Thursday, December 08, 2011

Old Hippie in me!

Yes, I'm an old hippy. I admit it. All my life I've read "Mother Earth", a magazine on alternative living. If you've never read it, go and buy one, you will LOVE IT!!

With the philosophy of ..... re-use, re-purpose, and conserve.

So, when I saw these cute little pumpkins before Halloween I had a hard time buying them.... why buy when you can grow??? But, bought them I did, because it was way to late in the season to consider getting the seeds.... you can't find seeds in late September or October.




Now, after Halloween, I brought them inside, and put them on the kitchen window.

The trick of getting good seeds is to make sure the fruit is ripe enough. Another 2 months sitting in the sun, inside, and the pumpkins started showing spots of rot.....PERFECT!!! The seeds would be mature, and most of them would produce.

So I cut them open, scooped them out. Placing them in a strainer, I rinsed them with COLD water..... don't be tempted to use warm or hot, because that could kill the seeds.



Then I put them on a nice towel, and I'll allow them to dry all day long.... when dry, I'll pick out the bits of pumpkin still sticking to them, and put them in a jar! Sealed for the winter in a nice dark spot.... like my spice cabinet.



I do this with most of my seeds, from Marigolds, to.... well.... pumpkins. And next year in the spring I'll find a nice place to plant them..... and there you go!!!!

I may have bought the initial ones, but for years to come, I'll never have to buy another, just keep growing, seeding, and having fun!!

1 comments:

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

We did the exact same thing with the gihugeous pumpkins my daughter struggled to bring home in October. The seeds were big as well. Now in the spring we will be able to try to grow mammoth pumpkins too.
I don't ever remember a time when I didn't reuse, repurpose or recycle. It's how I live my life. Hard to teach an olde hippy new tricks. tee hee Oma Linda