Introducing Light of the World Seed & Tea Co.

I'm proud to say we've planted our own seeds of change.

This morning, my children - inspired by our school and church's commitment to a community in Haiti - announced the formation of their new company: Light of the World Seeds and Tea Co. This local business is proud to offer hand-harvested seeds and loose-leaf peppermint tea as a benefit for the Haiti ministry.

I'm inspired. Inspired that they came up with this idea. Inspired that something as small as leftover seeds could make a difference for families miles and miles away. Even if it's a short-lived effort, I love the love for our fellow man that was behind it.

Right now Light of the World has the following seeds to share for a donation to the Hearts for Haiti Ministry: chive, dill, bok choy, asparagus beans and peas. Cantelope is coming soon (still drying).

If you're interested, please send me an email at goinggreenmama@gmail.com.

Saving bok choy seeds

Bok choy (or pak choi) is a great discovery for our Chinese food-loving family. The challenge is finding it just right. The stores offer huge, foot-long bok choys; the farmers markets on rare occasion offer small ones with more flavor, but they also aren't bred to sit on your refrigerator shelf.

So this year, we decided to try our hand at growing baby bok choy from seed from one of our heirloom catalogs. The problem? With our rainy spring, we started too late, and they bolted quickly.

It took a lot of research to find out anything about harvesting these seeds. If you're interested in saving seed, you have to wait until these little pods that form turn brown, then you can harvest them.

You'll want to split the pods in half - which you can easily do by hand - and both sides will likely have tiny balls of seeds covered with a small film. Reminds me of "ants on a log." Just peel the film back and dump into a container.

The seeds I've found are very prolific and easy to harvest, though it does take time. It's great if you love bok choy! In fact, once this heat wave passes, I'm excited about a fall planting.

Interested in trying bok choy? I have so many seeds that I'd love to share. Leave a comment if you are interested in some seeds!

Seed saving - now what?

The idea of saving seeds from this year's garden was a bit intriguing to me, I'll admit. But what to do with them once I had them, I was completely unsure.

Few garden catalogs in my home offered options, and they were in the $20 or more variety - far exceeding my budget for this little experiment. I asked online to my fall gardening group, and they offered varying advice, including double-bagging them in Ziploc bags and putting them in the freezer. (I suppose seeds in the "real" world can handle a freeze or two.)

And then I stumbled on an article on making seed packets, which is an incredibly easy thing to do. So my oldest entertained herself for a few hours designing custom seed packets for our squash and bean seeds. You can find a kid-friendly template here. Want a "grown-up" version? Download a template here.