Saving Seeds

Even though I pulled the dried-out snap pea plants from my garden patch last weekend, they will continue to pay dividends for me.

The plants still had a handful of dried snap peas attached, which I purposely did not pick when they were young and tender. Why? I will use the individual peas as seed for a late summer planting of snap peas. Had I bought a packet of pea seeds, I would have been purchasing what I already possessed. I also save seed from arugula, broccoli rabe, string beans, nasturtium (edible flowers) and husk tomatoes.

Farmers have been saving seed since the dawn of domesticated agriculture; Mother Nature has been employing the technique in a wild manner for far longer. Talk about the original recycling program!