Two great questions

We were going to plan out our planting calendar today, but two students asked excellent questions, and we spent the day talking about them.

1. How do seeds get into packets?
Seeds get into their packets when a farmer somewhere grows what you're looking for.  Then he or she has to wait for those plants to produce seeds. Then he puts those seeds into packets and sells them.

For example, sunflowers. When you plant a sunflower seed, it grows into a sunflower.  Then that sunflower produces seeds.  Then, you have to collect those seeds.  And then you can sell those seeds or replant them and start the cycle all over again.

2. If you plant seeds you saved, will you get more seeds?
The simple answer is yes because the seeds from that plant will regrow if you care for them correctly.

The real answer is more complicated because of hybrids.  A hybrid plant is a cross between two very different varieties of the same crop.  If you plant the seeds you collect from a hybrid plant,  you might get new plants, but you don't know what kind of plant you're going to get.

If you save the seeds from a non-hybrid plant, you can save them and plant them again.  We do this in our garden with beans and other crops.