ALso don’t forget to look for my new gardening book which is coming out this spring.

Step1 Select plants that you wish to save early in the season. Look for plants with healthy growth habits, abundant flowers or exceptional flavor.
Step2
Allow some faded flowers to remain on the plant toward the end of the growing season. The end of the bloom cycle is triggered by shorter daylight hours. Seeds will begin to form as flower production comes to an end.
Step3
Harvest seeds when the seed heads are dry to the touch and brown. Gather seed pods by hand or with clippers if stems are tough.
Step4
Allow vegetables to over-ripen on the plant before harvesting the seeds. Vegetable seeds are ready to harvest when the fruit is easy to pull off the plant. Beans should be dry and rattle inside their seed casings. Corn should ripen and dry on the stalk. Tomato seeds can be squeezed out of very ripe fruit and dried on paper towels in the sun.
Step5
After harvesting, place seeds on top of a water heater to dry for up to one week. Allow to dry thoroughly before storing.
Step6
Store seeds in their own protective pods or shake them free and store loose in paper envelopes. Harvested seeds should be kept in paper, never plastic, containers. Plastic may cause delicate seeds to rot.
Step7
Label each seed envelope with the variety and date harvested. Use a waterproof pen to avoid disappointment and confusion later on.
Step8
Place the labeled envelopes inside an air-tight container, such as a mason jar, and store in a cool, dry location until the next planting season. A desiccant made of 1 tablespoon powdered milk wrapped in a paper towel and placed inside the container will help absorb moisture.

Choose some vegetables that are easy to grow, store well and that you like to eat. Some suggestions are varieties of dried bean, green bean, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, and carrots. You could also try your hand at tomatoes, although you will need to learn how to can them. Dried beans are about the easiest to store. In most cases, you can leave them dry right on the plant and then harvest them at the end of the season. Onions are easy too. Green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and sugar snap peas can be blanched and frozen in freezer bags. Carrots can stay in the ground until early winter. Freezing vegetables is not the ideal way of storing food due to the reliance of a powered (electric or gas) freezer, but it’s an easy way to get started.

.

One of the first steps that you can take to become self-sufficient is to start a vegetable garden. In doing so, you will not only practice self-sufficiency, but you will also eat healthier. The key is to start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself by planting a huge garden. There’s a learning curve here, so don’t try to do everything in one year. Take your time with it and get a good understanding of what it takes to grow a vegetable garden.

I would also like to mention, that my gardening book will be published early in the spring of this year.