Saving seeds back for next year

last year I saved some seeds and it worked great.
I saved mamoth sunflower seeds easily in a poly bag (they grew even bigger this year!)
tomato seeds were a bit trickier, I put the jelly goop on paper or paper towels on the porch to dry the picked the seeds off easily enough. I suspect I can leave them on a paper towel and just put it in the dirt paper and all next year.
you can also save your squash, cucumber, melon and even some herb seeds easily by gathering and drying & putting them in plastic containers or baggies.
it is a nice idea to trade with friends and relatives swapping seeds is easy and can save you money and be an adventure too. (I ended up with some mismarked seeds and got a wider variety than expected) .
It was not a great year for my  garden this year, tomatoes had issues and a fungus attacked my cucs and squash but i did end up with quite a bit of each dispite this issue... now as for corn... I will not try to grow corn again, it is too frustrating between the animals (mostly those little monster squirrels) and the room it takes in my somewhat smallish garden, I feel I wasted valuable time and energy and ended up not getting one single solitary ear of corn for my trouble! I was able to can corn  bought at the farmers market for alot less than it cost me in time, trouble, fencing, rubber snakes, fertilizer etc... and it was yummy too ;).
   I am going on a trip  back home to Easter Washington in a few weeks and was hoping to have a few canned things to take to my mom but my garden, has not produced as well as last year with weather and animal issues.  Time seems to slip away too, I have enough tomatoes to can some but have not been able to between working and mommying lately.
    If I can manage to set aside 2-3 hours I could do it, but I seem to be short for that much time lately.

    I did manage to can quite a few cans of corn and pickles ( not quite a few in a farmer's wife reference perhaps but in an " I got home from work at 11pm and was done by 3 am reference)
   I have peaches I wanted to make some jam with but have decided to just can them for later, if I don't eat them all first!  I think I may do apples later.
   Well I know I haven't posted much lately but it has been rather busy here, school starts soon and I hope to hear plenty back from others on canning, gardens, seeds, and home school or back to school...

a lovely recipe site

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/7/Peach_Melon_Conserve53018.shtml

Peach cantaloupe conserve

My poor whithering squash plants....

I was able to harvest a lot of Spaghetti squash from my vines on the porch, before they were infected by the Powdery mildew, and I still have healthy plants in the garden too.

                                But these poor little guys started dying off and it spread like wild fire.

this is the bale garden in mid July

this is the Bale garden at the end of July, no one ever told me Pumpkins where Olympic! this one has jumped across the bale garden and is also crawling around it in two directions. I am hoping it is hardy enough to survive the Powdery Mildew that killed the spaghetti squash and cucumbers.

I was still able to get about 8  spaghetti squashes off the vines and they were still very tasty! This was prepared in the toaster oven

Recycled paper seed cards...

I took some construction paper Jr. had cut shapes out of and tore them up into small pieces put those pieces into boiling water to soften them then put the hot goop (which was in this case orange)  into the Magic Bullet/ Bella Cucina and blended it furiously making a smoother gooier paste and after this cooled  (because cooked seeds won't sprout) I squeezed fresh  tomato seeds into (because if it is dry seeds I fear it may cause them to sprout). I then took this goop on to the porch where I had window screen layed out for this purpose and spread the goop into different shapes. I made a card shape, some leaf shapes and some round shapes to make pumpkins out of later, these will later become fall greeting cards that a person can plant in the spring. (In theory anyway.) It is sort of lumpy and thick but I think as the water evaporates they will get lighter and maybe thinner, I suppose if it stays fluffy it is ok too, I will let you know later how it turns out... here are some pictures of how it looks so far:

it sort of looks like a hamburger patty but they are not that thick.

here are the different shapes I made.

Hey I have another follower!

Thanks for following my blog, please share your ideas and make comments and spread the blog to anyone you think might find it interesting.... in other words I still need more followers!

disjointed thoughts I wanted to share

    I realize people were having trouble posting comments so I have altered the settings which should allow you to post comments very easily but they will show as anonymous, if you do this, and want me to know who you are please sign you comment at the end.
    If you have any specific interests please share them, I am looking for ideas right now.
   I recently bought a 2003 Pontiac Vibe and right now am very impressed with the difference in the gas mileage I get especially when compared to my 2003 Town & Country... worlds apart, and so much easier to maneuver and park! I feel so liberated!
   I am having some garden difficulties right now with something called "Powdery Mildew" it is killing some of my squash and all of my cucumbers. If you have any thoughts on this please share them.
   Recently I found out my 72 year old Aunt, whom is my all time favorite Auntie, is having some problems and has been admitted to the hospital with Acute Renal Failure, so I plan to make a trip over to see her in a few weeks for a day.
   I have been considering getting her a personal dvd player, because she has alot of trouble keeping her remote, and keeping it in working order, in the nursing home she is in. I wonder if it has anything to do with her trying to "fix" it.... anyway, she shares a room with another woman and I thought having a simple easy to use dvd player with earphones and no remote, might be just the ticket, then her favorite  (her words, not mine) niece could send her video letters and stuff on dvds she could watch at her leisure. I just have to find one, I may end up giving her the one I already have because it is pretty simple, but it is also set up for the car so I have not decided yet.
   Of course I should be finishing my recent letter to her right now instead of blogging this right now, as I have no real great items to post.
   I did however have my first spaghetti squash last night and I have been harvesting Mortgage lifter tomatoes already, really huge juicy  ones too! I have lost nearly all my corn to some horrible animal and my cucumbers to the Mildew issue, and about 3 pounds of beans have been harvested from my garden thus far. I am hoping there will be enough of something to can since I bought a boat load of jars last month and a water bath canner... I may have to break down and buy fruit to make jam or something.
    I may make some dill relish, that sounds easy and useful and delicious.
    Oh that reminds me, I have been harvesting my garden seeds, I did this last year and it worked so well and saved me so much money on seeds and I knew I was growing things from items I had already been successful with. I had especially good luck with the tomato seeds, they are a little messy but once I figured it out it was so easy.
   Last year I laid out the seeds jelly and all on paper towels or paper and put them on my warm porch to dry then picked the dry seeds off with tweezers leaving the dry jelly behind.
   This year I wanted to make home made or recycled paper and put the seeds right into the paper so I can make little seed cards I can plant or even send as greeting cards and other people can plant.
   Well these are my thoughts today, maybe later I will come up with more, but hopefully you have enough to comment on and share your ideas from these some what disjointed thoughts I shared today.