Saving on seeds

There is of all things an Irish Mexican restaurant in town, and one of my favorite dishes is called chilies rellenos. It is basically poblano peppers stuffed with mexican cheese, breaded, and deep fried. It most likely clogs the hell out of my arteries, but I don't have them very often, and you only come this way once.
Being early in the season I thought I might try to grow poblano peppers and began looking at seed catalogs. Well I found them for about four bucks a pack and five bucks to ship them. Not bloody likely.
My wife purchased a pepper for me at the local Wal-Mart Super Center for much less than a dollar and I will use the seeds to grow poblano peppers. Most any seed from a fruit or vegetable purchased for the table can be grown. If the plant is a hybrid, you may get a weird variety, but then again it may be a great plant. Life is a gamble.
In the photo above the plant on the left is laurel, or bay leaf if you prefer that name. My wife bought a small plant several years ago at a farmer's market and we have been harvesting the leaves as we need them. Now, the plant is getting too large to manage, so I am going to clone two new plants and start over.
There are techniques to saving seeds and cloning plants that hydroponic gardeners should be aware of.
If there are any requests I will do a post on them but they are available online already.