Status Update – Stage 2 Completed

I just completed Stage 2 of processing tomato seeds for 2013; all tomatoes (except 3 boxes of ripening fruits) are into the fermenting phase:

These 16 boxes (I ran out of containers so several are fermenting in zip-lock bags) represent about another 35 hrs. of intense work.  Since temperatures are very cold now (12° F currently, 5° forecast), seed separation (Stage 4) will have to be done in the garage.

Minus these tomatoes and the 300 or so batches drying on plates, here’s what my tomato seed collection looks like now:

Plenty of data entry and organizing still to do – not to mention winter squash, lettuce, chard, bean and many other types of seeds at various stages of processing.  But at least the most urgent and hardest part is done!