Guest post by Amy Urquhart
This article in today’s Toronto Star is interesting. It’s about people harvesting from neglected or owner-less trees in the city.
It made me think about an apple tree that is sitting off the side of the exit ramp I take every day on my way home from work. It’s just dripping with apples, many of which now litter the road. I should ride my bike over and pick some. They might make good applesauce.
Leave a commentIt’s mid September and sadly most of the container-grown tomato plants on my rooftop are on their last lap. A few green stragglers remain and the vines are starting to yellow and fade. Thankfully I’ve got another crop still running over at my community garden plot where the plants aren’t subjected to the intense sun and heat that causes the roof plants to hit such an accelerated pace. When the plants were producing at full stride, I was so caught up in enjoying (and photographing) the harvest I completely forgot to save some seeds for next year’s crop.
Of course, it’s not too late. I’ve outlined my process for seed-saving tomato seeds below. The process with very wet fruit like tomatoes is a bit different than with a relatively dry fruit like peppers. While peppers are as simple as scooping out the seeds and setting them to dry, tomatoes call for a slightly more complex method. You can, in theory use the pepper method with tomatoes. However, you may have noticed that tomatoes have a gelatinous layer surrounding each seed. This layer is called a germination inhibitor and is made up of a chemical that prevents the tomato seeds from germinating inside the fruit. While the scoop and dry method will remove that layer, fermenting the seeds first will also serve to kill diseases your plant may have contracted along the way.
Fermenting Tomato Seeds
1. Choose a heathly tomato from a healthy plant – While you’d rather save the best-looking tomatoes for eating, sick fruit from sick plants pass on… well, sickness. And remember, you can always scoop out the seeds for saving and eat the rest.
2. Scoop the insides out of your tomato (seeds and all) into a plastic yoghurt container. A lid isn’t critical but it helps with the smell.
3. Label your container with the variety name and set it somwhere warm but out of direct sun. You can prop the lid on but don’t seal it shut. Remember you’re fermenting here so this is going to stink. Find an out-of-the-way spot if you can.
4. Stir your container once or twice a day until a “nice” layer of white mold forms on top. This usually takes a few days. Don’t leave the fermented goo sitting for too long after this stage or your seeds will start to germinate in the container.
5. Your seeds are now ready to harvest. Thankfully you do not have to dig around in this mess in order to fish them out. All of the good seeds will have sunk to the bottom with all the useless stuff left floating in the mold. Separating the good from the bad is as easy as scooping or pouring off the moldy layer from the liquid. Remove as much as you can without losing any of the good seeds.
6. Fill the container with water, stir, and repeat step five. Repeat refilling with water and scooping until all the bad debris has been removed.
7. Rinse off the remaining seeds in a strainer and spread them out onto a pad of newspaper.
8. Set the seeds out to dry for a few days. Don’t forget to label them if you’ve got more than one variety on the go. Take it from me. I always think I’ll remember what I’ve got but I NEVER do.
9. Package your dried seeds, label, and store for next year.
Because you asked, here’s a photo of the inside of the ‘Black Pear’ tomato.
I ate another one yesterday afternoon. They really are soft, dense, sweet, and rich. Whether or not they beat out my #1 ‘Black Krim’ or ‘Purple Cherokee’ (I can’t tell the difference in taste or appearance) remains to be seen. I’ll let you know when the first ‘Black Krim’ ripens. I started them a tad late at the community garden so they’re just coming around now.
Leave a commentUpdate: The first of the next batch has ripened. I had both my neighbour and my spouse do a taste test and we all agree that while it is tasty, it doesn’t stand up to the black indeterminates like ‘Black Krim’ or ‘Black Plum’. My final verdict is that it’s a great mid-sized determinate perfect for small spaces like fire escapes, but if you want the real thing get a HUGE plastic garbage can and grow an indeterminate variety.
I’ve been waiting anxiously for the first ‘Black Seaman’ tomato to ripen. From the looks of things I was certain this would be my new #1 determinate but I was hesitant to even go there in my mind without tasting one first. I watched everyday with bated breath as a large crop of good-sized green tomatoes blushed with color. The first was eaten by a large raccoon (The largest I have ever seen! A film crew could use this deck as a location for Wild Kingdom). And then over the weekend we caught the tail end of hurricane Ernesto and the bulk of the nearly ripe ‘Black Seamans’ burst open as a result of torrential downpours and had to be quickly, and prematurely plucked from the vine. We tasted a few with salt and I will say that they were rich and flavorful with a hint of tang, even when under-ripe. Some were on the mealy side but that was likely caused by the splitting. I will provide a more thorough update on taste when the next batch ripen but in the meantime here’s why this variety has been given a tentative spot in my top 5:
The blackberry bushes have been incredibly prolific at the Community Garden this year. I’d swear the plants have doubled in size, each vine exploding with fat, juicy fruit. I had thought that perhaps our cold winters curbed their invasiveness but I’m starting to discover that they can take over in this climate too… albeit somewhat less insanely than in temperate climates like San Francisco. I have never and don’t expect to see blackberries like that here in Southern Ontario. Those bushes are the kind of plants that inspire cheesy horror films… gaining ground while suckers like me naively hang about gorging themselves, even pushing further into the bush in a greedy attempt to get at the best, ripest berries before being sucked in alive. Bwahhahaha!
Comments Off© 2000-2013 You Grow Girl & Fluffco. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. Privacy Policy.
