(Grin.) That’s definitely an example of something I’m gonna do a bit of reorganization on when the box gets to me. If it’s possible to crack open all the seed cases and remove those and just include the seeds, I’ll do that in order to save space. Then I’ll move them into a smaller bag and write a label saying that they’re licorice seeds (and probably include a note indicating that the seed pods are burrs, in case that matters to anybody — it would sure matter to me!).
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My hubby loves licorice, so I’m gonna plant some. Shall I rebag some to put back in the box?
Licorice. I put it in. Some shelled seeds, some seed pods. They don’t stick to anything, they’re more stiff and fuzzy (although shelling them is a pain).
Only if you want to. I don’t plan to plant any — ’cause I have a thing against burrs 
— so if you want to take it all, it won’t make any difference to me! 
Especially since I personally prefer the flavor of both anise and sweet cicely to licorice, anyway.
I grabbed some star anise and sweet cicily! They are in my to-plant bin atm 
As a tightwad, I’m always looking at how to spend less, and I figured out that herbs and fruit might be my big money savers. Esp as I suspect having enough tomatoes to keep us is A LOT of jars. I use 1 or 2 cans a week.
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Yes, definitely focusing on foods that will save you as much money as possible is a good idea. That’s a great choice of top priority!
My top priority is to be able to grow all of our own food in an emergency, which requires either optimizing for total calories grown or an appropriate balance of macronutrients, preferably both. I lean slightly more towards the latter than the former, but I think a lot about the former, too.
Just in case this is a fun thing for anyone to think about, here are a few other great choices of top priority I can think of:
- Largest number of different species (or plant families), in order to diversify your diet more.
- Growing all the stuff that is most often coated in pesticides or herbicides when bought at the grocery store, in order to reduce the presence of those in your diet as much as possible.
- Whatever is easiest for you to grow.
- Whatever you most like to eat.
- Whatever is the most fun to grow.
And there are probably dozens more great top priorities I’m not even thinking about!
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Huh! Well, I just checked on my kohlrabi/brussels sprouts cross patch a few days ago, and it looks like I erred! There aren’t three plants there . . . there is ONE plant there, which survived after flowering last year and has produced three enormous branches that have grown sideways to spread out and then upwards, creating an illusion of three different plants.
Which means it’s perennial, because it flowered and made seeds last year. And now it’s made three new appears-to-be-entire-plants stalks off of very thick, woody branches. All of which have very thick bases, just like kohlrabi. Which means all the others in the same patch must have died off, perhaps because we had a disturbingly dry winter this year, which means this one is a very-tough-cookie survivor.
You’d better believe I’m gonna be saving those seeds when it makes them. 
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box is on its way to Emily!
Wonderful! 
I’m excited to receive it!
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Hi, guys! The box arrived at my house last night, and I’m starting to go through it.
@Naomiupland and @Taja, I see what you guys meant about grocery store sourced seeds. As a percentage of total varieties in the box, it was only something like 10%, but as a percentage of total volume and weight, they made up about half. That isn’t a problem, per se, as long as people want those seeds and are taking them out as fast as they’re putting them in — and a lot of grocery store-sourced cucurbits that I saw last time have been taken out. All the ones that sounded most interesting, not surprisingly . . .
So most of the grocery store-sourced cucurbits that remained were the ones that had been put in there maybe eight months ago that nobody had taken out. I took out all of the things that met all three of the following three criteria:
- They had been purchased somewhere (either a grocery store, a farmers’ market, or they were in a commercial seed packet).
- There was no reason to think there was anything special about them.
- They were taking up a lot of space and weight.
I’ll probably give some of those to my local seed library (because I’m sure there are people who will enjoy them! 
), and I’ll run others through the gauntlet of my hot, dry summers, and if I get any survivors, those seeds will get shared with you guys in the future, and then we’ll all know there’s something special about them.
To anyone who might be feeling self-conscious right now: Don’t feel self-conscious. Really, don’t. You’re doing just fine. Put in whatever you want to. If it winds up being something nobody wants, I can always pull it out and either test it for specialness or find it a new home with somebody. I’ve gotten the box enough times now that I have a pretty good idea of which seeds I contribute that people want more of (apricot pits go like lightning, for example!), and which seeds rarely seem to get taken (most inedible ornamentals).
Here are some observations I’ve made over the half dozen or so times I’ve received the box:
- Seeds for fruit trees seem extremely popular. I’d recommend against including pits from grocery-store sourced stonefruits unless they were something special, because those are so large and heavy, and they don’t get taken quickly. (Pits from your own personal stonefruit trees often get grabbed fast, though.) Seeds from very, very common grocery store apples (such as Gala) don’t really get taken. But seeds from apples purchased at grocery stores that aren’t available in most grocery stores (such as Winesap) often do! And most seeds from most fruits that are tasty and not grocery store sourced will get nabbed fast.
- Seeds from nut trees seem to be very popular. Many tree nuts are huge and heavy, so I wouldn’t recommend including tons at any one given time. But I’ve noticed they tend to get taken quite quickly, so they’re definitely worth including.
- Seeds from fruit bushes are also quite popular. Cold hardy ones seem to get taken a LOT more quickly than subtropical or tropical ones (no surprise). Tasty ones seem to get taken a LOT more quickly than meh-tasting-so-mostly-ornamental ones (no surprise). But even the less popular ones usually get taken eventually, so they’re often worth including.
- Seeds from beans and peas go pretty quickly.
- Seeds from cucurbits, corn, and root crops go at a steady pace, neither quickly nor slowly.
- Seeds from grains, pseudograins, greens, edible flowers, and edible weeds go at a mildly slow pace.
- Seeds from herbs go at a very slow pace. Culinary herbs go faster than medicinal ones, which rarely get taken at all.
- Seeds from inedible ornamentals rarely, if ever, get taken at all. I often wind up removing some (usually ones I’ve seen in the box at least twice without anyone taking them) to give away to people in my local community who are interested in ornamental gardening.
So, in general, here are some suggestions:
- If it’s a category that tends to get taken quickly, feel free to put in as many seeds as you want!
- If it’s a category that tends to get taken slowly, feel free to take out as many seeds as you want!
And maybe being aware of that can make it easier to not accidentally do the reverse.
But if you do do the reverse . . . hey, it’s all right! Please feel free to share in whatever way makes most sense to you. My plan is to always be here to take out whatever’s excessive in unpopular categories and refill popular ones as much as possible before sending it on. 
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ha! the herbs where the first bags I sorted through! And I tried to add back some, and I did take some medicinal ones. These things are good to know, so if/when I get the box again, I know better about to view these things. Next time, I’ll try to do a better job posting pictures of what I took.
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(Grin.) Yeah, there are always people who have different tastes from the most popular ones! I am personally a total weirdo among food gardeners because I do not like tomatoes . . .
Oh, yeah! That reminds me! Because I rarely ever think about those bags, I forgot to mention that tomatoes and peppers seem to go at a moderate rate, much like cucurbits, corn, and root crops. I rarely keep anything from the tomato bag (basically just paste tomatoes, because everyone else in my family likes ketchup and I’m willing to grow it for them . . .), and I never keep anything out of the peppers bag, but I reorganize them, so I know roughly how quickly things seem to get taken.
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Sad to hear the medicinal herbs aren’t a bigger thing! I’m probably looking forward to seeing what’s in that bag most of all when the box gets to me. If any of the next eight or so people in line are thinking about putting medicinals in, please please do so 
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Hi all! I’m new here and unsure where to introduce myself. I live in the Deep South and I’m very interested in swapping seeds once I’m eligible! I grow veggies, herbs, cotton, and dye plants.
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Well, I’m putting in echinecea, since the seeds I put in last time have been claimed, so I may as well put more in. I’m also putting more black elderberry seeds in with fruit bushes, and those are also a great medicinal!
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Hi, Rachel! It’s a pleasure to meet you! What are your favorite things to grow?
Dang it, Emily, stop teasing me. 
Hi! I love growing herbs, I have quite a few planted right now and depending on what thrives I should be able to share some later this year! Any type of basil usually grows well for me, I grow tulsi and several culinary basils. I also really enjoy growing okra because it thrives really well here without much hassle.
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Muah ha ha ha! I shall keep teasing you!
I went through the “ornamentals only” bag while reorganizing things today, and one of the things I noticed is that there were several herbs in that bag that have medicinal uses. There was even a culinary herb. So I think sometimes people toss stuff in there as a bit of a catchall because they don’t want to research whether this-or-that flower they’ve decided to get rid of is edible or medicinal. So . . . if you’re a person who likes herbs . . . do check through that “ornamentals only” bag with a fine tooth comb, because maybe there will be some things you want that got put in there instead of the herbs bag!
I’ve almost finished going through the rest. I’m currently in the process of choosing a new, smaller box (which will mean cheaper postage). Here are the things I’ve done:
- I took out some seeds I wanted to keep and added a bunch of seeds I’ve saved to share with you guys, of course. I also did some reorganizing and moving things into smaller bags.
- I removed everything that I was pretty sure nobody was going to want.
- I divided any new bags that contained a lot of heavy seeds into two portions, one for the main bag and one for the backup box.
- And I checked to see if anything from the main box had run out which had a bit in the backup box. There were quite a few things like that! So I moved those over, which means there are a lot of now-back-in-stock seeds that had previously run out.
So . . . the main box now has a whole lot more types of seeds, I think all of them will be things that somebody will want, it’s about 30% smaller and lighter, and I think it’s almost ready to move on to the next home.
@Tathata, will you PM me your address?
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Thanks for your awesome work on the box @UnicornEmily ! (May be a good idea to copy/paste some of your conclusions and guidelines to the top of the thread, where new people find out what this is all about).
I feel like our seed swapping crew is getting tighter and more efficient It inspires me to save seeds more intentionally…
BTW, I will take your medicinals! I’m in my 2nd year of a deep dive into plant medicine and learning so much… I’ve been using my marshmallow roots copiously!
Also, my absolute favorite seeds to find in the box are those that had already gone through someone’s landracing process and are a diversified bunch of survivors!
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