Saving heirloom tomato seeds
"Heirloom" varieties of plants are ones that have been grown year after year, in the case of tomatoes saving the seeds each year to grow the next. (With apples, which are grafted rather than grown from seed, an "antique" apple is one with a known history and pedigree, and an "heirloom" is one without).
Fun fact: Most store-bought vegetable seeds are hybrids, meaning they were produced by crossing two particular strains. Hybrids don't breed true - if you plant the next generation of seeds, they won't look like their parents and your yields will probably be less. (Why? Recall your Punnet squares.) Want true-breeding tomatoes? Try heirlooms.
So if you have the luck to grow heirloom tomatoes in your garden - or to pick up a tasty heirloom at a local market - you can save the seeds to grow more of the same tomatoes next year.
f you slice a tomato along its equator (separating the stem end from the blossom end) you'll get a cross section of all the clumps of seed. Cherry tomatoes have two clumps; other tomatoes have many. The seeds are surrounded by a gel that keeps the seeds from germinating, and it doesn't wash off. You'll need to ferment the gel to break it down. (Compare to what happens in nature: tomato seeds don't sprout while they're in the tomato, but they might sprout after the tomato rots on the ground.)
So, scoop out the seed gel with your fingers, and save it in a little container. You can use the tomato flesh to make bruschetta, a delicious dish that calls for chopped tomatoes without seeds. Don't forget to label the container!
You'll want the gel to ferment for a few days - in my case, I usually waited about 4 days. Here is where the various authorities disagree about what happens: some say to cover the container, some say to leave it open. Some say it's not ready until there's a thick layer of mold, but I never got mold to grow. So, I just wait for the gel to look like it's turned to liquid.
Did I mention I'm just saving seeds for the first time this year? So I'm no expert. Try this tutorial at You Grow Girl if my seat-of-the-pants approach is making you nervous.
I just dump my seeds into a sieve, and rinse the goo off. If there are chunks of tomato or mold, I just remove them by hand. Then, I tap the sieve contents out onto a paper plate (NOT a paper towel! They will stick!) and wait for the seeds to dry overnight.
Remember to label the plate, too! These are Aunt Ruby's green tomatoes.
In the morning (or whenever I get around to it), I break up any seeds that are stuck to each other or to the plate, and let them dry a little more. Then, I fold up a seed packet (using these instructions but my own plain paper) and once again label the seeds, this time with the year as well as the variety. And they're ready for next year! Keep a few silica gel packets near your seeds to ward off moisture.
Tomorrow: a bruschetta recipe for your delicious, fresh, ripe, local, seeded tomatoes!
August 27, 2007. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks
gardening, local food, vegetables
Links for Friday!
by Beth
Here are some interesting reads to keep you busy over the weekend. Back on Monday!
Big news this month - the September 2007 Eat Local Challenge is about to start! This is an annual project where you're challenged to spend the month of September eating locally, connecting with local farmers, blogging about local food, or celebrating in whatever way you can. Read all the suggestions - there's something for everybody.
From the 100 mile diet blog, a restaurant in England grows most of its food in its backyard. Also: the Fallen Fruit project encourages people to use public fruit trees to feed themselves. I went to a renaissance faire last week where apples were dropping from trees all over the place, and yet I didn't try any. Why not?
Why local food isn't always sustainable food. I use the idea of local eating to approximate sustainability, but location isn't the whole story.
Sustainable Food Lab notes that McDonald's will use fryer grease to power its trucks in the UK. They also link to a column suggesting that the era of cheap food is coming to an end. The author predicts that the same amount of grain that's grown now will have to be divided between animals, people, and machines that run on biofuels. Another idea from this column is that if it becomes too hot to grow food in India, it will be too hot to grow food anywhere. (Yeah, tell that to us over here in Zone 4!)
One last link, to help you find local food locally: 10 sustainable food resources. Enjoy!