Saving Tomato Seeds is Easy!

Saving tomato seeds is super easy, and we love that you can both save the seeds and eat the fruit too.  

1.  Tomatoes are (mostly) self pollinating so you can save seed from just one plant if that's all you have.  Keep the varieties separate though if you want them to stay true to type.
2.  Tomatoes will ripen off the vine, but for fully ripe seed you need to allow them to ripen on the vine before picking.
3.  Cut off the top and squeeze seeds and juice into a cylindrical fermentation container like a bucket or jar.  The fruits themselves can be used to make sauce or paste.
4.  The bucket should be left at room temperature to help fermentation.  
5.  After 24-48 hours, fermentation will have broken down the gelatinous coating that comes on tomato seeds to prevent them from germinating inside the fruit.  Heavy ripe seeds will have sunk to the bottom, and unripe seeds and flesh will remain at the top.
6.  Pour the floating contents of the bucket off, adding water and utilizing several pours to get clean seeds at the bottom. 
7.  Strain and spread out seeds to dry in an airy place, or next to fans.  The quicker the drying, the longer the overall seed life.