Seed Saving 101

For those who were unable to make it to the Seed Saving workshop this month, here are some tips, notes and photos!



Why save seeds?

• It's Cheap! And you end up with basically a free crop for next year
• It's an important way to save heirloom varieties that are otherwise being lost from our food system
• Plants adapt to local conditions and can grow better next year

What do I need?

 

Depending on the seeds you are planning to save, basic tools you'll need are knife, cutting board and paper towel. If tomato seeds are on your list, then you'll also need a jar with lid and water.

Which seeds to save or not save?

• Squash and sweet corn (male/female flower parts) can cross-pollinate and may not necessarily be good the second year
• Carrots/beets are biennial plants, so it takes two years for them to go to seed. It's possible, just more difficult.
• Tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas are easy plants to save seed from.
• F1 hybrid seeds were cross-bred and may not produce desirable results (or not even produce at all!) Open pollinated seeds are heirloom varieties that will yield 'true' generations.

How to save seeds, some common examples:

• Save seed from the most vigorous, healthy plants as these will have the 'strongest' seeds (e.g. natural selection)
• Tomatoes/Cucumbers (see photos below): allow fruit to fully ripen and scoop out seeds and pulp. Place in jar of water for 24-76 hours, to ferment (this releases the lining on the seed, allowing for future germination), stirring the seeds every day. Once seeds have sunk to the bottom, pour liquid away and rinse. Dry on paper towel (preferably out of sunlight) and once completely dry (up to 3 weeks!) place in envelope.
• Peppers: Let pepper fully ripen on fruit and wait until skin starts wrinkle. Remove from pepper and let dry on paper towel. Then place in envelope.
• Peas/Beans: Allow pod to ripen on stalk and start to dry and turn brown. Spread them out on a tray indoors to dry, waiting at least two weeks before shelling. Or you can leave them in the pod until next spring when ready to plant.
• Carrots/Beets: As a biennial plant, carrots (like beets) won't flower until early into the second year after planting. If you want to collect carrot seeds, leave a few in the ground to overwinter and collect seeds once the flowers have seeded and dried the following spring/early summer.

How to store seed:

• Seeds are best stored in paper envelopes in a cool, dark area where temperatures don't fluctuate much.
• Make sure to label your envelopes well with variety type and year. You may even want to leave a few  notes for yourself to remember for next year.

Tomato Seed Saving Photos

When you cut open your tomatoes, you'll see the seeds surrounded by their pulp/coating.
Squeeze all of this out into the jar.

After you squeeze out the pulp and seeds into your jar, throw the rest of your
tomatoes into a blender to make a quick salsa or add them
to your compost pile for next year's crop.

Caste System in The Honey Bee Colony: Drone, The Male

     

The Male Of The Honey Bee Colony: The Drone

     It comes as no surprise to beekeepers that most people, get a kick out of the fact that the hive is mainly female. This comes from the fact that 10 to 20 percent of the hive is male. The drone is easily spotted by their large eyes, medium size body and long legs.

     A drone is the result of an unfertilized egg. Normally, a Queen bee will deposit the unfertilized egg in a drone cell. A drone cell, compared to a worker cell, is slightly larger. Unlike the worker bee, the drone will take 24 days from egg to Adult.

     

     When the egg is laid it will take three days for the larva to hatch. On the 11th day the larva is mature enough to be(e) capped. This capped cell is easily noticed since the cell is dome shaped.

This is because the drone is slightly larger than the worker bee so it will need more space to develop in. On the 24th day the adult drone will emerge. Soon after the drone will begin his journey out of the hive. At the peak of summer there can be(e) about 200 drones on average.

     Drones do most of their flying in the afternoon. Their search in the afternoon is mainly to find a unfertilized queen bee to mate with. Interestingly enough, the drone will mate with the queen bee in midair and once he mates with the chosen queen he dies. But he has completed the task that nature has given him.

     Other than mating, Drones do not have any other specific task. They do not defend the hive since they do not have a stinger. For this reason they are easily picked up by a beekeeper with their bare hand! Additionally, the drone has a tiny proboscis, "tongue", and is not able to feed themselves. Thus, the worker bees must feed them.

     Later in the fall, the queen will lay fewer drones since mating season is over. As winter approaches, the worker bees will begin to drive the drones out of the hive. This phenomenon is the result of the hive no longer needing the drones for the winter and to conserve as much resources as possible.

     Thus the life of a Drone is over. Nevertheless, their numbers will reappear as mating season begins.

Caste System in The Honey Bee Colony: Worker Bee's Adulthood

 The Adulthood of a Worker Bee

In the last post about the Worker bee's we briefly showed how they change from egg to larvae to adult. Which starts off with the queen laying the egg in a CLEAN wax cell. after the larva hatches they are feed by the adult bees and eventually caped so they can fully change into an adult bee.

Her first three days as an adult will be(e) cleaning the cell from which she emerged. If not done properly the queen will not lay the next egg in that cell. As a result of poor cleaning the worker bee must clean the cell again. On her third to seventh day as an adult she is given the duty of nursing bee. At this stage her main task is to feed the worker larva royal jelly and eventually bee bread. Some worker bees are given the task of feeding the drones (more on this later) or the queen herself.

After their nursing career they are moved to, what I like to call, “Engineer “ bees. They are given the task of building, repairing, and designing the wax combs. It is very fascinating to watch them work in a top bar hive (like the one we have on the roof top). They start at the top of the bar and work their way down. First they make a bee “chain” to measure the part that they will be building. They use the wax that they excrete in order to construct the comb. Remember that the comb has two sides. So to optimize the strength of the comb it is built in a way that each cells’ corner is centered to the middle of the cell on the opposite side.  In additions to constructing the comb, they are also given the duty of storing the pollen and nectar that that forager bees bring in. They are the “engineerettes” of the hive from the 12^th to the 17^th day of their adult lifespan.

Our roof top ladies at work. Nice work, ladies!

The Shadow shows the offset that they create

The days 17 through 21 they worker bees do miscellaneous tasks around the hive. The tasks depend on what the hive needs the most. Some of the tasks include but are not limited to: honey sealing, Drone feeding, honey comb building, undertaker bee, fanning bees and water carriers.

One of the tasks that are given to worker bees is fanning. They are given the task of cooling the hives temperature by, you guessed it, fanning. They are their own air conditioning. They do this by standing in one place and sending an “air current” to one another. In some cases, they may add water to the “air current.”

On July 18th, 2013 it was 90+ degrees when we opened the hive and sure enough they were fanning away trying to keep the hive cool.

Another task that the worker bees do that I find interesting is “undertaker bee.” Normally a bee does not die inside the hive. When a bee feels like it is on its last seconds of life it will fly away as far as possible from the colony. Although when a bee does die in the hive another bee, in this case the undertaker bee, will carry it out as far as they can. However, the undertaker bee is not limited to only dead bees. It will also carry out eggs that never hatched, larvae that did not mature or adult bees that never made it out if their cells.

On the 22^nd day of the worker bees’ adult life is moved to the task of forager. She will travel in a two to five mile radius to collect nectar and pollen. At the same time she will also pollinate the flowers that she visits. Thus, as she helps herself she will also help the plants and ultimately help feed us.  She is capable of visiting 50 to 100 flowers in one day. She will continue to forage until she dies. She is literally worked to death! So if you see a bee flying in and out of the hive then one can make an observational conclusion that the worker bee is on her last legs. But her hard work will not be in vain.

In the most active of months the average bee, after becoming an adult, will live 30 to 42 days. Nevertheless, every day and every task is crucial for the hive’s survival. All the bees tasks are, in one way or another, interconnected. It functions like a well-oiled machine. Take into consideration that without the “engineer” bees there wouldn’t be any space for the larva to grow and without the larva there wouldn’t be “engineer” bees. It leaves you with the head scratching question: “what came first? The wax comb or the bee?”

Stay tuned in for later blog post concerning the other caste of bees in the colony. Next up is the Drones, the males of the colony.

  

Written by Dulay.

Cooking On The Rooftop

This past Saturday, we had a brand new attraction. A cooking demo on the rooftop! Everyone was very excited. A few dishes that were prepared included whole wheat pasta with sauteed tomatoes and kale fresh from the garden, a quick pickle which used fresh dill from the garden, and a roasted red pepper crostini with cheese from Clock Shadow Creamery which is located on the first floor of our building.

After the zumba class let out, everyone eagerly rushed up to the rooftop to check out the delicious meals being made. There were samples for everyone to try. The dishes were very delicious and nutritious.

We also had local honey available at the market again last Saturday. Next to the honey, there was one of the bars from our beehive for people to observe. You could even see the queen laying eggs if you looked close enough.

Be sure to stop by the market next week for all natural soap from Kat! She is coming back next Saturday.

Written by Samantha.

Rooftop in Bloom

Our honeybees are happily buzzing with the recent bloom of rooftop sedum.  Soon rooftop market patrons will be equally happy as we begin to harvest the first major salad greens of the season!

Thanks to the Victory Garden Initiative, we added a blackberry bush and two grape vines to the rooftop bounty this year. I'm excited to report that they're already blooming in their first year!

Here are more delicious pictures of our rooftop in bloom!

Our blooming blackberry in front of a row of nasturtium. To the right we have zucchini, ground cherries, and raspberries.

Purple bush beans just starting to flower!

One of four Three Sisters gardens featuring Hopi blue corn, Kentucky pole beans and  Winter squash.

Snap peas!

Salad-lovers delight: heirloom lettuce varieties and daikon radishes

Raspberry buds sparkle against the skyline