The Largest Tomato Sandwich - And How I Save Seeds

 Can you even see the bread under there?  This is the largest tomato I will have this year.  It is from the Pike County plant and it is a beauty. 

Naturally we want to save seeds from not only the earliest fruit but 

also the biggest and most impressive fruit.

This is my method for saving tomato seeds.  Some people will just squish them out onto a paper towel and let them dry and certainly that will work.  This method will give you a little cleaner seed without pulp attached.  Be aware that some people have trouble with seeds sprouting before they dry.  I don't know if you are aware, but tomato seeds will sprout inside a tomato.

Source

Some people recommend that you only ferment seeds for 2 days for this reason.  I ferment mine for as much as a week or more and have not had a problem.  I just put the seed gel into a small glass and add some water.  After a few days you will get a nice layer of icky mold on top.  This means that the gel is breaking down and releasing the seeds.

I give it a good blast of water to break it up

The good seeds will drop back to the bottom.  I carefully pour off the mold and dirty water.  Give it another little blast of water.  Repeat this pouring off the dirty water and bits of pulp until the water runs clean...

... and the clean seeds are left at the bottom.

Pour off as much water as you can then dump the seeds out onto a waxed paper plate.

The plate can be used all season.  As soon as the seeds are dry they can be scraped off and put into an envelope.

So what do you do with a giant tomato if you can' eat it all at once?  Just place it face down on a plate like I did above and it will keep for a day on the kitchen counter.  

You can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.