I was cleaning seeds today, and much to my dismay shaking the dried horehound pods in a paper bag wasn't getting me squat. I knew there were seeds in there, when I would squeeze a pod, out pops a seed. There was no way I was gonna squeeze every last one, so I tried a few things. First I tried putting the stripped pods in my flour sifter. This usually works for little seeds, but it wasn't getting me very far. The pods just went flying everywhere, not many seeds dropped out. Next I put a handfull of pods in a quart jar and shook the livin heck out of it. This did knock loose a few more seeds, but nearly as many as I knew were there. *sigh* So I decide to try crumbling them. To my suprise, they didn't really crumble, the pods just kind of stuck together in a ball. As I rolled the ball of seedpods between my palms, seeds started popping out all over my tray! Yea! So I took the whole wad of seed pods and rolled 'em. I tore the wad apart and rolled it back together a few times untill the seeds stopped dropping. Whoo hoo! Lots o' horehound seeds now! I imagine that this would work with similar mint-family plants like catnip, lemon balm, hyssop, etc. Just a side note: If there are green pods or leaves in the wad you are rolling, the resulting product looks a bit, um, er, "suspicious." Just don't stick it in a baggie =) Dispose of your wad properly!

GW