Seed Rain

On February 12, 1979, in Southampton, U.K., Roland Moody heard repeated sounds outside his observatory and discovered the glass roof to be covered with thousands of mustard seeds and cress seeds coated with jelly. Seeds continued to fall all day. Eight pails of cress seeds were collected and planted, and the plants eventually harvested. Moody learned that the garden of his neighbor, Airs Stockley, had been hit with seeds the previous year as well. The next day Moody and his two immediate neighbors were rained upon by haricot beans, broad beans, maize, and peas. Police were called in, but the seeds’ origin remained a mystery. Those three houses were the only ones targeted, and no “rain” fell on the sidewalk in front of them.