~Saving Zinnia Seeds!~

Beautiful Zinnias!

Do you have beautiful colorful Zinnias growing in your garden(s)?  Are you interested in enjoying the flowers again next summer?  You can next year without purchasing new seed packets or small plants from your garden center!  Save the seeds from this year's pretty flowers and plant the seeds in the Spring after any possibility of frost in your area is gone.  

Saving the seeds is not difficult!  It's at this time of year that I snip the colorful flowers from the plants growing outdoors and save them in cut down Kleenex boxes, so the flowers can dry out. 

Colorful Zinnia blossoms drying out!

After the flowers dry out, harvest the seeds by pulling them away from the stems of the plant.  The seeds are "tear" shaped.

Blue arrows point
to the dried out Zinnia seeds!

After harvesting the seeds place them in large labeled envelopes and seal.  You are on your way to enjoying beautiful colorful Zinnias again next year.

Enjoy!
Happy Gardening!

 

Freezing Green Pepper Strips

Green Peppers ready to prepare!
(File Photo)

These past two weeks I've been freezing Green Pepper strips.  The local Green Peppers are still available at roadside stands and also at Farmers' Markets.  In the colder months I defrost a package whenever needed and use them in many entrees.  They are very easy to freeze!    

Sauteed Green Pepper strips are a great addition to a Meatball Grinder!  Quite often a batch of my Meatballs are found in our freezer.  After preparing them I divide them into portion sizes to freeze.  Whenever we have a craving for Meatball Grinders it is easy to defrost the Meatballs for a quick dinner.  It is also very easy to take out a package of frozen Green Pepper strips to defrost/ saute and add to the tomato sauce that I will be using.  You may ask," What about the grinder rolls??"  Oh, I freeze grinder rolls, too.  Defrost them when needed!  It is one of the meals that we enjoy when I never snap a photo, because we are hungry and the aroma of the Meatball Grinders invites us to begin eating. 

Green Pepper strips also work well on homemade Pizza and in Chili!  Plan on purchasing a few Green Peppers this weekend to cut into strips and freeze.

Click here for my method for Freezing Green Peppers!

This winter just reach into your freezer to take out a portion size to use.  You will not need to purchase a Green Pepper in the grocery store either in the produce section or in the frozen food aisle.

Enjoy!
Yummy!