Food – Page 4 – How I Can Do That

Meaningful Gifts

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who are celebrating today with their children, the moms who are missing their children, the moms who have lost their babies far too early, those who shared an all too brief moment with their babies, the mothers who are in the middle of a season of making the dream of motherhood a reality, and those who love on the children from other mothers who lean on you to be the loving assurance in this season of their life. No matter what motherhood looks like to you, Happy Mother’s Day!

Depending on who you talk to, some people feel that holidays are too commercialized. Others find it difficult to find the perfect gift. And others find it difficult to gift a loved one while feeling the financial pressures of this season of world history. No matter where you personally find yourself on this spectrum, I want to help you find inspiration on how you can find a meaningful gift for someone. Whether it’s a belated mother’s day present, a birthday, anniversary, father’s day, grandparents’ day, teacher appreciation, graduation, or any other occasion, know that you can gift in a meaningful way.

I’m going to use the example of the mother’s day gift that I gave one of the mothers in my life. While this may not apply to the person in your life, the same principle can be applied in finding what you can gift that special person in your life.

This mom loves talking about her memories. For many years she’s shared her precious memories of when she operated a daycare. And one of those fond memories is when she grew gardens with the children under her care.

One thing about moms, it seems pretty universal that sharing memories usually isn’t about the memory. It’s about reliving a moment in life that brought pleasure to them.

From this understanding, I knew that building a garden for this mom was a gift that would fill her love tank. Not only is it an opportunity for her to relive precious memories in the here and now, it also opened the opportunity to add more memories in association with these older memories. By building a garden and scheduling time to upkeep and tend to the garden, it was also guaranteeing visits and making time for her to spend time together.

For this mom, she has two love languages. Her primary love language is gift giving. Her receiving love language is quality time.

Making a deposit of part of this season’s garden was not just a simple arrive, dig holes, put in start, say good bye, and move on with the day.

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For this Mother’s Day gift, it took in the appearance of leaving all the gardening supplies in the car and starting off with a sit down chat and getting caught up with all the news, even if it was only a day since we last saw each other. Then, I was able to go prepare the garden beds for this first plant installment.

Even before I could bring out the plants, this mom was already so filled with love that she wanted to spend some more talking. As much as I wanted to stay task driven (my personality is to knuckle down and get a project done quickly so I can move on to the next task), this day was all about showing love to this mom.

Pallet boxes for narrow spaces and hanging baskets on cyclone fence

So we had another chat session.

When I could find a polite moment to get back to the task of putting the starts back into the ground, I made that move. And with the final post plant watering, I went back and gave this mom one last extension to the gift I was giving her.

Remember, I said that this mom shows love to others by giving to them. So while I was building this garden for this mom, I know that the one thing that would bring her even more pleasure is by telling her upfront that the goal of this garden is primarily to meet her primary produce needs, I’m planting more than she will personally need so that she can give from the garden to others.

I wish I could share with you the look on her face, because she was bursting with love. Knowing that she was having a garden this year was more than enough to help her feel love, she felt seen and more loved because the gift was enabling her to show love to others without need to be reserved or anything else. It was a gift that was freely given so that she could freely give to others.

Growing herbs in repurposed gutters hung on a cyclone fence.

I know that this story may or may not show you specifically what you can give the hard to shop for person, but there is a valuable lesson here.

A good gift is designed to make a person feel loved because it speaks to how they most readily feel loved.

If you don’t know this love language, ask your person how they most feel loved. They will gladly tell you. It could be a tangible object or food that makes them feel loved. Or it can be a non-tangible activity, expression, or display.

A great gift is one that fills their love tank, but also doubles as a tool to enable them to share their love with others.

Container growing garden with DIY budget friendly or recycled components. Chicken wire trellis threaded through upright supports.

Maybe your loved one is not like this mother. Maybe they don’t show love to others by giving them things. Maybe they show love through acts of service. However their schedule is busy. By gifting them your time to do tasks for them or help them create time, this can free up time where they can show love to others by spending time with another person.

My encouragement to you today is to be inspired with a gift idea that doesn’t come from the shelf of a store. Yes, there are many store bought items that are amazing and meaningful. I want to strike the inspirational fire to give a gift out of love and seeing the other person at a core level. And also enable them to pass on love to others.

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Right now we live in an interesting moment in history. It is an uncertain time for many families. But it is also a prime moment to celebrate others by giving to them in a way that shows them that you remember past conversations. Where you have heard and remembered things that could have easily been passed off as trivial information in the moment.

Let’s show our loved ones that we see them. And we celebrate them for who they are.

Again, Happy Mother’s Day!

This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commissions on products purchased through these links, but at no extra cost to you. This item link is to Amazon but may be purchased at local markets, and found at your local library.

If you are unfamiliar with Love languages, here is the book that started it all.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Originally this was written for understanding your mate. There are several other editions available to meet other relationship needs such as children, being single, and in relationship of a military service member.

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Cake Dreams

One of the memories that we are so quick to build are children’s birthday parties. So how do we make memories that last?

Make a cake!

I can’t begin to tell you all the cakes that I remember through the years. There’s the Holly Hobby cake my mom made from me (a popular baby doll from the 70’s). There was the cake that got locked in the trunk on my sister’s birthday. The cakes my sister’s and I made for our parents because finances were tight but the box cake was a big way we could show they mattered. The cake my husband made for me with marshmallow frosting. The cakes I made for my kids.

The list goes on and on….

I could tell a life story just off of the cakes I’ve made through the years.

And I want you to know that you can make cakes that make memories without going to culinary school and gaining the education of a baker!

You can make cakes!

You can make memories!

Even though I have cake recipe books which put a world of recipes from scratch, I’m going to show you how you can make a memorable cake using a box cake–which is in everyone’s price range. And in this age of inflation, when you can still find boxes of cake mix for a dollar, I want that to be available to you.

Box cake mixes are great. The directions are easy enough for my kids to follow and make on their own. (In fact I just made a cake for a local mom and my boys wanted to help because they love baking cakes with me. They had to skip out on this one, but I had to promise that they could make their dad’s cake all on their own without me!)

TIP: you can test the doneness of you cake sponge by poking the cake with a toothpick in the center. When you pull the tooth pick out, and it’s dry, your cake is done. You want no moisture or batter on the tooth pick. Although you might see cooked crumb–that is still done.

Or….

TIP 2: When your timer goes off take a temperature reading in the center of your cake. When you reach an internal temperature of 200°F, your cake is done.

This particular tip is invaluable. If you’ve watched baking competitions you see people testing cakes by poking it like a chef pokes a steak. The amount of resistance tells you the internal state of being done.

The average person doesn’t know what a done cake feels like. We can easily
learn the feel of an under done cake and an overly done (and dry) cake. I’m
going to save you the head ache and just tell you that you only need to reach
200°F and your cake will be perfectly done no matter what. This works for all
elevations. AND it gives you a more accurate unit of measurement to direct you
in how much longer to cook your cake when it’s under 200°F.

Now that you know you do not have an undercooked cake, you’re halfway done.

Some people find the cake (or sponge) cooking the most intimidating. Others find the frosting to be intimidating. But frosting a cake doesn’t have to be intimidating either, because I’m going to show you a trick that I used with the Pinterest inspiration picture that was given to me for the cake I made the other day.

My go to frosting is formulated by Wilton. I’ve successfully modified this recipe to make it flavored. But this recipe gives you three different consistencies. I used two of these for the following Unicorn Cake that I recreated, stiff and medium. I used the medium for the filling between two layers and doe the exterior frosting. The stiff consistency I used for the decorative elements.

When it comes to coloring your frosting, the stores give you the choice of the liquid food dye or gel. The gel will give you vibrant colors for less.

TIP: If you’re a family that is conscientious about food dyes, you can still color your frosting. What you’re going to do is plan in advance and dehydrate the fruit, vegetable, or edible flower for the colors you want. Don’t worry about the vegetables. The Wilton frosting is sweet and can overpower the vegetable flavor, if that is a concern for you.

As a point of reference, it took me about half a pound of strawberries (sliced, dehydrated, than powdered) to turn a single batch of Wilton frosting pink and mild strawberry flavor. I had the pink color to the frosting long before the strawberry flavoring that was requested by the birthday girl.

TIP: When you use a fruit with high water content, you definitely want to turn it into a powder in order to prevent your frosting from becoming watered down.

Frosting the cake is going to look a little differently depending on what kitchen tools you have available. If you can pipe the frosting onto the cake before you spread the frosting, you will be able to do a thin layer of frosting without getting crumbs of cake into your frosting.

Don’t have piping tools (pastry bag, coupler, and decorative tips), that’s okay. The trick is to take your butter knife (if that’s all you have), put dollops of frosting onto your cake, and then spread the frosting around using the flat of your knife.

The number one cause of crumbs in your frosting is your knife hitting the cake’s sponge. If you just move the frosting around, with your knife only touching your frosting, you should eliminate all crumbs.

If you still find you have crumbs, the other reason is that your frosting is too thick. This is particularly a problem with cakes that are light and fluffy. Not a problem!

If your frosting doesn’t spread easily, stop. Remove the frosting and put it back in the bowl. Add a teaspoon of water (or less) and mix it into your frosting to loosen it up. Test the consistency by trying to spread your frosting on your cake. It shouldn’t grip your cake like Velcro, but smoothly spread like mashed potatoes. Once you can easily spread your frosting, make that cake beautiful!

Want to make decorative elements, like an inspiration picture, but don’t feel confident in your piping skills? You will want this trick.

Don’t worry. You can use this trick even if you’re only comfortable using the tubes of colored frosting!

Print out your inspiration picture (with the elements blown up to the size you want them on the cake). If you have face details you want to recreate, make a copy for the body, and a second copy for the face. (The same is true for detailed that are stacked but not faces.)

For example, here’s the inspiration that I was working with.

The original creator had freehanded the design of this cake. I’m fortunate if I can draw a horse head on paper with a pencil, so I needed this trick.

I do have skills in Inkscape where I took the picture and traced the elements and made my own stencils. After I printed out the stencils I put them on top of a metal cooking sheet. To keep them in place, I used a loop of tape. Then on top of the stencils I taped down a sheet of waxed paper.

Once my different colors of frosting were put in piping bags, I started tracing the stencil lines with the planned out colors.

In the instance with the unicorn head, I made the outline, then filled (flooded) the inside with frosting, smoothing everything out with a knife to make it look like a solid piece.

When all my decorative elements were piped out, I put the cooking sheet in the freezer.

You’ll want to plan this one ahead of time. The frosting will take time to freeze. Even with the stiff frosting, you will want this to be in the freezer for at least over night.

When the frosting is frozen, you can transfer the elements from the waxed paper to the cake.

A memorable cake doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, making a cake shows the person that you love them. And it doesn’t have to be perfect.

My favorite cake my husband made was the marshmallow frosting cake. And I guarantee that none of us will make that frosting again. It was not user friendly because it was a pouring frosting instead of a classic spreadable one.

This isn’t the marshmallow frosting cake. But it is the one my boys made on their own, for me.

The most memorable cake I made was my son’s bubble cake. He wanted a bubble cake so I made a tall multi layer cake in the shape of a bottle of bubbles. That sponge would not keep shape. It wanted to disintegrate on me and there was not enough support I could put in to make it stay. Let’s just say I’m glad I made it a fondant cake, because that fondant was the only thing keeping it together. I was in tears. But my son was dancing with happiness over having a bubble cake.

I tell you these stories so that you know that sometimes the best memories come from the imperfections in our cakes. After all, my favorite childhood cake, the Holly Hobby one I mentioned at the beginning, wasn’t all perfection. I look at the pictures from that birthday and only see love. My mom looks at those pictures and sees the cramping in her hands because of all the piping that cake took. She finished that cake with tears of pain. But it meant the world to me.

So don’t be afraid to make that cake for your loved one!

It may turn out to be an imperfect but testament of love that lasts through the ages. Or it may be the cake that blows your mind because you never thought you could do it, but you did! No matter the outcome, it is always worth it to make that cake!

Super hero birthday

Navy Retirement Cake. Inspiration cake and my cake with the medalion that was placed against the center wave in the flag.

Bridal shower cupcake cake.

The Vanilla Life

There’s just something about having real vanilla extract in your pantry. It’s so tempting to reach for that imitation vanilla extract on the grocery shelf when you see that price tag on the real extract. But there is such a huge difference in flavor when you use the real stuff.

I’m not going to go into the problems and scary information that will want you stay away from the imitation extract. There’s not need to create fear or disgust. So I’m just going to focus on the good and benefits of the real vanilla and add value to making the purchase of the real vanilla beans to make your own extract and other products.

How to make a Vanilla Extract

All you need to make your own extract is vanilla beans, 70-proof alcohol (or higher), and a glass jar (with a sealing lid) to extract. The three most common alcohols used are bourbon, rum, and vodka. (My preference is vodka because it has the least amount of alcohol flavor.) A general rule of thumb is to use 4-6 vanilla beans for each 8 oz of alcohol.

Slice the vanilla beans down the length of the bean. This opens the bean up to create the most surface area for extraction. It also releases the bean, which heightens the flavor of the extraction.

Put the cut beans into your jar and fill the jar up to the brim with your alcohol of choice. Tighten the lid and give the ingredients a good shake. Place in a cool dark place for a minimum of two months. (For a rich potent extract, let it sit for 6-12 months.) Shake the jar daily for the first two weeks.

The draw backs of making your own extract

What everyone tells you is that as you use your extract, you need to keep topping off your jar.

My big problem is that I use vanilla extract a lot and I quickly found that my extract quickly became diluted! I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just that the non-vanilla alcohol quickly overtook the extract. And so my vodka quit tasting like a vanilla extract and began tasting more like vanilla infused vodka. That’s not so much of a problem if you’re after flavored liquor. But it’s a huge problem if you’re using the extract for baking.

My solution is making a few jars of vanilla extract at the same time. Yes it is a little overkill at first glance, but bear with me. Once your jar starts giving you a less potent extract, it’s time to shelve it and let the vanilla beans go to work and extract more. By giving this first jar a little vacation, and grabbing a second jar, you get the benefit of having vanilla potency as well as keeping the extract cycle going.

Some people say that your beans will last for 5 years. My mom had gifted me a bean from Hawaii where it was marketed to last up to 25 years. I’m not going to put an expiration date on your beans. My Hawaiian bean and the second one that I added to it, are still in their jar maybe 18 years after I first received it. I just recently fished this jar back out from the back of my cupboard because I finally had beans and alcohol to start back up on my real extract. The older beans are only giving off a diluted vanilla extract now. So I added 2 new beans in to jump start my extraction and get real vanilla back in my life. And I have a larger bottle started, which I should get to the longer extracted window before I need to use it and give my smaller bottle a break and refortify itself.

Benefits of Vanilla

If you grew up like I did, the only thing you were exposed to was imitation vanilla extract. If you were fortunate enough to have a family member go to Mexico, they might have brought back a real vanilla extract. But all you knew was that it was a luxury and yes it tastes amazing.

What you May not know

Vanilla beans contain B Vitamins (niacin, thiamin, B6, Pantothenic acid), potassium, riboflavin, copper, magnesium, and iron. They also have these properties; antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and are neuroprotective.

Depending on if you want to just make your own real vanilla extract, or would like to use vanilla to help meet your other health needs, the above information is a great starting point to talking with a naturopath or herbalist to see how vanilla can find a new course for healing your body.

http://www.indianetzone.com/1/vanilla.htm

I started looking a little deeper into what other benefits I could gain from vanilla (aside from incomparable baking goodness) when I got into soap and lotion making. It’s probably well thought about how vanilla is great as a comforting aroma therapy to soothe anxiety and calming the stomach. After all vanilla bean ice cream is pretty much a comfort food.

What was new information to me is that there have been studies that show there is the potential of vanilla having the benefits of increasing hearth health by helping to reduce LDL cholesterol, it’s antibacterial properties help treat acne, the antioxidants have healing properties to boost your immune system, help heal split ends and strengthen hair, and slow down the aging process (age spots and wrinkles).

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All of these benefits were what has been found in the studies that have researched the compound Vanillin. These studies have done work in vanilla extracts and the seeds. And if this interests you, these studies are well worth reading up on.

Even if you don’t want to pursue vanilla for health reasons, it is worth knowing that vanilla beans contain over 200 compounds. And their concentrations are dependent on the region from where the beans are harvested. Again, this is another area of diving into that is well worth the look. I wanted to mention this (as well as point you back up to the vitamins and minerals mentioned in the beginning) to point you toward the benefit of using real vanilla extract over imitation vanilla extract (which has absolutely none of these components).

Extract is not the only thing you can make from Vanilla

Vanilla beans can also infuse oil.

In the infusion that I made, I used 4 vanilla beans, a quart sized mason jar, and olive oil. (You can choose your own carrier oil, like jojoba oil, or any other that is better absorbed into your skin. Each oil has its own benefits that it offers the infusion.)

Follow the same steps as above, with the vanilla extract. The only difference in the method is that the vanilla beans are scraped from the bean pod. The pods are what I put into the oil. (The beans I put into a lotion–this will be its own post in the future.)

Instead of keeping my oil in a cool dark place, I left mine in a westward facing window and used solar heat to help the infusion for 2 months. Even using winter sun, the finished oil has a warm vanilla scent.

This oil can be used for so many different needs.

Use the oil on your skin for massage or relieve dry skin
Use to improve sleep whether you put a drops of oil in a warm bath or smell the oil before going to bed
Improve your skin health by adding a couple drops into your face wash or lotion
It is reported to soothe minor burns when you add 2-3 drops to effected area
Use in desserts (for whatever recipe calls for oil and you chose a cooking oil like avocado or olive)

I also use infused oil in products I made for sale.

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If you are interested in using vanilla beans for cooking only, you can put a bean in with some sugar in your food processor and blend together. This will give you a fancy sugar that you can dust on top of desserts or use as a sugar rim on a drink of choice. The same can be done with salt (even though savory herbs are usually matched with salt).

The most important thing to keep in mind when using vanilla beans, whether in extract or infusions, make sure that your beans have an oily sheen to them. Many compounds are found in the oil of the bean and speak to the overall health and quality of the bean.

There is so much goodness found in vanilla beans. Hopefully, you have learned something new about vanilla. That it has so much more to offer than just being the flavor of a beloved ice cream or just a simple ingredient that you add to your cakes and cookies.

What have you used Vanilla for?

This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commissions on products purchased through these links, but at no extra cost to you. These items listed here are from Amazon but may be purchased at local markets.

Are you looking for a new place to buy vanilla beans? I am very pleased with this vendor.

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2 responses to “The Vanilla Life”

Damien Safdeye

May 6, 2023

I really like what you have acquired here, certainly like what you’re stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still take care of to keep it wise. I can not wait to read far more from this site.

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1. Pacific Northwest Event Design
  
  May 19, 2023
  
  Thank you for commenting! I appreciate what you’ve shared. My goal is to take a new skill and make it approachable for someone who might question if they can do it. Being entertaining is an amazing bonus. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy future posts.
  
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Getting Buzzy For Spring

There’s one skill that I’ve wanted to learn from a friend of mine, incorporating mason bees into my garden.

Here in North America, mason bees are the indigenous bee. They pollinate 45 times more than honey bees. And if you have young children, you don’t have to worry about there being an altercation and your child (or pet) from being stung. (We’ve been teaching our kiddos about bees because one day I want to have honey bees for honey production. So they already know what’s expected of them when it comes to our pollinating friends.)

I can’t even begin how excited I was when I received an email from a family locally owned hardware store that they were doing a craft for Earth Day, which involved making a home for mason bees.

Today I’m sharing with you the process that my kiddos went through to make a home for mason bees.

We were instructed to bring a soup can or cardboard milk container. The hardware store supplied the craft materials to decorate and make the bee home.

All my milk cartons still had milk in them and I haven’t bout soup in a can for well over a year now. What I did have available was an empty ten pound can. So if you don’t have a small can, know that it’s possible to make a home with a larger can.

Things you will need:

(Feel free to modify with the materials that you have on hand.)

Milk carton or soup can
Construction paper (printer paper, non-toxic colored paper, recycled paper, whatever you have on hand)
Tape
Straws
Cardboard tubes: toilet paper or paper towel (optional)
Corrugated cardboard (optional)
Scissors
Glue
Stickers (optional)
Twine
Pens, crayons, or other decorating medium (optional)

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If this is a kid’s project you’re setting up for, cut all rolled paper and straws to the length that fits from the back of the soup can to the front.

You can even prep other materials for your bee house. If you have scrap blocks of wood, you can several holes through the block.

I don’t know what you have in surplus in your craft room. But I have many wine corks that have been waiting for just the right project. When I get a free afternoon, I’ll make an adult version with rolled cardboard, drilled scrap wood blocks, and my collection of wine corks that will also be drilled.

Here are some additional bits of information about mason bees, if you are unfamiliar with them.

Here is another resource to get you started on your path for creating a home for mason bees. If you want to buy mason bees to start your bee colony, I found this site which is still selling until May 22, 2023. They have a bee info page that can instruct you in how to care for mason bees to make sure that they remain healthy and happy.

If you’ve watched the movie The Pollinators (2020), then you understand the need to help support our local pollinating community. If you haven’t seen this documentary yet, it’s worth the time to understand what it going on with the bee population in the United States. And if it’s happening here, it’s very likely happening in other places.

Last year (2022) was a bad growing season in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). To this day I still believe with my whole heart that the bees were what made my garden successful, when others in my local community found only hardship. So for my gratitude, I already planned on adding more flowers to my garden as well as being a more hospitable home for my pollinators. With that being said, I will leave you with the pictures of my family. And once the weather clears, I’m going to examine closely where our best place of hanging this mason bee home is going to go.

Happy Earth Day!

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Saving Seeds

I know this isn’t talked about in early spring, because the focus is putting seeds in the focus is on planning and putting into ground right now. BUT….

Here’s my garden right now. Even before the seeds go in the ground, I still have seeds that are preparing to be ready to harvest.

Talking with others who are expanding their seed saving skills, they haven’t yet experienced saving seeds from the Brassica family (cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli and others). One reason for this is most likely because we grew up being told to clear out garden beds at the end of the year. But for gathering these seeds, you need to leave the plant in the ground after you’ve harvested.

In previous years, I harvested cabbage in the spring after the pods have formed and dried. But when I let this bed go fallow, I left the cabbage in for a second year. Mainly it was to see what the life cycle of cabbage looks like after I’ve long pulled mine.

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In the second year with cabbage, any additional heads that grow are much smaller than the original year (for growing purposely, definitely not the best use of garden space). What I hadn’t counted on was a second gathering of seeds.

Why might you consider these seeds?

The general rule of thumb is that you save the seeds from successful plants–the biggest and best. But as I said, this second year cabbage didn’t really produce heads of quality in the second year.

Seeds are the memory of the plant.

The seeds of this second year cabbage not only contain the memory of the first year head growth AND it remembers the bad growing season this past year (unseasonably cold and wet that made me question if I’d grow anything).

Originally I wasn’t going to save these second year seeds because the potential passing on of tiny cabbage heads is not what I’m looking for. However the seeds do contain the memory of surviving through an uncharacteristic cold year.

So after going back and forth on what I’m going to do, I’ve decided to keep these seeds. I’m going to perform a comparison of first and second year seeds to see what the difference in performance will be.

This will be a future post since the seeds are not ready to do the comparison this year.

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What is the life cycle of Brassica and their seeds?

Whether you’ve allowed your Brassica family plants go to seed or they just bolted on you when the heat of summer came, you may have seen something like this:

This was one of my rapini that bolted on me. The first thing that you see is the bolt.

Next, the flowers (which form the seed pods) grow for pollination. While there are still flowers you will see some of the seed pods developing.

Out of all the plants that I’ve collected seeds from, I think the Brassica family is the one that I’m most impatient with. I don’t know if it’s just my grow zone or everyone starts tapping their toe asking their plant, “Are you done yet?”

These pods remind me so much of beans. And I honestly expected them to bulge out more than you see above. But this is what the end of the seed maturing stage looks like, immature beans. Even though these pods are fully grown, they still aren’t done yet. They will turn beige.

Everyone I’ve heard always described them to turn brown. I translated that to mean that they would darken. But the first time that I saved these seeds, they started bursting open when they were beige in color. So once you start seeing the green fade from these pods, you know it’s almost time to pull the plant and collect the seeds.

What you are waiting for is the pod to turn papery dry. If you go out each day to check on your seed pods, you will get the feel for it when you see the first one pop open. The pod will look very much like this threaded hook:

Do you see how the center of this hook has a frame and then there is negative space?

Theseed pods of Brassica have the exact same structure. There is this frame like structure with negative space in the middle.

When the pod bursts, it’s the dry skin that cracks open and falls away. The seeds live in this center portion of the frame. So when the pods open, the seeds fall out and the frame remains on the Brassica stem.

The goal is to catch your Brassica with fully mature branches, dry beige skin, before they release their seeds. Once you accomplish this, you cut the branches off or uproot the whole plant.

If you can’t open a pod by rubbing it between your fingers, you will want to hang your branches/plant upside down in a cool dry place. This can take a week or two. But the pods will crumble.

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Removing the Seeds from the Pod

Once the seeds opened in my hand, I chose to put the branches into a pillow case and tie off the open end. Then I gave the pillow case to my kiddos and told them to hit the pillow case against the deck!

This was perfect timing for this project because my kiddos were at each other and I couldn’t keep them from hitting each other. So I gave them an alternate action of being aggressive. After each one had a turn, the pods had all broken open and the seeds were all released inside the pillow case.

To separate out the seed from the chaff (stems and pods), I just used the traditional method of winnowing. I modified this by using a little modern convenience of a box fan on high speed. Because the chaff was so thoroughly dried out, they blew away with ease. And even though the seeds are small, they really do drop back down into the pillow case that I kept at the porch in front of my box fan.

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If you want to see how this type of winnowing process is done, there are countless videos on YouTube. There are some that do this winnowing with Brassica seeds, but the majority is in relation to wheat and other grains. The process is the same. So whether you watch how grains or Brassica are winnowed, you will understand this process. There’s no need to invest in a winnowing box or other tool unless that is the path you want to go down. All you need is your seeds on a cloth and a wind source (whether natural or manufactured).

There’s no further step that you need to take in processing your seeds. Just store

Even though now is the time to plan and plant in your garden beds, I wanted to talk about saving Brassica seeds now. Where you plant your Brassica now for a spring crop, it will stay there for the rest of the growing season. And in some locations, it will need to overwinter to give your plant enough time to make its seeds and mature them.

This is a slow process. But it so worth it when you can grow hundreds upon hundreds of seeds in a single season and not be dependent on what’s available in future market sales.

What are your tips for saving Brassica seeds?

What other seeds do you save from your garden?

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4 responses to “Saving Seeds”

Cary

May 9, 2023

This post answered some questions I was having, thanks.

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1. Pacific Northwest Event Design
  
  May 19, 2023
  
  I am so glad that I was able to help!
  
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Andre

May 8, 2023

Love the unique perspective you bring to this topic.

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1. Pacific Northwest Event Design
  
  May 19, 2023
  
  Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy other posts as well.
  
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