Cut two pieces of rubber mat, one to fit within the wooden tray and the other to cover the lower surface and wrap around the sides of the wooden block. A sample of the rubber mat is attached below. Place seed pod in the tray and grind forcibly between the rubber mat on the wooden block and the rubber mat in the tray (corrugation side up). First grind gently to remove the spines, and then (while grinding) lean on the block with enough force to crush the pod. As the pod disintegrates, the seed will fall between the corrugations and be protected from damage. Remove large pod remnants by hand. For large quantities of seed, we remove small pod debris by gently tossing and shaking the mixture in large dustpan. With the proper technique and a little practice it is relatively simple to clean the seed. (Some ingenious (frustrated) truncatula biologist will likely improve on this last step!)
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