From my garden to yours

I recently spent an uneasy night after watching the movie "Food, Inc." — a documentary about where our food comes from and how it's produced — only assuaged the next morning by immersing myself in a deep accumulation of seed catalogs. While most children envision gardening as simply the process of poking seeds into dirt, my contemplation of a seed is radically different. Seeds, as the purveyor of genetic information in a storable and transportable reproductive capsule, are the harbinger of human evolution and society. We need to respect a seed's existential being to a much greater extent in our modern world.

With the beginning of our year-round gardening season looming (I consider summer our off-season), now is the time to marshal our resources. Using the Internet to find a favorite seed variety is an especially productive way to conduct a timely search. Specialty, heirloom and exotic novelty seed promulgators are anxious to fill your seed order. All delivered to your door in half the time of just a few years ago.

Local sources are limited, but may have proprietary advantages. Saved seeds from last year's crop take the gardening experience to a personally productive peak. Selecting the best crop example from which to save seeds may eventually produce a regionally outstanding strain. By trading your own seed stock with other local gardeners, you join a rarified and exclusive microcosm of humans!

I find local retail availability rather disappointing as most seed racks are stocked with many seasonal or geographic misfits. A word of caution: when buying seeds off a rack at a garden center, make sure that rack was stored in the air conditioned section of the store and not irrigated along with the nursery plants. Also note, Florida seed vendors must clear their racks and begin with next year's inventory in August (sort of like car dealers).

Labeling and securing seeds is almost as important as obtaining them. Store seeds in a cool, dry, airtight container. In Florida, this translates into envelopes in a Tupperware in the refrigerator. I've enlisted so many different kinds of jars, film canisters and zip-lock sandwich bags that my family never knows what they'll find hidden behind last night's leftovers.

When planting time finally arrives, label information is forwarded to a stake at the head of the growing bed. Along with the genetic code stored in each seed, my data is a picayune but necessary step in the process of growing my food. Let's not take this simple, but complex stepping-stone of human existence for granted. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow."