Poppy Seeds (Patreon)

I never managed to get a picture that captured the sheer majesty of my front yard poppies.

They sprang up as a dense red wall and I absolutely never got tired of just gazing at them every time I walked to or from the house. Matt would regularly have to hustle me along because I was dawdling on my way to the car. But, like, HOW CAN YOU NOT STOP IN YOUR TRACKS WHEN FACED WITH A CURTAIN OF VIBRANT RED POPPIES? 

Alas, June once again rolled into August and, just like last summer, the life span of my flowers came to an end. 

Which means it was time for PHASE TWO.

Over several days, I picked away at the seed pod heads, dropping them into a paper bag. I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that you could just shake 'em up real good in the bag and then simply pour the seeds out at your leisure. 

It worked, but I suspected there were still more seeds still locked inside their pods and I'll be goddamned if I'm going to lose out on a single speck-sized poppy seed that is basically indistinguishable from dirt. 

I spent an embarrassingly long time cutting one pod at a time in half with my garden sheers and then bouncing a handful of them around in my flour sifter until it stopped raining little black specks into my collection bowl before I realized... industrial seed collector machines (that's a thing, right?) probably just smash them all at the same time and sort afterwards. 

So! I got a brick. 

And I filled up a former spice jar and a half with poppy seeds for next year. 

I'll see you fuckers in summer 2023.