I was just reminded of these seed collecting principles:
After collecting seed-bearing stalks, they dry faster if you strip the pods off the stalk, so you don;t have to dry stems and leaves as well as pods and seeds.
If you have soggy seedheads or pods, "press" them between sheets of paper towel or coffee filters to remove water.
If they are really soggy, fold a big bathtowel so there are 2 layers on the tale. Lay a coffee filter on top of that. Add wet seed heads. lay another coffee filter on top of that. Fold 2 more layers of bath towel over that. Now lay a heavy book on top of the stack to press it all together. The towel will wick water away from the seed heads and coffee filters. (Don;t skip the coffee filters or you may be picking seeds out of the bathtowel for weeks!)
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When stripping pods or seed heads off stems, try to leave as much chaff behind as possible. Cleaning the seeds will be easier if you don't have to remove a lot of crumbled chaff and petals.
Experiment by holding your fingertips apart by different distances. Try stripping the stem from top-to-bottom, and bottom-to-top. Try using your fingernails, or pinching, or rubbing. Find the gentlest move that opens most of the mature seed pods and releases the seeds while leaving behind stem, leaves and some of the pod.
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If you have plenty of mature seeds - more than you need for saving & trading - don't worry about getting every last seed out of every pod. Ideally: well-pollinated, well-dried on the stem, lots of seeds per head and lots of heads.
Drop lots of stems into a paper bag, way more than you need. Let them dry well, which makes the pods more fragile and tend to open.
Put them into a paper bag, fold the top over, and shake hard. or rub the stems against each other so the pods are rubbed open gently.
If you find enough seeds at the bottom of the bag, you;re all done! And you have gotten the most-mature, most-ready seeds by collecting only those easily released from the pods.
If you didn't get enough seeds by just shaking, rub the stems and pods gently with your palms and shake again. The idea is to release the seeds without breakin g the pods down into chaff and dust. If you don;t create any chaff, you won't have to remove it from the seeds.
