seed saving

choosing what seeds to save for planting next year can be hard,
just think of plants like self programming nano technology (they likely are)

here is a wonderful study done by people in china (they don't care about our "laws" of biology)
http://www.new-holistic-medicine.com/eciwo-seed-selection.html
and it shows how the plants self program, or at least how to take advantage of it.

the neat thing about this study is that it matches what seed savers do already for best results
things like saving corn seed from the center of the cob only,
and saving beet seeds from the bottom and chard from the top...
so even if that study in china is wrong (it is very likely correct), it is at least a great way to remember what seeds to take and what not to.

remember that you want to save seeds from the plants that did the best,
if you eat the best plants and save the seeds from the junky plants, then every year you will get worse and worse plants,
and what defines the best plant ?
you define it, you get to choose how ever you want.
when you save seeds you are guiding what the plants will be like,
they will shift with or without you,
so choose wisely the direction you want them going.

for the other parts of seed saving there are a few things to keep in mind,

one is inbreeding depression, some plants have it, others do not,
so find out what population size you need in order not to have it happen.

the other big idea is how you process the seeds, there are only a few process methods, so just find out what one to apply to your plant.

most of it can be learned here
http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html
they know what they are talking about and it is easy to understand,
but if that is not enough, here are other people with good info, and by the time you read 3 of them you will get the idea of how it all works and why.
http://realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html

and maintaining purity is not that critical for a home gardener, 
mixing things often gets you better foods, so keep that in mind when reading this one.
http://www.nativeseeds.org/resources/seedsaving

also good info
http://survivingthemiddleclasscrash.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/how-to-harvest-process-and-store-vegetable-seeds/