Last year's seed harvest was a bust...
Read all about it here... I let my seeds mold!!! It was a sad moment but here we are now and it's seed harvesting season again.
Before I go on I would like to point out that I am not a professional but I do love to learn... Practice helps me learn and of course so do my mistakes, but how can you make a mistake to learn from if you don't even try?
While reading my feed on steemit, I came across a really beautifully detailed post by 
Saving Tomato Seeds, Making Tomato Sauce and Brewing Tomato Wine!
So Here's what I did, roughly following the guidance of Pascal Poot, the guy who's growing tomatoes without water:
- Squeeze your tomatoes into a jar of your choice.
Add rainwater, about a quarter of the content.
Cover the jar with cheesecloth or some kind of screen material to keep critters out of it.
Let it sit a few days or until a white film develops over the top of the juice.
skim off that white layer.
Poor the content of the jar into a wire mesh ladle or something like it.
Rinse your seeds until all the pulp and anything else is gone.
- Set to dry in the sun.
- Store in a breathable container.
I tried a couple different things this summer. We had three tomato plots and two different types: Green Zebras and Beefsteaks.
The first plot was planted with 5 seedlings that never got watered and were never staked. This yielded a whole two tomatoes!!!! (We also had lots of rain this summer and it was located in a place that became shady maybe too early in the afternoon!)
The second plot was staked, had more sun and I watered irregularly (on the days it didn't rain). Though I must admit there were planty of days I didn't water anything to give them a chance to search for water, if they needed it, on their own.
This third plot was the same as the second plot excepted I never steaked the three plants that were in it.
Plot 2 and 3 yielded a nice amount of tomatoes. They weren't the best, juiciest tomotoes I've ever had and a lot of them grew with cracks which doesn't bother me but it seems like it was due to growth stunt and spurts or something, like some grew too fast at times...? I don't know.
I want to add that I also didn't prep the soil in any way, no till and no firtilizer was introduced.
Hopefully this years harvest will be better than last year's... Waiting a year after making a mistake is a long learning curve!
If you don't like your surroundings, change them
If you don't like your situation, change it.
If you don't like your decisions, make different ones.
All of this leads to the life that YOU want to lead, not the one others want you to lead.
Life is like chess, always try and think at least 5 moves ahead, and if you can see the dead ends you can avoid them.
