Seeds coming out of my ears!

It hasn't taken long for my whole life to be taken over by seeds again. All daylight hours seem to be filled with either sowing seeds, waiting for things to go to seed, checking to see if seed heads are ready to pick, staking up vegetable plants while they enjoy the summer warmth, growing incredibly tall and ever so slowly manufacturing thousands of offspring for the next season, and then finally picking, winnowing, storing and labelling them. Some of these manage to get so lost in the mists of time that I have to spend hours looking for them in the future.

I even have a list of jobs for tomorrow, most of which seem to include dealing with seeds.

My kitchen table is constantly under siege and every morning I seem to have to fight for space on it to have my breakfast; mostly the seeds win! It is there I put packets I suddenly remember I MUST sow the next day, or risk forgetting them altogether. More space is taken up with piles of seed pods and stems, that need sorting in that time after I come inside for the evening, while dinner is happily bubbling away.... or not.

 

Then there are the seeds I have either received from, or am trying to remember to give to, other people. The pockets of my jeans seem to collect seeds too; usually seeds I gather at the Community Garden and mean to label and return there in a nice jar, before my jeans end up in the washing machine. I promised Bob some lupin seeds and, as I brushed past the plants today, I heard the rattle of seeds so quickly picked a few bunches and put them in my pocket.

Seeds are just the tip of the iceberg though, or maybe they are the base of the Bombe Alaska! Today I also pruned back the never ending German chamomille and want to lay the flowers out to dry. I went into the chook yard and noticed how many cherry plums are ripe too so started to collect some in my basket before deciding there were more important things to do, like chasing the chooks back into their run.... they have discovered life beyond their fence this week!

I had wonderful rainbow chard and all kinds of leafy greens over winter that are now laden with still-green seed pods. There is no way I need to keep them all so today I did the cull. There were still lots of dark green, delicious looking leaves on those discarded 2m high stems, so I picked them all off and put them in the fridge..... enough for an army... something will need to be done about them tomorrow!

Some can go to those naughty chooks who need all the food they can get now they are all laying again.

It would be a lot easier to buy ready made meals from the supermarket, or even just to buy all my seeds but I would not trade the joy of growing food and collecting the seeds for anything in the world, and the food I eat is not available in shops; what comes from my soil nourishes my body and soul, over and over again.

Life is exceedingly good, if you know where to look.

ps.... I have just remembered the chervil seeds I saved last week that are still in a bag outside and oh.... I MUST collect the coriander seeds that I noticed are dry, in the hothouse!