Saving Tomato Seeds, part 2

Welcome back! Last week I began the process of saving tomato seeds (described in the "Saving Tomato Seeds, part 1" blog post). I left the seeds to ferment for about 3 days, and they developed a nice scummy surface indicating that they were ready.

Tomato seeds after 3 days of fermentation.

At this point, the seeds should have a somewhat stinky, fermented smell, but nothing too gross. The seeds were at the bottom, and the liquid on top, so I was able to carefully decant the liquid off. I then tapped the seeds into a strainer and rinsed them under fresh water. I use this handy little strainer that I bought years ago in Chinatown. I don't know what its original purpose was, but it's perfect for this. A tea strainer would work equally well.

Clean tomato seeds in a strainer.

Next I tapped the seeds out onto a piece of wax paper and labeled the paper with the variety of tomato.

Tomato seeds on wax paper ready to be dried.

I left the seeds to dry for about 3-4 days away from the light. Then I carefully peeled them up off the wax paper and put them in envelopes to store until spring. See you next year, tomatoes!