ceae's Journal

I woke up to our first hard frost this morning. It was interesting to see that the hardest hit area’s were in the center of our yard (grass, kitchen garden, pumpkin patch) and the shed area. The foundation planting along the back wall of the house, was only lightly touched.

Fall clean-up
Dig all dahlias – store for winter
Plant last couple dozen tulips
Clean out the few remaining plants in kitchen garden
Check peonies for mildew leaves – remove & discard
Remove passion flower vines from trellises
Move potted hydrangea & patio rose to garage for winter

Blooms mid spring – 16" high
White, swirled with pale yellow

Blooms mid Spring – 16" high
Pink with yellow edges.

I guess my garage is not too cold to ferment tomato seeds after all! I completely forgot about bringing my tomato pulp inside; as a matter of fact what with Halloween costumes, canning endless quarts of apples and getting ready for Thanksgiving last Monday, I forgot about my tomatoes all together. I remembered as I was taking the kids to school Tuesday morning, so we stopped by the garage to have a peek. All 4 jars were completely covered in mold, and they certainly did stink! Having a bit of a cold and plugged sinuses, I had to pretty much stick my nose into the jar to smell it, but it was a horrible, stomach turning smell. The kids didn’t have to get nearly that close before they ran outside gagging.

I brought the jars in and proceeded as directed.

• Add enough water to double the mixture. Stir vigorously. The ‘good’ seeds settle to the bottom, allowing the debris and hollow seeds to be poured off. Repeat until the water is clear. This worked very well. It took lots of repeating ~ a dozen or so times, and I lost a few seeds in the process, presumably ones that were not viable.

• Strain through a fine mesh strainer and blot the bottom of the strainer to absorb as much moisture as possible.

• Place seeds on a glass or ceramic plate – or a coffee filter (Don’t use paper towel or cloth or non rigid plastic. I chose to use coffee filters, with excellent results.

• Stir twice a day to prevent from bunching together. I left my coffee filters on top of the stove with the vent fan running for most of the day and had seemingly dry seeds in no time. I think the coffee filter had the advantage of wicking the water away from the seeds. Dispite the appearance of dry seeds, I’m leaving them to dry for a few more days yet to be sure they are sufficiently dry.

Photos

1. Moldy tomato pulp

2. Clean tomato seeds

3. Seeds drying in a coffee filter

All herbs have sprouted and growing well. Currently basil is the biggest/heatlhiest. Oregano seems to be the slowest grower so far.

Not sure of the exact date we started to harvest the fall peas. The kids had been eating them for at least a few days before they mentioned it … and then I forgot all about adding it here, but I’m going to guess that it’s been at least a week.

In order for tomato seeds to germinate, the gelatinous sack that surrounds the seeds must be removed. The sack contains chemicals that inhibit seed germination to prevent seeds from sprouting inside the tomato’s wet environment. Fermenting tomatoes not only removes the gel sack, but also kills many seed born diseases.

Figuring that the tomatoes are as ripe as they are going to get, I picked the ones that I had bagged for isolation and set to prepping them to ferment.

The instructions in the book suggested slicing the larger tomatoes crosswise (not through the stem end) and squeezing to release the seeds and gel ~ it worked like a charm. For smaller tomatoes, they suggested mashing in a food processor, but since I was processing just a few of each variety, I just spilt them and squished like the bigger ones.

I’ve put the seeds and pulp in mason jars with a bit of water (to aid seed separation), carefully labelled them and set them in the garage. The cooler temperatures out there will no doubt slow the fermentation process, which is supposed to take one to three days, but the reported horrendous stink makes it clear that this is definitely an outside project.

Now I just wait for a layer of white/gray mold to entirely cover the surface, and I can move on to the next step … hmmmm, intentionally growing mold? I’m starting to question the wisdom of this little project of mine already :p

Seeds saved – Black Krim, Black Cherry, Pink Ping Pong, Yellow Ping Pong

Photos

1. Black Krim sliced to get at the seeds.

1. Black Krim pulp.