Anyway, here’s what I did:

Cut the squash into halves:

Dump the soft insides into a bowl of water:

(Hmm, that actually looks like something from the movie ‘Alien’ )

Use your fingers to rub out the seeds:

Use a sieve to collect the seeds:

Spread the mix on a filter bag to absorb the rest of the water:

Pick each seed with a pair of tweezers and move them to a new filter bag. This is were I began noticing a problem, as the seeds were divided into two different size groups:

The big ones looked like commercial seeds, but what’s the deal with the small ones??:

When I allowed all of the seeds to dry up for several days suddenly NONE of the seeds looked healthy:

I guess I have to use better seeds for the mother plant before this will work. Another possibillity is that the squash fruit wasn’t ripe enough. It didn’t change color as I was told is necessary with cucumbers, if you want to save seeds from cucumbers.

I saved one particularly healthy looking cucumber from the plant growing up the south facing garage wall:

It was dark green when I picked it but I stored it for several weeks inside the house to let it mature, turning yellow in the process. It actually started  to smell bad, as it had a couple of spots. Apparently my girlfriend is very tolerant since she’s able to put up with things like this laying around the house. It was probably a wise decision to tell her in advance what I was doing :

With much anticipation I cut the cucumber open, only to find that it contained no frekkin seeds!:

A little miracle in itself. A lot of hard work must have gone into creating cucumbers like this. I think I have to go talk to the nursery again. Or buy heirloom seeds and raise my own plants next year.

Use a teaspoon to dig out the seeds. Be careful to leave as much goo in the tomato, or it will get in your way later on in the process:

Fill a glass with about 3 cm (1 inch) of water and put the seeds in the water:

The mix will now have to ferment, so a piece of cling film is needed on top of the glass to limit the oxygen. Prick a couple of holes to create a bit of ventilation though:

Leave the mix for 3 or 4 days and any unwanted goo will start to dissolve:

Healthy seeds will fall to the bottom of the glass making it easier to remove the goo with a tablespoon and add fresh water:

Remove the red stuff and add fresh water a couple of times during the fermenting process and you’ll end up with this:

The seeds will still be coated with gel. I believe it’s some kind germination inhibitor. Being in the water for some time makes the gel easy to scrub off by dragging each seed across the filter bag with a finger:

Move the seeds to a new filter bag and let them dry for a couple of days. Here is the end result, ready for storage in a seed bag until spring:

Note that I have not tested if these seeds will actually germinate and produce plants, but I must say that the result looks very professional.

I’m very excited to find out what the tomato plants from these seeds will look like next year, and if they themselves will be able to reproduce.

Moss from the lawn seems to keep well inside the nest. And it’s easy to find around here as I do not take good care of my lawn. In fact, I would convert it all to beds if it wasn’t for the kids using it as playground. Maybe I can convince my daughter to grow her own radishes in a couple of years :

The cardboard in the bottom looks like something took small bites of it, and it is definitely deteriorating. I think this results in poor conditions for the bees, but I don’t know what to put in instead. The idea was to replace the cardboard each year in order to reuse the nest. Maybe if the wooden roof had been weather proof it would be in better condition:

I’m not going to give up on the design just yet, as I would like to see if a big, yellow flower head painted onto the box around the entry hole would attract some bumble bees.

Thomas Winther from RenewablesAtHome.com has described a more advanced type of bumble bee nest, if you want to check out other types of bumble bee nests.

My peach tree is starting to bend due to the weight of ripening peaches. They’re sucking up a lot of water in the process, which is good so they’ll get really juicy before harvest time. I guess I have to drill a hole in the wall to build a support for the tree. An old seat belt should do the trick for now. It will support the tree through a large surface and shouldn’t damage the stem. If only I was allowed to pick up this kind of stuff from the local recycling site, but nooo, we have to throw everything away so we can buy NEW stuff and keep the wheels turning. As you can tell I’m still worried about the planets ressources and what happens if or when they run out. And that’s why I keep growing food in my own frekkin front yard. Wonder when there will be a law against that too. Gotta keep the big wheels turning. Enjoy the frekkin pictures.

Notice which direction they all turn around the bamboo stick? Counter-clockwise. This is good to know if you want to help them get a good start up the trellis. Supposedly they’re going to untie themselves until they are allowed to go the preferred way around. I believe they’re going the other way around on the southern hemisphere, but I haven’t verified that Please leave a comment if you have checked it out.

If you take a closer look at bolted spinach plants you’ll find the seeds grouped in small clusters:

The seeds can easily be rubbed off the stem although some will stay together and you’ll need to separate those. From a single spinach plant I saved enough seeds to fill at least two normal seeds bags, maybe even three:

I pay about $4 for a single bag of spinach seeds. I now got seeds worth 5 * 2.5 * 4 = $50! (I had 5 dried plants hanging beneath my roof). Amazing. If they will all grow, that is.

How to make the worlds best compost

According to Rod the best compost is a kind of material that resembles jelly. It contains fluid but the material feels dry when you touch it. Jelly also contains the good stuff too. This property must be the same in compost if you want it to be world class. Rod calls this type of compost colloidal humus compost, because it contains up to 75 % water plus all the nutrients. The high amount is needed by the plants in order to grow normally. The water provided to plants must be free of nutrients or it’ll mess up their system!

You need to build your compost pile in a single day. Therefore you have to collect the material in different piles throughout the months prior to building the pile. A key ingredient is fresh animal manure, in fact up 40% of the pile needs to be manure. Nitrogen rich materials, carbon rich materials and manure have to be really wet when you build your pile or else the composting process will not run properly. The three different types of materials need to be in close contact throughout the pile which is then covered with straw during its 3 to 6 months life. And it is literally life. All kinds of organisms and animals will come and go when needed to take part in the composting process. Add some biodynamic herbs and mojo and you got yourself world class compost.

What I LIKE about The Worlds Best Compost

* It uses a biodynamic approach to making compost. I’m fascinated by biodynamics because curiosity, respect and harmony are key aspects in this way of gardening.

* It’s easy to read although it contains a lot of information.

* It has lots of pictures and easy understandable illustrations (21 throughout the eBook).

* Straight to the point, no BS.

* Written by someone with 20 years of experience using the methods described (teaching it for 10 years).

* Interesting references to people and further reading.

* The reasons behind the different actions you need to take are explained too.

* Several bonus eBooks and videos included in the purchase: “Mysteries of Pruning Revealed”, “Professional Secrets to Stunning Azaleas” and “Wonder Plants and Plant Wonders”.

What I DON’T like about The Worlds Best Compost

* Not actually about the eBook, but the sales pitch page is just too much.

* The price is a bit high for a 43 pages eBook, but taking the bonuses into account it seems fair. They seem solid too.

* Some of the biodynamic mojo is included in the process without explanation. I would like to read a few critical thoughts about this whirling madness (you have to make some kind of soup if you want to be best in class).

Who should buy this eBook

You need more space to use the method described in this eBook than you would using traditional urban composting methods. You need space around the pile and space for storing the different materials before building the pile, so I think it’s best suited for people living in rural areas where you can raise your own cows and horses too. Of course you can transport the manure into your urban garden but it’s a lot more work. I think the book can be used by beginners as well as experienced gardeners. The only thing you need is a desire to provide the best growing conditions for you plants.

You can get the eBook here.

Fortunately I had some free space in my bed where the red beets used to be, so in with the small onions:

Hopefully they’ll survive the transplating and give us twice as many onions as planned.