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Attack of the Heirloom Tomatoes!

11/26/2012

1 Comment

 
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I am overwhelmed in tomatoes.  Buckets and buckets and bags and bags everywhere.  It's frightening.  It's a huge challenge for me.  The picture to the left is me posing samples of tomatoes - the load I got off each plant is truly amazing.  it makes for a lot of jars - gallons too.  The house smells so bad sometimes it makes me feel woozy.
No one has seen me or heard from me - only tales of tomatoes...

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Good grief it's a lot of seed!  
My family has been amazingly tolerant of this process - and with so many jars at once - it reeks!  I'd recommend a seed room.  That's what I want - a seed room.
After you squeeze the seeds and gel into a jar, give it three days and wait for the white mold to appear.  After that - it is time to add water, mix it all up, let it settle and pour the goo and non-viable seeds off the top - leaving the perfect seeds at the bottom.  Repeat until there is nothing but water and clean seed in the bottom, then dump through a sieve and dry them on paper.
When I am rinsing the seed I collect the waste water in a bucket and dump it on the compost pile.

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Of course not everyone would be doing this on such a large scale unless they were a seed company so a few jars on the counter won't stink you out of your house.  I allowed myself to grow as many varieties of tomatoes as I wanted last season so challenging myself to save seed from every variety seemed the thing to do.  I know for sure I won't make 130 - but I might make 125!  We'll see.

This mold is nature releasing and purifying the seed - it's a beautiful thing.




Tomato Aficionados - prepare yourselves...

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Black From Tula
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Persimmon
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Persimmon
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Black From Tula
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Reisetomate
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Indigo Rose
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White Queen
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Indigo Rose
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Black From Tula
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Bellstar
I shall post more tomato porn so have at it - it's too much sometimes.  I am still squeezing, fermenting and rinsing - but am determined to conquer the challenge.  
The form and beauty of the plants, flowers, fruit and seed are a great joy in my life. 
Photographing them is a bonus - so much fun - they are photogenic to be sure.
I am taking a break from processing to post this - but then it's back in I go.
Enjoy.


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Isis Candy
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Azoychka
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Brandywine
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Crimson Sprinter
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Opalka

DON'T FORGET - SAVE TOMATO SEEDS!!!!!!!  How-To-Instructions

1 Comment
Haley Woods link
3/4/2021 10:47:08 pm

Thanks for sharing tthis

Reply



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    Author

    Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth.  She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.  She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman.  Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner.  At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.    

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