@muffy,
I had some tomatoes go bad, fall off the vine, and I just let them there in the raised bed.
Surprisingly, they rotted, the seeds got pressed down into the soil by the weight of the snow, and the following late spring, they sprouted.
What is more amazing, is not only did the catch up to the ones I started indoors weeks before, but ended up surpassing the indoor transplants!
Nature has a way!
