seeds...processed and in production

some of the potato and carolina horse nettle fruits ( first photo ) have softened enough to begin the process of seed extraction...so i cut the horse nettle fruits ( second photo ) and the potato fruits ( third...they are cousins ( and both related to tomatoes ) and, while the reproductive process is similar, the structures of the fruits are very different...i squeezed the seeds out in to containers of water to rinse the mucilage from the seeds and rinsed them out in a strainer. placing the horse nettle seeds ( fourth ) and potato seeds ( fifth ) onto paper towels to dry...the potato seeds are significantly smaller than their cousins though, i believe, easily as numerous...wheat took my attention next...the ear of dwarf syrian wheat ( sixth ) is not that difficult to thresh by rolling the ear between thumbs and forefingers and using the thumbnails to flick the "berries" ( why grains of wheat should be called berries is beyond me...Jean should like the idea though ) out of the husks into a container...of course chaff and awns go in there too so you must winnow the grain..emmer wheat ( seventh ) is an ancient "unimproved" variety...old dna in my yard this past year..the ears are smaller and each grain ( eighth ) has a sharp awn and a thick coat of husks ( that only become more obdurate the longer they sit ) and basically each grain must be teased oput by hand...i know why they let oxen walk on the ears in the threshing room now...rye ( ninth ) is almost the polar opposite...lightly husked, you can actually see the grain sticking out in the photo if you look closely, simply rolling the ears between thumb and forefinger will dislodge the grain into your hand ( tenth )...there are still seeds in production out there as well...all those bees that swarmed the hawthorn tree in may ( eleventh ) did their part in creating a tree full of hawthorn berries ( twelfth and thirteenth ) that the birds will be utilizing this coming winter...the will be gone by february...spreading hawthorn seeds who knows where...bees are endangered pollinators...and birds are endangered sowers...we interfere with more than the lives of plants when we turn to agriculture...do some research...we are even more harmful than we know.