The time of year is upon us here in the northern hemisphere. Seed harvesting time! This is when gardeners are frantically harvesting their bounty for preserving as well as beginning the seed saving tradition.

Over the last few years, as my gardening, homesteading and self-sufficiency goals have grown, I had been purchasing seeds to get my gardens going. But now, I have such a variety of seeds that I have found my favorites and am in the process of building my stock of seeds.

Most of the seeds I harvest from my existing gardens now.

This is the book recommended by Living Traditions Homestead on YouTube where I learned about harvesting eggplant seeds the easy way; and did a post about the process last week.

One thing I can say for sure, not all seeds are harvested the same way.

This book offers up some good tips when harvesting seeds. Which I am grateful for.

There are many herbs, flowers and plants that have tiny seeds (ie. feverfew) and if I didn't research where to find them, would I know?

Sure I have the internet (and one of my favorite gardening websites Gardening Know How, but sometimes it's best to have a book in hand when needing to read and learn about plants and other garden items.

There are specific times when it's best to harvest certain seeds too.

• For example- when harvesting echinacea/cone flower seeds the "seed heads" need to be harvested during autumn of the second year (I didn't know the second year was the best time)