Saving Tomato Seeds
I’ve been saving tomato seeds for a few of my favorite varieties including: ‘Principe Borghese’, ‘White Beauty’, ‘Brandywine’ and ‘Goldman’s Italian American’ tomatoes. Saving tomato seeds is an easy process, if you have a favorite heirloom variety you should give it a try to preserve it.
The most important part is choosing a few of your best tomatoes. Obviously these tomatoes have had great germination and have good genes to pass on. Ideally you’d want to choose a few nice ones from different plants (of the same variety of course), but don’t worry if you only planted one plant, the seeds will still be OK. I only have on ‘Brandywine’ plant and I save seed from it every year.
All you need to do to save tomato seeds is to scoop out the seeds and gel and put them into a jar. Add some water and let them sit until a scum/mold forms on the top of the jar. This process ferments the seeds and helps remove them from the gel, I’m guessing it also helps kill bacteria and disease. All the seeds will sink to the bottom when they’re ready to rinse. Generally I let mine sit for a week or two.
You’ll want to skim off the scum/mold, then pour the contents of the jar into a colander and rinse them to get rid of all the gel and any scum. Next you’ll want to spread the seeds on a towel to dry (I prefer a cloth towel as I find the seeds don’t stick as much as they do on a paper towel). When they’re good and dry, put them in a small envelope and label, they’ll be ready to sprout next spring. Make sure you keep them labeled throughout the process as you don’t want to mix them up! Label the jar, label the towel you’re drying them on, and label the envelope, believe me you won’t remember – I know from experience!
Not only is saving your own seeds a great way to keep you favorite tomatoes around, but it’s also a great way to save some money on seeds and have some from trading with friends. You can also give them away to encourage others to garden and grow some of their own food. I’ll be giving away some of mine in a few weeks when I have them all saved.
Do you save your own tomato seeds?
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The Fall Garden at My Mom’s
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I grow some things with my mom in her garden. The majority of my potatoes were planted there this year as were most of my peas, sweet potatoes and a few tomatoes. When we harvested all those potatoes, we replaced them with fall crops including: carrots (10 varieties), leeks, cabbage, broccoli, beets, and more peas. When we went on the field trip last Friday I made sure to get a few photos of the fall garden so you could see the progress.
The leeks are still very small, I’m hoping they’ll size up in time. I may need to adjust my seeding time next summer depending on how these do. I guess we can harvest baby leeks if needed.
We planted 10 different varieties of carrots in all colors shapes and sizes. We had different germination rates on the different carrots. It should be interesting to see how these do.
We planted 3 varieties of beets, Cylinder beets, golden beets, and Detroit beets. The ‘Golden’ Beets didn’t germinate well, so we’re considering replacing them with some ‘Bull’s Blood’ beets.
The peas are doing well, we planted 4 different varieties and one of them is thriving, unfortunately we forgot to write down the name of this variety. We also planted ‘Wando’ and ‘Alaska’ peas but neither had great germination. I’m thinking they must not like the warm soil when planted in August. We should get a decent crop of peas from our fall crop.
The fall broccoli, cabbage and Brussels sprouts are doing well. We’re hoping to have a nice crop of sprouts for Thanksgiving. I’ll keep you updated on how all my fall crops do. Since this is only my second year growing fall/winter crops it’s certainly an experiment. In a few years I should have a better grasp on planting times and the difference in growing patterns with the reduced sunlight in the fall.
Any exciting crops growing your fall garden?
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A Race Against the Weather
Remember that batch of fall cucumbers I planted hoping for a late September or early October harvest of cucumbers before the first frost? Well, they’re doing well. They quickly climbed their supports and are blooming prolifically, which the bees are loving. I spotted the first baby cucumber late last week and I’ve been keeping my eye on it.
It looks like I should get a decent harvest, unless we get an early frost or the weather turns cold earlier than normal. I should be able to pick my first cucumber later this week, perhaps tomorrow!
Here’s hoping for another large jar of pickles in the fridge to feast on all winter long!
Do you have any crops you’re hoping to harvest before frost sets comes in your garden?
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The First Brandywines of the Season
The tomato season is almost over and I’ve already taken out 80% of my plants. I have a few nice plants left and among them is my ‘Brandywine’ tomato. It doesn’t produce a ton of fruit, but they’re the quintessential tomato when it comes to flavor and type. The tomatoes are HUGE and the flavor is probably the best as far as classic tomato flavor goes, at least in my book.
There are a lot of varieties of ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes, these are from saved seeds from a tomato a friend gave me so I’m not sure what variety it is. I’ll be saving seeds for these for years to come. I’ll always grow at least one vine even though I only get 5-10 tomatoes from it, it’s worth the space for such delicious flavor.
Do you grow ‘Brandywine’ tomatoes? What tomato provides your favorite perfect tomato flavor?
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Making Prunes
I prefer dried fruit over canned fruit for many reasons, the main one being the ease of making it. I love that there’s no sugar syrup, jars, or boiling water. All you have to do is provide some dry heat and you’ll end up with some lovely fruit that will keep in the cupboard for months. So far this summer I’ve been able to dry 2 gallons of dried cherries, one gallon of dried pears (pearsins we call them) and I’m currently working on drying some prunes.
I was able to score a bushel of plums at the local farm store and they’re quite tasty. They’re not prune plums, just regular old plums, but they still dry beautifully into delicious prunes. I have a small dehydrator, but I prefer to use the bread proofing setting on my oven as I can do a huge batch at once. It does take a while, but the reward is quite wonderful. I usually put them in the oven overnight for a few nights.
I pitted them this year, which I didn’t do last year. I think next year I’ll leave the pits in as I prefer the way they dry without the cut, they seem to be softer. Mr Chiots is excited as he loves dried plums. I enjoy them, but I much prefer dried pears or dried cherries.
What’s your favorite dried fruit?
