An important reason why we need to sprout wild seeds - the future of raw is doomed

[Charybdisjim]

Why should we try to change that inevitable extinction?

For the same reason all living things reproduce and for one more reason - because just maybe we can. If there is a lifeless place on Earth where life may take hold it it does; as spores, and seeds, and whatever else finds its way there they bring life and new generations with them wherever possible. Wherever nearly possible then then replication with variation and attrition will almost surely make it so eventually.

If we can find lifeless places beyond our Earth and Sun on which life may thrive but where now there is none, would it not be a good thing to help life find its way there? Maybe a barren world with conditions to support life but lacking the conditions to form on its own, would it not be good to help life to find its way there? Sending life from Earth there is far beyond us now, but not unimaginable. As hard as it would be it would be easier than sending humans though and for each world we hoped to one-day have humans on we might more easily seed primitive life on many times as many.

In that way we could act as seeds for Earth and life which grew here where nothing else can. While we might not be able to make the journey ourselves in any direct way, we could at least provide some possibility that the biodiversity that has developed here does not end here and thus serve it in some way more than anything else living now can. Otherwise we end without doing this and serve nothing beyond ourselves and even then serve ourselves poorly.

I'm not saying we're doing a very good job of living up to that potential mind you. Its something we can offer that nothing else living on Earth as yet can; it would be at once our redemption and Earth's salvation if we were to realize it. Were we as a species to end without living up to it we would be dead without redemption and could not be quite certain such a potential would arise again nor if it were whether it would likewise be squandered. Our failure in this would stand as the most lasting fact of our history. While we can still do something more - something worthwhile in a really big way - I don't think it would be right not to try.

[laughalways]

My comments aren't directed against you. I believe we should all speak our truth. We all have times where we feel negative and I do to. I just try to change my thoughts and words because I feel worse when I persist with negative thoughts and words. I wish you many blessings and goodness as it seems you have been going through a hard time lately based upon your posts. I hope circumstances get better for you.

[Living Food]

I'm thinking we could use this thread as a place to post results and thoughts about sprouting wild seeds; I will soon be sprouting wild plantain seed and eventually oxalis seed (if the darn seedpods ever mature), and will post my results here once I find out what works. I might find a way to post pictures, but probably not since I don't have a camera or the technical know-how to upload them. I already sprout wild dandelion and clover seeds, clover is a common sprout and there is a thread on sprouting dandelion seeds if anyone wants to know how.

Any other good wild seed ideas would be appreciated.

[MysticTree]

Wild onion and garlic would be nice. Also black mustard.

[Living Food]

Wild onion and garlic would be nice. Also black mustard.

Thank you, I will keep an eye out for them. Wild onion and garlic would be great because of how expensive the seeds are to buy.

I have yet to find any of the above in my area, but then I really need to learn how to recognize a wider variety of wild plants; that is one of my big goals for this year.

[MysticTree]

they are spring plants. Here we have been getting the wild garlic up earlier and earlier you can't miss it. The whole area smells of garlic. There is also three cornered leek which is nice too. These plants grow happily on cool slopes often with water running close by. We have something called the Bristol onion which is protected so I leave it be. All these plants seed profusely. Wild garlic grows on our river bank in small clumps. I only crop the leaves as the bulb is for next years leaves but cropping seeds would be good for sprouters. Wild garlic and three cornered leek flowers taste very nice too and there are always enough flowers for eating and seeding in a good sized area. We have wild garlic by the acre locally.

[Living Food]

Lucky! Garlic sprouts are one of the most powerful antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral foods there are.

Why don't you collect + sprout seeds from them? Even if you didn't want to eat them, at the very least they would fetch a nice price, garlic and leek seeds go up to $40/pound!

If I were you I'd be juicing loads of wild garlic leaves and wild garlic sprouts.

[MysticTree]

I don't collect the seeds because I don't really want to. The young leaves and flowers are nice and the seed pods before the seed coat forms also.

[MysticTree]

Wild garlic isn't the same as garlic as people see it from shops/markets. Google ramsons for a picture ... unless you know this already, so many think there are cloves like the garlic they are used to.

[Living Food]

I do already know that. I find it funny how many people seem to be so divorced from actual food (because it comes wrapped up all neatly at the supermarket), I read a true story in a book a long time ago where a person pulled a carrot out of the ground, prompting a nearby kid to say "eeewww, that touched dirt!". The gardener explained that carrots are root vegetables, then asked the kid "Can you think of any other root vegetables?". After thinking for a while, he replied with "Spaghetti?" LOL.

[MysticTree]

I do already know that. I find it funny how many people seem to be so divorced from actual food (because it comes wrapped up all neatly at the supermarket), I read a true story in a book a long time ago where a person pulled a carrot out of the ground, prompting a nearby kid to say "eeewww, that touched dirt!". The gardener explained that carrots are root vegetables, then asked the kid "Can you think of any other root vegetables?". After thinking for a while, he replied with "Spaghetti?" LOL.

lol. I can believe it. I have worked with people who won't accept any produce from the garden because it's not clean. I do try to explain that shop bought veg doesn't grow fully formed in the packing plant but they just don't get it. They also think that meat from shops isn't killed. Farm fresh meat is but not shop meat. You can't argue with that knowledge base. I think (even coming from a semi farming background) that if the vegan/vegetarian lobby wanted to stop people drinking milk they don't need to show calves being taken from their mothers and being raised for beef. Just take children to a dairy farm to observe milking. All animal welfare aside, the majority of children would never drink milk again!

[delmar]

Why should we try to change that inevitable extinction?

guess your answer to that question depends on whether you have hope for the future or not. I choose hope.

[MysticTree]

I don't see why life = hope. It just is. Just as death just is.

[delmar]

I'm thinking we could use this thread as a place to post results and thoughts about sprouting wild seeds; I will soon be sprouting wild plantain seed and eventually oxalis seed (if the darn seedpods ever mature), and will post my results here once I find out what works. I might find a way to post pictures, but probably not since I don't have a camera or the technical know-how to upload them. I already sprout wild dandelion and clover seeds, clover is a common sprout and there is a thread on sprouting dandelion seeds if anyone wants to know how.

Any other good wild seed ideas would be appreciated.

I missed the opportunity to save a great deal of plantain seeds this summer during the drought, but it look like I will have another chance before the summer is over, because after the rains came and things greened up again the plantain come on with a vengeance! The thing I am watching more closely right now is lambsquarter. The really big plants are going to seed right now and i think my only limitation to how much seed I can save is how long it stays on the plant, once it is ready, before it falls off!

[delmar]

I don't see why life = hope. It just is. Just as death just is.

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