The Tomato’s Last Blast
Written by: Sumati Shah
By now a lot of you are sick of hearing about tomatoes already, lucky for you, I’m not sick of talking about them yet HA!
You know that most delicious tomato – your new ‘favourite’ one? Hopefully a gift from a friend or neighbour….Who knows how you’d find seeds – you don’t even know what it’s called!
Grab that tomato in your kitchen right now…It’s the Tomato’s Last Blast and we’re making sure it pays you forward into next year.
Rule of Green Thumbs: That gel sac around tomato seeds prevents the seeds from sprouting. Fermentation renders the saved seed viable.
The volunteers you see of unplanned tomatoes in the spring garden, the rotting fruit rendered the seed viable for you as it went unnoticed on the ground.
INGREDIENTS:
1 Tomato (the more delicious the better – what you save is what you grow)
1 Jar with a lid. A 1/2 pint jar is about the best size (you don’t want it to be too big) This is gonna get a little stinky, the lid is for smell management.
Green Thumb Tip: Ferment seeds from your favourite tasting tomato to grow the delicious taste for yourself next season!
STEPS:
- Get the tomato seeds into the jar. The goal is to gather all the liquid and all the seeds, not so much the tomato flesh which is best left out. It’ll still work if you have some in it, but it’s more stink/mess than our little experiment needs.
- Add some water. It should be 1/2 to 3/4 full, so top up with some water. We’re not measuring anything here, if you have a ton of seeds your jar might be almost full, you just want as much seed as possible and expect there to be a good amount of liquid too.
- Close it up and wait for 1 week’s fermentation! By the end of day 2 your should have pressure in the jar, and the smell should be sour with some bubbles starting. PERFECT! I say hello with a little shake and look at them daily, usually burping the lid so I don’t have another unwanted experiment 🙂 Expect the concoction to separate into layers and generally become less and less appealing … All is going to plan.
- Rinse & Strain: After 7 days pour out the jar through a sieve, rinse well so you’re just left with seeds.
- Dry & Store: Lay the seeds out on a coffee filter or paper towel for 7-10 days to fully dry out before you label and store them in a paper envelope.
Go Go Green Thumbs!
