Good way to clean basil seeds?

[Neohippie]

I'm trying to save some basil seeds, and I was wondering if anyone had a clever method to remove the seeds from the little "capsules" they come in. (Hopefully y'all know what I mean. Looks like there's 4 seeds closed up in each little "husk" I stripped off the plant.)

I let them dry completely and stripped them off the stem, and then started rubbing them and scrunching them in my hands to see if the seeds would just pop out. A few did, but most of them are still tightly enclosed, and the rubbing seems to only smoosh the outsides of the capsules tighter around the seeds.

It's a bit tedious to pop each one open individually, so I was hoping someone knew an easier way.

[wmontanez]

I save basil seed but let them dry completely and then put in a plastic baggie and crushed them with my fingers. Then I use a white bowl and drop the debris slowly blowing while the seeds drops into the bowl anything else blows away. It may need 2 or 3 times to be cleaned but I don't mind few debris left on. It works the same with onion, lettuce and chives seed.

[b54red]

It sounds like you have seed husks that aren't quite dry enough. I skin off a bunch of them that look dry and then leave them in an open bowl inside to finish drying for a month and then just crush them between my fingers and blow the chaff away as wmontanez suggested.

[SEAMSFASTER]

If you have quite a few to do, consider taking the project outdoors and using a blow dryer on a low setting. Very large bowls or empty 5-gallon buckets can help keep the seeds contained while the chaff blows around and away.

[Neohippie]

Maybe they aren't dry enough. They have been sitting in an open bowl for at least a week, so I thought they were dry enough, but it has been humid lately.

I can take each individual one and pry it open with my fingernail, but if I rub them around on anything, they just roll around with the husks still tightly wrapped around the seeds within. They really don't want to come out of there easily.