TO SAVE TOMATO SEEDS:
Housed in a juicy fruit, tomato seeds need a special strategy to keep from germinating too soon. The seeds have a protective coating that is dissolved by the enzymatic action of molds in rotten fruit. Pick out your most perfect, very ripe tomatoes. Scoop seeds and the gelatinous goop around them into a container and set the mess aside until the top is covered with mold (usually two or three days, depending on temperatures). Then rinse well and dry the seeds on a screen or wax paper.

 

Here were our picks for 2010, the best of the best in flavor, vigor, and beauty (though tomatoes are exempt from the beauty requirement, Mountain Gold qualifies even on that front). Our growing methods are in the "beyond organic" category, but we're too small to justify the organic certification price tag, so you won't see "organic" on our labels. Our modest scale also means we don't necessarily grow the same varieties for seed each year. Stored dry and cool, these seeds will remain viable for several years, so if you might want it for next year, best to get it now.

All seeds are open-pollinated heirloom varieties.

Tomatoes have around 30 seeds per packet, peppers about 50, and poppies and Osaka Purple mustard - way too many to count. $3 per packet -- FREE shipping.




TENNESSEE HEIRLOOM
Winner of the Laytonville Farmers Market Tomato Tasting two years’ running. Big wonky shapes and thin skins make it unsuitable for commercial growers but just fine for the home garden. To outsmart birds and squirrels, who like it as much as we do, harvest when it’s pale pink. Tennessee Heirloom can ripen indoors to deep rose perfection with no loss of flavor.

Culture: Start seeds indoors six weeks before last frost. Be prepared to support big vines. Fall frost protection will extend your harvest.

Saving seed: This heirloom’s flowers are accessible to pollinating insects, so it needs 150 feet isolation from other old-time varieties.

MOUNTAIN GOLD TOMATO
Perfectly round, always good-looking, this bright yellow tomato bears delicious fruit on and on and on. It's a determinate, but it doesn't act that way! You'll have hundreds of exquisite big tomatoes. Fruits last for weeks on the vine without cracking. Meaty firm flesh can be easily dried in slices or cooked down into sauce. And because the vines are compact, plants can be grown without support. The gardener’s favorite.

Culture: Start seeds indoors six weeks before last frost. No need to stake them, but a thick straw mulch will keep fruits on the mounded plants clean and cushioned.

Saving seed: we isolated our Mountain Gold patch by 150 feet from other tomato varieties, more than necessary for this one. Fifty feet would do nicely.

KELLOGG’S BREAKFAST TOMATO
Always a favorite at taste tests, this big orange tomato
sometimes gets up to two pounds but doesn't lose its delicious, complex sweetness. It’s a beautiful fat slicer for fresh eating and also makes a lovely orangey sauce.

Culture: Start seeds indoors six weeks before last frost. Be prepared to support big vines. Fall frost protection will extend your harvest, and late tomatoes can ripen indoors.

Saving seed: Kellogg’s Breakfast needs to be separated from other heirloom tomatoes by 150 feet if you want to save the seed.

OSAKA PURPLE MUSTARD
Our favorite for eating and good looks. Steamed or stir-fried, even big leaves remain tender and mild. From seed to table in six weeks, Osaka Purple is frost- and heat-tolerant, so it can be grown practically all year. Be sure to tuck some in your flowerbeds. The purple rosettes are so beautiful they double as speedy ornamentals, filling in bare spots. We select for dark color as well as vigorous growth.

Culture: Growing these for seed last year meant we’ve had them coming up thick as a lawn this January beside the compost bays where we threw the stalks. They self-seeded in the hoop house too, emerging in November and growing vigorously all winter. They couldn’t be easier.

Saving seed: The plants need an extra two months and quite a bit of space to ripen seed. They’ll cross with any other brassica, so if you want seed you’ll have to be vigilant about wild mustards and any cabbage-family veggies that may try to flower at the same time.

FEHEROZON PAPRIKA
This Hungarian sweet pepper out-produces the rest, making dozens of 4” fruits on each plant. Pick at the pale yellow stage for delicious fresh eating, but let some ripen red to dry and powder for paprika with the best smoky sweet flavor.

Culture: Seeds germinate at 80 degrees, and young plants are very frost-sensitive, so start indoors six weeks before setting them out and watch for late freezes. Once they get going, the plants are very vigorous compact mounds, amazingly productive.

Saving seed: Keep peppers on the plants until they turn completely red, then scoop out the seeds and dry them. They can cross with other pepper varieties grown within 300 feet.

HUNGARIAN BREAD POPPY
This annual poppy is the variety grown for the poppy seeds used in breads and cakes. Highly nutritious, extremely productive, and easy to harvest–you’ll be surprised at your yields. Or you may just want to grow them for beauty’s sake. Five-foot-tall plants offer up many 3-inch papery blooms that are a favorite of bumblebees. Even the dry seedheads are attractive, and the plants will re-seed dependably. You’ll only need to buy seed once.

Culture: Start in late winter or early spring; they can tolerate mild frosts.

Saving seed: Bread poppies need at least a month after flowering to ripen. After the petals fall away, the little “space station” pods remain. When the arched windows ringing the pods open, the seeds are ready. Clip off the opened pods into a paper bag. Every day for a week or so, they’ll reward you with lots of seed (we harvested three pounds from 120 square feet).

mailing address:
P.O. Box 145
Laytonville CA 95454

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SEEDS from 2010