Seed Processing 🔁 Continues, Almost There!

Just stunning how long this is taking me to get through all of these batches of tomatoes.

Last large set of batches of tomatoes processed in 2022

What 150 hours of tomato processing looks like

Stacks waiting for attention

Pasta ladle works well for removing rotten chunks that sink

Fungal growth after 12 days of fermentation at 38-45°F

More fungal growth – not the most pleasant smell…

Containers to stack and store in cellar – before it snows?

Let it snow

7″ worth, very welcome

The usual visitors

Sub-zero

Near freezing indoors

Overly ambitious for a day’s work

Five high was too high – chunks of hair lost

Saved seeds anyhow

Rearranged, lesson learned – hopefully…

So many seeds still to dry

So many seeds still to package

One of final five sets of batches for seed separation

Winding down – many of these containers were filled 10-20 times in 2022

Final batches ripening quickly in the warm room

Melons still to process

Peppers and eggplants still to process

As of today (December 18th), there is one shelf of mostly ripened tomatoes left to process, and four more shelves of fermenting tomatoes that need seed extraction. Each shelf is about one day of work. So that phase is at least 95% done. Then comes seed drying, packaging, organizing, computer work.

As shown in one of the photos, there was a minor catastrophe. I was gone for a few hours, and when I returned, there was a stack of five containers that had collapsed and toppled onto the floor. My what a mess to clean up! One batch remained intact, and I managed to save at least a couple of dozen seeds from the other batches. But more than 3,000 seeds were essentially lost, even though I saved them. Seeds of unknown variety just are not of much value.

A snowstorm on December 12th dropped 7″ of snow, with outdoor temperatures dropping to -1° F, and 38° indoors. House is unheated, except the space heater in the office/bedroom.

I cannot imagine trying to survive this as a deer or other animal in the wild! I caught 12 of them on video snacking on the remnants of tomato vines.

I am anxious to get seeds organized, data entered, photos processed, and descriptions written and published – if only that clock would slow down to 1% speed for a few months…

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Update, 12-25-2022

Whew, what a relief to finally have all the tomato seeds extracted from the 2022 growing season!

Well, almost finished. There are just 39 batches left. These are the “leftovers” – those that were still green in early December, and which I ended up moving to the “warm room” to speed up and complete ripening. I expect to have these processed for fermentation by noon tomorrow, then will move them to the warm room for faster fermenting, and will have seeds extracted and drying by the end of the week, which is also the end of the year.

By that time, I also hope to have all tomato seeds organized, alphabetized, inventoried, data entered, and this list updated:

DT List of Tomato Seeds Currently Available

(almost) Final 31 large batches of tomatoes, awaiting seed extraction, 12-25

Counter cleared for the first time in months

Containers drying for 7-months of storage

Final 39 batches – sprint finish

8 of final 13 buckets of ~50 total of tomato pulp, etc.

Destined for the compost pile, waiting for some warm weather so scraps can be thawed and dumped

Finishing stretch of a 3-month tomato processing ultramarathon

Still to process, also this week: peppers, eggplants, melons, cucumbers, squash, herbs