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By Beulah Rampage Fishbite

It is time once again for seeds.  One of the most amazing things we have on this planet.  From a dried and shriveled up little kernel can grow all sorts of wonders.  Mankind became aware of seeds and began gathering them for food and eventually learned to plant them.  We still eat seeds aplenty – corn, peas, beans, and much more.  We manufacture them into other substances such as flour and medicines.  I am always thrilled and amazed that a tiny little, dried up, wisp of a thing when stuck in dirt can become a marigold or a forget-me-not.  And beet and radish seeds just have almost no character and look what they become.

Coconuts I guess are a seed.  They float around in the ocean then wash ashore on some land mass and grow palms.  That is how Hawaii got coconut palms.  And other seeds eaten by birds in one place, flown hundreds of miles and deposited in another spread much foliage about.  And how about the floating seeds.  I love to see the dandelions soaring along.  It is said they have been known to go up to five miles in their journey.  Do you not just love the maple tree seeds when they take flight?  And watch out for the acorns, they will clunk you good.

My grandson grew a sunflower last year.  When it was big and full of seeds he harvested them and a few he put in an envelope for me.  The envelope label said “Sunflowers, stick in dirt, water and grow, Don’t Eat.  Grown by Farmer Calvin”.  And I used to make paper to turn into note cards.  While it was still mush I would add flower seeds.  Once dried I sent the card telling the recipient to just add dirt.

Every first-grade teacher I have ever known has had her class grow bean seeds in a paper cup.  Kids love it.  One of my sons really thought that was something when he brought the bean plant home to show Mom.  It wasn’t too long after that I noticed my house plants really filling out.  Upon closer inspection I discovered that every plant had a bean plant growing in it.  And that also solved the mystery of how the soup bean package got opened.

I love watching the farmers plant those fields in the spring – corn, oats, wheat, soy beans.  Bags and bags of the seeds are poured into planters and drilled into the ground to become the much-needed crops in the fall.  When the corn is hauled to the granary it seems a golden treasure for untold uses.

We used to save seeds but now with hybrids and GMOs that does not work so well.  Everyone should get a hold of and save some heritage plant seeds, they will reproduce themselves and not a mutant.  All the seeds you buy off the racks now are hybrid and the saved seed from them do not grow what you want for sure.

Here is something to think about: is a peanut a seed or a root or even a fruit, what about an avocado is that a seed or a fruit, and is a pecan a seed? I do like seeds, I think I will munch some pistachios right now – are they seeds? I think so.