seeds

autumn is almost here and i have begun to collect seed from around the yard to work with next season...i started out with twenty-five baart wheat seeds i planted after the last frost date..i brought fifteen seed heads in last weekend and today i threshed and winnowed them and increased my seed stock to one hundred and twenty-two which means they go from a container to a part of a bed next spring for another seed crop...also last weekend i brought in the grapes from the catalpa and fir trees and rendered juice..before i cooked the grapes down i retrieved thirty seeds from the pot and today i began stratifying them...i took a container and put some moistened sphagnum moss in it...dropped in the seed...covered with more damp moss ( i used distilled water ) and put them in the vegetable crisper until march or so when i will try to germinate some to plant out by the back fence...finally the ramp seeds are beginning to turn black and hard which is what they do when they are mature...last year something browsed my ramps seeds defeating the prospect of ramps from seed...so this year i have been checking every day and bringing the mature seed in...sixteen so far...these need a cycle of heat ( which they have gotten ) and a cycle of cold ( hopefully forthcoming...but i was panting daffodil bulbs last december ) to break dormancy so i will be putting them out in the ramp bed and, if there are enough that i can gather, out under the locust trees as well...aiming to be more self sustaining in at least a few items here to add to spuds and jerusalem artichokes...we'll see how it works out.