This morning, whilst the sun is baking the earth outside, I am sheltering indoors to sit down and ponder our fortnightly newsletter. I've got a big bucket of 'Gardeners Delight' tomatoes beside me, which I'm stirring every fifteen minutes or so, having removed the skins to separate all the juicy, seedy, gloop. The time of year has come for us to begin harvesting our ripest, reddest tomatoes and save their seeds.

July is a glorious month, and it feels especially so with the continuation of sunshine and clear skies that we've been enjoying in Devon. I am a sun lover, and it is often the case that I fear the passing of summer, as though time is moving too fast at this time of year. I surprised myself earlier this week, waking to another day of full sunshine, with a warm thought of Autumn. I felt a yearning for the slowness brought by the change of season, and darker evenings. Perhaps it is the ripening blackberries in the hedgerows, or watching the squirrels gorge on green hazelnuts that is prompting me to think of Autumn in this way. Perhaps it is also that, at this time of year, it feels as though everything is happening at once and there is simply not enough time to soak it all in.

Working with plants, I feel a sort of synchronicity, where I too rely on the sun as much as they do, perhaps not for photosynthesis, but for many other important processes. I know that many of our crops will finish their life cycle by the end of summer. They will prepare for the winter ahead by handing us an abundance of seeds, which we will then take indoors to steward through the winter months. We will process them, clean them, packet them, and hold on to them until the next season begins.

On the farm, so many of our seed crops are suddenly ready for harvest. We've picked and threshed our 'Ratio' broad beans, and keep returning to harvest more of our 'Kiiro' and 'Apricotta' cosmos, 'Wild Garden' lettuce, Iceland poppies, 'Fantasia' and 'Nantes' carrots, taking only the seed heads that are dry and ready to burst.

Next week we will begin processing each of our sweet pea crops, which have all been harvested and hung on racks in the tunnels. Sweet pea pods in particular are prone to bursting, so we have to cover the racks with mesh. If you get close enough, you can hear the popping sounds as each pod tries to cast its seed as far and wide as possible.

As the month tips gently into August, we are almost ready to plant out our winter crops. Now that more and more seed crops have been harvested, there are empty bed spaces ready to be filled. The seed trays in the prop tunnel are full of lush, green seedlings, including kale, cabbage, swede, and plenty of chicory. These will all be planted out in the field over the next couple of weeks.

If you too are finding you have a little more space in the garden with the incoming harvests, now is a good time to sow a wide selection of vegetables and herbs, just in time to fill the gaps. You can have a look at what you can sow in July on our webpage, or pick up one of our 'ready to sow' second spring collections by clicking the button below.

Save your own tomato seeds

If you would like to save some of your own seeds this year, tomatoes are a simple one to start with. Most tomato varieties are self pollinating, so they won't cross with other tomatoes. This makes it easy to save seed from as you needn't worry too much about isolating different varieties from each other. Here's a simple how-to to get you going:

Step 1: Allow tomatoes to ripen fully on the vine. Collect a few from each variety you want to save.

Step 2: Slice each tomato in half across the middle and squeeze the pulp and seeds into a labelled jar. Press the seeds down to make sure they are fully covered in juice, adding water if needed.

Step 3: Leave in a warm place for 2-3 days to start fermenting, with a piece of muslin covering the top. Don't be concerned if mould develops on the surface.

Step 4: After 2-3 days, add plenty of water to the jar, stirring well. The good seeds should sink to the bottom, and the others float. Pour off the top layer of seeds and mould and tip the good seeds into a sieve and rinse them well under running water.

Step 5: Tip the sieve onto a plate and dry somewhere warm out of direct sunlight. Once dried, rub off the plate and store in a cool dry place ready for sowing next season.

Hopefully, wherever you are, you're finding time to enjoy the garden abundance. Bask a little in this sunshine, alongside all those plants you've been tending to, and keep enjoying the harvests as they come in.

Have a lovely weekend!

Izzy and the Vital Seeds team