory garden movement should not have ended with the fall of the European fascists.

 

Excellent post Falcon, I too like the small businesses selling on ebay, for various reasons. The seller you mentioned is a good one, their product seems to be very professionally done. There are other quality sellers as well, IMO, and for anyone looking to create their own emergency or survival seed bank, I would suggest buying small seed banks (which are relatively inexpensive) from multiple sellers. This allows you to not only add a little variety to your stockpile, (which could be detrimental in the long run if cross-pollination occurs, so be smart about what you're planting) but it also gives you a "backup plan" if your garden doesn't exactly produce the bounty you expected, or if a batch of seeds goes bad while in storage.

While selecting a supplier from your own growing zone is probably a sound approach, I would also suggest buying a little bit from zones to the north and the south of you (assuming you take the multiple-supplier approach) so that if you have a particularly cold or hot season, or just have a hard time with a certain crop, you can turn to seeds from other regions. I'm not sure how significant an impact this would have, but this approach would at least provide me with a little peace of mind, since I'm not an experienced gardener. (I'm working on it, though.)

One thing to remember about a seller's rating on ebay, is this - how many people actually test germination before leaving positive feedback? Fortunately, there are other ways to research a seller - just google their name, and look for reviews.

This is my 5th post on this site, so if anyone has questions or would like me to comment further on the subject, please allow time for the moderators to do their thing and approve me as a legitimate member of the forum before I can put up more posts. (Thanks moderators, you've got a good thing going here!)

 

I just found a KILLER deal on 5.5 million seeds from a survival essentials on ebay non gmo, non hybrid, heirloom for $66. free shipping. I am going to buy boxes as I can afford (hopefully once a month for the next 6 months) Then seal each box as they come.


**somehow I missed the above comments** JABE makes a good point about buying from different companies.... will reconsider and only get a few from this place.