a few months ago we harvested our kale seeds pods after they dried on their stems. today, i spent hours processing the seeds for planting later this year. it was fun (i love doing detailed work with my hands!), but it sure took a while!

kale seed pods stored in a paper bag to dry

kale seed pods stored in a paper bag to dry

our seed pods were stored in a paper bag and i went through the stems one at a time, breaking open each seed pod and pushing and/or scraping the seeds out into a bowl with the broken off pod pieces.

broken off and emptied seed pods after processing

broken off and emptied seed pods after processing

kale seeds, freed from their pods!

kale seeds, freed from their pods!

that was it, really. a simple process but one that takes time and energy. we filled about 1/4 or 1/3 of a sandwich-sized ziploc bag with seeds, plenty for planting this year and the next!

next year's kale crop inside!

next year’s kale crop inside!

we put the spent stems and the still-attached pods into a compost area; perhaps we’ll use them for mulching in the near future!

emptied kale stems and pods

emptied kale stems and pods

and since i found the opened pods to be beautiful, i decided to save them, though i’m not really sure what i’ll do with them yet! i’m thinking a craft of some kind, but who knows?!

empty pods--a future craft?!

empty pods–a future craft?!

.:.