Moon Calendar November-December 2026
Prepare to save seed for resilience
By Monique Macfarlane
While we are still planting seed, and looking forward to the harvest, we are also coming into the easiest time of year to save seed.
There is some preparation to ensure you are saving the best seeds. Tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, are all easy seeds to save, and also flowers such as calendula, dahlia, chamomile, cornflower, marigold, sunflower.
Throughout the growing season, I tie pieces of string to the plants that are showing particular expressions โ first to set fruit, first to ripen, best tasting, good production, healthiest plants. Tying identifying markers to the plants ensures I am saving the best traits and lineage for the future.
Saving seed โ and sharing it locally โ is one of the greatest acts we can participate in as humans. The resilience of locally grown crops that have been cared for in your unique environments are astounding if you have only ever brought in seeds from seed merchants! I find their germination time so incredibly quick, the health of the plants so superior, and the growing seasons so much more easeful.
Make sure you are growing heritage, open pollinated varieties, so that they grow true to form in the coming seasons, and are fertile. Ensure the seed is fully mature before harvesting, and completely dry before storing. If you are not sure what โmatureโ looks like or when it is within the season, be sure to take seeds at different times if you are starting out, and take notes of when exactly (so what the fruit looked like). The optimal time to harvest the seeds for saving may surprise you! This also builds resilience, being in active conversation with your gardens, and noticing the tohu (signs).
Enjoy the process, enjoy the bounty. Share those seeds freely and widely! Let us all grow resilient, together.!
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Monique Macfarlane is a holistic food systems facilitator, teaching biodynamics, planting by the moon, no-dig food growing and self-sufficiency. See www.natural-wisdom.net
Monique co-creates with organic, biodynamic, regenerative, no-till, and natural principles on eight hectares in Waihi that includes a small market garden, orchard, pastoral grazing, chickens and agroforestry.
Images: Arina-Ulyasheva, VeraPetruk, Katie Reed
