(and some cool new cars)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tomatoes for Next Year: Saving Seeds
About a week and a half ago I started the process of saving some of my heirloom tomato seeds. Make sure they are heirlooms or open-pollinated, because hybrids won't work. After choosing a healthy beautiful specimen of each type, I extracted the seeds. Picking a large, healthy tomatoes with qualities you like is important. The seeds will replicate the characteristics of the parent tomato when they grow into a plant.
After cutting the tomato in half around its middle, or its 'equator', you can scoop out some seeds and put them into a cup or other container. Then you cover them with 2-3 inches of water.
This is what my seeds looked like after they sat for 4-5 days. I labeled each cup so that I would remember which seeds were which. You might wonder why you can't just take the seeds out of the tomato and dry them out. I learned that you have to complete a 'fermentation' process to dissolve the gel coating that is around the seeds. Unless this gel coating is removed, the seeds are not likely to germinate the next year when you plant them. A rotting tomato on the ground is implementing the process on its own. We replicate it indoors so that we can plant the seeds when and where we want them in the spring.
The plastic wrap over the top (with holes poked in it) helps the liquid ferment faster. You might even want to set the cups in a warm area to speed the process along. It gets very stinky! But don't worry...that means you're doing it right. Take off the covering and stir it once a day until it is done (usually 4-5 days).
When it is time to get them out, pour the seeds and their stinky juices through a strainer of some kind. The strainer has to have really little holes so you don't lose your seeds down the drain. Make sure to get rid of any remaining gel. I didn't see any gel left on my seeds. Then I dumped the seeds out onto a paper plate. You could also use a coffee filter or paper towel. I spread out the seeds and marked each plate with the name of the seed.
When the seeds are all dried, a few days later, you can store them for next year. I put those little silicone gel packets in with my seeds to keep them from mildewing over the winter.
These are a few of the varieties I saved this year. Of course, my new favorite, Purple Cherokee. The one on the left is more ripe. The picture doesn't even do justice to the beautiful deep purple color it becomes. You'll have to excuse my pictures. I forgot to take pictures until after I had already chopped my tomatoes open and removed their seeds. So I had to take pictures of the less ripe versions.
These are the beautiful speckled romans. I have heard some people say that it doesn't have a unique flavor and doesn't produce well, but I got quite a few of these on my plants. When they are fully ripe, they look fantastic sliced on a plate. And of course, they are a wonderful sauce tomato. Imagine a really long fat roma trying to look like a hot pepper.
This is my unknown, unnamed yellow tomato. I could NOT find it in my garden journal. So I have no idea what it is, but it turns almost orange when it is fully ripe. My guess would be Nebraska Wedding tomato. A pretty tomato with nice solid color. Most of these didn't crack too bad...nor did the Purple Cherokee.
I think this might be Early Cascade. It is a volunteer I found growing in my garden in April (in IOWA), that's what a weird winter we had. I found a card in the garden from the previous owner that said Early Cascade, so I'm guessing this is one. Not spectacular as far as tomatoes go, but a decent producer. Not always very big, either, but cherry red and dependable. It won't win any awards in my book.
I also saved La Romas, but forgot to take a picture of those. These are the beautiful black cherry tomatoes. They make a wicked pretty jar of diced tomatoes. They have a fresh, acid-y taste, and their color fades from green to almost black in places. I will be saving seeds from these in my 2nd round.
I have to thank all my twitter friends who gave me advice on this subject, including all the tweeps at #gardenchat. Also, Colleen Vanderlinden wrote a wonderful step by step guide that I consulted before embarking on this project. You can check it out here.
I have saved seeds before, but this is my first year saving seeds from tomatoes. I look forward to seeing if the seeds germinate and make delicious tomatoes next year in this mom's garden!
After cutting the tomato in half around its middle, or its 'equator', you can scoop out some seeds and put them into a cup or other container. Then you cover them with 2-3 inches of water.
This is what my seeds looked like after they sat for 4-5 days. I labeled each cup so that I would remember which seeds were which. You might wonder why you can't just take the seeds out of the tomato and dry them out. I learned that you have to complete a 'fermentation' process to dissolve the gel coating that is around the seeds. Unless this gel coating is removed, the seeds are not likely to germinate the next year when you plant them. A rotting tomato on the ground is implementing the process on its own. We replicate it indoors so that we can plant the seeds when and where we want them in the spring.
The plastic wrap over the top (with holes poked in it) helps the liquid ferment faster. You might even want to set the cups in a warm area to speed the process along. It gets very stinky! But don't worry...that means you're doing it right. Take off the covering and stir it once a day until it is done (usually 4-5 days).
When it is time to get them out, pour the seeds and their stinky juices through a strainer of some kind. The strainer has to have really little holes so you don't lose your seeds down the drain. Make sure to get rid of any remaining gel. I didn't see any gel left on my seeds. Then I dumped the seeds out onto a paper plate. You could also use a coffee filter or paper towel. I spread out the seeds and marked each plate with the name of the seed.
When the seeds are all dried, a few days later, you can store them for next year. I put those little silicone gel packets in with my seeds to keep them from mildewing over the winter.
These are a few of the varieties I saved this year. Of course, my new favorite, Purple Cherokee. The one on the left is more ripe. The picture doesn't even do justice to the beautiful deep purple color it becomes. You'll have to excuse my pictures. I forgot to take pictures until after I had already chopped my tomatoes open and removed their seeds. So I had to take pictures of the less ripe versions.
These are the beautiful speckled romans. I have heard some people say that it doesn't have a unique flavor and doesn't produce well, but I got quite a few of these on my plants. When they are fully ripe, they look fantastic sliced on a plate. And of course, they are a wonderful sauce tomato. Imagine a really long fat roma trying to look like a hot pepper.
This is my unknown, unnamed yellow tomato. I could NOT find it in my garden journal. So I have no idea what it is, but it turns almost orange when it is fully ripe. My guess would be Nebraska Wedding tomato. A pretty tomato with nice solid color. Most of these didn't crack too bad...nor did the Purple Cherokee.
I think this might be Early Cascade. It is a volunteer I found growing in my garden in April (in IOWA), that's what a weird winter we had. I found a card in the garden from the previous owner that said Early Cascade, so I'm guessing this is one. Not spectacular as far as tomatoes go, but a decent producer. Not always very big, either, but cherry red and dependable. It won't win any awards in my book.
I also saved La Romas, but forgot to take a picture of those. These are the beautiful black cherry tomatoes. They make a wicked pretty jar of diced tomatoes. They have a fresh, acid-y taste, and their color fades from green to almost black in places. I will be saving seeds from these in my 2nd round.
I have to thank all my twitter friends who gave me advice on this subject, including all the tweeps at #gardenchat. Also, Colleen Vanderlinden wrote a wonderful step by step guide that I consulted before embarking on this project. You can check it out here.
I have saved seeds before, but this is my first year saving seeds from tomatoes. I look forward to seeing if the seeds germinate and make delicious tomatoes next year in this mom's garden!
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Unnamed Tomato
Okay, I am confused. I have two tomatoes here, and I am sure that ONE of them is Mr. Stripey. At first, I thought it was the one on the left. A beautiful tomato in itself....very firm, large, little cracking, nice orange color. However, today I found the tomato on the right. While it is still a little green...I think it is the actual Mr. Stripey. Let's examine evidence piece #2.
When I flip them over, I believe the 2nd one has the telltale 'stripes' of Mr. Stripey. Which is fine, it is also a beautiful hefty tomato. But this leaves me with a problem.
What is the first tomato? My friend @erynia from twitter gave me many plants, but I don't think this is one she gave me. I also bought a few random tomato plants at the greenhouse, which is where I think this one came from. What is it then? I would be very grateful for help identifying it, because it is a very nice-tasting one. Is it orange enough to be Nebraska Wedding Tomato? I can't remember if I picked one of those up or not. May seems so long ago. Maybe I wrote it in my garden journal.
These are black cherry tomatoes....I just think they are lovely.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Iowa State Fair: Visit #1
When we went to the fair yesterday...it was 96 degrees. If that doesn't sound bad enough for you...the heat index was like 110! But we are HARD CORE fairgoers...so we went anyways. I took the little camera, which needs to be replaced, so bear with me on the slightly fuzzy photos at times, but there was no way I was dragging the big clunky one around. First of all, I love to take pics in the master gardener garden area. I am SO doing this either this year or next. I will probably have to wait til next year. It is so cute. And those are plastic pots, so this could be done very cheaply.
I love these colors! The purple, red, and yellow are so bold! I always like to get ideas when I am here.
I don't know these people, I'll admit, but they are so cute. It was late afternoon and I caught them having a little break. I personally don't know how they could lean on each other at those temperatures. My guy and I are usually pretty snuggly...but we could not stand to hardly touch because we were sweating so bad.
My son enjoyed the firetruck simulation. All the stuff inside the truck works, or seems to work, and he can hear scanner traffic inside the headphones. Below...this is me attempting to feed this deer-like creature in the petting zoo. You can see through the progression of photos my reaction to how slimy this creatures tongue was...The last one is kind of blurry but you can see my face, I think.
This is a really horrible cellphone pic I took of me and my guy. We were really, really sweaty, and I actually was unsure about including it.
Finally, more pics of beautiful mass plantings at the fair. You might notice if you read my blog regularly that they have a lot of the same plants that I do...or maybe I have a lot of the same plants they do. I shop at the master gardener sale every year, and that is the same stock they use for the fairgrounds garden.
Look! Castor bean plants that are staked up and not leaning painfully to one side. Sigh. I am going to have to buy a metal pole driver thing and stake mine up. None of my regular stakes are strong enough.
Stay tuned for more posts on the fair...I plan on going three more times! Do you visit the fair in your state?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Wordless Wednesday - Cool Stuff at the Botanical Center
(This is the same cactus, blooming back in January. I never noticed the sign before)
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