Seed Saving in the Garden
A text by Mara Arts
At Braziers Park, we grow much of our own fruit and vegetables – fresh ingredients that find their way into meals cooked for both our community and our guests. Our substantial Victorian walled garden, a century-old greenhouse, and a thriving polytunnel provide the foundation for our growing efforts. Beyond these, our orchard bursts each year with apples, pears, and plums from dozens of trees, giving us an abundance of fruit to enjoy and preserve.
We garden without pesticides and use the ‘no-dig’ method for most of our vegetable beds. Our focus is on working with nature rather than against it – nurturing soil life, encouraging biodiversity, and supporting the long-term health of our plants. An important part of this approach is saving seeds from our own crops whenever we can.
Saving your own seeds offers many rewards:
Of course, seed saving is not always simple. Many plants sold as ‘F1 hybrids’ are the result of carefully controlled cross-breeding. Seeds saved from these won’t produce the same plants next year, so new seeds must be bought if you want to repeat the exact variety.
Some crops, like courgettes, also tend to cross-pollinate. If you grow different varieties side by side, insects will happily carry pollen between them, producing a new mix of characteristics that might not taste great. To avoid this, it is best to grow only one variety or to keep them well separated.
Fortunately, other plants are much easier to work with. Tomatoes and peppers, for instance, rarely cross-pollinate, making them perfect candidates for seed saving. In 2025, we grew both, peppers in the polytunnel and tomatoes in both the polytunnel and greenhouse. We trialled a variety of tomato types, some entirely new to us, and as the season progressed, we noted which plants were the most vigorous and most generous in their harvest. Flavour, too, became a deciding factor – a few new varieties looked promising but failed to deliver in taste or timing, so we won’t be growing those again.
Once we had identified our favourites – the strong performers with abundant, delicious fruit – we tagged them so that a few tomatoes could fully ripen on the vine. When the time was right, we collected these fruits carefully, saving their seeds for next year’s planting.
Photographs by Caroline Vitzthum
Mara’s step-by-step seed saving guide
Step one: select your fruitAs mentioned earlier, we began by marking the plants we wanted to save seeds from and waited patiently for each to produce at least one perfect tomato. These were left to ripen fully on the plant – the riper the fruit, the better the seeds inside.
Step two: remove the seeds
Once ready, I cut the tomatoes in half and scooped out the soft middle – seeds, jelly, and the central columella – into separate jars for each variety. I then added enough water to cover the contents.
Step three: let them get mouldy
This part may sound odd, but it is essential. I left the jars of tomato pulp and water in my room for about four days, stirring them once a day. During this time, a layer of mould forms on top – this helps break down the jelly that surrounds the seeds. If that jelly dries on the seeds, it can stop them from germinating next year, so it is worth letting nature do the work.
Step four: rinse and dry
After a few days, I poured the mixture through a sieve and rinsed the seeds well, then spread them out on pieces of tissue paper to dry. I kept each variety separate and clearly labelled. The tissue papers went onto a plastic chopping board and were left to dry in one of our larders – a cool, airy space where they could sit undisturbed for several days.
Step five: pack away
Once completely dry, I folded each batch of seeds in paper and stored them in labelled envelopes, noting the variety and the year they were saved. These envelopes now form part of our growing seed collection and will be used in next year’s plantings.
The process for saving pepper seeds is even simpler: just remove the seeds from ripe peppers, spread them on tissue paper, and let them dry – no moulding stage needed.
In addition to tomatoes and peppers, we are now planning to save seeds from our aubergines and several varieties of beans grown this year. With these, we will have a strong foundation for planning our 2026 vegetable crop and, most importantly, one that continues to grow from our own saved seeds.
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Explore a healthy recipe put together by our former Kitchen Coordinator Chris Chapman here.