Book Review: Seed to Seed

 

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

From the product description on Amazon:
Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds. 

Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author has grown seed crops of every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden. 

I cannot add much more of a description of this book than this.  I cannot imagine a Permaculturist, Homesteader, or Vegetable Gardener not wanting this book on their bookshelf.  The skill of saving seeds is becoming a lost art.  It is way too easy to go out and buy new seeds.  However, with the influx of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), the new strains of diseases, and the increased speed of spreading pests through worldwide agricultural trade, knowing how to save your own seeds may be a vital skill to have.  

Even if you don't need to save your own seeds, just having the skill will allow you the opportunity to develop your own varieties of vegetables.  Care to name a tomato after your daughter or a warty, winter squash after an in-law?  

This is an easy to use book full of great information.  Yet another book I highly recommend adding to your agricultural library.