We’re coasting out of summer. At first, it seemed like it would never arrive; now, it seems to be clawing at the rim, refusing to leave. Soon enough, the main gardening activity we’ll all be doing is poring over seed catalogs, dreaming of warm summer days and freshly-picked produce from the garden.

Right now is a great time to save the seeds of the best-producing of those veggies from this year’s garden. Why pay a seed company 65 cents a seed for a tomato seed when you can save for yourself and your gardening friends (and drop off a few in the Wimer Seed Library) with just a few minutes work. There is also the huge satisfaction of completing the circle from seed to harvest and back to seed again – SUSTAINABILITY! If providing an entire meal at this time of year with vegetables grown less than 100 feet from your back door, then how much more local it is to use vegetables where the seed never came from more than 100 feet away!

There is nearly a mystique about sustainability and propagating life, whether human, animal or plant. With plants, the work is almost unquestioningly left to ‘experts’, even though the processes are natural and have gone on since time immemorial. “Experts” may have their place, but when it comes to the incredible variety of vegetables available, backyard seed-savers also deserve due recognition.

Saving the seed from any heirloom vegetable is easy. If you have a favorite variety, or even just want to try seed saving for the fun of it, take a few minutes to learn about the process and give it a go.

Many of us learn about the basic principles of seed saving in grade school. Kids are usually taught how to collect seed by drying and picking apart enormous sunflowers, or by threshing pods filled with colorful beans. These are all wonderful, hands-on projects for children, which teach practical, sustainable and real-world lessons.