Milkwood: Build a Seed Bank – Save Tomato & Cucumber Seeds

This video tutorial from Milkwood demonstrates hands-on seed saving for building personal seed banks, covering wet and dry seed extraction, fermentation, drying, labeling, and storage with permaculture principles. Focuses on tomatoes and cucumbers: for fast method, scoop wet seeds onto paper, spread to dry fully, label, store once mold-free. Fermentation for tomatoes boosts viability and disease resistance: halve mature fruits, squeeze seeds into jars with water, ferment 2-3 days until frothy/scum forms (breaks down gel coating), sieve/wash seeds, dry on paper in airy spots until brittle. General process: harvest from ripe/discarded produce, extract (scoop for wet fruits), dry thoroughly to prevent mold, label varieties, store dry. Emphasizes complete drying timelines (days to weeks depending on conditions), using scrap paper for drying, and resources like downloadable guides. Regenerative insights: fermentation mimics natural processes, improves germination; saving from best plants adapts to local conditions; enables seed sovereignty. Practical details include timestamps for steps (e.g., fermentation at 10:46, sieving at 12:07), visual demos of scooping wet seeds, mold formation, and picking dry seeds off paper. Practitioners learn troubleshooting (wet seeds mold if not dried), viability enhancers (fermentation studies cited), and simplicity for beginners scaling to banks. Depth in dual methods per crop, exact handling (don't rinse pre-ferment), and integration with waste reduction makes it actionable for community/permaculture seed saving.