Preparing for Seed Saving at Twin Oaks Seed Farm

Reader Contribution by Edmund Frost
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I was planting gourd seeds straight into the sandy brown dirt where I just disked the clover. I want to get these gourds in early and now is just the time. I knew I was pushing it — there were raindrops earlier when I was racing around on the tractor. That stopped, but then there were dark clouds and strong wind in the treetops to the southwest. Even without the stormclouds, dark was coming soon. This all would be fine, except that I came out on the big tractor, and the fields are a few miles from home.

The wind blew the treetops again and I finally got it — time to stop, now. I put the seeds back in the bag and ran to the red Super C tractor, climbing up and headingeast, slowing down for the big bump in between the fields. I parked in its shed, got on the John Deere (attached to the manure spreader) and took off again around the pond, through the woods and onto East Old Mountain Road, switching into 8th gear as big raindrops started to hit my face and shoulders and the hood of the tractor. There is a kind of tree around here that’s covered in fragrant white cone-shaped clusters of flowers. Some kind of cherry relative, I think. There were so many more than I’d ever noticed before, and as the rain fell and the tractor roared, the storm wind was filling the night air with petals, pollen and sweet flower smells. The storm mostly missed us. I had the manure spreader sprayed out and the big tractor put away at exactly dark.

Growing for Seed

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