What this job called for was a pair of nail clippers and a glass of water.

“You have to create some kind of hole for water to get into it,” he said. He nicked the side of the nutmeg and then dropped it into the glass. Apparently, following a manicure, what a seed likes best is a spa treatment.

A large seed, like the nutmeg, could soak overnight, imbibing water to soften the outer coat. A smaller seed might be ready in an hour. Inside, the fertilized embryo of a plant would swell and then germinate.

Next, Andrew turned to the beans. We could pierce these seeds just about anywhere, he said. But we would want to avoid the divot in the red bean that ran along the inside seam. This is where the root tip would emerge.

Or perhaps wouldn’t emerge. Call it a conspiracy theory, but apparently the international food-production system does not want my red beans, or other seeds, to sprout. A little moisture in a shipping container can spoil tons of dry goods. So processors routinely treat spices to preserve them for packaging. Some are flash-frozen and vacuum-dried, others steam-heated and sterilized.

And then there’s irradiation. This process bombards the surface of the food with high-energy electrons, gamma rays or X-rays, exterminating pathogens like E. coli, listeria and salmonella. The food does not become radioactive; by eating it, you will not become the Incredible Hulk. But a high enough dose will kill the living tissue in a plant or seed.

How could I tell if my mustard seed had been irradiated? Items like ground beef or papaya must be labeled with the phrase “treated by irradiation” and the Radura logo, a kind of disembodied flower with an atom for a head. But under F.D.A. rules, spices require no such marking, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.