Thanks everyone for all the input and advice! I wanted a lot of seeds because I hoped to offer them to the people on seed savers forum who donated seeds to a program with people who have profound disabilities where I work. These are probably a named tomato but I don't know the variety. The Swartzentruber Amish family I buy them from doesn't know the type. They just call it a low acid tomato and have been saving the seeds for "a long time". The plants produce an amazing yield of large to very large tomatoes. The fruit is meaty and most are round or oblong, rarely lumpy and excellent for slicing. They have good old fashioned flavor. I actually like the flavor of the brandywine and better yet, Cleota Pinks a little more, but these are very worthy tomatoes. From the road or vegetable stand I can't tell if the plants are potato leafed or not. I did save seeds from several nice tomatoes that weren't blanched. Instead of fermenting them the way I usually do, I placed them in a tupperware sandwich container with pinholes punched all through the lid (from different project). They got moldy!!!!!! Don't know if I'll have any to share or not. Might go buy a few more. They sell individually for .50 a piece. So.. that's the story behind the seeds! Linda Renee

The cliff notes version for anyone who is on dial-up wanting to see the Bearded Gardener video: 1. Cut tomato and scoop out seeds with a spoon into blender (3 "Sam Marzanos"). 2. More than half fill blender with tap water. (He uses "Magic Bullit") 3. Blend (relatively vigorously) for 10 seconds 4. Seeds settle and he adds water a few times and dumps it until it runs clear. 5. Dumps seeds into a non-porous "Chinese take out food" plastic tray. (Shows a polypropylene black tray) and slowly pours out the rest of the drops of water. 6.Sets tray aside to dry for up to 48 hours but says he packs them after 24 hours. Note this is Part 1 video to watch tomatoes seeds in a blender 10 minutes. Stay tuned as we see them dry and bagged in Part 2 ;-) and you are invited to subscribe. OP, Some people do use blenders. Usually it is done at a lower speed, and then seeds are sometimes fermented anyway. That's because their family put up with it more than yours. It is considered poor form to exchange seeds prepared this way by some. The value of fermentation is more to produce natural antibiotics during the process which can prevent the transmission of some diseases such as bacterial spot, canker and speck. That is why we do fermentation. It is nature's method which provides some degree of protection, without resorting to chemical treatments to accomplish the same thing. Many don't consider it a time saving process to dirty up a blender when they just drop the seed mass into a jar and forget about it, and then do the same thing without using electricity. The actual time spent is less for fermentation. Also your seeds are drying more slowly than the standard of using a porous medium such as a paper towel. This may decrease shelf life of the seeds and give disease further opportunity to multiply. Thanks for sharing your ideas ;-) & hope this helps. Nice video. PC This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 0:41

Nothing wrong with fermenting, I just haven't had good luck with it. I haven't had it work to remove the goo any better than just rinsing but still is easy enough to do following your instructions so yes, many people ferment tomato seeds and have success. In fact, I would recommend trying it both ways and seeing which one you have success with. If fermenting works for you then it is still easy peasy to save tomato seeds. Now is the time to do it too!! Until the big money is in home gardening, Monsanto is not going after garden seeds. They are working where the big money is, commodity crops like corn and soy and perhaps eventually wheat. There is a reason those crops are patented, that's where the big money is for Monsanto selling Roundup. But it remains to be seen how this whole business of patenting a gene will play out. Meanwhile, I am trying to bring back the art of seed saving, because natural capital like that so far is FREE! There's also a whole movement afloat to plant "food forests" in local parks so folks can forage. I already know a bunch of folks who scope out free food in their towns and neighborhoods. You'd be surprised how many folks have some food plant in their yard that for them is just a nuisance instead of a benefit. Selling seeds isn't a big moneymaker at this point in time, which is why Monsanto has been able to buy up so many seed companies. They own natural capital but there is no guarantee that they will be good stewards over it. But then there was no guarantee that the former owners of the seed companies would be able to save them either. The stability of our food sources will come from spreading out the responsibility so that we don't have all our eggs in one basket. My next move is to try and get kids in schools to saving seeds and then planting them. Unlike school gardens, seed saving fits in perfectly with the school year--save the seeds in the fall and then start them inside in the spring and then you can either sell the plants, donate them to a community garden, or take them home at the end of the school year. Oh, and if you're really concerned about this, join a seed savers exchange, something like Seed Savers, www.seedsavers.org There are also state and regional ones, some more successful and active than others. I belong to a MI one that is run as a Yahoo group. Here's a link to my blog, which at this point is suffering from big neglect due to my being in the midst of moving, but anyway, I did write one article on seed saving, Seed saving adventures There are tons of good blog articles online about seed saving, very easy to get into it if you have access to the Internet and know how to do a good Google search. But also plenty of books on the subject too. They have a seed catalog at the Grand Rapids (MI) library too I found out. The kids "check out" a seed packet and then they need to plant them and at the end of the year they are supposed to return more seeds back to the library. The librarian said that the main point is to get kids growing, I don't know if there is a fine if you don't return the seeds, lol!

thats interesting, i have never seen any similar type instructions, recommending using any cleaners. i ferment my tomato seeds, actually i started doing it more the last few years. sometimes i dont do it when i am pressed for time, although its not that hard, and its fast... sometimes i just dont and get lazy! and actually i always get good germination even if i skip this step, but they dont always get as clean without the fermenting, and then i get paranoid they might go bad. so far that hasnt happened, but i like how nice and clean they come out with just a brief fermentation. and i got convinced this also prevents potential problems with the resulting seedlings, is my understanding of why its important. it sounds a little bit counter intuitive, but i think it is true. the fermented seeds are more disease resistant, get really really clean, and are the most viable. but lately i have been doing it with all of my tomatoes, as well i have been fermenting any berry seeds, and also melons and cucumbers too. i have a theory about fruit seeds, that fermenting is the way to go with anything sweet and fruity,theres a good reason basically why the plant/tree encases the seeds inside something that will naturally ferment, which removes the germination inhibitors through the fermenting, and makes the resulting plant stronger. there are some seeds (like berries) that are reallu nearly impossible to start...where most berries have a strong coating of germination inhibitors is part of why they are so hard. i also tend to think, for fruit and other things where the seed is encased in organic matter, that quite possibly the best seeds would not be very clean, but have some of the fruit still left on them...because of the fermenting process that will happen when you plant. this is much different than grains or veggies or herbs seeds, which you can dry and store simply for years...fruit are really tough to start. and i think part of it is that people clean their seeds too much to look just so, which IMO (and just my own theory) a funky looking fruit seed with a little dried fruit clinging to it, would look weird and be way more viable. with the berry seeds...if one can go right from the fruit into a bowl to ferment, fermented for longer than tomatoes, and then planted, i believe this gives them the best shot to grow, be disease resistant (the fermenting process destroys pathogens so i have read), and have that resistant germination inhibitor fermented off....