Sunday, June 4, 2017

SeedPod

"S" just sent me a link to a Kickstarter post promoting the "SeedPod", a cutesy, plastic, individual seed  drying/saving container. Colorful and modern....looks to me to be targeting the urban and suburban housewife with "Martha Stewart" lifestyles ( I'm not against this sort of lifestyle, but it's just not my thing.) Cute. But I can foresee that a lot of them will sell and eventually end up in some bulging, overstuffed landfill somewhere. Just more disposable material waste.
 
As a homesteader, I save seeds. But I've become an avid "low cash input" sort of farmer. So I save my seeds in recycled glass jars, or in folded homemade paper packets stored in glass jars. Doesn't cost me a penny. 

Now I can appreciate someone's problem with seed drying. I live in a frequently damping location. On good weeks I can dry seeds in the shade under a protected porch roof. On damp months I have another method. I place a inch of powdered dry milk in the bottom of a quart mason jar. Place the seeds to be dried the rest of the way into the toe of an old stocking (some ancient pantyhose from my previous life). Place seeds into jar and close it. Leave it for a month (replace the milk powder with fresh if it is no longer powdery). Then remove the seeds, label, and store in the bottom of the frig in a glass jar. 

My only expense is the powdered milk, which I then feed to the animals.......pick one : lamb, chicken, cat, or dog. One box of powdered milk lasts me a year or more since I seldom need to resort to its use. 

Zero waste. Nothing goes to the landfill. Old paper packets go into the compost. Glass jars go to a massive garage sale once I've died. 

Before someone points it out to me, yes, I could use a commercial desiccant instead of powdered milk. One can buy the type with color indicators in it so that you'd know when it was time to recharge it (that is, bake it dry). But since powdered milk is biodegradable and minusculally (not a real word) helps dairy farmers,  I opt for the powdered milk......just a personal choice. 

1 comment:

  1. I recycle supplement bottles. They come with a desiccant pack. If you try to peal off the label it usually leaves a paper surface to label what is inside.

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