An Easy Way to Collect Seeds
This simple method of capturing seeds will work well with many flowering plants (especially those which produce a flowering “stalk”). In this picture, I am holding the mature stalks from just one broccoli plant. After the plant flowers, I just wait until the seed pods are nice and full, and a few of them have started to fall off - and then I know that they are ready to harvest.
I then cut the stalks off, place into a paper bag, and store in a dry place where bugs and other critters can’t contaminate them. The pods will dry out and open and then the seeds will just fall out into the bottom. You then just remove the stalks, and “voila” you have a bag with plenty of free seeds. If you are then going to utilize the seeds for consumption purposes, you will need to later separate them from some of the chaff and clean them.
With so many seeds now becoming hard to find and rather expensive, this may well be worth the effort. I have plenty of broccoli stalks that I will harvest in this manner and I will save some for replanting in the fall - and others I will use for making broccoli sprouts. Be sure not to miss my blog on the health benefits of broccoli sprouts!
