Harvest Moon

Yesterday was both the Autumnal Equinox and a Full Moon, specifically the Harvest Moon, so named because, as with every full moon it rises at sunset, and it gave farmers extra light with which they could finish harvesting their crops. 

I love reflecting upon the moon and the changing of the seasons, it reminds me of all the natural cycles with which we are privy to. One cycle in particular that has captured my attention in the past few year has been the seed to seed cycle. Seeds that grow into plants that make new seed.

I experiment with seed saving, sometimes I make it out in time to save the seeds and other times it just rots in my garden. There are two methods for saving seed, the dry method, which is easiest and used with seeds like grains, beans, lettuces, carrots, etc.

The trickier method is the 'wet' method, which I am trying to use on tomatoes. The idea is to ferment or rot the seeds for a few days to break down a protective gel coating which would otherwise prevent germination. Here you can see one good one is rotting, the other sadly has dried up.

Then you rinse the seed clean of any material beside the seed itself (think rotting tomato flesh, bugs, whatever.)

The viable seeds sink to the bottom where everything else floats making it fairly simple to separate

All the books suggest using screens, but I didn't have any around, so I am using a clean dish cloth to dry my seed out. I will do a germination test on these seeds once all my seeds have been saved to see how successful I have been. Tomato seeds are so pretty and furry, just like their sprouts and the large plants themselves.