Here we go, into the third issue of Volume 2. Everything is pretty much on schedule, as my guess is that it would take all year to post OTV in its entirety, article by article. I hope folks are enjoying them.

We start as usual with Carolyn’s introductory column of this and that. Let’s read together…it is, as is typical, very meaty - packed with various ideas and thoughts and plans from Carolyn. I will comment on things that surprised me after the article.

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C and C’s Corner

by Carolyn

It might be a good idea to read this column first because I introduce to you the various articles and their authors. Also, please remember that the masthead on page two of each issue tells you how to contact Craig and me and states the current subscription and back issue coasts.

If your mailing label as 23 next to your name (23 means volume 2, #3), it’s time to renew your subscription to Off The Vine; we hope you’ll stay with us. Renewal notices will not be sent out, so after you’ve read this issue please send your renewal, clearly marking it as a renewal, before the next issue is published, which should be in May, 1996.

Our regular subscribers know that in February of 1995 we announced that subscription prices would increase as of Volume 3. Thus, subscription prices for both renewals and new subscribers are now $7 for US residents, $8 (US) for Canadian and Mexican residents and $9 (US) for all other foreign addresses for three issues. I would appreciate it if non-USA subscribers would please send checks only if they are from a US based account’ if they are not, I have to return them to you. Canadian Postal Money Orders in US funds are just fine as an alternative for our Canadian readers.

And speaking about renewals, I was pleased and surprised to get a 10 year renewal to Off The Vine from Viola Sheffield. I can’t speak for Craig, but I simply had not thought about what I’d be doing in 2006! I had a lovely chat with Viola, and she expressed “faith” in us but….we’ll see!

We have three guest authors for this issue. Many of you will recognize Dr. Tad Smith’s name because Tad also is the source of two of the Ff2 seed varieties we are offering in this issue. Tad is a Research Associate at Rohm and Hass in the Agricultural Products Research Group. He is a talented hybridizer and has written an article to encourage the novice gardener to get involved in hybridizing heirloom tomatoes. I think his ideas about “practicing” first will appeal to many who are put off with detailed genetic descriptions. We expect a follow-up articles with more genetic characteristics and how to stabilize crosses in an upcoming issue (also see seed source article in this issue).

I know that some of you currently sell/trade your heirloom tomatoes and some are thinking of doing it, so I asked Jeff Dawson to write an article on selling tomatoes to the restaurant trade, which he has done for several years. Jeff is the Garden Director for Fetzer Valley Oaks Vineyards in California, where they grow a wide variety of heirloom vegetables for study and use in their test kitchens. Jeff has written an article on eggplants for the new Taunton Press magazine Kitchen Gardening; the article will appear this summer (ditto my article on heirloom tomatoes for the same publication).

Doreen Howard is a free-lance professional garden writer from Texas and has written an article about rigors of growing heirloom tomatoes in the semi-tropics! I hear more complaints and anguish from folks along the gulf coast re tomato growing, than from any other area in the US! Doreen has published articles in every major gardening magazine at one time or another. Her most recent one, that I’m aware of, was in the Farmer’s Almanac Gardening Companion (out in mid-January, 1996) where she interviewed several folks about their one best tasting vegetable in a number of categories. As an interviewee I was dumbfounded when she said I could name only one tomato! Ridiculous, said I, and then laughed when I found out that Jeff McCormack and I had independently picked German Red Strawberry as our top tasting tomato! Doreen can be contacted at Doreen@mastnet.net or (409) 849-2160.

Craig has written a timely and very important article about descriptions of heirloom tomatoes in current catalogs and has interviewed Calvin Wait as our featured “tomato” person, while I have written, as usual, this column and the Seed Source article describing selected seed companies and our seed offering for 1996.

Green Grape, Green Zebra and Banana Legs. These varieties will be familiar to many of you. But did you know that they were hybridized or “created” by Tom Wagner, who sold seed for them and other of his novelty tomatoes in the early 1980s, through his Tater Mater Seed Company? Tom called me a few years ago and I knew that he was no longer putting out a catalog and selling seeds. He called me again recently to request certain heirloom varieties to use in his breeding program. Tom currently works as a consultant for The DiMare Co., working with hybrid tomatoes, but his first loves are his novelty tomatoes and potatoes. Now here’s where you, our readers, area going to help solve a problem and offer some solutions! Tom would like to offer seeds again, but he needs support and a greenhouse to continue his work. He has some fantastic new tomatoes to offer, but can’t offer them himself. If he sends them for trial to seed companies he will receive virtually nothing in return, just as Craig and I receive virtually nothing in return for sending seeds out for trial. Craig and I are sending out heirloom tomatoes which really belong to everyone, but Tom has 43 years of professional breeding experience, he started at age 8, and these are his creations which he hybridized and stabilized. So, suggest ways that Tom can realize some return from these new varieties and/or identify a source of support so he can continue his program. Let me whey your appetite by describing a few of them. Tangerine Zebra is tangerine with green stripes and is milder and less acid than Green Zebra. Saucy Green is a green when ripe Roma type which can be used for salads, dips, etc. Brandystripe is pink and yellow striped with red flesh and Angora type fully foliage. Christmas tomato is red with green stripes; Strawberry Surprise is so shaped and sized, pink with yellow orange flesh. Chile Verde is a long, skinny green when ripe tomato, and Cafady’s Folly is a long slender red fruit with yellow zig zag stripes. Sounds terrific! Craig and I will be growing out these and other of Tom’s new creations in our gardens this summer and reporting back to him and you how they do in the south (NC) and north (NY). He has several dozen varieties ready now and potentially hundreds of varieties available. Please call or write me with your ”solutions” and I will communicate with Tom. And no, don’t come to our gardens this summer looking for seed. I promised Tom that we would guard them, and if that means “confiscating” even a stray raccoon or woodchuck trying them for breakfast or lunch, so be it!

In the last issue I asked the person who sent me Mexico tomato to contact me so that I could give proper credit, and Elton Dorval did so. He stressed that Mexico can be picked quite green and does very well ripening late. And I want to thank the many folks who offered to send out the F2 seeds described in this issue. Pat Millard was the first to contact me, so he “wins” so to speak. But to have at least 12 of you offer made me feel very good. Read more about Pat and the F2 seeds in the Seed Source article.

I’m sure many of you saw in the newspapers the recent study from Harvard which reported that eating tomato sauce at least six times a week significantly reduced the rate of prostate cancer! I’m pleased to share with our lady readers that lycopene, a red pigment found in tomatoes, may also be of benefit to women with regard to other cancers. Dr. John Navazio of Garden City Seeds has an active program regarding beta carotenes, which, like lycopenes, are carotenoid pigments. He is working with tomatoes, as well as other vegetables, and hopefully will share this work with us in the future. Be cautioned, though, because a recent study also showed a positive link between beta-carotene consumption and lung cancer, but the beta carotene levels were from supplements, not from eating vegetables.

I really look forward to your comments when you send in your renewals and I also pass some of them on to Craig. They range from repositioning the staples (can’t- done by machine), to keep it low key (we don’t know any other way), to why you don’t have a column on tomato diseases and culture. The answer to the latter is no. We hope to offer you specialized information on heirlooms. There are many fine publications which cover diseases and culture of all tomatoes and we would refer you to those. From time to time folks call me, usually distraught because “stuff is dying”, and I try to help out, but we’d prefer not to do a column. So thank you for your comments when you renew, and please let us know how we are doing in terms of meeting your needs. We are always looking for readers to contribute material for Off The Vine; just contact me before writing and submitting something. Craig wanted to share the following paragraph with you.

“I hope you all had a nice holiday. In NC we had a huge (for here) snowstorm in early January; 2” of snow was sandwiched around 4” of sleet. I felt more like 20 than 40 as I sledded with my daughters and cross country skied with my wife. Work was called off for most of the week and I got to relax at last! Now life is busy again, things are chaotic at GlaxoWellcome, and seed catalogs are pouring in. The next big arrival should be the 1996 SSE yearbook, followed by the onslaught of requests. I’m now starting to think seriously about my 1996 garden, though, and it won’t be 120 different tomato plants! My garden was much too closely planted. Combine that error with all the rain we got and it spelled a low yield and disease disaster. This year I’ll probably plant 20 or so of my favorites along with 20 new ones. My dream is a larger garden, a greenhouse, a sunnier lot…some day! Thanks to all of you who continue to support and read our humble newsletter. Please feel free to contribute and comment. Also note my email address in the masthead on page 2. I can usually be found looking for my email after 10 PM each evening. Enjoy this issue”

Ah, youth! I’ll be 57 in June and have arthritis; you won’t find me out there sledding! Craig and I have been best friends for almost 8 years and I’m telling you I know him well, as he knows me. There’s no way he’s going to plant just 40 varieties. He’ll succumb, as I do each year, to the lure of the unknown when a new variety suddenly appears. OK Craig, your daughters will submit affidavits to me stating you planted less than 40 plants at your residence and elsewhere; what’s at stake is wine…Stag’s Leap Petite Sirah or Opus One…your choice! And “big 2” snowstorms? How my heart bleeds as I remember the 3 feet we had on the level until two weeks ago. In all fairness, Craig was raised in New England and can appreciate a good Nor’easter! This has been a horrible winter for us northerners across the country. As I sit here at my computers I’m dreaming of complaining about the heat! See you in May.

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Wow - that was a lot to digest (as is always the case from Carolyn’s entries!). Some big time tomato names emerge - Doreen Howard, Tad Smith and Calvin Wait, and Tom Wagner among them. The other shocker - Carolyn noting her age as 57 - very odd as I sit here typing this at age 66! Enjoy this piece of Off The Vine, gardening world nostalgia!