There must be some trick to preparing seeds for storage.
I wanted to preserve some seeds from my Red Hmong
cucumbers so I let one get really ripe on the vine to the
point it was starting to decompose a little. Then I
extracted the seeds, washed thoroughly and cleaned up as
much of the slippery pulp as I could. Then I set them on
a tea towel to dry. They dried up into little shriveled
bits that bore almost no resemblance to a seed at all.
They sure do not look like they will be viable. Is there
something I am missing here?

I think you might have extracted the seeds to soon. Your
cucmbers were
probably decomposing a little as the seeds were taking in
all the nutrients.
Try leaving the seeds alone until the cuke is completely
dried out and
thus help ensuring that the seed has taken from the vine as
much that is
needed until planting time again. I store my seeds in
plastic sandwich
bags but leave the bag open. Keep in cool place over winter
then back
into the ground.

Donna
in WA