Gnomey: I'm sorry, but couldn't help but laugh.

A few weeks ago I made a large (9x13) pan of taco squares, which always lasts for 2 dinner plus maybe a snack or two. While we were eating them the first night there was a fly buzzing around the kitchen, so I put the pan in the microwave to keep the fly off. You guessed it- the next morning when I went to reheat of a cup of coffee in the micro, there was the tray of taco squares. They had to be trashed. We all do stupid stuff, you just have to kick yourself and laugh.

Karen

Don't feel bad! Last year in the fall my husband turned on the oven, and I had all my sweet potatoes from the garden drying in it. I ended up having to bake them all, mash them, and then freeze them. This year, I must remember to tape a note to the knob!
I also remember my father turning on the oven when I was a kid, and I'm not sure if it was the smell or smoke, but it was much to late and a horrible mess when he realized grandma had put tupperware in the oven, lol. The oven is not a good spot to decided to store plastic!
Remy

I've done the tupperware one...not a pretty sight, or smell :)
Let us know if you need replacements!

Gnomey - I use paper lunch bags for collecting and drying larger seed heads/stalks, and the tops can be folded over and clipped together so stuff won't blow around on your porch and the cats won't be able to get into them. I also use little paper cups if the seeds are easy to collect and remove from the seed heads. I write the name on a post-it, tape it to the inside the cup, and stack the cups inside each other. That way I can dry a lot of different seeds in a very small space.

I picked my popcorn, & the decorative corn ears & had laid them on the kitchen counter & went to town, when I came home DH had given them to the cows !!!!! He thought that they were to small & hard to be any good !!! GRRRRR
LOL He knows better now !!! LOL

What a bummer! Try a germination test,you never do know!;)

let me tell you about the germination test, angie you should remember this!! last year!!
someone told me if it floats they are no good, if they sink they are good, so i put castor beans in the bowl of water, they all floated, i homeschool, so as an experiment we planted all of them. they ALLLL grew. in my SMALLLL house!! i have 7hundred and some sq ft for 4 people. i had i think 15 maybe?? castor beans growing and they were getting bigger, OMGoodness. well i didn't transplant them soon enough and the heat and all and they died, but ya that test didnt work. LOL they got 1ft tall. scary for me!! i'm thinking amazon!! the seeds they came from, i have one that is ok, i winter sowed it. its taller than my front porch. i have a pic of it!! LOL i am simply amazed. ~Medo

Thanks for the moral support and the ideas! This might be funny to me later.. my friend laughed at me tonight when I told her what I did.

I think the paper bag method might be the way for me to go in the future.. and for the baked seeds.. I think I'll just ws them anyway and see what happens. I think all the ones that were in the oven I can collect more for backup, so it's not totally devastating. I was just so mad at myself for doing it! Poor little plant embryos... I hope they survived.

Been there; done that.

Have you ever accidentally taken two extra-strength turbo laxatives thinking you had taken two water pills? I have. Generics can be tricky.

Many, many years ago, when my husband and I were still dating, my mother in law put her girdle in the oven to dry. You can imagine what that smelled like- like someone was burning tires in the kitchen.

I know you are thinking that I must be making this up. But if you had ever met my mother in law, you wouldn't doubt the veracity of the story. She truly was one of a kind.

Karen

I feel bad for you that you may have lost your seeds.

This has nothing to do with gardening, but I did something INTENTIONALLY dumb when I was younger regarding the oven...

I lived alone at a very young age. I was excited to be making a dinner for some friends and lit the oven to keep some bread warm (I guess it was bread, can't remember), but whatever it was - it was in a WICKER BASKET.. I mean, now THAT was stupid! of course, the basket started burning and the smell was horrible.

I guess, though, that wasn't as bad as putting my wool sweaters in the dryer.... and ending up with a few "baby" sweaters.. ;0/

Carrie

What you did was just that you forgot you had something in the oven,

Gnomey,

The paper bags is a great way to go. I have 'clothes lines' placed in the staircase going to the basement and put all my seeds in paper bags, then hang them up to dry there. I have two indoor cats and they have messed with my seeds before, but this system is foolproof. :O)

We always check the oven before turning it on. We also have a Black Lab which will check out what's on the kitchen counter if we leave and eat anything and everything we may have left, so we use the oven to put things in if we have to leave quickly.

Still have to get used to the toaster oven though. We always put things on top and then forget - even though it's right in front of us - then turn it on to cook and there goes the plastic!!

Hey, Angie has a good idea - you can perform a quick germination test on the seeds now and see if they sprout. It is very easy! I did this in the Spring on some very old seeds I had purchased in 1998, but had never been opened. I tested Cucumbers, Beefsteak tomatoes, and Chile Peppers that were packed for 1997 and 1998.

I tested 4 seeds of each. Used a flat tupperware lined with paper towels, laid out the seeds, and kept them moist with a spray bottle. The results were amazing! All but one of the seeds successfully sprouted within a matter of days, except that 1 cucumber sprout was deformed. I was amazed that such old seeds still sprouted vigorously.

Here is a pic of the germ test. Note that you don't need to plant the sprouts, you can toss them.

{{gwi:348146}}

And here is a pic of one of the Chile peppers from these seeds I WS'd this year - seeds that are 10 years old, can you believe it?

{{gwi:443853}}

terrene - why does that brown "stuff" look like chocolate cake to me? .... ;0/

Carrie