Saving Squash Seed

People have saved squash seeds for hundreds of years.

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wintertime squash is one of those vegetable that bless us with a grace catamenia before we glean the seed .

Squash is aboriginal to the Americas and has been naturalise here for hundreds of days . The bookBuffalo Bird Woman ’s Garden : the classical account of Hidatsa American Indian gardening techniques , recount historical method for harvesting squash and saving seed . It ’s a humbling reminder of how long seed saving has been go on as well as an acknowledgment that there is never just one proper way to do something .

By no way is cracking open these hard – and often huge shell – and roasting them for minute is gentle than preserving any other garden veg , but their harvest comes at time when the first days of fall seem to slow everything down . Perhaps squash has become synonymous with these cool , foggy days because it has adapted over so many age to our growing season.(over 35 Squash varieties usable from Seed Savers Exchange )

So here are some squash seed salve techniques , then and now .

proficiency 1 : slice crush loose .

According to Buffalo Bird Woman , “ each of the sure-enough women had a squash tongue in her handwriting , made of the slight part of the articulatio humeri bone of a buffalo ; fumbler knives of steel are now used . The cut was made by entreat the pearl vane downwardly into the squash vine as the latter lay in her palm . ”

Here at Heritage Farm , where we harvest thousands and thousands of squash semen , our methodology is a routine different . Because we harvest so much crush for catalog cum product , one style we reap seed is by using a homemade equipment affectionately referred to as “ the guillotine ” . We put a squash on a platform ; pull down on a long handle with a wooden wedge attached to one end , and voila , you have split squash racquets . proficiency 2 : remove flesh from cum

Seed saving was quite a different cognitive operation for the Hidatsa . Buffalo Bird Woman say , “ Squash seeds , freshly removed from the squash racquets , are moist and mixed with more or less pulpy topic . To remove this pulp I take up a small handful of the fresh seed , set a juiceless corn cob in my palm and alternately pressure and open my hand over the mess . The holey aerofoil of the filbert absorbed the moisture and sucked up the pulpy subject , thus cleanse the seeds . ”

Here , we outdo out the seeds from inside each fruit into large plastic bins . Because there is always frame attached to the seed , letting them sit in the bins overnight helps the sarcoid part break down . The following day we decant the seeds , frame and all , through a series of 5 Imperial gallon buckets , each with different sized wire covert bottoms . We use a hose and spray as much ejaculate as possible through the screens , amass pulp in the first bucket . The last bucket collects the seeds for dry .

So before you bulge salting , laugh at and eat this year ’s pumpkin vine seeds(remember a autumn pumpkin is a squash racquets after all ! ) , define aside a handful of raw seeds to dry and grow in next year ’s garden .

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