Handy Tip..Saving Tomato Seeds

1. Rinse tomatoes in water to remove dirt before harvesting seeds. Cut off open or damaged parts of fruit. We collect tomatoes in five gallon buckets then fill them with water. Cleaning any dirt off becomes a natural sweeping motion with your hands as you grab tomatoes from the water.
2. Cut open ripe tomatoes one variety at a time and squeeze the pulp, juice and seeds into a container. If you have strong hands, you may crush the tomato in a five gallon bucket. Try to develop skill holding the tomato right side up and opening the tomato from the bottom blossom, and, with your fingers, then milking the germplasm gel which contains the seeds off the central column. This is the fastest method.
3. Pour into a container with a lid. Do not add water as a substitute for tomato juice since dilution slows fermentation.
4. Label and set aside the containers for three days at a temperature not more than 70°F (21°C).
5. Stir the fermenting juices to submerge the pulpy material, once or twice daily. This prevents the build up of mold which is not harmful to the seeds but may discolor them.
6. After three days decant. Pour into a larger container that allows you to add three or more times the volume of water and pour off the pulpy water but not the seeds at the bottom. Viable tomato seeds will sink. Repeat two or three times until seeds are clean. Note: not all viable seed varieties sink in water.