Have you thought about your seasonal workload? On our farm, we grow vegetables for 500 weekly CSA baskets. We also grow seeds for an online store. These are very similar activities: We grow plants, harvest a crop, pack it up, and get it to the client. But these activities don’t happen the same way for … More The Opposite Seasons Of Growing Vegetable vs. Selling Seeds
Back in November, I showed you how to extract seeds from squash. (All it takes is an axe and vacuum cleaner.) Today let’s talk about how to dry those seeds! (I know I’ve skipped over the actual seed cleaning part but I can’t find any great pictures of our cleaning. We’ll have to wait till … More Drying Squash Seeds
Seed cleaning is a science and an art. We use box fans and home made screens to get our seeds pretty clean. We do have some fancy equipment (like the office clipper) that offer more precision. But the most precise tool we have is our fingers Yes, once we’ve gotten seed as clean as our … More The Secret To Clean Beans
This is book four of my personal Top 10 Farm Books Of The Decade. I’m presenting my Top 10 in order of publication. Next up ,,, The Organic Seed Grower A Farmer’s Guide to Vegetable Seed Production by John Navazio When I was a new farmer in the early 2000s, there were some great books … More The Organic Seed Grower – Book Review
Next week, on December 12, Going To Seed turns 10 years old! Wow. When I first started typing these blog posts, I was but a learner. I wouldn’t say I’m a master now but I have learned so much. Today’s post is going to highlight 10 Going To Seed articles I’ve posted over the years … More 10 Years of Going To Seed
Over the years we’ve accumulated a few fancy pieces of seed cleaning equipment. The one we probably use the most is the Office Clipper from A.T. Ferrell. Please note – you don’t need a machine like this to save seed! For years we only used box fans and home screens to clean seeds. With these … More Cleaning Bean Seeds With The Office Clipper
This week I was on the No-Till Growers Podcast with Jesse Frost! At first I had some trepidation about being on a No-Tillcentric podcast. At Tourne-Sol, we do a touch of no-till in our green houses but we are a tractor tillage based farm. There are many other growers equipped to better discuss no-till. In … More Talking Seeds On The No-Till Growers Podcast
Last weekend was the latest ECOSGN gathering. It was amazing! ECOSGN is the Eastern Canadian Organic Seed Growers Network. This year we met in Montreal at Santropol Roulant for 2 half days of activities and then came to Tourne-Sol Farm where I led a tour. Listening To The Indigenous Seed Keepers Panel Tourne-Sol Farm Tour … More Meeting Up With My Seed Folks for ECOSGN 2019!
To save squash seeds, you need to first split the squash open and then scoop out the seeds. We’ve tried several ways to split and scoop. Here are some ways we split squash and how we like to extract the seeds. Alternative Splitting Techniques Over the years we’ve tried a few splitting squash open a … More Squash Seed Extraction 101
We’ve been cleaning seeds like there is no tomorrow! Basically, because we need to get out of greenhouse (where we clean seeds) and into the seed shack to get germ testing and seed packing so we’re ready to ship in December! Here are the basic steps we use for most of our seed cleaning. Dirty … More Seed Cleaning 101: Winnowing And Screening