Saving seeds

A long time ago, February to be exact, I grew a whole lot 

of mizuna in plug trays.  Maybe you were as sick of hearing 

about mizuna, spinach and lettuce as I was by the end of it.  

Since I had so many plugs (small, baby plants with lots of roots) 

I planted some in bigger trays with the hope they would grow 

and I could eat them.  

Instead I forgot about them and they flowered!  

There are wild mustard flowers like this blooming 

all over the place in New Hampshire right now.  

I think they are pretty, especially along the highway.

I decided to save the seeds from the flowering mizuna.  

I've never successfully seed-saved before - 

I'm good at saving seed, but not finding them again.

So, I waited and waited for the plants to stop flowering.  

The interval between flower and seed was much longer than 

between mature plant and flower. 

Finally last week the seed pods were ready!  

(Actually, they weren't all ready, I was just tired of waiting.)  

If you look closely you can seed dark brown spots in 

the tan seed pods.  Those are the seeds.

I took the stalks home and collected the seeds.  

It was like shelling peas, only I didn't eat any.  

Now I have about a tablespoon of mizuna seeds.  

They are packaged, labeled and stored in a safe place 

that I will probably remember in the fall.  I thought about

planting them right away, but right now I have quite enough greens.