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| I'm posting here rather than Tomato forum since maybe more people here blanch and peel their tomatoes. I have some Orange Minsk which are *wonderful* but catfaced, they make a lovely jam so I blanched and peeled them but I'd like to save the seeds since I have a lot of "goo" on the cutting board right now. Will the seeds be OK, or did the blanching (more than 30 secs to get the catfaced parts loose) make them not viable? I should have saved seed earlier, now it looks like I've got LB on these plants so I don't think I can save seed from later ones (though I do have a few in the garage that don't look like they have lesions). I wanted to make jam and didn't want to make a huge mess cutting the ones I picked last week open to get the seeds out first. |
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| Probably did them in but you can always same save and try to germinate them. That's the only way you'll know for sure. Next time save the seeds first. Dave |
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| Yeah, I know, like I said I just didn't want to make a real mess cutting them open first. The few I have out in the garage that are ripe don't show any leathery lesions, so maybe I'll just eat those raw, or put through the Victorio before cooking, so I can save the seeds. These are one of the varieties that I didn't have good germination with from purchased seed this year so I figured I should save some, might have better luck - or at least a lot more seed to try. I poured the goo into an 8oz jelly glass and added a little water then covered with plastic wrap with a couple of holes, put the glass in a bowl in a dark corner by the the MW. Just ferment them like you do pickles? I've never saved tomato seeds, only peppers so haven't fermented before. I can try germinating a few next week after they've dried to see what happens. I thought I'd been really careful about not throwing tomatoes in the compost b/c of SWD (and when I pulled some plants with LB I bagged them), but I've got lots of seedlings coming up in the compost! DH hasn't turned it lately. I just can't think of any I might have thrown in the compost, so maybe these were from skins and seeds left in the icewater he threw in the compost after blanching tomatoes for salsa about 10 days ago? If they are, then the seeds CAN survive the blanching... |
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| Blanching should not do any harm to seeds if done properly. Drop a tomato in violently boiling water for just 10 seconds , take it out put it in "ice + water". Not even to a depth 1/4" is heated significantly. As you canners always talk about heat penetration into solids, how much heat, how deep can penetrate into a solid like tomato in 10 seconds ?. So I would do it without any reluctance. |
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| Yeah, that's what I figured, the interior didn't get to 200 degrees, though the outer flesh is pretty hot. I did have the tomatoes in the boiling water for more than 30 secs though to try to get the catfacing off. But if those seeds in the compost are from some larger tomatoes (the red ones didn't catface as much as the orange) that had been used to make salsa then there's a good chance these are viable since those had been blanched for a few seconds more than the paste tomatoes. And there are a LOT of seedlings - I was surprised. |
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