-One thing I have had some trouble with, John, is keeping foods that are
  -stored in the edible state.

Pat and I don't seem to have any problem with freezer storage.  We put
away 49 pints of spaghetti sauce last summer and to date it is still
quite tasty.  She can be a good cook when she doesn't think about it.
;+]   We did use the ultra heavy weight freezer bags.  The peaches and
strawberries have also done well.  The store bought stuff seems
susceptible to the freezer burn.  Some of the pre-prepared items like
frozen pizza, lasgna, dinners, etc. etc.  only seem to last a short
time.  My fresh homemade pasta freezes well.  ;+}  It also goes down the
gullet well.  I know, I know.... don't break my arm  Ha ha ha  But, the
fresh stuff we have put in the freezer seems to hold up better than the
stuff out of the supermarket.  Why for sure I don't know...  %-\

  -Frozen food doesn't seem to last past just a couple of months...(freezer
  -burn, you know.)   Do you have any information on the life of canned,
  -frozen or dried foods?

In the morning, I'm going to mail a disk to John with several text files
on this stuff.  Pat bought me a hand scanner for Christmas (don't be
fooled tho.  It was really so I could incorporate some tables out of
some reference books into a term paper for her schooling)  %+}  I've
been able to include the pictures in .PCX format.  So, if you have a
graphics viewer, you'll even have the pictures and drawings that were in
the articles.


BackHome Magazine
Fall 1993
page  59


ENSURING YOUR GARDEN'S FUTURE
          by  Anita Evangelista


Have you experienced the horror of "seed shock"?  That's the reaction of
many gardeners to the cost of vegetable seeds these days.  Whether you're
perusing catalogs or checking seed packs in a local store, prices for
these garden starters seem to have hit a new high.  Some I've noted: $2.19
for 1.5 grams of leek seed, $1.95 for 500 milligrams of zinnia seed, and
$2.45 for 20 seeds of winter squash.  At such rates, a pound of any type
of seed sells for several times the cost of an equal weight of .999 fine
silver!

But don't despair; you can just about eliminate such expenses by obtaining
seed from your own plants.  Though some sources may lead you to believe
that access to the process is concealed in esoteric agricultural jargon,
saving seeds from year to year is as straightforward as gardening itself.
And not only will you save a bundle of hardearned cash next year, but
you'll also fill your garden with plants specifically adapted to your
region and growing methods.  What's more (as I'll tell you about shortly),
you'll be perpetuating a bit of living history.

        SEED SAVING BASICS

Begin next year's garden this year by selecting the plants that will
provide your seeds.  Pass by the hybrids, no matter how much you may
prefer these types of plants.  A hybrid is the product of a selective
crossing of two (or more) unrelated strains of a plant; say, a variety of
tomato that develops a thick, strong stem crossed with a type that
produces extra-large fruit.  The resulting F1 hybrid, or first-generation
cross, will display the best traits of both parent plants.  Hybrids are
generally more vigorous than either parent, a desirable characteristic.

Seeds from these crossbreds, however, will not produce true to type.  The
new plants will "revert" to something like the parents, or possibly like
an ancestor of one or both of the parents.  In the case of tomatoes, the
seed of hybrid fruit often reverts to a cherry tomato-type plant.

Instead, save seed only from open pollinated -OP- plant varieties.  The
OPs aren't as common in seed catalogs as they were a decade ago, but
they're frequently available in such old favorites as 'Golden Bantam' corn
and 'Rutgers' tomato.  OP seeds reproduce true to type year after year,
given a little help and wise guidance from their gardener.

A few OP varieties are self-fertilizing, with individual flowers on the
plant providing their own genetic material.  Such plants include beans,
lettuce, peas, and tomatoes.  This means you can grow several varieties of
each - for example, Romano, Kentucky pole, and wax beans - in the same
garden, and the plants will not crossbreed.

Other common OP plants produce seed through fertilization either by wind
or insects.  These include corn, beets, cabbages and other brassicas,
carrots, melons, cucumbers, radishes, spinach, squash, pumpkins, and
turnips.  For such types you have three options to prevent accidental
crossing.  You can plant only a single representative of the group; you
can stagger plantings so that seeds of crossable types mature at different
times; or you can hand-pollinate and hand-protect the individual plants
that have been selected to produce seeds.

There is a fourth option that may appeal to the adventurous; letting
plants of a particular type cross freely.  For example, you could plant in
proximity two types of cucumber; an eight inch slicing variety and a tiny
gherkin.  The next year's harvest could be very disappointing, or you
could produce a truly desirable new vegetable.

Keep only seeds from plants that have done particularly well in your
garden: those that are resistant to local insects and weather conditions
and that have the best-tasting fruit.  After several years of saving seeds
from your own "line", you will have developed plants that are uniquely and
individually adapted to your growing methods and region.

Store saved seeds in glass jars and keep them in a freezer.  Make labels
for the different seeds, but keep these inside the jars; otherwise,
they'll fall off.  On the labels include the year of harvest and the
specific variety (i.e., 1993 'Longkeeper' tomato) and any interesting
traits of growth that might help you in the future.

Seeds stored in freezing temperatures should remain viable for several
years.  It's not unusual, though, to find that only half a batch of home-
collected seeds will grow, so always keep more than you expect to need.
It's a good practice to plant at least some of your stored seed every
year, to keep supplies fresh.  But never plant all the seed of one type;
if the crop fails, you won't have any to fall back on.

Generally, vegetables are harvested at peak condition; in doing so, the
seeds-to-be -- as fruit -- are removed before they are ready for saving.
When saving fruit for seed, you need to allow it to reach its ripest
condition before picking it.  The optimum conditions for saving the seed
of both annuals (plants that produce seed during the first year) and
biennials (plants that require two years growth to produce seeds) are
given below.

**************************************************************************
                ANNUALS
**************************************************************************

BEANS:  Pick freely from your plants until later in the season (leaving
ripe beans on the vines early on may cause production to stop).  Let the
last pods dry while they're still hanging on the plants.  If the weather
is too damp and the seeds begin to mildew, pull the entire plants by the
roots and hang them upside down in a sheltered area until the pods are
completely dry.  Crack out the seeds, and store them in glass jars with
tight lids.  Some folks add a bay leaf per jar to repel bugs.

CORN:  Plant only a single variety, or stagger plantings so that the
varieties mature at different times.  Serious corn growers advocate saving
seeds from no less than 100 ears, so that a number of different plants are
represented in your genetic seed stocks.  But it's better to save seed
from just a few ears than to not save any at all.  Select only cobs that
represent the best or your corn: hardy plants, strong and upright in the
wind, ears filled out, little or no insect damage, husky kernels.  Let the
corn dry in the husk on the plant; bring it indoors before the weather
turns damp.  Remove the husks and hang the cobs to dry until the kernels
are slightly loose.  Shell them, and store them.

CANTALOUPES:  There are many varieties of these aromatic melons, including
the familiar orange-fleshed supermarket type, green-fleshed supermarket
type, green-fleshed muskmelons, and even a small, hardy indigenous North
American sort called "mango melon" or "vine peach".  These all cross
freely.  (See the section on pumpkins for information on hand-pollination)
Select several early fruits to eat from these plants.  Remove the seeds,
rinse them, and dry them on a plate before storing them.

CUCUMBERS:  If you have several plants, save seeds from the first fruit on
one and the last fruit from another.  If you have just one plant, you'll
have to save seed from the last fruits, for if the cukes aren't picked,
the plant will stop fruiting.  Let a couple of large, healthy cukes remain
on the vine until the fruit has turned a golden color.  Peel and mash the
whole cucumbers.  Cover them with water, and let this stand at room
temperature for several days; it will become pretty smelly.  Pour off the
liquid as well as the goo floating in the water.  Viable seeds will have
settled to the bottom of the container.  Spread the seeds on a plate to
dry before storing them.

PEAS:  Treat the same as beans.

PUMPKINS, and WINTER and SUMMER SQUASH:  These all come from four species
of the _Cucurbita_ genus.  Crossing within species is possible, so you
should plant only one variety from each one.  _Cucurbita_Pepo_ includes
acorn, cocozelle, crookneck, and scallop squash, pumpkins, and zucchini.
_C._Maxima_ includes banana, Hubbard, buttercup, and turban squash.
_C._Moschata_ covers butternut and "cheese" squash.  And _C._Mixta_
includes cushaws.  So you could confidently plant an acorn squash, a
Hubbard squash, and a butternut squash without any crossing.

Suppose you want to grow pumpkins and zucchini, both members of _C._Pepo_.
Then what?  You could separate the plantings by several hundred feet,
which will slow down pollinating insects.  Or you could hand-pollinate
female flowers.  To do this you detach a male flower (it will have a
slender base), and carefully tear away the flower "petals" so that only
the long anthers and stem remain.  Swab this across the newly opened
female flower (with the tiny fruit at the base), to distribute pollen.

Use several male flowers on each female.  Gently tape the female flower
shut, and you're done.

If the _Cucurbita_ species cross and produce fruit, the results will be
perfectly edible and often quite interesting.

POTATOES:

OOOOoooooppsss,  I thought that one was done..  I guess I'll have to
pull that issue back out and finish it off.  ;+}

If Pat would just give me some time to get MY stuff done on the confuser
instead of doing her stuff, I'd probably have even more goofs like that.

Any way, now with the scanner the info is starting to roll in.  TTYL

                        The WEE Scot
                            Paul
                           KC5AIQ