• We encourage our customers to start saving seeds of their favorite vegetables and plant them in the next few years. It is relatively easy to learn about those veggies and follow some simple rules on saving seeds. We suggest the following books:
  
  The New Seed-Starter's Handbook by Nancy Bubel
  
  Seed to Seed by Susan Ashworth
  
  Many thanks from us at Shambani!
  

• You can save money; seeds can be quite pricey.
• You can help maintain and generate genetic diversity within food crops.  Higher genetic diversity equals higher food security for all humans and the preservation of cultural heritages.

It is possible to select specific favorable traits like earliness, disease resistance, high yields, flavor, flower color and others.  By saving seed from carefully chosen plants, you can develop plant strains adapted ideally to your garden's unique conditions.

• Use only seed from open-pollinated plants.  Cultivars designated "heirloom" were developed before 1940 and are necessarily open-pollinated, but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirlooms.  Do not save seed from hybrids; you never know what you'll get.
• Some plants are self pollinating; cultivars are unlikely to cross pollinate.  Some include:  Tomatoes, lettuce, peas, beans, eggplant, okra, peppers, peanuts, potato, and salsify.

• Other plants require great separation if multiple cultivars are to be prevented from cross-pollinating.  Some include:  Corn, squashes, and the cabbage family. 
• Check out Seed Sowing and Saving by Carole B. Turner and the website www.seedsavers.org for more in-depth information regarding this ancient and rewarding practice.