Topic: Seed Sharing Circle 2014?

[Jayb]

Last seed of the Kiwano is now dry enough to break in half rather than bend, I guess that means I can pack them up and finally send my contribution tomorrow.  Am I the last this year?   

Brilliant, I'll be on parcel watch until they are all here. Luckily our postie is on the ball and parcels are delivered rather than end up at the sorting office.
No, I think I'll be last at the rate I'm going at the moment! Only 4 parcels delivered so far. Another one is on the way and yours very soon 

[Jayb]

Nope, I've been ill and haven't got mine sorted out yet. I'll try to get it done this week.

Sorry to hear you've been unwell, hope you are on the mend  Let me know if you need a bit longer.

[Silverleaf]

Anyone have a clever way of "cleaning" brassica seeds? I don't want to send you guys the tiny ones that probably won't germinate, and bits of pod, and dried up remains of tiny grubs... ;), just the good seeds!

Thanks Jayb, been suffering with the fibromyalgia but I'm trying to plod on, I'm just a lot slower in mind and body then usual. I'll get there soon, hopefully.

[Jayb]

Owhh, gentle cyber hug on it's way.
I stomp the pods in a big old sheet and once collected in a big bowl skim off the obvious bulk. I run them trough a colander to keep back the big bits to discard. Then whirl around in a sieve to take out the dust and hopefully the smallest seed. Bit of a faff but I find safer than winnowing as I'm not too good at that and most of the seeds end up on the ground!

[galina]

Owhh, gentle cyber hug on it's way.
I stomp the pods in a big old sheet and once collected in a big bowl skim off the obvious bulk. I run them trough a colander to keep back the big bits to discard. Then whirl around in a sieve to take out the dust and hopefully the smallest seed. Bit of a faff but I find safer than winnowing as I'm not too good at that and most of the seeds end up on the ground!

And that is exactly what I do with brassica.  As an alternative to stomping you can also put the seedpods into a bag or pillow case and go over them with a rolling pin, which breaks brassica seed pods.  The rolling pin method is what I prefer for leeks but also works for brassica.  If you have one of the smaller sized muck buckets, you can stomp on top of brassica stems and seed inside that too.  Another quick indoor method is to put the stomped/rolling pin treated seed through a colander and then into a deep bowl and shake.  The good seed will go to the bottom.  You can then spoon off the debris from the top, shake again, spoon again and what is left in the bowl should be fairly clean, but you will have spooned some good seed off too.  Then sieve the clean seed from the bowl and that should be good enough for the seed circle packets. 

By the way, perfectly cleaned seed is just not necessary.  We are not producing commercial packets and don't have commercial seed cleaning equipment.  Hope you feel stronger soon    

[Jayb]

By the way, perfectly cleaned seed is just not necessary.

I was just coming back to add similar 

[sparrow]

Last seed of the Kiwano is now dry enough to break in half rather than bend, I guess that means I can pack them up and finally send my contribution tomorrow.  Am I the last this year?   

Nope, my stuff is still in rice. :)

[pumkinlover]

I packed most of mine yesterday but still drying some last minute piri piri chilli seeds.
I have dwarf French bean May bean and Eastern butterwax and Hannibal leek.

Did anyone want oca?

Apologies for being late . Hope you feel better soon silverleaf.

[Silverleaf]

Thanks everyone, what I have is mostly seeds but there are definitely some bits of dried dead grubs in there and I'm sure no-one wants that!

PL, I'd love some oca if you have some spare. Probably doesn't make sense for you to post it though, right? ;)

[Jayb]

I packed most of mine yesterday but still drying some last minute piri piri chilli seeds.
I have dwarf French bean May bean and Eastern butterwax and Hannibal leek.

Did anyone want oca?

All sounds great  My mum loves Piri Piri chicken and will be chuffed if I grow these chillies for the dish, she may even want her own plant!
I'm ok for Oca thanks.

[sparrow]

Am also ok for oca thanks - had my first meal with it yesterday. S'lovely stuff! 

[galina]

Am also ok for oca thanks - had my first meal with it yesterday. S'lovely stuff! 

Here too, but thank you for the oca offer, Pumpkinlover.  Your beans sound great.  Now May bean is not the same as Mayflower bean, Mayflower is tall from what I remember?  Hannibal leek is an early type.  I am planning on growing Blue Solaise for late leek next year.  We should be very well provided for.  Thank you.  Now Piri Piri Chicken - yum!  I didn't know there was a Piri Piri pepper.  Sorry I don't have your self-control Jayb and I have googled all seeds in anticipation.

Just finished with the cellotape and off to the Post office we go     

[goodlife]

Enough oca here too....but YES for the rest of the seeds...

[Jayb]

A lovely parcel arrived from Ian Pearson today 
Thank you.

[pumkinlover]

I got the piri piri chilli seeds from a "pass the parcel" swop on here a few years ago.  I always suspected that they came from Ceres as she donated a lot to that swop.  Piri piri sounds a bit hot and so precautions were taken during the cleaning process.
Re HSL  in the other thread and galinas post re the May bean I got worried I had it wrong.  I used to Google or search for HSL varieties from previous years but couldn't find anything about them.   Any way I found the packet!  Which is a relief in case I had had a senior moment. 
Silverleaf as you say it is a bit daft posting the oca.  By the way did you get my message about the white currents? They are still here if you would like.

[galina]

I am so sorry for making you worried.  That was quite unintentional.  I tried to grow Mayflower this year but got nothing at all, big flop, so wondered whether they might be the same.  More like thinking aloud really.   They are not and I am looking forward to your seeds.

How hot are the Piri Piri?  Serious precautions there    - nice looking pepper.  Thanks for showing us.   

 

[goodlife]

Code: [Select]

How hot are the Piri Piri?  Serious precautions there  :toothy10:  - nice looking pepper.  Thanks for showing us.   :wave:
Just a little tingle on the tongue...

[pumkinlover]

I am so sorry for making you worried.  That was quite unintentional.  I tried to grow Mayflower this year but got nothing at all, big flop, so wondered whether they might be the same.  More like thinking aloud really.   They are not and I am looking forward to your seeds.

How hot are the Piri Piri?  Serious precautions there    - nice looking pepper.  Thanks for showing us.   

 

Sorry my comment was not well put. It wasn't your comment  that worried me but that when I did check there was nothing I could find.  I had HSL on the label and usually you can find information about seeds from old catalogues on line easily.
I haven't tried the chillies but they are description as "extremely hot" so I will be drying and bottling (carefully)!
I didn't bag anything this year but the leeks were grown in a greenhouse as were the chillies and hopefully will be true.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine aren't sorted either.

[Jayb]

No worries Robert, still a little bit of time to go, although it's creeping up fast and I'm not sure which is the last day for posting parcels, anyone know?