Greetings gardeners and growers

We hope that your gardens are looking great and producing abundantly. August is now well and truly upon us, and as is often the case with this month, the unsettled weather is here too. Its nice to have some rain but some more sun would also be welcome. We are not ready for Autumn yet!

We are pleased to have just moved our office/storage/packing space to the Dartington estate which is only 15 minutes drive from our new growing site. We are really grateful to Dartington for finding a space for us while our space at the farm is being built over the winter. We are also extremely gratful to our friends Chinnie and Henry who's farm we have been based at until now.

At the end of July we started to process our tomato seeds. This will now be a weekly activity until around the end of October. Carry on reading to learn how we do this.

How to process tomato seeds

Tomato seeds are easy to save. However the gel coating around the seed contains a germination-inhibiting enzyme which obviously we need to get rid of. This is done by fermenting the seeds, and then 'water-winnowing' them. The steps are as follows:

1. Harvest ripe tomatoes
2. Cut along the 'equator' and squeeze the seeds, juice and pulp into a jar (passata jars are perfect!)
3. Leave the mixture to ferment for 2-3 days in a warm place (22C is good) - stirring once per day. The good seeds will sink to the bottom after this time.
4. Top up the jar with fresh water and give it a good shake
5. Pour off the pulp making sure not to pour the seeds out too
6. Top up with fresh water again, and repeat this process until the water is really clean
7. Tip the seeds out into a sieve and then then spread them out to dry in a single layer on a non-porous surface (we use teflon chopping boards)
8. Leave to dry for a couple of weeks in an airy place and then break up the disk that will have formed
9. Store in a paper bag in a cool dry place

You can find a video of how to do this along with other seed-saving resources on our website, follow the link below

Growing tips for August

• Keep on top of your tomato side-shooting, it's easy to get lazy at this time in the season, but you'll thank yourself later!
• August is a big month for harvesting. Make sure you stay on top of your peas and courgettes to make sure you eat them at their best. If you have gluts of anything then you can preserve things by freezing or fermenting
• You can sow over-wintering green manures in August such as rye and vetch which will look after your soil over winter. We do not sell green manure seeds yet but recommend Cotswold Seeds. Make sure you buy organic though as they sell non-organic too.
• There's still plenty of veg you can sow such as lettuce, spring greens, oriental leaves, spring onions, rocket, and more. Check out our website for more info