Experimenting with seeds and roots

A couple of weeks ago I found a great sale on strawberries.  I put several quarts in the freezer and dehydrated several quarts.

These strawberries were dehydrated in my Excalibur at 135 degrees for 13 hours.  When I took the trays out to put them into jars,  I noticed a whole bunch of dried seed on the table where I had placed the trays.   I decided to experiment.  

I dampened a paper towel, raked the seeds from the table onto the towel, folded it up, placed it in a closed Ziploc bag and put them on top of the refrigerator. 

I didn't really expect anything as I thought 135 degrees would kill a seed but look at this.  They are very hard to see but I have about 6 or 7 teeny, tiny strawberry plants.  I'm going to place the entire paper towel on the top of a pot with potting soil, keep it damp and see what happens next.

My next experiment was with some popcorn that was vacuumed packed with my Food Saver in 2008.  I had originally purchased the popcorn in a huge bag from Sam's Club to put away for snacks and I also read it makes great corn meal when ground.

I did the same thing with 10 kernerls of corn as I did with the strawberry seed.  Today is the 4th day and 2 have sprouted so far.  One rolled under the refrigerator so I have 9 experimental seeds now.  I don't know if the one I dropped sprouted.  

 Cute little future popcorn from 5 year old seed!

This past fall we bought peanut hay for our goats.  Some of the bales still had peanuts still clinging so I saved a ziplock bag of them.  This morning I shelled them and got about 8 ounces of seed.  I'll get these planted in the garden today if possible and see what happens. 

My other experiment was with onions.  I am like mmpaints at Self Sustained Living..... Why didn't I think of this?  I've tossed roots of things like onions, celery, carrots and such in the compost pile.  At times if they are on the outer edge they will begin to grow.  I usually turn them back under or pull them up for the goats and chickens.  I never thought about letting them grow so now I am reclaiming my onions and as soon as I buy more celery...I will be using this method as well.

When you cut the root area off of an onion.  Make a spot in your garden and gently press it into the soil.

Cover with soil

I am putting my onion roots in my back to Eden garden so I pulled wood chips over the top.  I'll post on this again when I see some action going on.  You can read the entire process at Self Sustained Living.

Are you reclaiming any of your food?  Experiment now and see what works for you.  You may need it later!