Starting Party!

Here are some ladies in Lisa's incredible garden.

This is where the goodies and socializing happened!

Lisa made these cute cupcakes with candy veggies on them, sticking with the theme of the party!

Filling our egg cartons with soil-less seed starter.

Adding seeds!

This is my finished product! I planted cilantro, basil, carrots, cucumber, dill, cantaloupe, and tomato.

I also grabbed a few onion starters! They smell incredible. So sweet and potent.

Everybody left the party excited about their new seedlings!
Here are some great things Lisa taught us about using gardening as a method of food storage:

• Seeds are way more economical than buying produce at the store. Seeds yield much more weight in produce. If you buy heirloom seeds, that means they are not genetically altered. If you grow produce from heirloom seeds, you will be able to plant what you harvest, and yield more produce next year. Many other seeds are altered to only grow one generation. This way, farmers have to buy more seeds.
• Starting seedlings indoors is easy. Most plants will grow better outside, in mildly warm weather, indirect sunlight, and plenty (but not too much water). Warmth is more important than light - but light is important too.
• Use a soil-free seed starting mix when starting seeds. Soil often has diseases or weed seeds in it. 
• Packages you buy in little paper envelopes are acceptable food storage, but each year you store them, you lose yield. They will realistically last for only 2-4 years. The only way to get longer life for your seeds is to buy heirloom, and have them sealed from air access.