Little Mustard Seeds

When a batch of dry weather hits and your mustard greens don't quite get the care they need, you may suddenly end up with a pot or a plot full of pretty yellow flowers and skinny green and red leaves.  At this point, you could cut or pull the plants and start over, or you could change direction and let your plants produce mustard seed.

Sit back and enjoy the flowers for several weeks.  Continue to water until seed pods form and mature.  Then, let the plans dry out a bit.  When the pods are just beginning to split open, it is time to harvest.  Carefully cut the stalks and lay them out on a kitchen towel.  The seeds will start to drop, so be careful to collect them in the towel.  If the stalks are not completely dry, let them sit for a few days before collecting the seed.

Cut the stalks well below the pods

When the pods are ready, they are dry and easily split open

Each pod has a clear membrane in the center, and
the seeds are lined up on each side of the membrane

To collect the seeds, break open each pod, and scrape the seeds off of the membrane with your thumb.  I find it is easiest to do this on a light colored dish towel and then transfer the seeds from the towel to an air-tight container.  As you patiently gather the seeds, you might find yourself pondering the words of Jesus found in Matthew 17:20... if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move.

Seed collecting

Pods and stems (compost or add to your freezer
container of vegetable scraps to cook into
vegetable stock -- another blog post)

It takes time to collect a small amount of seed
but this seed is great for pickling, roasting and grinding
or planting in the spring.

Submitted by Linda Muth.