Backyard Gardener

Story and Photos By Kat Long/Contributing Writer

Yes! It is my favorite time of the year. Let me count the ways. Halloween is the daughter’s birthday so decorating, costumes and all the fall things get me in the feels. And seed saving! We definitely need to talk about that. Oddly, the two things, Halloween decor and seed saving, can go hand and hand. Here’s how.

We talked about yard/garden clean up in September, but October is why you leave stalks, stems and dying flowers in the yard. Let’s begin with Halloween decorations. Leftover sunflower stalks and some taller leafless shrubs are all ready for some of that wonderful spider stingy décor. Or you can hang spiders, webbing and so many other Halloween decorations from the dying plants. If Halloween isn’t your thing, I am sorry. It is so much fun for kids and adults to dress up as something else. Me. I’m the adult.

Decorating your yard is also a great way to get geared up for Christmas decorations. Yes, I said Christmas. I have friends that will bypass all the Halloween and Fall and go straight for Christmas decor. No judgment. I just love all the decorations.

Now, on to the seed saving. Saving seeds is not hard. You probably have all the materials you need laying around the house. Some envelopes, a couple of white pieces of paper to break the seed heads on and be able to see the seeds when they drop and a sharpie to mark the envelopes. Lock the dog up and put the cats in another room, as I have found all the indoor animals like to “help” when doing something that takes some concentration and has a lot of moving parts. Here is my routine: Hobby Lobby paper they use to wrap breakable stuff or a couple of big sheets of printing paper on the table. You can use white cardboard or if you have a white table, that will work too. I just like to be able to pick the seeds up in the paper. Now, go outside and gather one or several seed heads. If you are a newbie at this, take a picture of the seed head and remaining flowers/plants before you pick it. Then label it in your phone or computer. I did that the first few years I saved seeds. It just helped me remember what the flowers looked like.

Take the seed head(s) inside and shatter the seed head over the paper or table. Basically, pull the seed head apart with your hands. There will be seeds and there will be flower detritus. Here’s where the paper comes in handy. Shake the paper and the seeds will separate from the leftover flower bits. Identify your seeds and then just hunt for them. You don’t have to just have seeds in your packet, but the less flower bits you have, the healthier and drier your seeds will stay for a longer period of time. After you sort out your seeds, then label your envelopes. Don’t mark up envelopes until you have sorted out your seeds. One word: grasshoppers.

Insert rant: I have never in my 12 years of growing things in the yard had SO MANY GRASSHOPPERS! And me without any chickens to eat the darn things. They have eaten almost all my hyssop and sage seed and have chewed up all my mint. And if you know me, that is a lot of mint. Ugh!

Leaving rant. I still have plenty of seeds, just not a lot of hyssop or sage. And no mojitos for the last month or so. I am hoping the mint will recover before winter, but we shall see. I’ll give you an update next month.

Now, back to the seeds. I mark my envelopes with the year, where in the yard I took the seed and the name of the plant. You can also print up some of those pictures you took and affix them to the envelope. It is a nice touch when you give away seeds. Seal the envelope and find a box that holds the envelopes nicely. With so many Amazon boxes laying around, you should be able to find one that will work. Shake out your paper and repeat the process. I find seed saving to be both relaxing and exciting at the same time.

The seeds that will work with this envelope process the best are “dry seeds” such as herbs, flowers, lettuces and greens. Produce seeds are a little more complicated. Tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins need to be soaked to get all the fibers off of them. Tomato seed do best if put into cold storage for awhile (two weeks to a few months); cucumbers and pumpkins, after drying (no moisture at all), can be stored in glass containers in a dark place until spring planting. I mostly stick with the dry seeds, as they are easier and store well. And smell wonderful. I forgot how much the cats love it when I seed save; especially the catnip and bee balm.

Have a wonderful October, decorate for Fall and/or Halloween and save some seeds. The April Seed Swap is a great time to exchange seeds with other gardeners. We can talk more about tomatoes and cucumber seeds then and of course, Happy Gardening.

Robert & Tricia

Story by Chelsea McConnell/Staff Writer

Each Monday through Thursday evening, Board Members and volunteers host the Friendship Feast out of First Christian Church in downtown Ponca City. Over the years this group has been made up of anywhere from 75-250 volunteers representing approximately 22 churches, civic organizations and school groups in our area. Volunteers serve in roles as cooks, servers and greeters. Despite hardships like the COVID-19 pandemic, they have persevered in feeding friends in need in our community. It all began one fate-filled Sunday in 1989. Then Pastor of First Christian Church Kip Wolf delivered what must have been an incredibly inspiring sermon around the idea of feeding the hungry and doing things to help others in your community. So inspirational was his sermon that a group of women created a steering committee and began researching ways they could help feed the hungry in our community. The group visited other communities where similar things were being done, and on Jan. 2, 1990, the Friendship Feast began. Initially the Feast hosted free dinners for the community on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but they grew quickly. Within one month they were serving hot meals four nights per week. By the end of 2021, the Feast will have provided 520,000 meals to members of our community spanning the last 31 years. Prior to COVID-19, volunteers would open the doors to First Christian Church at 5:15 p.m., having already spent several hours preparing the meal. After sign-in, guests were served around 5:30 p.m. At 5:45 p.m. they allocated time for announcements

It is said a “friend” is someone you can call on in times of need. If this is true, the staff and volunteers involved in making our local Friendship Feast a success four nights a week for the past 30 years are certainly worthy of the moniker “friend.” and a devotion. Much like a large family or a Sunday School class, friends sometimes shared concerns or hardships for the group to pray over. Next, second helpings and desserts were served. The doors closed at 6:15 p.m. and volunteers would begin cleanup at that time. As has been the case with most groups and organizations, COVID-19 forced the Feast Board to make some changes to their usual routine. Fortunately, the group was only down for six weeks before they started preparing sandwiches for friends to pick up at the door. Friendship Feast Board Chair Robert Corbin shares more about 2020. “We started at the end of April of 2020 serving again. So we’re serving 90 people a night now. It kind of goes up and down during the month, but we’re almost back to pre-COVID-19 levels in terms of the number of people that we can feed or that we do feed.” Providing a healthy, balanced meal is important to Feast Board members and volunteers, so the sandwiches quickly morphed back into full, hot meals packaged in to-go containers, including dessert and a bottle of water. The volunteers take great care in packaging See FRIENDSHIP Continued on page 75

Beverly Roedel