Seed storage

Your food storage should include seed storage and not just any seeds, but heirloom seeds.  Most of the seeds that are out there in our favorite box stores are hybrid seeds, which means that if you keep the seeds from year to year you will not always have the same kind of plant produced true to the parent plant. Only heirloom seeds are true to being able to keep the same product year to year when you save the seeds.  They produce hybrid seeds so that you have to buy seeds every year to keep the seed companies in business. [as a side note IF you do save seeds from hybrid plants over several years you will end up with YOUR own heirlooms]  And if a disaster is one that there will not be any seed companies afterward then you will not be able to replace the seeds.  Heirloom seeds are slightly higher priced in the beginning to purchase, but they will save you money later because you can save the seeds from your plant and grow year after year. It is best to start the process of growing plants early long before you have to, because you will learn by making  mistakes or the weather will not cooperate and you won’t be able to harvest or gather seeds. It takes practice and work to save seeds and mark them, so start now. Also go out into the forest and if you see a plant that you like take a cutting off or take a seed pod from the plant and try to grow in your yard, AKA wildcrafting. Look up plants in your area that you can eat and get cuttings or seed pods from them and save the information on your computer or on paper in a notebook. Also you will need seeds for spices and seeds for herbs for healing, not to mention any flowers that you want to save.  There are some flowers that you can consume and add to soups or salads like calendula and nasturtiums.

You can store seeds up in jars, plastic bags, Mylar bags or paper bags. Just make sure you let them dry well before you put them up so that they don’t mold.  This saves money on the seeds that you store.  There are a few large seed storage banks, one in Greenland and another in Norway that I have heard of that are trying to save all the different types of heirloom seed in the world. This is one of an estimated 1400 seed banks around the world that collect seed and store them. The largest is the one in a NorwegianIsland just 700 miles from the North Pole.  They claim to be able to hold 4.5 million samples and the building is suppose to be earthquake and flood safe. You can go to Wikipedia: Svalbard Global Seed Vault to read about it.  You can also go to www.goodfoodworld.com to read about saving seeds. You can get some heirloom seeds from your local big box store and you can also purchase heirloom seeds from a variety of nurseries such as www.ParkSeed.com, www.USASeedStore.com,, www.BakerCreek.com, are just a few. There is also a www.HeirloomGardner.com , and www.OrganicGardening.com to name but a few that focus on veggie gardening instead of flowers.

Some survival seed companies offer a package deal and offer a variety of seeds to be able to start a garden after a disaster. I prefer to pick my own seeds so I can get the variety that I want, it may be a little bit more expensive, but you can take more time to purchase them and know that they are right for your climate.  I take like $20.00 a month and go online and purchase that amount of seeds, then the next month I do the same.  Don’t forget to purchase spices and herb seeds also, this will make your food storage taste better by having spices to change up the flavor of the food.

800 year old seeds found! STILL viable ;]

New link added 2016-11-28 http://www.metaspoon.com/800-pot-seeds-gete-okosomin-squash?cat=shock&fb=8015M1n1r5565a0&utm_source=8015M1n1r5565a0

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