Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 2 - "The Garden Disaster of Summer 1995" by Carolyn

the tomato patch as of July 12, 2022

It is quite remarkable to read this article, in which Carolyn describes a truly challenging season for her. It does resonate - one can do everything “right” and still have all sorts of issues. That is pretty much the story of any experienced tomato grower - some great years, some awful years, and lots in between. Here goes!

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The Garden Disaster of Summer 1995

by Carolyn

It was a bad one! My transplants this year were gorgeous but I had no idea what I was setting tm up for when I started planting on Memorial Day weekend. Through July 15th we received less than 0.1”of rain and I spent my days hauling around 200 ft. of hose trying to keep the plants on the moist side. Day after day the temperatures were in the high 80’s and low 90’s; not typical upstate NY weather. Then in late July we had two afternoons of multiple thunderstorms with torrential rain. Thus was initiated my model laboratory for tomato plant diseases. Water pooled in the middle of my field and the early blight and septoria leaf spot took over. What a mess! And by then it had become apparent that the sustained high temperatures had lowered the fruit set by about one half. What happens is that the pollen becomes sterile in high sustained heat. Day after day there was oppressive humidity and high heat. I simply couldn’t stay in the gardens after 12 noon. I’d sit on mom’s front porch and read, or I’d watch portions of The Trial that dealt with DNA evidence. I teach the techniques of RFLP and PCR analysis and was curious as to how data was going to be introduced in addition, a friend from my days in Denver, Dr. John Gerdes, was testifying for the defense and I wanted to see what he had to say.

By early August I was harvesting my first tomatoes and tried to start saving seed from about 150 varieties but the tomato cracking due to uneven water and low yields frustrated me. Seed saving was put on hold when I went to the Rodale Institute to present my heirloom tomato seminar and then two days later I had to start back teaching. Unfortunately my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in late August which meant much of my time was devoted to making sure those matters were taking care of.

Regardless of all my complaining there were a few varieties which stood out as new winners. As I’m writing this I have my grow out notes next to me and I’ll flip through the page to find the good ones. Giant Plum, a big pink plum from Stanley Tyborowski was juicy and very flavorful and two of Craig’s favorites I also liked; Rief’s Red (oxheart) and Nicky Crain (big pink heart). Mexico was another good one: large pink beefsteak, good yield and excellent taste. And I would appreciate it if the Off the Vine reader who sent me the seeds for Mexico would contact me…I misplaced your letter and want to give you credit for the tomato! My best new one I called Omar, after my Lebanese friend who retrieved seeds from the farmers living in the Lebanese hills. The fruit were huge beefsteaks with the smallest being about one pound, the yield was great and the taste was my type of taste; sweet and juicy. I also liked Heidi, a small red pear (paste type) but good fresh eating also), which my student Heidi Iyok brought back from Cameroon, Africa. Santa Clara Canner and Diener are two commercial heirlooms which actually were the first tomatoes used to initiate the canning tomato industry in California. These two USDA varieties I liked. Both are very oblate and while their skins were very thick, almost ¼”, the taste was great. Diener is a child of Santa Clara Canner and the latter originated in Italy; both were the firmest heirloom tomatoes I’ve yet grown. Santa Clara Canner was very late and seemed to hvae trouble setting fruit; I think both varieties might need to be adapted to local growing conditions for a few years. I also liked Dr. Neal, a huge pink beefsteak received from Will Weaver and Tangella, a small orange which came from the same cross that gave us Tigerella, the red/gold striped one which for me splits its skin when you look at it sideways! A few other USD varieties looked very promising and I’ll mention Yellow Ponderosa, a big beefsteak, Golden Monarch, another yellow beefsteak, Topsall, a very good red, and Gold Ball, a small gold globe which is another Livingston introduction from the late 1900’s I really liked Plum Lemon, shaped as same with excellent flavor and Matchless (Dave Austin) which is an old commercial strain with tasty red fruit. I also grew a Matchless strain from the USDA but the foliage and fruit were not quite the same as the Austin strain.

Other good performers during this difficult summer were Orange Strawberry, Large Pink Bulgarian, German Red Strawberry, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Boxcar Willie, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Sandul Modovan and Russian #117. Aunt Ruby’s German Green and Aunt Ginny’s Purple were victims of high heat and had low fruit set. I grew three greens this year; Evergreen, Green and Aunt Ruby’s, and the latter was far and away the winner. I also grew several “black” types like Black Prince, Black Krim, Southern Night, Noir de Cosebouef and Noir de Crimee (Black Krim). The best was Noir de Crimee (seed from France via Ulrike Paradine in England). It was better than the Black Krim, which should be the same. Noir de Cosebouef was one of the more weird tomatoes I’ve grown; very oblate, like a pancake, purplish black in color and very beautifully ribbed but forget about the taste. Amy Goldman tells me it looked the same as Purple Calabash in her garden and now I know why I’ve never grown Purple Calabash and never will.

I’ve saved the very best for last, and that’s OTV Brandywine. Of course the OTV stands for Off The Vine and reflects the fact that both Craig and I had a hand in this one. I’ve been trying to stabilize it for four years from a cross that originated in Craig’s garden between Yellow Brandywine and Who Knows What. This year all six potato-leaf plants gave high yields of large orange-red beef-stead fruit with super flavor. I’m not totally convinced that it is genetically stabilized but, for the adventurous, I may offer seeds to Off The Vine readers along with the other seeds we’ll be offering in our net issue. I think I’ll grow it one more year before offering in our next issue. I think I’ll grow it one more year before offering it through SSE. And I’ll be pursuing a cross that arose in my garden last year between White Queen and Who Knows What; it's a red bomb shaped tomato with excellent taste and good yield.

I admit the 150 or so varieties weren’t a total bust but I’m already thinking about next year. Maybe it will be the year that I actually do some hybridizing of my own! I keep thinking about it, and I have some crosses in mind, but I never seem to get around to it. Next summer I plan to start cutting down on the number of varieties I’m growing and be more selective. I want to devote more time to my own hybridizing and growing out and stabilizing crosses that other folks send me.

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Some pretty important tomato names in this article - Reif Red Heart (which Johnny’s once sold and I need fresh seed for - it was sent to me by my friend Jim Reif when I lived in PA), Nicky Crain (another blast from the past - a really good pink heart that I’ve left in the dust for some reason as well), what became Omar’s Lebanese - a variety that didn’t do well for me in Raleigh - and the birth of OTV Brandywine!

Blushing tomatoes on July 10, 2022

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 2. "For Sale - Heirloom Tomato Plants" by Darrell Merrell

Cluster of Cherokee Purple in late June

For Sale: Heirloom Tomato Plants

by Darrell Merrell

Here’s a charming guest article for our newsletter by Oklahoma’s own “Tomato Man”, Darrell Merrell. Darrell departed this earth on April 24, 2008, at the age of 69. His obituary tells a bit about his wonderful life. Darrell was instrumental in the discovery of Cherokee Green, which emerged from the sample of Cherokee Chocolate sent to me in 1997. Enjoy this peek into his entry into selling tomato plants in his area.

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On a cold winter’s night of February 1993 I was thumbing through my treasure of new seed catalogs when an idea suddenly popped into my head. It came while studying the heirloom tomato seed section when I though, “You know, nurseries no longer sell these plants. I bet if people could get them they would love them as much as I do. Maybe I ought to grow a few and see if they will sell!”

Not having a greenhouse, I started by planting several flats in my kitchen. Soon I had flats of seedlings and transplants scattered throughout the house. On warm days I would carry them outside to bathe in the bright sunshine and then tote them back in at night. Until mid-April, when it was warm enough to leave them outside at night, I was spending an hour each morning and each evening moving them out and carrying them in. since I live alone, having tomato plants scattered all around the house was no problem. I reveled in it.

Late on a March afternoon while transplanting at my kitchen work table I received a call from Aunt Vera. Vera is a feisty, independent little lady in her 80’s. “What are you doing?” “Transplanting tomato plants, I replied.” “Getting them ready for your garden, huh?” “Yes,” said I. “How many do you have?” “Oh, about 1500.” “What,” she exclaimed, “what in the world are you going to do with 1,500 tomato plants?” “Well, I’m going to plant some and try to sell the rest.” Then she asked, “Where are you putting them?” “All over the house; on the kitchen table, in the bedroom, in the living room…anywhere I can find a place to set a flat.” She began to laugh and giggle…and laugh. She really got a big kick out of the picture in her mind’s eye. “I’ll guess we’ll have to start calling you ‘The Tomato Man’. And that came to be the name I eventually adopted for my business.

It was a natural progression from other business names I have used. While raising a family of three children I have been a stockbroker, a bank trust officer and then for ten years the owner of doughnut shops where I became known as ‘The Doughnut Man’. In January of 1990 I sold (gave away) my doughnut business and moved back to the old homestead in Tulsa. My father had passed away the previous year; my mother was 80 years old and in seriously bad health and my sister, five years older than I, had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mom and Sis were living together but unable to take care of themselves, let alone each other. I became their caretaker, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a period of 4 years and 9 months. They are now both deceased.

The best emotional, spiritual and physical outlets for me were reading and gardening. The first year I grew the standard varieties of hybrid tomatoes, but I got to thinking of the open-pollinated varieties we grew when I was a kid. The only names I could recall were Sioux, Rutgers and Homestead, but I sure remembered them tasting better than hybrids.

Through Organic Gardening magazine I found a few seed companies that were selling heirloom tomato seeds. I was hooked. I began to become more concerned with genetic diversity and the environment and began switching, more and more, to organic gardening practices. I soon concluded that we as gardeners had been and are being “sold down the river” by the industrial complex of chemical fertilizer and hybrid seed companies. So, I switched entirely to open-pollinated and heirloom vegetable plants.

The question of how I could make a contribution to the furtherment of a safer environment and the preservation of genetic diversity often occurred to me. When the idea of selling heirloom tomato plants dawned on me. I had my answer. We, as avid gardeners, generally prefer to start our own plants from seed but most gardeners do not. They buy transplants!

I already had in mind a market outlet. Since my sister’s death in October, 1993, I had sold books on Saturdays at the Tulsa Flea Market, reputedly one of the top ten flea markets in the United States. From ‘The Doughnut Man’ I had become ‘The Book Man’. It was natural for Aunt Vera and others to begin calling me ‘The Tomato Man’. My plan was to begin selling plants in mid-April, the prime time to plants in our area. But my plans changed.

A local nurseryman asked me to operate a Fruit and Vegetable Stand. It was guaranteed income so I accepted with the proviso that I could sell my heirloom tomato plants at the stand. I explained to him what heirlooms were and he looked at me in disbelief when I told him I expected to charge one dollar per plant; he was getting 89 cents for four hybrid plants!  I didn’t know whether they would sell or not but I was willing to give it a try. Each day I sold a few, and I mean sold! I had to explain to each potential customer what an heirloom tomato was and what their virtues were compared to hybrids.

Then the best kind of advertising came my way…free advertising in the form of a newspaper article. A feature writer for the local newspaper, the Tulsa World, was referred to me when she asked the nurseryman about heirlooms. While her article primarily featured hybrids, there was a small column on heirlooms and ‘The Tomato Man’. I was swamped. Gardeners drove from a distance of over 100 miles to buy my plants. I wa sin a state of euphoria and the nurseryman was aghast with amazement. Shortly thereafter I left the “stand” and placed a sign by my front gate that said “Heirloom Tomato Plants.”

Previously I had transplanted into small one-inch square cups and sold the plants for one dollar. I learned that the small cups were too small for proper root growth so I switched to 4” pots and upped the price to $2 each. Sound greedy? I think not. Demand was exceeding supply, it cost much more for a 4” pot and I was selling a larger and healthier plant. Even a “hermit” has to pay his bills and this was my only source of income.

The most popular sellers were of course the ones I liked and had experience growing; Pink Brandywine, Yellow Brandyiwne, Pruden’s Purple, Cherokee Purple, Burbank, Abraham Lincoln, German Johnson, Riesentraube and Radiator Charie’s Mortgage Lifter, along with others for a total of 20 varieites. They were good tomatoes all and some had colorful histories; they were fun to sell.

For the remainder of the year and through March of 1995 I reverted back to being ‘The Book Man’ on Saturdays at the Tulsa Flea Market. But most of the time was devoted to the 39 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in my garden. Through Seed Savers Exchange I purchased Suzanne Ashworth’s book Seed to Seed and using the fermentation method she described I saved thousands of tomato seeds.      

Seed saving is very important to me. It is one method I use to ensure that I offer the best plants possible for the climate in this area. Most of the plants that I grow are grown from my own saved seed. After a few seasons, it generally takes three, by saving seed from the best fruit from the best vines I have noticed a marked improvement in production and quality in several varieties, especially my favorite…Pink Brandywine. I am a believer in acclimatization.

Though this is not an article concerning the technical aspects of tomato culture, I do want to encourage new subscribers to Off the Vine to read three articles in two back issues that have been helpful to me. In Volume I, #3, Isolation Distances for Tomatoes, by Jeff McCormack, and Saving Seeds, by Carolyn Male; also in Volume I, #3, Adaptation of Tomatoes by John P. Rahart.

Since the groundwork had been laid for a greater sales year in 1995 I needed to move my operations out of the kitchen. A friend who had experience in building greenhouses helped me build a 13’X40’X8’ hoop greenhouse in return for my helping him with a greenhouse he was building. We finished my greenhouse in mid-March, 1995. I had already begun planting in the kitchen and had several flats to move into their new home. With some volunteer help I continued to plant until I had some 30 varieties to sell. To the varieties already named from last year I added Red Brandywine, Eva Purple Ball, 1984, Red Rose, Arkansas Traveler, Wins All, Hughs, Persimmon and several others. The second Saturday in April I took plants to the Flea Market and was greeted by a repeat customer from last year who told me that the plants he got from me the previous year grew the best tomatoes he’d ever tasted. What a great way to start the year.

 Fortune continued to shine. The Tulsa World published a second article about my tomatoes entitled “South Tulsan Grows Tomatoes of Yore”, and it even had a color photo of me inside the greenhouse holding a flat of plants. The next Saturday at the Brookside Herb Day in Tulsa I sold 1,200 tomato plants!

The demand was so great that I could not possibly transplant enough seedlings so my next-door neighbors, the Coheas, and I organized a transplant party for a Sunday afternoon. About 15 of our friends gathered and transplanted some 2,000 seedlings and we capped off the day with a BBQ and fried chicken dinner. My brother Kenneth, from Mobile, Alabama, drove up to help. He became so enamored that he stayed for three weeks. My daughter Lisa came up from Dallas and spent 10 days helping me through the Sand Springs Herbal Affair, the largest one day plant sale in the Southwest.

I rented a large U-haul moving van, loaded it with 6,000 plants and headed for Sand Springs, a suburb of Tulsa. The previous year the fair had drawn 25,000 gardeners to purchase from 40 or so vendors. But neither lady luck nor the Sun shone that day it rained all day, with a cold wind gusting to 30 mpg, and the temperature struggled to a high of only 59. I brought home 5,500 plants! If that was not bad enough, the same thing happened two weeks later at the First Annual Oklahoma City Herb Festival.

Nevertheless, through the Flea Market and sales from home I had a fine year. I also had added other heirloom vegetables to sell; basil, peppers, eggplants, watermelon, cucumbers, and two vining flowers. I had a lot of happy repeat customers who referred new customers. In addition to publicity from the newspaper article my heirloom tomatoes were mentioned on two radio programs and a local TV station did a 3 minute feature story in early July.

Best of all was the pleasure given to me by happy customers such as the young man who showed me two tomatoes and said they were the best he had ever tasted but that he had lost the markers and didn’t know the names. Fortunately they were easy to identify…Cherokee Purple and Red Brandywine.

Perhaps my favorite incident was one in which I did not directly participate. On Memorial Day weekend my friend Charlie was minding store at home while I was at the Flea Market. About mid-day an elderly lady pulled into the driveway in a late model luxury car. It seems that her husband had recently died and she wanted to do something special in his memory. He just loved tomatoes, both in the growing and the eating. Did we have anything suitable to decorate his grave? When she spotted a gallon pot containing a large Cherokee Purple she knew that was just the thing. She said she was going to wrap it in foil and ripen and place it on his grave. It’s a story that tugs at the heartstrings but I like to let my mischievous imagination play with this one. Imagine that she left the potted Cherokee Purple until it was cleanup time at the cemetery and the attendant spirited it home to his garden. When the fruit ripened to a reddish-brown purple he must have though that his graveyard tomato surely had crossed from the Great Beyond.

In truth, what heavenly plants are these old time tomatoes. To me they aureate with mysticism and spirituality. This reverence keeps me mindful of Henry David Thoreau’s admonition in his marvelous Walden: “trade curses everything it handles; and though you trade in messages from heaven, the whole curse of trade attaches to the business.” My efforts then must not be for notoriety, or fame, or even money; though in and of themselves not bad things, but each good things to have. The Seed Savers Exchange motto says it best, “Passing on our vegetable heritage.” I am mindful of this when I give away at least one plant to most customers and with large orders I give away several plants of different varieties.

We as gardeners and I, in particular, owe a debt of heart-felt gratitude to past gardeners and countless others for their preservation and perpetuation efforts, the gardening magazines that continue to spread the word about heirlooms, the seed saving organizations, the small companies now specializing in heirloom seeds, and last but not least Carolyn and Craig for this publication Off The Vine. In my own small way I have carried the cause just one step further by providing the live plant to the backyard gardener. Surely some will catch the fever and pass it on.

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This is truly a wonderful article. For those of us who, through the years, found ourselves peddling our over-planted seedlings from our yard, or from flea or farmers markets, there is a lot here that will seem very familiar. It also reminds me of how our little Off The Vine work allowed us to cross paths with many like minded, wonderful souls.

One of my favorites, Polish, growing in a cage on June 23

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 2 "The Mixed Bag of 1995" by Craig

June 22 view up a double column of tomato plants

It is hard to believe that this big report was only the 9th garden since my jump into focusing on heirlooms. Reading through it is very nostalgic - and clearly some tomatoes I loved need to be grown again soon!

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The Mixed Bag of 1995

by Craig

It is hard to believe that it is already the first week of November. The summer went by like a blur, mostly due to the workplace challenge of surviving a merger. The garden was even more therapeutic than normal, and I was once again reminded of what a wonderful hobby it is. It was not the easiest growing season this year, due to a long dry start, followed by a solid month of rain just when foliage diseases get going. The second long dry spell that followed was a blessing, allowing me to salvage something out of what could have been a near total disaster! This article will summarize and describe the high- and low-lights of my 1995 garden. It was my most ambitious year with respect of number of tomato plants (120), and the high ratio of varieties that were obtained from the USDA collection. This garden gave me a few pleasant surprises, a good number of old favorites, yet a large number of failures as well; either plants that went down prematurely from disease, or quite a few varieties from which I harvested nothing at all! Ah, yes, the element of regional adaptation may have shown its face this year. Oh, well...enough chatter.  On with the tour of the garden.

Among the USDA varieties, I was most impressed with Buckbee’s New Fifty Day, Golden Monarch, Cream City, New Big Dwarf, Yellow Ponderosa, Success, and The Orange. Buckbee’s New Fifty Day took a bit longer to mature than the name indicates, but gave me nice, smooth medium sized red fruit of delicious “old fashioned” flavor, which I suppose means it has a nice acid bite to balance its sweetness. It was released in the early 1900’s by Buckbee, which has now become Shumway. Another fine red tomato is Success, which was developed and released by the Maule Seed Company in 1900.  Productivity and flavor are among its attributes. Two bright yellow tomatoes, Golden Monarch (from the 1930’s, as far as I can trace) and Yellow Ponderosa (possibly a Henderson variety from the turn of the century) are very similar, medium to nearly large, slightly oblate, but with a snappy, rich taste not frequently found in yellow tomatoes. Cream City, seemingly from Currie’s Seed Company in the 1930’s, and New Big Dwarf, from Isbell in 1915, are each sweet, delicious pink tomatoes.  The notable thing about the latter is that it gives large fruit, nearly a pound, on a true dwarf plant that grows only about 2 feet tall. Supposedly, it originated from a cross between Ponderosa, a large pink indeterminate, with Dwarf Champion, a dwarf small fruited pink. Finally, The Orange, listed from Henderson in the 1930’s, is a large to huge, delicious, pale orange tomato that is remarkably similar to a more widely grown heirloom called Persimmon, whose background is unknown (perhaps they are one in the same).

Of the USDA obtained varieties that were not success stories were Albino (an ordinary red, of all things), Golden Glory (small bright yellow, kind of hollow inside, and bland), Abel, Earliest of All, Tops All, Trimson, Stick, High Crimson, Early Giant, Imperial, Victorian Dwarf #1, Ham Green Favorite, Mikado Ecarlate, Royal Wonder, Jagged Leaf, Dwarf Stone, Enormous, Giant Beauty, Heterosis, Bountiful (all varying sizes of red, some slightly better than others, but none standing above the rest), Nectarine, Peak of Perfection, Vivid, Potato Leaf Type, Dwarf Recessive, Mikado regular leaf, Giant Tree (all pinks of varying attributes), Orange King, Orange Chatham, Yellow, Gold Ball, Orange Tree, Golden Beauty (in the yellow to orange category, none outstanding), and, finally, those which met their demise from disease or no yield, including Matchless, Giant Italian Potato Leaf, Mikado potato leaf, Diener, and Santa Clara Canner. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for many of the above, most are significant commercial introductions of the early 1900’s, and should be maintained for historical and preservation reasons.

Finally, the true heirlooms remain to be discussed. Of the ones that were new to me this year, I was quite impressed with the following: Orange (orange, from Russia), Indische Fleische (dusky rose to purplish, large, delicious, from a SSE member), Azoychka (yellow, from Russia, wonderful), Big Yellow (huge deep yellow, from Dotty Noble, PA), Russian Persimmon (yellow, from Russia, superb), Orange Strawberry (from Carolyn, large orange heart, not a great yielder, though), A. C. Red (large potato leaf pink, also from Dotty), and Mennonite (large, oblate bicolor, sweet, from SSE member). Some did not impress me very much, including Lovelace Red (from a friend), Potato Leaf Hillbilly (from Carolyn), Bull Heart (pink, from Russia), Cosmonaut Volkov Red (large red, from Russia), and Southern Night (unusual determinate potato leaf dusky rose, from Russia, odd texture and flavor). I managed no fruit at all from the Russian variety Snowball.

Then there are the old favorites. Once again, I was delighted with the performance and flavor of Madara (yellow cherry tomato), Anna Russian (in my hall of fame!), Cherokee Purple (ditto), Eva Purple Ball, Livingston’s Favorite, Wins All, Livingston’s Beauty, Dorothy’s Green, Polish, Halladay’s Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Reif’s Red Heart, Nicky Crain, Livingston’s Magnus, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, and Stump of the World. It was, strangely, not a very good year for some other favorites, including Yellow White, Robinson’s German Bicolor, Big Sandy, Nina’s Heirloom, Hugh’s, Ukrainian Heart, Mullens’ Mortgage Lifter, Abraham Lincoln, Bisignano #2, Opalka, Potato Leaf Yellow, and Alpha Pink.

Last are the surprises that seem to occur each growing season. My Sun Gold cherry tomato hybrid growouts continued, resulting in a number of nice flavored, orange open pollinated cherry tomatoes. I also have a potato leaf red cherry tomato from this experiment. Then there are the potato leaf versions of Bisignano #2 and Madara, both resembling their parents. Finally, I had an interesting cross from Cherokee Purple seed. One of my plants gave me a dark brown, instead of pink, tomato. In other words, instead of green over red with a clear skin, it was green over red with yellow skin. The tomato was wonderful, and I will be growing out saved seed in hopes of stabilizing this unusual, unique tomato. If anyone wants to try out seeds from the above Sun Gold growouts, unexpected potato leaf varieties, or this Cherokee Purple cross, just let me know and I will send some seed.

That is all for now. It is time for me to get ready to send the seed descriptions that I will be offering in the 1996 yearbook to the SSE, then to prepare for the onslaught of seed requests. Until next newsletter, good-bye, and have a great winter holiday!

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This is a really interesting read for several reasons. The dark brown tomato from Cherokee Purple, which I assumed was a cross, ended up being a skin color mutation - Cherokee Chocolate was born! Azoychka finally emerged, a tomato I grew a few years ago in Raleigh and loved it. I also am reminded of how much I enjoyed Golden Monarch - it is definitely time to grow it again. A few other varieties that made a nice impression but somehow have become misplaced in my recent gardens are Buckbee’s New Fifty Day, The Orange, Success, Indische Fleisch, and Madara, just to name a few. Sadly, I will have to re-obtain seeds from SSE members, since my saved seeds are likely too old to germinate.

View of the 2022 garden on June 22 from the rear corner of the yard.

Off The Vine Volume 2, Number 2 - "West Virginia Tomato Growing" by David Cain

Mountain Laurel seen on a June 20 hike on the Flat Laurel Creek trail

Here’s a nice, concise guest article. It is always nice to be reminded how often we had guest contributors to our newsletter!

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West Virginia Tomato Growing

by Dave Cain

Gardening has been my passion since I was a young lad and tomatoes have been the mainstay of my small backyard plots. Expectation, fascination and accomplishment are some of the reasons why I am drawn to cultivate the soil each spring.

Having been born and raised in West Virginia, gardening is part of my Mountaineer heritage. The diverse ethnic backgrounds of our people have made many plant varieties available, especially heirloom tomatoes.

The first plants I raised at the age of twelve were Abe Lincoln’s and a very delicious tomato called Grandma’s Favorite. After weeding, hoeing and handpicking pests from my plants I was rewarded with an excellent crop of large delicious tomatoes. I even won a second place ribbon in the annual 4-H project fair. I was proud of myself and probably needed a larger hat size after all the praise that came my way. Little did I realize that we had an almost perfect growing season that summer. Long gentle rains interrupted the warm beautiful days at just the right interval and pests just seemed to know I was a neophyte. The bugs took their appetites elsewhere.

Nature has a way of humbling us mortals in a most abrupt manner. My tomato crop the next season was a near disaster due to heat, drought and the fact that it was a peak year for Colorado Potato Beetles, which sprang from the ground in multitudes. They had voracious appetites and my tomatoes were high on their menu.

I am now forty-six and look back with much pleasure on my years of tomato growing experiences. I have tried many varieties and many techniques. These years of experience have proven to me that common sense and basics are the key ingredients for successful tomato cultivation, but never forgetting Mother Nature’s tremendous influence.

This year I am growing Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter, German Red Strawberry and Dad’s Sunset from seeds I obtained from the great people at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I’m also raising an heirloom Australian tomato which resembles a red pepper when mature. They make delicious pasta sauce and are great stuffed and baked. I’ve been growing them annually for four years, saving the seeds, and having great success.

A gallon of manure tea mixed with a tablespoon of Epsom salts, given once a week, has my plants glowing with health and vigor. And my feelings of expectation, fascination, and accomplishment are also in full bloom once again.

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Thinking back on our guest authors, some I’ve kept in touch with, some not, some have passed on - and some, like David Cain, were never familiar to me - it was often Carolyn who expanded our writers with some of her tomato growing friends.

Waterfall on Flat Laurel Creek trail

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 2. "C and C's Column", by Carolyn

Scarlet Bee Balm just starting to bloom June 9

We are approaching the half way mark with the Off The Vine republishings…wow. I hope that you are finding them of value - and having fun reading them! Here is the typical opening column by Carolyn.

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C and C’s Column

by Carolyn

We knew there might be times when publishing Off the vine might be delayed , and this is one of them. A series of events in both Craig’s and my lives made it impossible to get this issue to you earlier. I would suspect, as we have pointed out before, that this might happen again in the future but while an issue might be delayed you will always receive the number of issues that you paid for. As most of you know, we both have demanding full-time jobs and other responsibilities which we must attend to.

It’s time to renew your subscription if your mailing label has 22 next to your name (22 means Volume 2, #2). Separate renewal notices will not be sent out so if you’ve decided to stay with us, please send your renewal, clearly marking it as a renewal., after you’ve read this issue. Subscription renewal prices for current subscribers are $5 for one year (3 issues) and $2 for two years (6 issues) for US residents; $6 (US) for one year and $14 (US) for two years for Canadian and Mexican subscribers and $7 (US) for one year and $16 (US) for two years for all other foreign addresses. These rates reflect the increase we announced last February which commences with Volume 3, which will probably be published in May, 1996. We have started stating the new prices in any notices published such as the summer SSE edition and others. Any New US subscribers (not renewals) are expected to pay $7 for three issues and $14 for six issues.

We have two guest authors in this issue. Dave Cain lives in Fairmont, WV and has grown heirloom tomatoes in his garden for many years. He writes from the heart and I thought you’d enjoy his musings on gardening in the hills of West Virginia. Darrell Merrell has told you quite a bit about himself in his article and I can only add that he, like Dave Cain, is a warm, generous, caring person. Are all tomato people so nice? I’m beginning to think so. Darrell is willing to share information with anyone who asks. His address is 2208 West 81st Street, South, Tulsa, OK 74132-2623 and his phone number is (918) 446-7522. Craig and I have each written articles about our summer, 1995 tomato grow-outs, and our methods of germinating tomato seeds. And I interviewed Jeff McCormack of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for our featured “tomato” person. Most of you are probably aware of his excellent catalog of heirlooms (will list address is next issue) and we thought it would be interesting for you to know him on a more personal level. Craig and I have known Jeff for several years and consider ourselves fortunate to be able to call him a friend!

Amy Goldman wrote an article on Desert Sweet tomatoes for our last issue and I mentioned that she was intent on winning the top prize at the Dutchess County Fair. Well, she did it, with 38 blue ribbons. However, she’s decided to retire from “active competition” while on top and is going to find new challenges, such as beating the world record for pumpkins and such. Go for it Amy, whatever it is you decide to conquer!

Our regular subscribers know that last February we made available to Off the Vine readers F2 seeds from some interesting crosses done by Stanley Zubrowski and Tad Smith. We plan to do the same thing again, with some new crosses available, but I can’t distribute the F2 seeds and meet my seed obligations to Seed Savers Exchange at the same time. So, we’re asking for someone to volunteer to distribute the F2 seeds to our readers. Please give me a call at (518) 783-5565 evenings before 9pm and let me know if you’d be interested in helping us. We would deeply appreciate it. I would imagine that a few hours per week for two to three months would be the time requirement.

I spent three days at the Rodale Institute for Research in late August where I presented a workshop on heirloom tomatoes. I had sent seed and their staff did a beautiful job of growing them out for demonstration purposes. I was pleased and surprised to find many other heirloom tomatoes also being grown because Rob Cardillo, the photographer for Organic Gardening, was using them as subjects for file photos. The workshop went well and I met some very nice folks. Chuck Wyatt and Howard Essl drove up from the Washington, DC/Baltimore area (a long drive), and I was delighted to meet them since I had only corresponded with them via phone, e-mail and letters in the past. The most animated member of the group was Jim Weaver, a Mennonite farmer and Off the Vine subscriber. He’d ridden his bicycle many miles to attend and certainly enlivened the day. I still can’t believe he really doesn’t like to eat tomatoes, especially after seeing some of the varieties he grew and donated to Organic Gardening for their taste testing session which was held the last day I was there (article by Rob Cardillo in the latest Organic Gardening). Unfortunately I had a plane to catch and couldn’t attend. Jim’s heirloom tomatoes were the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen! I had a chance to visit his farm, unannounced, and while he was out in the fields

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Yet another classic from Carolyn. There are some names she referenced I’d not thought of in many years - Chuck Wyatt, and, especially, Howard Essl. Pretty nostalgic stuff to read.

Mountain laurel blooming in our early June hike in Pink Beds trail in the Pisgah Forest

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 1. "The Man Behind the World of Unusual Seeds" - interview of George Gleckler by Craig

A variegated potato leaf F2 selection in my garden this year - Blue’s Bling X Polish

It wasn’t colorful, it only had a few pages, but there was a lot of magic in Gleckler’s seed catalogs. I really enjoyed my phone call with the company leader, George Gleckler.

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The Man Behind the World of Unusual Seeds - An Interview with George Gleckler of Gleckler’s Seedmen

by Craig

The first time that I flipped through a Gleckler’s seed catalog, back in the mid-1980’s, it struck me that my gardens up to that point were much too normal! Not for long, though. That catalog was my entry into life beyond Burpee and Parks, outside of the realm of the dark purple eggplant, green bell pepper and red round tomato. The pages of the unassuming, modest (and free!) catalog printed in green ink on white paper, with the pictures of Peron sprayless tomato and Aconcagua pepper on the front cover, held such wonders as purple artichokes, red carrots, pink celery, white cucumbers, and a rainbow of unique and unusual eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. Some of the first open pollinated vegetables that I tried came from Gleckler’s Seedmen. It was right at that point when I took the plunge headlong into heirlooms and involvement in the Seed Saver’s Exchange. A few weeks ago, when pondering the next OTV interview victim, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to speak with George Gleckler, who currently runs the business in Metamora, Ohio, and ask him some questions about the company, the varieties and his philosophy on gardening.

George and I enjoyed a wide-ranging hour and a half telephone conversation, and covered lots of territory. Mr. Gleckler came across as a man of high ethics who, because of his love for gardening, continues the business of offering the rare and out of the ordinary that his father Merlin started in 1947. Prior to that, Gleckler Sr. was a contract grower for large seed companies such as Burpee. For example, he would grow acres of a particular tomato variety and sell the seed to the large companies. Believe it or not, he would get paid 3 dollars per pound of tomato seed back then in the 1940’s! Due to such underwhelming financial recompense, the logical step from there was to enter the business, which is what he did. One thing to note is that he was not particularly fond of eating tomatoes; however, he did find it a very interesting crop to grow, due to the large visual variation, and in addition, tomatoes were, and still are, perhaps the most widely grown home garden vegetable, resulting in a large and captive audience.

In the 1980, Merlin Gleckler suffered a stroke, after which he understandably lost interest in his seed company. George decided to take over his father’s business, but was dismayed to find that many of the varieties could not be propagated, due to loss of viability of the seed. Eventually, thanks to donations from long time customers, and even some members of the Seed Saver’s Exchange who had been maintaining the varieties (Pink Grapefruit is a good example), George managed to get the majority of the tomatoes and other crops back in good shape, and the company persevered. Interestingly, two tomatoes that were listed years ago but were considered lost are Lutescent and Stick. Both of these were located in the USDA seed repository, and are (or will be next spring, in the case of Stick) available in the Seed Saver’s Exchange collection to members of the organization. When asked about the sources of the various tomato varieties listed in the Gleckler catalog, the response was that, in many cases, various gardeners sent the company their favorites over the years. Others, such as Peron, were bred in Argentina especially for Gleckler, in the 1950’s. It was supposedly bred with wild tomato in its ancestry, leading to its remarkable disease and insect resistance (hence the nickname Sprayless). San Pablo and 506 Bush were also bred there. Gleckler’s grows the vast majority of their tomato seed, which is something that cannot be said for the lion’s share of other seed companies, both large and small. 

Many of you are aware, and disappointed, that there was no 1995 Gleckler catalog. You will be happy to know, however, that there will be a new catalog next year. (Gardening enthusiasts should send their catalog request to Gleckler’s Seedmen, Metamora, Ohio, 43540.) Business remains good, but it is more of a hobby for George, as he also works in construction. Gleckler also spends time contract growing seed for such companies as Totally Tomatoes and Tomato Grower’s Supply Company. He takes pride in the purity and quality of the tomato seed that he supplies, and expressed alarm at how unscrupulous some of the other, larger, companies are in terms of substituting varieties without telling the customer, or offering seed that may not be pure, or even fabricating plant variety histories for more colorful catalog descriptions, to increase sales and interest in the variety. Obviously, even the garden seed company is not immune from the weaknesses of people!

We talked about heirloom tomatoes for a while. We did not talk much about the SSE, since George, although he is supportive of the organization, is concerned about the fact that all sorts of gardeners, even inexperienced ones, are offering seeds, which could lead to crossing problems. One of the issues that George brought up was that many heirlooms of different names may be the same tomato.  A good example is of the bicolored beefsteaks, such as Georgia Streak, Pineapple, and Marizol Gold. The only way to determine without a doubt if they are different would be to do genetic analysis. Another group of tomatoes he noted as possibly the same are the German pink skinned tomatoes, such as Mortgage Lifter, Watermelon Beefsteak, and Giant Belgium. It makes a lot of sense, actually, when you consider that despite the fact that there are over 3000 named tomatoes in the SSE collection, no more than 250-300 open-pollinated tomatoes have been actually “developed” throughout the years.  When asked what his favorite eating tomato is, he replied that he loves the flavor of Evergreen, because it has “real tomato flavor”. I asked him about the tomato Great White, since it just appeared out of the blue in his catalog a few years ago, and no one seems to know the history of it. It turns out that in 1987 or 88, a woman sent George seeds of an orange and a yellow oxheart. George planted all of the seeds of each variety, and in the grow out, one plant of a white beefsteak tomato showed up. George called the woman and asked if there was any way a white tomato could have been sent accidentally, but she replied that she did not grow white tomatoes. So, whether it is a cross or a mutation, what resulted is one of the best white tomatoes around. I asked about specific histories of other famous Gleckler tomatoes, such as Goldie and German Head, but he confessed that he did not know the exact origin of these, repeating that many of these have been sent to him by other avid growers of heirloom tomatoes that are anxious to share their good fortune.

One of the things that interests George is growing out hybrids to get distinctive, stable, open pollinated varieties. The issue of hybrids turned out to be a rather hot topic with him, as he does not see any real need for hybrids outside of the profit that they generate for seed companies and the creators of the varieties. He noted that many gardening magazines and seed company catalogs warn against growing non-hybrids due to the potential for disease problems, but stated that the origin of disease resistance in plants comes from open pollinated varieties. And, these heirlooms have been around quite a long time, which is a testament to their ability to survive. George once grew Big Boy hybrid next to Peron, and found that there was no comparison. Peron was superior to the hybrid in all respects. He also told of the outrageous prices for hybrid seed. Gleckler once carried a hybrid tomato from the 1950’s called Mandarin Cross. The seed, which was developed by and purchased from a Japanese company, cost one thousand eight hundred dollars per pound! And, he said that some of the Japanese hybrid cherry tomato seed costs three to four thousand dollars per pound! To anyone who has noted the enthusiasm with which cherry tomatoes self seed and volunteer, this seems outrageous. And, those volunteer cherry tomatoes are more often than not just as good as the hybrids from which they originated!

Finally, I asked George which tomato is the weirdest that he has seen. His response was at first Green Zebra (not an heirloom, but a fairly recent creation by Tom Wagner of the former Tater Mater seed Company), but then followed with the answer that I expected, Purple Calabash. However, this tomato, which is closely related to wild tomatoes in his opinion, is quite popular with many of his customers, though he considers it as “worthless”! I have not yet grown Purple Calabash, but I suppose that one day it will find a place in my garden. One thing is for sure, though. If you are a tomato enthusiast, please order a catalog from Gleckler’s Seedmen and try some of the wild, weird and wonderful varieties that he offers. And, while you are at it, be sure to try some of his unique eggplant, and peppers, and melons. The gardening community should do all that it can do to ensure that seed companies like this one survive. 

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I really admire many of George Gleckler’s opinions - this is the first time I’ve read this interview in a long time. Now I must go through my basement boxes and find my Gleckler catalog collection!

The 2022 garden tomatoes are off to a good start - two Cherokee Chocolates in this straw bale - one caged and unpruned, one staked and pruned to have only one sucker. Dwarf in a grow bag in front.

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 1. "Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen", by Carolyn

Husker’s Red penstemon in bloom in our flower garden, end May 2022

I really love reading through Carolyn and my garden updates in these old OTVs. It reminds me, again and again, of how we really were true explorers of the many varieties coming into the SSE yearbooks, but also how we ended up being the source of varieties into the yearbooks as well. Read on to find out how Carolyn made her challenging choices of what to squeeze into her tomato garden.

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Many are Called; Few are Chosen

by Carolyn

It could be worse. I could be addicted to heroin, crack or alcohol; as it is I’m addicted to heirloom tomatoes! The major agony of early March is to decide which seeds get planted and which get to stay in their little packets, passed over once more.

To put the situation to perspective, I have seed for about 1000 varieties of which I’ve grown out maybe 5-600 varieties. Since I much prefer to grow out something new, something not listed in the SSE Annual, it means that it will be a long time until I get to some of those others. Let me explain, by going through my mental reasoning this year, how I select which varieties to grow.

I have before me my grow out list as a reference. The first 40 were a snap, so to speak. I like to recycle the seed I’m offering through SSE every five years so I had to look at the 1991 varieties and decide which ones to keep going and which ones weren’t requested. Not a problem. Then I had to inventory the 1992, 1993, and 1994 seed to see which varieties were depleted. Magnus was planted for a closer look (up and giving both potato and regular foliage), Orange Strawberry and Hillbilly Potato Leaf to see if they are true, Cuostralee Pink to confirm it really is a single mutant of the red variety, which was also planted, and Aunt Ruby’s German Green (1993 seed) because I found out in December of 1994 that someone growing out my 1994 seed found it wasn’t pure. Remember from the last issue of Off the Vine how I described the seeds from the “monster” tomato which the mice ate? Well, I’d saved seeds from sister fruit and in they went along with the orange/red Brandywine F3 seeds described in the last issue of Off the Vine.

Next came the various crosses used to offer the F2 seed to you readers. I had forgotten to save seed last year of the Yellow Oxheart X Ukrainian Heart F1’s and had not grown the Brandywine X Kotlas crosses. Finally, two new crosses of Stanley Zubrowski’s, which neither Craig nor I grew last year, were planted. Next came a bunch of Craig’s favorites which I hadn’t grown out yet and then a few Amy Goldman brought back from France when she was there for the annual Fall pumpkin festival. Next came some interesting ones of French origin from an English SSE member and Off the Vine subscriber. And the subtotal on the above was 72.

Omar, an adjunct who taught Biology Labs for us went home to Lebanon to sell the family hotel on the Mediterranean and as he promised, came back with seeds for a huge pink the farmers in the Lebanese hills grow. And my student Heidi went home to Cameroon, Africa and over the Xmas break and brought back a hot pepper and one tomato variety. Then came a series of varieties sent to me by Off the Vine readers and from the descriptions, many of these sound great! None of them is listed in SSE. Of course I planted all the newly offered SSE Russian varieties. Next came varieties from Bill Minkey. Now the subtotal is about 110. Whoops! I almost forgot to plant the varieties I’ll need for the 1850’s vegetable garden I do for the local Shaker Heritage Society so in went Riesentraube, King Humbert, Green Gage, Eearly Large Red and Red and Yellow Pears. Whoops again, I’ll need some greens, whites and bicolors in the tomato patch for the several field demonstration days I do in the fall. So White Queen, Green, Evergreen, Green Grape, Isis and Marizol Gold go in next. I asked Craig if he would obtain the seeds from the USDA this year because I was so busy with the new Off the Vine requests, renewals, etc. I told him what I wanted and he decided on the rest. I only planted 32 of the USDA varieties; the commercial heirloom types and the ones with names that amused me like Victorian Dwarf, Cream City and Ham Green Favorite. I cannot explain to myself why I sowed something called Potato Leaf; I can’t believe I did that. Then I had to plant some favorites like German Red Strawberry, Manyel, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Large Pink Bulgarian, Bulgarian Triumph, Aunt Ginny’s Purple (which I totally forgot to list in SSE this year), Opalka, Martino’s Roma, Galina Ivory Mutant and Crnovic Yugoslavian, to name a few. My list ended there but then a few more varieties trickled in and I just had to sow them. Final damage count? About 160 varieties.

In Craig’s article he discussed whether or not to plant original or saved seed. I always plant saved seed when I have a choice because it’s the only way of finding out if the seed is pure. Two years ago I started listing next to my name in the SSE Annual the varieties I subsequently determined to have been sent out crossed. Since I certainly am not growing everything in 1995 that I grew in 1994 I would appreciate any feedback that any of you might give me.

The limitation I have on how many varieties I grow relates to the amount of bench space made available to me by the commercial farmer who lets me do my transplanting at his greenhouses and then grows on the plants for me. He’s a terrific grower and since he started growing the plants for me I’ve had no cutworm damage in the field because the stems are so stocky. I have no limitation on field space, and I do have help with the initial cultivation and fertilization of my plants, but there’s still a lot of hoeing and weed pulling to do. Yes, it’s hard work, especially with my annoying arthritis, but I can’t wait to see what the foliage will be like, and the blossoms, and finally the fruit shape and color. It’s the “possibilities” that lure me and hold me and make each summer so wonderful and challenging.

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That was a fascinating read (as always!). It is interesting to read the history of what was named Omar’s Lebanese - a huge, pink delicious tomato that Carolyn was responsible for popularizing after she received the seeds. Reading about how Carolyn decided what to grow was illuminating - and fun!

Sugar Snap Peas - we are just starting to pick them, beginning end May 2022

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 1. "Riesenbraube Wine" by William Woys Weaver

Pic taken in DuPont on May 24, our first spring here, 2000 - Mountain Laurel

Wine from tomatoes? Sure - see below! Another guest article…

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Riesentraube Wine

by William Woys Weaver

The taste was snappy, but with a slight overtone of skunk; not exactly a wine for romance thought I, so delete the candlelit dinner scene. Color: a species of orange rosé, heavy on the orange. Would fermented Kool-Aid resemble this? No. Too dark. Definitely not grape.

My puzzled glance at the grizzly old farmer sitting opposite me elicited a toothless grin. He was thoroughly entertained, and by then the colorless schnapps he was sipping, distilled from this same strange wine, had flushed his face a mirthful pink.

“What is it?” I asked in German. Dr. Eszter Kisban of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who was translating this tete-a-tete back and forth from German to Hungarian, turned to me with a blank look on her face: “He said the wine is made from goat tits.” The sitting room of the farmhouse, packed full of Hungarians eager to see their first breathing American (me) exploded with gales of nervous laughter. “That is what he said,” continued Eszter apologetically, “kecske cscsu.” (More laughter.) this was my introduction to the Riesentraube tomato and vintage Riesentraube wine.

This scene transpired in the fall of 1983 when the Hungarian Academy of Sciences hosted an ethnological food conference at its mountain retreat in Matrafured, Hungary near the Slovakian border. In spite of food shortages, paper shortages, intermittent electricity, police surveillance (the communist Party was in power then), and a long list of other obstacles, my Hungarian hosts managed not only to pull off an international conference, but on the sly, also arranged for forays into the countryside. My visit to the farmer who made tomato wine was one of them.

It happened spur of the moment and at night. We ended up somewhere outside of Gyongyos, a large town mear Matrafured. The first thing I saw when I got out of the car were tomato vines trained over the picket fence that surrounded the yard. Even at night I could see the huge “puffs” of open flowers that make the Riesentraube tomato so distinctive. Later, I was shown a large platter of the tomatoes. In fact, I ate some.

This much I was able to ascertain about the tomato and its local history: no one in the area knew it by a German name, but all the farmers in the room agreed that the tomato had come from Austria “long ago.” It had been grown in the Heves region before World War II, and the German farmers who had lived there had made wine from the tomatoes, just like the wine we were drinking. When the Communists came to power they expropriated the German farms and deported the owners. This was one of those expropriated farms, and the tomatoes had been growing there when the present Hungarian owner took over the house.

I think it was this tragic story more than anything else that etched such an impression in my mind because I never forget those “goat tit” tomatoes. Certainly it would have been easy enough, on hindsight, to have gotten seed out of Hungary, but since the main purpose of my visit was to smuggle a book manuscript out of Poland, through Hungary and into Austria, my seed saving instincts were put on hold. As there was a certain degree of danger involved in my undertaking, any suspicion from border guards would have thrown that project off track.

Having just published in 1983 my study of a 19th century Pennsylvania German cookbook through the University of Pennsylvania Press, it never occurred to me that there might be a connection between the tomato wine of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the wine I tasted in Hungary. Yet evidently there is. Subsequent research has brought it all into clearer focus. In fact, Carolyn Male put out the challenge to me last year to actually recreate tomato wine from the Riesentraube tomato, and so I have. But first, something about the name.

Riesentraube simply means in German “large grape” as opposed to something that is normal size or dwarf (zwerg). That is the context of risen in German botanical literature even though it literally means giant or extra-large. It seems, however, that German growers had the Grapes of Eshcol in mind when they named this tomato. The Grapes of Eshcol are the monster grapes mentioned in the Bible, usually depicted hanging from a staff between two men. The Riesentraube produces huge clusters of tomatoes which resemble those old Biblical pictures of the Grapes of Eshcol.

To Hungarians, they look like the underbelly of a pregnant she-goat. And since each tomato has a “nipple” on the end, this has given rise to the colloquial Hungarian name. According to Hungarian agronomists, the Hungarian Goat Tit Tomato is an entirely different variety from the Riesentraube, but the two are commonly confused. Doubtless, the Riesentraube tomato exists in many places under other names equally as colorful.

My next experience with the Riesentraube tomato came through Seedsavers Exchange, where much to my surprise, I found it listed. Seed came into SSE from Curtis Choplin of North Augusta, South Carolina. His seed originated from the former East German seed bank at Gatersleben. My surprise was actually a form of startled joy because by 1993 I had found material in Pennsylvania suggesting that the Riesentraube tomato was being grown among the Pennsylvania Dutch as early as 1855 or 1856. More thorough research must be done in local German-language agricultural materials, but in the May 1857 issue of the monthly Das Bauern-Journal, published at Allentown, Pennsylvania by Mohr and Trexler, there is a recipe for tomato wine. This is the tomato wine I tasted in Hungary. The translation from Das Bauern-Journal reads as follows: Wine from Tomatoes; Simply press the juice from the fruit, cleanse it by letting it run through a linen bag, then combine this with 2 to 3 pounds of sugar to each gallon of liquid. Put this into kegs. After fermentation has taken place, you get a tasty wine.

That is a matter of opinion. Frankly, tomato wine requires a little more exactness than the above recipe would imply and considerably more patience because this is one of those wines, like dandelion wine, that does not mellow out until about the third to fifth year of aging.

I pressed Riesentraube tomatoes on September 26, 1994, with fermentation over by October 10. I can report that in my opinion the wine is nowhere ready for table use. While it begins as a bright red juice, the wine turns a muddy brown as it ferments. As of the writing of this article, the wine is still orange-brown, resembling dark apple juice, and still a bit cloudy. There is an initial sweet, toasty taste that is followed by a slight bitterness, then a lingering tomato taste on the back of the palate. The bitterness will soften with aging and the end result, like the wine I drank in Hungary, will resemble sherry. It is excellent with toasted walnuts and cheese.

My recommended method for making tomato wine is the same as that for making gooseberry wine in that the fruit is first cooked to soften it and to sterilize it of all problematic yeasts. Since gooseberries and tomatoes do not normally carry grape yeasts, it is better to eliminate all yeasts and introduce a controllable one. I also add 2 cups (500 ml) of vintage elderberry wine (1985 pressing), but any decent port will also do. I firmly believe that his helps amplify the tomato flavor as well as softens the overall character of the tomato wine. It does nothing to the color.

Lastly, in order to calculate the amount of tomatoes needed, it is important to remember that 3 to 4 pounds (1 and ½ to 2 kg) of Riesentraube tomatoes will yield about one gallon (4 liters) of liquid during crush. The water content of the tomato, like that of grapes, varies greatly due to weather conditions and time of harvest. I believe that the end-of-season tomatoes I used last year had far too much acid and much less flavor than those I might have harvested during the heat of August. This is a consideration that only trial and error will resolve, given the great variation in growing conditions throughout the country. The accompanying recipe (page 5) follows the basic outline of the original 1857 recipe, but greatly expands on the implied steps and procedures.

Note: The original recipe calls for oak kegs. Aging the wine in oak will definitely alter its taste and character, probably improving the toasty or smoky quality of its flavor. Since I was not able to experiment with oak, this aspect of the recipe remains speculative. However, the Hungarian wine that I tasted in 1983 had been aged in oak and was superior to what I have thus far produced. (Riesentraube tomato seeds are available to members of Seedsavers Exchange and to the general public from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Ed. Note)

Tomato Wine: Weaver’s Method

1 gallon (4 liters) tomato juice

3 lbs. (1 ½ kg) white granulated sugar

2 cups (500 ml) elderberry wine or port (optional)

1 teaspoon dry yeast

To make the juice, quarter the fruit and remove the seeds. Put the fruit in a deep, non-reactive stewing pan (preferably stainless steel) and pour over this 2 quarts (2 liters) of boiling bottled spring water. Do not use chemically treated water. Cover and bring the fruit to a slow boil (about 20 minutes), then remove the pan from the heat.

Pour the fruit into a strainer and gently press out all of the pulp and liquid. Measure out the juice. To each gallon (4 liters), add 3 pounds (1 ½ kg) of sugar, mixing the juice and sugar together in a large, clean 5-gallon (20 liter) crock. Add the optional elderberry wine or port, and when the mixture cools to room temperature, add the yeast. For a quantity of liquid over 10 gallons (40 liters) add 1 tablespoon of dry yeast, but not more.

Cover the crock with cheesecloth and set the wine aside in a warm place to ferment. When fermentation ceases (this will depend on weather conditions as much as room temperature), transfer the wine to sanitized half-gallon jugs. If the wine appears a little frisky, do not cap the jugs or they will explode. Let the wine rest until it is perfectly still, then cap the jugs and let the wine age. As it ages, sediment will accumulate in the bottom on the jugs and the wine will gradually clarify. Once it is clear it maybe bottled up into wine bottles, corked and put down to age like any grape wine.

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Tomatoes really can be used for anything, it seems! I’ve had tomato desserts, tomato pesto, tomato ice cream - and now we have a recipe, above, for tomato wine! I don’t think I’ll be making it any time soon though!

Blossom sitting on fern, Pisgah Forest, May 2020. Another example of proof we made the right move at the right time!

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 1. "What to Grow in 1995. A Tomato Enthusiast Out of Control!" by Craig

Marlin keeping an eye on things, mid May 2022

I wrote an article to share the increasing challenge of deciding what to grow, as my seed collection grew each year. I haven’t read this in a long time - and am interested in seeing how my decisions were made, and how my current garden choices align with this garden from nearly 30 years ago!

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What To Grow in 1995? A Tomato Enthusiast Out of Control!

 by Craig

So, when one has hundreds of varieties of tomato seeds sitting out in little glass vials on the shelf of the garage, what happens in late winter when it becomes time to think about the garden? What kind of selection process do I use to decide what to grow in the coming summer’s garden, and which will have to wait another year or more? For many of you, deciding what to grow may be an easy process, but not for me! I can always seem to come up with a good reason to grow any particular variety of tomato, but with such a large collection, discipline and planning is a must! Here is the reasoning process that I have struggled with this year in planning my tomato growouts.

I guess that the first thing that I do is mentally divide the tomato varieties that I have in my possession into several categories. The two major priorities are what will taste best (since it can be argued that the most important reason to have a garden is to eat of its bounty), and what needs to be grown for seed purposes. There are many factors that contribute to this second priority, such as how many people are reoffering, if any, in the SSE annual, the age of the seed (meaning, how long has it been since it was last grown), what is the priority if it has yet to be grown, etc. Often, such as in this year and, I suspect, all years hence, it comes down to how much room I have for tomatoes in my garden, and how close do I dare space them! Usually, I then start looking for friends and remote gardens in which to inject my varieties. 

Rather than to continue to explain the process, I will use actual details that are in progress for my 1995 garden. This year, my original goal was to concentrate on those varieties that have performed best for me over the years. There is interest from a local grocery store to market heirloom tomatoes, so I was going to grow several plants of these “best” types to sell to the store. First in priority are the potato leaf pink tomatoes, since most of the best that I have tasted are in this category. For this purpose I selected Brandywine, Polish, and Stump of the World.  But, do I plant saved seeds or the seeds from the original source? I decided to try some of each.  Next are large pink regular leaf types that are extremely sweet and delicious. I chose Mortgage Lifter, but from two sources (Charlotte Mullens and Jim Halladay), both original and saved seed. I also decided to add Wins All, which excelled for me last year and is a legitimate old commercially developed variety, sent to be by someone in North Carolina who has been keeping it going for many years. Next, keeping with the pinks, are the wonderful heart shaped varieties that are so spindly as seedlings, such as Anna Russian, Ukrainian Heart, and Nicky Crain. (Again...saved or original??  Both!..). Already it is getting cumbersome and complicated. On we go to the red tomatoes, and I selected Bisignano #2, Opalka, Reif Italian Heart, Big Sandy, and Favorite. To provide tomatoes of unusual and different colors, I chose to grow Yellow-White (also known as Viva Lindsey’s Kentucky Heirloom), Hugh’s, Lillian’s Yellow, Potato Leaf Yellow, Yellow Brandywine, Green, Golden Queen, Robinson’s German Bicolor, and Aunt Ruby’s German Green. Oh yes, I forgot two favorites, Eva Purple Ball and Cherokee Purple, as well as Madara yellow cherry. That gives me a total of 25 varieties to grow to eat and sell to the grocery store for market. Accounting for the number of each type I wish to grow, this will take care of about 36 plants (I will be able to fit about 80-85 or so in my garden, with about 30 in remote locations).

This year, I acquired 41 varieties from the USDA germplasm collection in Geneva and Fort Collins. Most of those will be grown in the remote locations, but I am still very curious in what they will look like, and I certainly want fresh seed from them. The ones that are old commercial varieties, and will find a home in my garden, are: Imperial, Stick, Earliest of All, Enormous, Buckbee’s New 50 Day, Success, Gold Ball, Diener, and Peak of Perfection.  The others, Abel, Nectarine, Golden Beauty, Giant Beauty, Santa Clara Canner, Ham Green Favorite, Golden Monarch, Jagged Leaf, Vivid, Cream City, Potato Leaf Type, Golden Glory, Heterosis, Tops All, Albino, Trimson, Early Giant, High Crimson, Giant Tree, Yellow Ponderosa, Orange Chatham, Orange King, Bountiful, Giant Italian Potato Leaf, Royal Wonder, Yellow, The Orange, and Matchless will have to be grown in other locations. (The jury is still out on if these will be exactly the ones to be orphaned!). Some apparently shorter growing varieties, such as Dwarf Stone, Dwarf Recessive, Victorian Dwarf #1, and New Big Dwarf will be grown in pots on the periphery of my garden. 

Last year’s growouts of the USDA varieties left some unsolved mysteries. I will try growing one more time Acme, Queen of the Purples, and Mikado in hopes that they might be true to the description. A few of the USDA varieties did not germinate last year, and will get a potassium nitrite treatment and another chance this year (samples of Beauty and  Alpha Pink are in this category). A few of the USDA collection will be grown for the first time, such as Mikado Ecarlate, or regrown to get another look at the variety, such as Abraham Lincoln and Magnus.

Now we come to varieties that come from seed savers and need growing out for seed and observations about performance. In this category are Big Yellow, A. C. Red, Mennonite, Orange Strawberry, Potato Leaf Hillbilly (I am dying to see a potato leaf bicolor), Southern Night, Yellow Brandywine and Brandywine from a fellow in Ohio, Italian Giant, Indische Fleische, Bull Heart, Russian Persimmon, Snowball, Azoychka, Cosmonaut Volkov Red, and Orange. (These will be grown in my home garden). Finally, the experiments, such as my search for the regular leaf bicolor of Nina’s Heirloom and F3 growouts from Sun Gold, round out the list.

Does this represent everything that I would like to grow? Not by a long shot. I have hundreds of varieties that I will need to get to within the next 3-5 years, and there will be renewal of seed of other varieties. And, I suppose, more people will send me their favorites, and there are a host of other interesting varieties sitting in the USDA collection, or somewhere else in the world waiting to be grown. What fun this is!

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After re-reading this, my head is spinning. I was only about 10 years into my heirloom tomato adventure, and my annual decisions on what to grow were already very complex. Many of the tomatoes I wrote about continue to be favorites, and others bring back fond memories, though I’ve not grown them in some time. Perhaps re-reading this article will influence what I grow next year!

Betts keeping an eye on things, too!

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 1. "Desert Sweet Tomatoes" by Amy Goldman

Mountain Laurel just about to open on local trails - this was see on Pink Beds Train in Pisgah National Forest

Here, we have another guest article - this time by Amy Goldman, current special advisor to the SSE board.

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Desert Sweet Tomatoes: Jewels of the Negev

by Amy Goldman

I first became aware of the tomatoes called “Desert Sweet” (a brand name) several years ago while visiting relatives on a kibbutz(collective farm) in Israel. “Kibbutzniks” (local residents) extolled their virtues. Being a tomato aficionado I had to know more and sought out Yoel DeMalach, the man in charge of the nearby Ramat Negev Desert Agroresearch Center (RANDAC). Yoel has 40 years of experience in growing and breeding vegetables and field crops, specializing in onions, and has taught agriculture at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva. He has been intimately involved in the development of Desert Sweet tomatoes and along with his frequent collaborator Dov Pasternak of The Institute for Applied Research at Ben Gurion University, is well known for his research with brackish (slightly salty) water irrigation.

The most distinguishing characteristic of these tomatoes is that they are irrigated almost entirely with brackish water, yet paradoxically they are intensely sweet and delicious. Why use saline, rather than fresh water irrigation, and concomitantly, how does this account for a marked increase in glucose (sugar) content? For the answers to these questions let’s start with a little background information.

“Sweet” or fresh water is scarce in Israel and these water resources are being rapidly depleted. On the other hand the Negev desert, Israel’s arid southern region, has vast reserves of brackish water under is sand dunes. The water pumped from wells over 1000 feet below the desert is 400% more saline than the fresh water from the Sea of Galilee. The task of the RANDAC and other collaborators such as Ben Gurion University and The Volcani Agricultural Center has been to literally “make the desert bloom” using salty water and new approaches to agriculture, eg. xericulture, salinity-genetics. And this they have done to a significant degree, based upon experimentation performed over many years.

The tomato is regarded as a moderately salt-tolerant species and thus was a good candidate for research. In order to minimize damage to both soil and plant tissues caused by brackish water, modern drip-irrigation methods were developed. Changes in protocols were made to maximize results. For example, Israeli scientists found that tomatoes need to be germinated and grown in sweet water until the fourth leaf stage. Jointly with the Volcani Center extensive breeding and selection was, and continues to be done, to identify the most saline-resistant tomato cultivars.

A series of controlled experiments performed by teams of researchers have revealed a wealth of information, which, as an amateur gardener, I am neither entirely capable of understanding nor able to report here in full. Nevertheless, some of the most salient features of the research have involved manipulation of different levels of salinity, including rates and times of application, and of even “plant architecture” (pruning vines to two or three branches). The effects of changing these variables was then determined by looking at tomato yields, growth rates, acidity, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, sugar content, taste and fruit size under actual field, screen and hot-house conditions.

The results are in and they are fascinating. Irrigation with brackish water improves the quality of tomato fruit and makes it sweeter. Take this to mean better tasting fruit as judged by “blind” taste testers, sweeter fruits with higher concentrations of sugars, as measured objectively, and less fruit cracking.

Saline irrigation significantly reduces total yields of tomatoes but in some cases increases “marketable” yields of certain types such as cherry tomatoes. Fruit size is significantly decreased. The smaller fruit size accounts for yield decreases as the number of fruit produced is unaffected or actually increased. Irrigation with saline water also results in an increase in the percent of dry matter or total dissolved solids of the fruit. The decreased water content of the fruit presumably accounts for the decreased fruit size and increased percentage of dissolved solids and sugars.

By 1990 Israeli researchers were able to produce high quality fresh market tomatoes using saline irrigation. The “Desert Sweet” designation is actually a brand name applied to a number of tomato varieties bred at the Volcani Institute and grown and irrigated with brackish water in hothouses elsewhere in the Negev. The Desert Sweet project began in 1991 and now these tomatoes are exported and sold worldwide, but only I their glucose levels exceed 200 milligrams per kilogram. If they don’t pass this sugar test they stay in Israel where my mother-in-law can love and enjoy them.

If I’ve piqued your curiosity, and appetite, and you’d like to sample these tomatoes bred specifically for the specialty market, head straight to your nearest gourmet grocery and look in the fruit, not vegetable, section. If you’re in luck you may find Desert Sweets “On” or “Off the Vine” … tell’em Carolyn and Craig sent you. The seeds, on the other hand, are proprietary property and are not available commercially. However, if you live in a desert environment and have been searching for suitable tomato or tomatillo seeds to grow, write or call: Native Seeds/SEARCH, 2509 N. Campbell Ave., #325, Tucson, AZ 85719; phone (602) 327-9123.

Another group assisting the desert dwellers in The Arid Lands Development Foundation, a new non-profit foundation which has opened its doors for the express purpose of promoting dry lands agricultural research and raining projects worldwide, specifically as these have been developed at RANDAC. One of their first projects has involved helping the Hopi people of Arizona to develop and economic base in agriculture. The Foundation, with the assistance of Yoel DeMalach and Dov Pasternak, approached the USDA last year for funds to do an extensive feasibility study. Who knows? We may soon have Hopi-grown peppers and corn in the fruit section as well. For more information write or call: Mr. Sam Hoenig, Executive Director, The Arid Lands Development Foundation, 701 Beta Drive, Suite 27, Cleveland, OH 44143; phone (216) 461-8199.

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Lots has changed since Amy wrote this article, but it is great to have her contribution to our newsletter. Enjoy!

Flame Azalea growing alongside the trail we hiked in the Pink Beds in the Pisgah