One of my garden experiments this year was growing mustard seeds. In March, a fried mentioned that she had never made mustard. I remembered making some mustard in high school as a 4-H project. It was 1) stinky, and 2) expensive. I bought about $8 worth of ingredients to make a pint of mustard. I'll never do this again! I thought. Especially when you can buy mustard for $0.88 per bottle.
As I remembered that experience, a thought came to my mind. What if you could grow the seeds yourself? The most expensive part of making mustard is the seeds and mustard powder (which is just ground mustard seeds). The cost would come down to almost nothing if you had free seeds.
Growing
So, pulled out my tin of mustard seeds that I'd bought in 2014 for making relish, and I planted a few in some seed starter. In a few days (to my surprise), they sprouted! I tried transplanting the seeds, but the seedlings died outside in the colder weather. Then I tried sowing some directly in the garden, which was more successful.
My mustard plants grew to be 3-4' tall and fell over from their own weight. Because they were covering some of my other plants, I tied them all to a stake. This seemed to work well.
Harvesting
After the seed pods were done growing, they turned a tan-gray color and dried out. I cut off branches full of pods and put them in a paper grocery bag. After folding up the bag, I took it inside and shook it as hard as I could. The shaking was enough to open a lot of the pods and release the seeds to the bottom of the bag. Then I put on some rubber-coated gloves and crushed the remaining pods with my hands.
As I remembered that experience, a thought came to my mind. What if you could grow the seeds yourself? The most expensive part of making mustard is the seeds and mustard powder (which is just ground mustard seeds). The cost would come down to almost nothing if you had free seeds.
Growing
So, pulled out my tin of mustard seeds that I'd bought in 2014 for making relish, and I planted a few in some seed starter. In a few days (to my surprise), they sprouted! I tried transplanting the seeds, but the seedlings died outside in the colder weather. Then I tried sowing some directly in the garden, which was more successful.
My mustard plants grew to be 3-4' tall and fell over from their own weight. Because they were covering some of my other plants, I tied them all to a stake. This seemed to work well.
Harvesting
After the seed pods were done growing, they turned a tan-gray color and dried out. I cut off branches full of pods and put them in a paper grocery bag. After folding up the bag, I took it inside and shook it as hard as I could. The shaking was enough to open a lot of the pods and release the seeds to the bottom of the bag. Then I put on some rubber-coated gloves and crushed the remaining pods with my hands.
After crushing and shaking, crushing and shaking, I had released as many seeds as possible. After removing the pods and branches, I poured the seeds from the bottom of the bag into a bowl.
There were still a lot of stray pods in with the seeds, so I put it all into a colander, again moving the pods around with my hands. The seeds fell through the colander, while the pods and larger pieces of debris stayed on top. There was a bowl underneath to catch the seeds.
There were still a lot of stray pods in with the seeds, so I put it all into a colander, again moving the pods around with my hands. The seeds fell through the colander, while the pods and larger pieces of debris stayed on top. There was a bowl underneath to catch the seeds.
To remove the small debris, I poured the seeds into a smaller bowl and added water. After stirring, the good seeds sank to the bottom, while the bad seeds and debris floated to the top. I scooped out the debris.
After that, I poured the water off the top and poured the seeds onto a washcloth to remove the rest of the water. To my surprise, the seeds were kind of slimy.
After that, I dumped/scraped the slimy seeds on to a cookie sheet and put them in the oven to dry like I would any other herb. The pilot light in our gas oven is enough to dry most herbs in a few days. After the seeds were dry, I picked them off the cookie sheet. The slime made some of them stick together.
And now, the fun part! I poured all of the seeds into my Vitamix Dry container and pulverized them to pieces. This made some wonderful mustard powder. Altogether, I got 1/3 - 1/2 cup of powder.
Bought from Kroger, this amount of spice costs about $4.00. When I made my own mustard, I spent $4 on mustard powder and a little less on mustard seeds. Thus, if I went out and harvested the rest of my mustard seeds, I will have collected $8.00 worth of product from my mustard plant.
Is It Worth It?
I'll admit- harvesting mustard seeds is a little time-consuming. It's not like other herbs where you just cut them, pop them in the oven to dry and pulverize them. Because of this, and because of the fact that Hubs and I don't use very much mustard, I'll probably just buy mustard in the future. A bottle of $0.88 mustard will last us an entire year.
However, I do think it is worth it to grow your own seeds to use as a spice. I'll probably continue to grow mustard every few years, but not every year. My current supply of homemade mustard powder will last at least two years if I use it as a seasoning and not to make mustard.
If someone is dead set on making their own mustard or buying gourmet mustard (at $8 or more per bottle), than it might be worth it to grow their own seeds to make condiments with. Otherwise, they would be better off just spending $1 every year on mustard. If I use my precious homegrown seeds to make mustard, they are worth less than a dollar. If I use them to make mustard powder and mustard seeds, they are worth $8. I probably have 3-4 hours into planting, weeding, staking, picking, sorting, washing, drying, and powdering the seeds. This brings my hourly wage to about $2 if I make spices, and $0.25 per hour if I make condiments with those spices. It seems wrong, but that's just how everything works out.
The other thing about mustard seeds is that they take up a lot of garden space. In my opinion, this space (that you are going to have to weed and mulch and water anyway) is better used to grow something like tomatoes, which can also be used to make condiments but yield a whole lot more condiment per square foot.
Do you like mustard? Have you ever made your own?
Is It Worth It?
I'll admit- harvesting mustard seeds is a little time-consuming. It's not like other herbs where you just cut them, pop them in the oven to dry and pulverize them. Because of this, and because of the fact that Hubs and I don't use very much mustard, I'll probably just buy mustard in the future. A bottle of $0.88 mustard will last us an entire year.
However, I do think it is worth it to grow your own seeds to use as a spice. I'll probably continue to grow mustard every few years, but not every year. My current supply of homemade mustard powder will last at least two years if I use it as a seasoning and not to make mustard.
If someone is dead set on making their own mustard or buying gourmet mustard (at $8 or more per bottle), than it might be worth it to grow their own seeds to make condiments with. Otherwise, they would be better off just spending $1 every year on mustard. If I use my precious homegrown seeds to make mustard, they are worth less than a dollar. If I use them to make mustard powder and mustard seeds, they are worth $8. I probably have 3-4 hours into planting, weeding, staking, picking, sorting, washing, drying, and powdering the seeds. This brings my hourly wage to about $2 if I make spices, and $0.25 per hour if I make condiments with those spices. It seems wrong, but that's just how everything works out.
The other thing about mustard seeds is that they take up a lot of garden space. In my opinion, this space (that you are going to have to weed and mulch and water anyway) is better used to grow something like tomatoes, which can also be used to make condiments but yield a whole lot more condiment per square foot.
Do you like mustard? Have you ever made your own?
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