If you’re from around these parts (this blog, that is), you know that I love cilantro. Even if you don’t care for the taste, cilantro is one of the greatest things to grow in the kitchen garden. It doesn’t take up much space, it brings in beneficial insects, and best of all, it produces something delicious besides the leaves: coriander seeds.
Cilantro loves to produce seeds. I think I’ve been growing cilantro every year since 2013 or so with seeds I’ve harvested instead of bought. I have a post about how to keep cilantro from bolting because going to seed is all cilantro seems to want to do, but honestly, if it does bolt, you can just plant some more... But now you also have coriander! I toss coriander on salads and in stews and sautéed dishes—it’s a great spice to add flavor to a variety of meals.
Here’s how I save my cilantro seeds:
Step One: Let your cilantro plants go to seed
When cilantro bolts, it produces little green pods that contain coriander seeds in the making. You could eat them when they’re still green (they have a nice little spicy zing), or you can dry them if your goal is to save seeds for next season.
Step Two: Remove your cilantro plant from the garden
Take the entire thing by cutting right at the base of the plant.
Step Three: Hang cilantro to dry
I have an old picket fence in my garden, and when I’m not expecting any rain, I like to hang my herbs to dry by wedging their branches between the wooden slats of my fence. You could also tie your herbs to the fence with some twine. It’s a simple way to let the coriander dry completely out. Leave them hanging until there’s no more green on the stems. In the title picture, the cilantro on the right has been up for one day longer and is already mostly brown.
Step Four: Rub the pods off the stem
This is a task I like to give to my kids. Once the pods are dry, it’s easy to rub them off the stem with your hand (though you could also store the herb stem and all). I rinse the seeds in a kitchen strainer and remove any little extra parts from the pods, trying not to crush the coriander.
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Step Five: Store the coriander seeds
If you’re going to plant the seeds, they need some time to rest first. These are seeds for next year, so I’ll use seeds I saved last summer when I plant more cilantro in the fall once the temps have dropped a bit.
You can probably harvest at least 500 seeds from three cilantro plants. Good thing I love cilantro and coriander seeds on everything! I hope this encourages you to harvest your own seeds, my friends, whether to add spice to meals or to become next year's plants! The garden gives us so much, most of it delicious (even if you hate cilantro)!