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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Quote of the Day: Proverb
“Bloom where you’re planted”
~ Proverb
This alyssum was a volunteer that grew up in a crack in our driveway. It’s the most beautiful alyssum, it’s bloomed prolifically all summer long and it looks much nicer than the ones I started from seed and planted in the flowerbeds. I must try to save some seed from this hardy little plant, I think it had great genes.
Are you ever amazed by the hardiness of some plants?
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Catching the Moment
I almost always have my camera by my side, even when I’m working inside. You just never know at what moment you’ll want to capture. Luckily last week, I had my camera so I was able to catch Little Softie looking at Dexter through the back door. They pawed at each other a bit and Dexter was chirping away at Little Softie. I imagined her saying, “Dad?”
My photos are almost like a photo diary of my life, hardly a day goes by where I don’t take at least 15-20 photos. My life is well documented through the lens of my little camera. I must thank all of you who read as this blog is the reason I started taking lots of photos, I appreciate all of you who stop by every day to check out what I’m snapping photos of and talking about!
Do you keep a diary or journal? Are you in the habit of carrying a camera around to capture the moments?
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Mulled Cider
Mr Chiots is a HUGE fan of cider, he loves this time of year for the cider. He drinks a big glassful almost every evening. I’m not a big fan of it cold, but I love mulled cider. Often in the evening I’ll put a pan on to mull for a half hour or so and we’ll drink it while reading later that evening. I make my own mulled cider with a mix of spices from the pantry. I love adding all kinds of spices, it’s not always the same.
Generally for 2 cups of mulled cider I’ll throw in a few cinnamon sticks, 15-20 allspice berries, one or two whole cloves, a couple slices of fresh ginger, a few cardamon pods and a third of a vanilla bean. If I have cranberries I’ll throw a handful of those in as well or some orange peel if I have that, but those don’t grace my kitchen often. I generally buy my spices in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs and it makes an inexpensive way to enjoy mulled cider (and you can use the spices another time if you want to). Not to mention all of these spices add antioxidants to your diet.
Do you enjoy mulled cider? What spices do you like to use?
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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?
