Well, they are seeds, right?
Recently, I passed through a town with a great Mexican Grocery Store. Among other wonderful things, they had some foods that I had always wanted to grow, but just had never gotten any seeds for. For the video folks, you can watch it here:
REALLY - GARDEN SEEDS FROM THE GROCERY STORE?
I don't know if you've even eaten any dishes that feature the large kernel corn that is common in parts of Mexico, but I love the taste, and size, of them. So far, I haven't purchased any from a garden center though, yet, here I was standing in front of all sorts of them at the Mexican Grocery Store.
I also noticed a huge bin of frijoles, which got me thinking even more. And then, I saw something even more peculiar.
On the left you see some dried, salted, pumpkin seeds, and on the right, something else. These were not salted, and not roasted. In fact, they even still had some of the green "slime" on them from the inside of whatever "pumpkin" they came out of. Some may thing that this is gross, but it excited me.
In my hand are the ones that I am speaking of. The packaging in the background on the right shows the ingredients for the other seeds; pumpkin seeds and salt. I figured that any salted or roasted seeds would no longer sprout, but these unsalted ones, complete with dried green slime, got my hopes up. Much like the dried goji berries from China which are just quickly dried in the sun without being exposed to excessive heat, I figured that these would sprout.
LET'S TEACH AND TEST
Since I have four older @little-peppers, and I had four types of seeds that I wanted to test out, I decided to use this as an educational opportunity.
They were each assigned their own seeds, and got to wet some paper towel for a germination test. They were supposed to count out ten, but the two year old just kept on going.
They each placed their seeds on their own wet paper towel, and then we rolled them up to see if they would germinate. This is a simple way to test if any seeds you have will work for planting. By choosing ten seeds of each variety, you can even get a rough estimate of what percentage are still good. If five of the ten sprout, then you have a 50% germination rate.
Once the moist paper towels full of seeds were rolled up, we placed them inside a plastic bag so that they would retain the moisture and saturate the seeds. Then, we had to wait a few days.
GERMINATION TEST RESULTS
A few days later, we unwrapped our experiments. Just as I had suspected, each and every kind of seed was still able to be planted. Check out how well these began to grow!
Interestingly enough, almost 100% of all the seeds sprouted! This was exciting news. Even more interesting was the cost of the seeds, since I bought about $1.00 USD of each. I literally had hundreds of the large white corn, the large pink corn, and the beans. I had slightly less of the pumpkin seeds, but we were eating them too!
If you think about that, I just bought multiple seeds for a penny! If these were packaged for gardening I would have never got them so cheap. We still need to see if they not only sprout but produce fruit, but I'll have to wait for next year to do that.
I'll certainly try growing these next year and see how they produce, but I think that it may work out very well. It's interesting how people don't really think about the fact that the seeds we eat could also be the seeds that we plant and grow. As long as they are not roasted, salted, or other things that "kill" them, we can choose to either eat or plant such seeds.
Not only was it a good chance for me to get some new varieties of seeds that I wanted to try, I got them very cheap. Also, the @little-peppers got to learn some more about a lot of things, even finances and math. I'm interesting in seeing exactly what kind of "pumpkin" those pumpkin seeds will grow too, because they look quite a bit different from the ones I normally grow. I'll let "Red-Pepper" prove it to you today!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-grocery-store-seeds-sprouting
Until next time…
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com
What an awesome idea. Not only do the young ones learn about seeds and germination, but also about patience. Sprouting takes a few days. Please save some seeds for me. I will plant them here in Wisconsin next year. We love you.
Thanks Dad! We love you guys and miss you!
They look really interessting
this is great. We are going to grow our own pumpkins this year from seeds from the pumpkins we bought for Halloween. That reminds me I need to check when they need planting! It will be a few months yet as we have started getting out first wi yer frosts!
Great post @papa-pepper , and an awesome learning experience for your @little-peppers ! Cant wait to see what those pumpkins are going to look like either , good luck with your experiment and thanks for sharing ! Upped and resteemed 💕👍✌
@papa-pepper Perfect Heirloom No GMO there.....Proof of Fruit Next Year
We have done this many times with beans and seeds from the fruit we buy from the store, and you're correct....cheap. Great blog.
Nice experiment
ha! I've also tried this with many fruit that I buy. And depending on what I buy, and where it came fromt, very few will actually germinate! Good to see what you have is at least real seeds! Now im wondering what the hell we're really eating :(
No kidding!
where ELSE do you get seeds?
don't they still have a gardening section in grocery stores?
H.E.B does
Ah HEB, Texas my friend! That brings back memories!
pretty awesome store.
it's more like an old time General Store than a grocery store.
you can get damn near as much stuff there as you can at walmart
(not really..but you get the idea)
I get that, but I meant FOOD SECTION not garden section. You avoid the markup that way and get some other varieties.
Nice post
One little seed in the hands of a child teaches them so much more than folks know, it shows food and evolution but lets them experience the wonders of God providing for the needs of us all.
No kidding! Makes me wish that more people were connected to the real world and His creation.
NOW Whole Family is engaged... Good...Soon you have a kitchen garden ....Plantation, gardening is a good activity that makes your family in both ways HEALTHY.... Firstly you get pure food and secondly whole process itself is a healthy activity...Good LUCK For Your Little Kitchen Garden
)
(
Do you have to worry about seeds at the grocery store being it then could be altered in some way?
Of course that is always a risk, but certain ones are less likely to be modified.
Thanks papa always been curious, do you know of any really good places to get seeds to start out?
http://www.rareseeds.com/
I HIGHLY recommend Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Company in Mansfield, MO.
Integrated thinking in action. Sometimes the most unexpected things will turn into new plants when given the correct attention. ☺
work this good friend, happy always for you.
it's all akak buddy yes?
Thank you!
you're welcome, thanks for all my friends.
Great idea!
For awhile I was making sprouts on the counter with one of those sprout making kits you often see at health food stores. One of the popular sprouts was mung beans which were sold in about half pound bags as sprouting seeds for about $5.
A while later I saw 2 kg bags (about 8x as much) of mung beans in the ethnic section of a large supermarket for about $5. I tried spouting them and sure enough they worked fine.
Yup! Avoid the markup and get the benefits! Way to go!
I was at the grocery store today and just happened to walk by the beans... I was a bit off on the price but that is inflation for you. The mung beans are now $6:50 for 1.8kg instead of 2kg. Apparently beans are not immune to the shrinking package phenomena. Still a good price on sprouting beans though.
Wow! 100% Germination!?
I don't think I have ever seen those kinds of results... Nor have I seen that kind of price.
You for sure are a thrifty one! Tis a good thing for the kidos to learn those kinds of things.
I also saw that you bought these at the grocery store?! You must have a heck of a grocery store because most of the seeds I get from the store never sprout... :(
~ @Timbo
Mexican Grocery Store! I think that had something to do with it.
Ahhh, those are the best places to go! Best Tacos and best goods if you know where to go for them. There are a lot of those types of places around here in Southern California haha!
Wow .. this is very interesting. Apparently they can still grow. And today I get a new knowledge how to make sprouts from all grains. I want to see the pumpkin seeds will grow and bear fruit. Maybe it will come out a different fruit. Thank you so much for everything @papa-pepper. 🌱
hey @papa-pepper that's a perfect heirloom no GMO there next year proof of fruit and I appreciate it 👌
Excellent project, it made me think about the many things that we stop being conscious when we are so used to them from small, for example, in my family when we buy a bag of salted pumpkin seeds we only eat them as a snack without thinking about planting them ( I know that as you said these ones that are salty do not serve to plant them, but I want to refer in general to all of them ), enjoy reading all of them!!
Thank you very much for sharing it ;)
Greetings!!
They may still work, but often the more that we "process" or do things to the seeds, the less likely they are to sprout.
Heirloom in more ways than one. Great job teaching the little peppers a life skill they won't learn in a classroom.
At least you know that the original plant was not genetically grown. We have some trouble with that here in South Africa.. Looking good there buddy
Another good find, it will be interesting to see next year how the seeds grow and what different types of crops they will produce for you.
Good lesson for the little-peppers as well.
I do that with just about all beans and cover crops and such. I usually buy them organic so I know they are not GMO
I remember doing stuff like this at home as a kid with my Mom & Dad! Fun times! Great article!
Gosh, I wish I had room to get back to growing.
Unfortunately not right now at the bachelor arms apartments.
very few will actually germinate! Good to see what you have is at least real seeds.seeds at the grocery store being it then could be altered in some way?
Great find nice work. Hope you yield a cracking crop!
This post has been ranked within the top 25 most undervalued posts in the first half of Nov 26. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $29.72 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Nov 26 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Amazing doing this with kids!!! I love gardening and for me my passion started in school as well. I´m happy to see that you introduce this to kids as a fun and interesting wonder of this world.
There could be a good #steemiteducation post in here.
Nice. I tried growing some apple seeds from my dad's tree, but it didn't work.
My house is the place plants go to die ;-( i'd love to be growing things like you and the @little-peppers.
But that is just no my skill.
How long until you find out what the pumpkins seeds turn into?
My dad use to test the oats and corn seeds we grew on the farm the same way. Ours were taken from the corn crib and the oats shed. So it was very interesting for me to see someone doing the same thing all these years later.
I often shop for seeds in the grocery stores or markets. When I see some unusual fruit or veggie I save the seeds and plant them. I have had better luck with these seeds germinating than with packaged seeds I bought. At least I know the seeds are fresh.
nice post, thank you
https://steemit.com/pizza/@kickassfacts/30-kickass-and-amazing-facts-about-pizza
I tried this last year using blue organic corn. I germination was less than half and the plants never reached mature heights and didn't produce any yield. I hope your experience is different, I liked your method for testing!
Bro, thats killer cool. Looks like we found a cost effective way to grow some of the staples l!