Putting away more seed

In normal times the old adage "a penny saved is a penny earned" rings true.  You could forego spending your money and instead deposit it in the bank and earn interest on your money.  Now, not so much.  The real rate of return on savings accounts, money markets, and CDs are dismal.  I have good news though, the growth rate or investment return on saving seeds is phenomenal!  If you purchase open pollinated, non-hybrid seeds, all you have to do is put out an initial outlay and then you're done!  Enjoy your crop by eating and enjoying healthy, fresh food.  Then save your some of your seeds for planting next crop season and it is like money in the bank, with an added bonus - you can eat most of this investment.

We enjoy okra.  Just tonight we had some chicken and sausage gumbo with some fresh okra in it.  Okra is a drought tolerant crop that produces early and long.  We've had success saving okra seed and have always achieved good germination.  In order to save okra, leave a few pods on the stalk instead of  harvesting to eat.  You can tell when they are ready when the pod is completely dry and if you shake the pod, you can hear the seeds rattling inside.  Break the pods open and the seeds will roll out.  I took some pictures below to show you:



Breaking open the dried pod to reveal the okra seeds

I usually have a cup handy to catch all the seeds.  These seeds will bounce and roll around where you'll never find them if you don't capture them in a cup or bowl while breaking apart the okra pod.

My cup runneth over

 Once you're finished all you'll have left is the split pod that used to hold and protect the okra seeds.  Throw this in your compost pile.  Next year this will become part of your soil to help grow more okra.  Neat how that works!



Empty pods

Here's a close-up shot.  Okra is a prolific producer.  What you see in my hand is more than enough seed to provide our family with all we can eat fresh okra and plenty to blanch, freeze and pickle next year.

A little later I shelled a bunch of Ozark Razorback peas into the bowl shown below.  They are a type of Southern cowpea.  I think they are cool looking.  We eat these cooked with some fresh smoked sausage and served over rice.  Additionally, I've been reading that these peas are a great source of protein for use in chicken feed.  I'm thinking about planting a lot of these next year to help feed our laying hens.



Beautiful Ozark Razorback Peas

Put these seeds in your seedbank and regardless the economy and resulting investment returns on traditional investments, your portfolio of good, fresh, healthy, nutritious food will enjoy positive gains year over year.