Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 2. "Be Careful What You Say...and How You Say It" by Craig

Colors - now in DuPont Forest, seen on an Oct 28 hike to Lake Julia

It is interesting to ponder that the run of Off The Vine also coincided with the use of the Internet as an effective (sometimes!) communications tool. We know where we are now - but this is an interesting peek at where we were then.

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Be Careful What You Say...and How You Say It!

by Craig

The Internet is a powerful communication tool. Just recently I discovered the garden message board of America Online. Located in that area is a folder named “tomato”, and, of course, I could not resist checking it out. Sure enough, there are numerous messages from gardeners all over the United States discussing every aspect of selecting, growing and eating tomatoes. Perhaps 10 years ago the message board would have been quite different from today due to the lack of selection available to home gardeners. Hybrids were extremely popular back then, being the relatively “new thing”. And, to be fair, they were indeed better than the open pollinated tomatoes that were commonly available then, such as Fireball, New Yorker, Bonny Best, Rutgers and Marglobe. So, I am sure the discussion would have centered around how people’s Big Boy, Better Boy and Whopper tomatoes were doing in their garden.

Since the mid 1980’s, and the efforts of seed preservation organizations such as the Seed Saver’s Exchange, the variety of open pollinated tomatoes has exploded. The majority are family heirlooms that have found their way into the collection. Availability to the general gardening public has also increased due to the efforts of open minded, forward thinking (in a way, backward thinking!) seed companies such as Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Seeds Blum and Tomato Growers’ Supply Company. I even noticed some 6 paks of heirloom tomato plants at some local gardening centers this spring.

The results of all of these choices are evident when reading the posts in the tomato folder of the AOL gardening message center. People are trying and talking about heirlooms with nearly the same frequency as hybrids. Over the past 10 years, Carolyn and me have gained much first hand knowledge about heirloom tomatoes, having trialed perhaps as many as 800 between the two of us. We also have done extensive reading on the subject, digesting old seed catalogs, gardening books, and other publications that give a glimpse of the gardening past of the United States. We have been freely sharing our knowledge on the message board, giving advice when requested, pointing people in the right direction for further experimentation, and generally serving as heirloom tomato resources.

A month or so ago, an heirloom novice who was trying a couple of varieties for the first time sent a message that asked whether the heirlooms are best used for cooking or canning. The person did not state which varieties they were growing, so it was not possible to make a specific comment. I did send a response that suggested that among the heirlooms are some of the best tasting tomatoes available, with fresh eating the clearest indication of the quality. My follow up comment was that it is many of the hybrids, developed for disease resistance and shipability, that are probably best used for processing or cooking. I also made the unfortunate choice of connecting hybrids with the term “commercial variety”.

The response to this posting from another on line gardener was remarkable in its vitriol! Sent in all capital letters, it completely disputed my claims, called me (and aimed at Carolyn by inference) essentially self serving and “humbug”, and indicated that we heirloom enthusiasts are brainwashing the gardening public away from hybrids for our own personal gain. Of course, I sent a response that I will not detail in this article, which caused escalation of the matter. All is now peaceful, as Carolyn sent a long retort that smoothed the situation, essentially requesting room for all opinions, which is how it should be.

The exchange was enlightening to me for a number of reasons. People in general seem to become very passionate about their specific gardening likes and dislikes, and take it personally when something that they value does not translate to others. I confess that when Carolyn states her relative dislike for Brandywine or Cherokee Purple (two of my favorite tomatoes), my first reaction is that she has one heck of a nerve criticizing my favorites! My second reaction is that she must have different strains, that they have crossed and she has not experienced the flavors that I have. What it really comes down to, however, is that taste is truly a personal parameter, and her senses just do not process those two tomatoes with the same favor that mine do. Goodness knows, there are plenty of tomatoes that she enjoys that I have found ordinary, and I will be willing to bet that she has the same complex responses to this information as I do.

The value of variety is that with such a wide choice, everyone should be able to find their gardening favorites. Obviously, I struck a nerve with the AOL hybrid supporter. Perhaps my love of heirloom tomatoes has somewhat blinded me to their shortcomings, of which there are plenty. Maybe I should grow a Better Boy or Whopper next year and see if my memory no longer serves me accurately. But, I must also remember that gustatory pleasure is not the only reason for growing heirloom tomatoes. Carolyn and I had an interesting phone conversation this morning, and we were discussing these issues. It came to me that Big Boy (which is the favorite variety of the militant hybrid lover) is the result of a simple cross between two tomatoes. Carolyn has discovered that one of the parents is a very fine heirloom tomato (she has talked to its creator). Long ago, in the days of the Livingston Seed Company heyday, tomatoes were developed from observing chance mutations or crosses in large fields of single varieties of tomatoes. A bit later, new tomatoes came from selections from specific crosses. That is how Rutgers and Marglobe came into being. Marglobe originated in a cross between a perfectly round pink tomato, Livingston’s Globe, and a disease resistant red tomato, Marvel. The F1 generation was grown (it is not listed anywhere what it looked like, but it can be assumed to be a round, red tomato with disease resistance), seed saved, and a large number of the F2 generation grown the following year. Both pink and red tomatoes showed up in the second generation. The red tomato was saved, future generations selected and grown for a number of years until a stable, open pollinated representative was named and released as Marglobe.

Somewhere along the line it was recognized that it would be far more profitable for a seed company to create the hybrid, keep its parents secret and sell the hybrid seed. It would fetch a higher price due to the labor involved in doing the crosses. It would also cause the gardening public to return to the seed company each year to purchase the hybrid seed, since saved seed would segregate and not grow true to type. If this realization would not have occurred, then Burpee would have taken their new tomato, Big Boy, and, instead of releasing the hybrid (in 1949), spent time growing out seed saved from the hybrid and creating an open pollinated version that would essentially be just like Big Boy, and allow the gardener to save seed and regrow it each year. As you have probably realized, this is exactly what we can all do in our gardens, however. It takes time and effort, but it is not impossible to take a hybrid tomato that we like and, within a few years, create an open pollinated approximation of it. We can also give it a name, since it is in fact a new tomato, created with our specifications in mind. No two people would probably select for the same traits, since, as I said above, taste is a very individual thing!

So, where are we after this long discussion? My opinion is that those who love hybrids and do not favor heirlooms are entitled to think this way, just as those of us who favor heirlooms are perfectly justified to hold this opinion. There really is not a whole lot of difference between the two, however. It just could be that the heirloom that creates such loathing in the garden is the mother or father of your favorite hybrid!

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My comments on this? I completely forgot the vitriolic exchange, so it is interesting to read about how my love of heirlooms offended a lover of hybrids. We’ve come a long, long way since the early days of garden discussions on the internet, that’s for sure!

More DuPont color

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 2. "The Deluge of Summer 1996" by Carolyn

Sue and Koda with our daughter Sara hiking in DuPont Forest, October 21.

Carolyn had some challenges in 1996, due to lots of rain. She also discussed her impressions on various tomatoes, as usual - read on and enjoy!

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The Deluge of Summer 1996

Carolyn Male

I almost had polliwogs in the tomato field ponds!  While it’s true that this was the first summer I didn’t have to water, it is also undoubtedly the worse summer for growing tomatoes that I have ever experienced!  I trialed about 60 varieties for other folks and with my new ones and ones planted to replenish seed stocks I had about 200 varieties this summer.  Knowing that, I cut way back on peppers and eggplant.  Yes, I did grow my 150 feet of various melons, and ate not a one!  Looks like I’m on a roll…four years with nothing to eat off those melons.  They all went down with various diseases!  The best development was the effectiveness of a new pesticide called Admire, which is not generally available to the public.  My farmer friend Charlie shared with me!  With only one application I had no, I repeat, no Colorado Potato Beetles for the entire summer.  Surely resistance will appear, it always does, but for one summer I was free of those orange and black devils!  So I was bug free, but the summer was very overcast and it took forever for the tomatoes to ripen.  I started back teaching around September 1, and at that time I had saved very little seed.  This is also the first year that I did not save seed from all of my new varieties.  I’ve decided to save seed from only those varieties which have some redeeming virtues, which leaves many of them out there to die peacefully, with no hopes of further propagation.  Also, while I probably will have my gardens this summer (sale of my mom’s house/land is a factor), I am going to cut back drastically.  I simply cannot take care of, and process seed, at the rate that I have been in the past.  I hope younger members of the SSE will take up the slack.

Let me highlight the best of the new varieties that were trialed, starting with the pink types.  Taps was the best of the lot.  It’s a huge potato leaf beefsteak with great taste.  Pink Ice is a very good salad tomato…early and grew in clusters…a bit larger than a cherry tomato.  I also liked Fandango, a big pink beefsteak, Brianna, another large pink, and Orenberg Giant, which wasn’t, but had a great taste even though it had bad concentric cracking.  There were a few notable new red varieties.  Reisetomate was not doubt the weirdest tomato I’ve ever grown.  It has 20-30 fleshy protuberances all over the surface, kind of like a balled up woodchuck, and can best be described as looking like a cauliflower with cancer.  This one is not for eating!  Aker’s West Virginia, from Craig, was huge, prolific and delicious.  Velvet Red was a beautiful plant…angora (fuzzy) foliage which was finely dissected with small red cherry tomatoes.  Forget the tomatoes, but this very large, spreading plant was visually gorgeous.  I obtained seeds of Visitation Valley because the name amused me; I thought it might be a perfect place to put a cemetery.  And that’s exactly what I’d do with the small fruit…bury them!  Red Barn was from Joe Bratka and is in the same series as Box Car Willie, Mule Team and Great Divide.  All are excellent producing, excellent tasting reds; I think my favorite is still Box Car Willie.  Dix Doigts de Naples was rather unique.  It had clusters of smallish, longish, bomb shaped fruit with very good taste, and it had one branch which gave yellow cherries.  That’s right, yellow cherry tomatoes.  I haven’t a clue as to what was going on other than a somatic mutation which might have occurred in the field.

A few yellow/orange varieties looked very good.  The best and perhaps the best new on I grew is called Earl of Edgecombe.  It is a medium orange, very meaty, no blemishes, quite prolific, and with a terrific flavor.  It seems the sixth Earl died and the nearest relative was a sheep farmer living in New Zealand, who, when he went back to England to become the seventh Earl, brought these seeds with him.  A winner!  Others I liked were Herman’s Yellow, large orange hearts, Basinga, 12 ounce light yellow, Sunshine, a medium yellow, and Miam Nipa, a small yellow from Thailand.  Other color types included Brin de Muguent, which was a medium amber green with green stripes and very sweet, Sutton White, which was almost as good as White Queen, and Peach Blow Sutton, which was notable for its peach shape and coloration, but I didn’t like the taste.

After several year of being without Marizol Purple, because it crosses so easily for me, I got new seed stock from Joe Bratka and was pleased to have it growing again.  Lovely color and taste.  The best performing tomato in the field was Zogola, a huge ribbed prolific red which I was growing for stock seed.  Others that again performed well were Aunt Ginny’s Purple, Yellow Brandywine, German Red Strawberry (heart), Orange Strawberry (heart), Bulgarian Triumph (clusters of red 3-4 ounce fruit), Olena (pink beefsteak), and OTV Brandywine.  I grew eight plants of the latter, primarily for seed, since I’m listing it with the SSE for the 1997 Yearbook and also plan to reoffer it to all of you.  You’ll remember the description as being a large reddish orange beefsteak type with potato leaf foliage, and many folks said they loved the taste.  I do too, but then I’m no doubt biased!

There are over 100 varieties I haven’t described to you (thank heavens!), but I think I’ve mentioned the best ones.  I’m concerned that I may have overlooked some good ones because I have problems with water pooling at one end of the field and the plants growing there simply didn’t perform.  Actually I lost several plants to water logging because water pooled on four separate occasions following torrential downpours.  Although it was not the best growing year there were some real winners.  And already I;m starting to think of what I’ll be planting next year.  I really do want to concentrate more on making crosses and stabilizing some of the selections seen in growouts from F2 varieties.  It’s not clear how long I’ll have my growing area because it is destined to become a new housing development, so I must plan carefully what I want to accomplish the most, and what my priorities really are.

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Of the varieties that Carolyn discussed, we have a difference of opinion on some of them. She loved Earl of Edgecomb, whereas I found it quite ordinary. Aunt Ginny’s Purple has a great reputation but never showed that high quality side to me. We aligned our opinions on a few - but there are many Carolyn described that I never did grow.

Looking up into the fall colors on our DuPont hike

Off The Vine, Volume 3, Number 2. "Oh, Deer! Craig's 1996 Garden Odyssey" by Craig

View of the Davidson river from a bridge, prior to our hike of the North Slope trail in the Pisgah Forest on October 17.

I really used to do battle with the deer in my Raleigh gardens, and 1996 is the epicenter, date-wise, of the discovery of my tomato gardens by the four legged pests - hence the article title. I was also deep into all sorts of projects - old favorites, newly acquired heirlooms, surprises. This was clearly an ambitious, packed garden! I’ll leave selected comments after the article.

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Oh, Deer!  Craig’s 1996 Garden Odyssey

by Craig

This is my favorite article to write each year. Perhaps it is because I am so far ahead of Carolyn in terms of climate, and I can make her jealous with my early looks at such wonderful tomatoes. No, it can’t be that! (Well, maybe!). What is unusual about this year is how, with both of us being so busy, late this issue is. The garden is now but a fond memory, and we have had our first snow flurries already! What I like most about writing this article, though, is the opportunity it provides to share my experiences with the OTV readers. I really believe that the best way to get gardeners to participate in the preservation of heirlooms is to describe their value. Whether it is a unique and beautiful color, a remarkable size or shape, the flavor, or the history, there are a host of great reasons for growing heirloom tomatoes. Let me describe the highlights and challenges from this year’s garden.

Does anyone know a foolproof way to deter deer from visiting a garden? North Raleigh, where my garden is located, is undergoing a huge boom in construction. It is, or was, a rural area with lots of woods and a large lake. Regrettably, a significant area of the woods is now history, replaced with chain saws, bulldozers, and surveyors. Obviously, there was also a very healthy deer population that is now being displaced. The deer seem to love our neighborhood, and especially, heirloom tomatoes, beans, and peppers! They have made a significant negative impact upon my gardening efforts this year. The deer have an uncanny knack for knowing just what tomato I am most eager to harvest. Perhaps I should have them write this column. Certainly, they had more tasting experience with many of my varieties than I did!

The other story of 1996 was the weather. Unlike my first three years in Raleigh, there was a very appropriate assortment of hot and warm, rain and dry (at least until hurricanes Bertha and Fran hit!) And, the variety has been well spaced and well timed. The result of this good fortune was a healthy garden of high productivity. Yes, there were some unwanted and unexpected tragedies. For the first time, what appears to be Fusarium Wilt forced me to remove some plants before they bore any fruit. But, as a whole, the plants looked good, fruited well, and the results were both interesting and delicious!

The tragedies of 1996 were a supposedly red Italian paste tomato called Niemeyer and a large pink named Middle Tennessee Low Acid. The first was planted in the worst part of my garden. Water tended to puddle in the area, and I was not surprised to see it struggle so badly. The second was the most vigorous plant in the garden when it suddenly lost steam. Even at 8 feet tall it had not set fruit, but was in vigorous bloom. Both plants succombed to the wilt before ripe fruit formed. I was fortunate to pick several ripe fruits from some other plants that eventually passed on from the same problem. Amelia Rose, the first plant in my garden to show signs of trouble, is a productive variety which yields clusters of small, plum shaped pink fruit. There are lots of seeds inside, and the flavor is nice, sweet and juicy. Orange is one of my favorite tomatoes. Obtained from the Russian collection of the Seed Saver’s Exchange, it seems very susceptible to wilt. Even the plants I gave away to friends and family were short lived. Fortunately, it bore well for the short time it was alive. The fruits are very oblate (flat) and about 5 to 10 ounces in weight. The color is a bright yellow (despite the name), and the flavor is delightfully tart, almost lemony. The following also spent most of their short life borrowed time, and were pulled from the garden early. Dwarf Perfection, obtained from the USDA, is a very ordinary red that found itself in sauces and salsa due to its lack of exemplary characteristics. Old Virginia gave me one fruit, but what a fruit it was! Tipping the scales at over 2 pounds, it is the smoothest and most perfect looking huge red tomato of my experience. It is also quite delicious, having a good mild, sweet, old fashioned flavor. Mirabelle, a very small gold cherry tomato, is quite nice, but not outstanding to my taste. It is very productive despite its lack of good health.

Among the non-infected plants, the oddest must be another USDA acquisition, Peach Blow Sutton. The fruits are very round, but have a very dull surface and some suggestion of lumpiness, like an old russet apple. The ripe color is a mottled pink, with some green remaining. Despite the unique appearance, the flavor is surprisingly sweet and good, but the tomato is somewhat hollow, with rather thin walls. I have never grown any of the so-called “peach” tomatoes listed in the SSE annual, but suspect that they look at least a bit like this. My most pleasant surprise of the year is a tomato I have temporarily called Cherokee Brick Red Cross. Last year, one of my Cherokee Purple plants gave brownish, rather than purplish, tomatoes. Assuming that this was a bee-produced hybrid, I expected to get either the purplish or a red tomato with my growout this year. You will recall that this is also seed that was distributed to interested OTV readers, and I gave away several plants as well. Lo and behold, all of the plants gave the brownish fruit! My conclusion is that the plant last grew differently last year was a sport or mutation rather than a cross. I would love to hear from OTV readers who grew plants of this variety. I am hoping that it is a stable variety, because I love the tomato. The color is unique in a large tomato, and the flavor is superb. Does anyone have a good idea for a name?

Other tomatoes that I grew for the first time, and was pleased with, are Sandul Moldovan, Berwick’s German, Red Brandywine, Zogola, Green Zebra, Adelia, Leo Harper’s Yellow, Sojourner, Aunt Ginny’s Purple, and Page German. Sandul Moldovan was one of the more vigorous plants growing in this year’s garden. The resulting fruits were very large, oblate, fairly smooth and pink in color. The flavor was pleasantly mild, sweet and very juicy. Berwick’s German looks very much like a tomato I first grew a few years ago called Shilling Giant. It is medium to quite large, and very variable in shape. Some tomatoes were nearly frying pepper shaped, while others were nearly true heart shaped. The color was scarlet, and the tomatoes had a good balanced flavor and tender texture. There was a tendency for the tomatoes to be a bit hollow. I have had the seed for Red Brandywine for years, originally obtaining it from the Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is one of the absolute best red tomato I have grown. The shape was nearly globe, and they were quite large in size. Inside was found the classic tomato interior, with many irregular seed chambers. The flavor was delicious and truly rich and old-fashioned. It reminded me of the variety Nepal in many ways. Adelia was very similar, but just a bit smaller, perhaps. Those classic round red tomatoes were nothing like Zogola, however. A truly monstrous tomato, with lots of lumps, creases, folds and a tad of blossom scar, it grew quite large. Deep scarlet in color, it was very sweet, balanced and juicy, and just another great red tomato. Green Zebra was a pleasant surprise, in that it is a visually beautiful and unique tomato that just happens to taste great. Unripe fruits are light green 3 to 4 ounce globes with jagged darker green stripes. When it ripens, the pale green background turns to a warm amber color. The inside remains bright green, and the flavor is snappy and fresh. It is a wonderful tomato with which to make salsa! I have had the seed for Leo Harper’s Yellow for a long time, but finally decided to grow it this year. It is not high yielding, but produces very large, nearly round deep yellow fruit. The flavor is reminiscent of Yellow Brandywine, with a nice tartness to go along with the fruity sweetness. Aunt Ginny’s Purple is just another great potato leaf pink beefsteak type tomato, similar in appearance and flavor to Brandywine. Page German and Sojourner are large red tomatoes. The first is very oblate and smooth, the second of variable shapes leaning toward hearts. Both have well balanced, true old fashioned tomato flavor.

Repeat varieties that performed well again are Golden Queen, Black Krim (as long as it is well ripened), Price’s Purple, Coyote, Gregori’s Altai, Azoychka, Aunt Ruby’s Green, Dorothy’s Green, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Brandywine, Polish, Giant Syrian, Gallo Plum, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, and Brandywine. I described the performance of most of these in previous articles. It was good to reaffirm that the Golden Queen grown from the USDA seed is indeed not the same as that being offered by numerous seed companies, but rather the true Livingston introduction. Rather than being orange and medium sized on short plants, the real thing is bright yellow with a pale pink blush, grows on very vigorous tall plants, and has a delicious sweet flavor. Black Krim has always been an attention getter for its dark purplish pigmentation. The color seems to darken as the tomato ripens. I did not enjoy the flavor when I last grew it, but well ripened specimens from this year’s garden have made me change my mind about this. Now that I have grown both in my garden, clearly despite the similar sizes and coloring, Price’s Purple and Cherokee Purple are distinctly different, aside from the obvious plant characteristics (Price is potato leafed, Cherokee is regular leafed). The former is more oblate, has a more ridged shoulder, and is significantly milder in flavor. Both are fine tomatoes, however. Coyote, which is actually considered a weed in parts of Mexico, is certainly something quite different. The very vigorous and productive plants produced very small ivory colored tomatoes that had a very big flavor, nearly of beefsteak tomato intensity. When very ripe, the blossom end is a translucent ivory, and the shoulders are pale yellow. One of my longtime favorite tomatoes, and the best of the early influx of Russian varieties, is Gregori’s Altai.  Growing nearly globular in shape and prone to radial cracking, the interior is very solid with the seed chambers at the periphery. The flavor is very, very sweet, almost surprisingly so. Giant Syrian is a very large red heart shaped tomato with excellent flavor and yield. Gallo Plum is a red pepper shaped sauce tomato, like Opalka.  Some of the fruit were over 6 inches long and weighed a pound. Though Carolyn disputes its reputation, Brandywine again won the award as best tasting tomato in the garden. The yield this year, like all of my pink potato leaf varieties, was poor, unfortunately. I must get her to try the strain that I am growing to see if I can change her mind!

Disappointments included Plum Lemon, Whittemore, Snowball, Elfie, German, and Eckert Polish (the last two obviously crossed, being very small red tomatoes instead of large fruited). Despite a beautiful color and remarkable resemblance to a lemon in shape, I found Plum Lemon to be virtually flavorless, and not at all solid and meaty. Whittemore was remarkable for its large, pink, oblate fruit, but it had an odd cooked flavor that I occasionally find in some of the large pink tomatoes (Sabre, Dinner Plate, Una Hartsock’s Beefsteak, and Magellan Burgess Purple come to mind) and do not much care for. Snowball was beautiful to look at, being over a pound and very oblate - nearly flat - with some catfacing on the bottom. The color was the truest white that I have yet seen. Alas, it suffered from blandness, not rare for white tomatoes. Elfie is a pretty tomato, nearly round and a pale apricot color (the orange side of yellow), but the flavor simply does not excite. The bees are obviously responsible for creating chaos with German and Eckert Polish. I picked red golf balls instead of softballs! By the way, another USDA acquisition, Chartreuse Mutant, gave me small red tomatoes!

Many tomatoes that I grew came on late, did not yield very well, or were not memorable in quality. Among these are Manyel,  Brown’s Large Red (actually a large pink), Honey, Arlene’s Poland, Early Annie, Olena, Abraham Lincoln, Yellow Beauty (a bright yellow USDA variety with bland flavor), Robinson’s, Indian Reservation, Soldacki, Bisignano #2 potato leaf, German Pink, Anna Russian (the worst it has ever performed for me), and Mennonite. Two red/yellow bicolors, Selwin Yellow and Regina’s Yellow, were planted very late; the seed was very old and took extensive potassium nitrate treatment before germination occurred. The varieties look promising, and will be regrown next year. A few tomatoes grown for the first time were quite good and were probably underrated by me because they all came ripe at once. These were Deep Yellow German, Taps, Curry, Plumsteak, German Heirloom, Druzba, Rasp Large Red, Hungarian Heirloom, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Bridge Mike’s, Russian 117, Aker’s West Virginia, Penny, Russian, and Guiseppe’s Big Boy. Several were large pink potato leaf types (Taps, German Heirloom, and Guiseppe’s Big Boy) of excellent flavor but low yields. Among the red tomatoes were two of globe shape (Druzba, medium sized, and Rasp Large Red, very large), a huge oblate (Aker’s West Virginia), and a monstrous heart shape (Russian 117). Penny and Plumsteak were very large, pink and heart shaped. Curry, Hungarian Heirloom, Bridge Mike’s, and Russian were all very large and regular leaved. Of the two gold tomatoes, Deep Yellow German was medium and globe shaped, and Kellogg’s Breakfast very large and oblate.

Finally, here is report on a few other experiments conducted my garden in 1996. The growout of Sun Gold F4 potato leaf selection resulted in all potato leaf plants. The cherry tomatoes on the plant were red orange in color and very good tasting, though not as sweet as the gold colored hybrid from which it originated. My experience with Madara potato leaf selection is also positive. Again, all seedlings were potato leaf. The vigorous plant produced slightly oval shaped bright yellow cherry tomatoes that were quite solid, and with a good sweet flavor. It reminded me of Galina in texture and flavor, but was not quite as round as that tomato. Both of these tomatoes look to be stabilized potato leaf varieties, which is unusual in cherry tomatoes. To those of you who tried the Sun Gold seeds, please let me know of your experiences with them this year. My growout of an F2 plant from the Price’s Purple X Purple Perfect cross was also successful. All seedlings were potato leaf, which was expected (both parents are potato leaf). What was amazing was the number of blossoms on each cluster, and the number of blossoms on each cluster that actually set fruit! The tomatoes were about 8 ounce, slightly oblate and purplish in color. They were intermediate in size and shape between the two parents. The flavor was excellent.

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Lots of memories from this garden - some positive, some not so much so. 1996 was the year of Hurricane Fran - I believe it is the season where Keith Mueller and I met, during a tour of my garden by Mary Peet’s hort class (NC State). This was also the year of my discovery of Cherokee Chocolate (named Cherokee Brick Red cross in this article). From the tomatoes described above, I really must revisit a number of them. It is time to regrow Orange, Old Virginia, Sandul Moldovan, Zogola, and Gregori’s Altai, in particular.

Fall colors seen during the North Slope hike.

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 2. "C & C's Corner" by Carolyn

All that remains in mid October - peppers and eggplants in straw bales

The end is getting closer. This is the first article from V3 #2 - the last two issues of Volume 3 have 6 articles each (of which this is the first), and there are two articles in never-seen, incomplete Volume 4, Number 1 - the end of Off The Vine. Doing the math/calendar, that means 14 articles remain. Publishing these weekly, that would take me to mid January to finish my project of ensuring all Off The Vine articles are republished on this blog. I can certainly speed up a bit so that all are squeezed into this calendar year - the job will be completed by the time that we turn the page into 2023.

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C and C’s Corner

by Carolyn Male

Happy Holidays, everyone!  We never expected to be this late with this issue, but sometimes “stuff” happens.  And when it happens to Craig and I at pretty much the same time, there’s nothing we can do about it.  I apologize to those of you who renewed and I did not get your checks deposited in a timely manner.  And I apologize to those of you who are new subscribers for not getting this issue out on time.  I held your subscriptions, assuming that this issue would be sent out in October.  I was wrong!

A word of explanation is in order.  My mother declined rapidly over the summer...mental deterioration (not Alzheimer’s), not physical.  It became apparent that she could no longer live in the home where she had lived for 55 years, even though we had aides coming in each day.  She lashed out at me day after day.  Of course I was at her home every day in the summer because that’s where my gardens are.  I would go home each night consumed with guilt, to the point where I was often unable to do anything.  It was terrible.  I know that many of you have been through this, but it was a first for me.  Mom was transferred to an Adult home on October 7th, and that weekend we almost lost her twice.  She lapsed into a diabetic coma within 48 hours.  Although she had been a well regulated diabetic, her diabetes went completely out of control.  In the meantime I was trying to sort through stuff in her home.  Thus I was working 7 days a week, week after week, while trying to keep up with my academic obligations, and I’m still doing it now, in early December.  For those of you who are new, I am a college teacher…Microbiology and related subjects.  Quite frankly, it has been the most stressful time of my life…so far!  Ironically, and wonderfully, Mom loves the adult home, and her glucose level is slowly stabilizing.

At the time I was having my problems, Craig was, too.  Again, for our new subscribers, Craig has his PhD in Chemistry and has a very responsible position as Pilot Plant Manager at GlaxoWellcome Pharmaceuticals in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.  Work was very stressful for him and he also had to make several trips to London for various conferences.  Coupled with the damage that hurricane Fran inflicted on his property (mainly downed trees, no damage to the house), he too was essentially working 7 days a week.  And he also found it difficult to find quality time to spend with his wife and 2 daughters.

He was able to send me copies for the enclosed articles in early December.  This is the first time that neither of us has had time to do our usual interview and it’s the first time that we don’t have guest articles.  Hopefully the pressure will lessen and we’ll have the next issue to you in February, as usual.  This is important because we have some great new seeds to share with you.  But more about that later.

In Craig’s article about the Internet/Tomatoes, he refers to my finding out that Big Boy has one heirloom parent.  It’s a story worth repeating here.  In late spring I received a letter from an OTV reader in the Midwest who suggested that one of Big Boy’s parents was an heirloom, stated the name, and was wondering if seeds were available.  He told me that in the 1940’s Burpee was buying the rights to various heirlooms and paying people he knew about $140 for exclusive rights to this heirloom.  I called Burpee, and after several referrals, reached Dr. Oved Shiffris didn’t remember the name of the heirloom, although he readily stated that a pink heirloom was one parent, but in a later phone call he confirmed that the story was true.  I suppose he had to check his notes.  He also confirmed that Better Boy has the same pink heirloom parent as Big Boy.  Dr. Shifriss told me Big Boy’s other parent also.  Unfortunately, no seeds are available for that pink heirloom because it is used, every year, to produce hybrid seed of Big Boy.  And he told me many wonderful stories about David Burpee and the exciting times in the early years of hybridizing.  Dr. Shifriss spent most of his career at Rutgers, where he made many significant discoveries concerning squash.  The yellow precocious gene that you see described for yellow summer squash was one of his many contributions; basically it masks the greening that summer squash get following cucumber mosaic virus infection.  Dr. Shifriss is now in his mid-80s and this summer, while doing research work on squash, he suffered heart problems and had to have a quad bypass, which was followed by blood clot problems.  I have not had a more recent update.  National Gardening also mentioned about Big Boy having an heirloom parent in an article published a few years ago.  Why the interest?  Read Craig’s article.  There are those who denounce heirlooms and rave about Big Boy and Better Boy, believing them to be hybrids with no heirloom parentage.  Surprise!

The Disease Project didn’t get off the ground.  I received less than 15 responses from folks who wanted to participate.  I sent each of them a copy of the disease manual from Ciba Geigy and a letter stating that we wouldn’t go forward with so few participants.  Right now I don’t know if we will go ahead with the project this summer, or not.  I’ll let you know in the February issue.  The Cornell Cooperative Extension Service did do a disease survey of the 200 or so varieties I grew this year.  I had planted Celebrity, Jet Star and Pik Red as hybrid comparisons.  In a summer I’d characterize as the worst summer I’ve ever seen for tomatoes, many of the heirlooms held their own nicely, many were disease prone and many were better with the hybrids.  Perhaps on some later date I will report on this.

Lastly, in the next issue we will try to have several different F2 crosses available for you to try.  There are several new ones from Steve Draper, which look quite interesting.  A presumed cross between Brandywine (pink) and Big Rainbow (bicolor) sent to me by Stanley Zubrowski turned out to not be a cross; all progeny were bicolors.  A few folks reported back to us about the F2 crosses they grew this past summer, and in the next issue I’ll share those results so you can better select which seeds you want to request.  And of course we’ll also have OTV Brandywine, which did well for several growers.  Pat Millard has agreed to once again do the seed distribution (thank you, Pat, so very much) for us.  I’ll have all of the details in the next issue.  And of course we also list commercial seed sources for you in that issue, as always.

Again, sorry we’re late with this issue, but several times we’ve shared with you that our professional obligations have first priority.  And when personal problems arise, there’s nothing to be done except to get an issue out when we can.

And Craig and I hope all of you have a wonderful 1997 gardening year.

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As always, Carolyn packs a lot of information into her typical C & C column - including various personal things and progress (or lack thereof) on projects. Enjoy - there are not many of these remaining!

Country girl mum is still the star of the show in mid Oct

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. "Craig’s Selected Questions: An Interview with Rob Johnston, Founder of Johnny’s Selected Seeds" by Craig

Fall color and lower Graveyard Falls along the Blue Ridge in early October

I’d forgotten that I interviewed someone who has become a good friend - Rob Johnston, founder of one of my favorite seed companies, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

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Craig’s Selected Questions:  An Interview with Rob Johnston, Founder of Johnny’s Selected Seeds

 by Craig

When I started gardening in the early 1980’s, spring meant a trip to the local nursery to buy whatever they carried in the familiar 6-paks. After a few years of seeing the same old varieties growing in my garden, I entered the phase of starting my plants from seeds. Among the large selection of seed catalogs that arrived in the mail, the one that really caught my eye was from a small company in Maine called Johnny’s Selected Seeds. It was evident in reading through their catalog that the people who ran the company were concerned with quality on many levels, from the selection of seeds that they offered to the informative and comprehensive growing information. Everything that I ordered from JSS was wonderful, be it Nepal tomato, Gold Crest bell pepper, E-Z Pick bush bean, or Rosalita lettuce. That was 10 years ago, and I am pleased to say that unlike the latest hot restaurant that declines in quality and gets lazy with success, JSS just keeps getting better and better as time goes by.

A few years ago they became one of the first high profile seed company to offer an excellent selection of heirloom tomatoes. Along with popular open-pollinated varieties Kotlas, Oregon Spring, Bellstar, Whippersnapper, Washington Cherry, Taxi, Gold Dust and Gold Nugget are such delicious and interesting varieties as Pruden’s Purple, Cherokee Purple, German, Debarao, Giant Paste, Great White, Valencia, Wonder Light, Striped German, Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Cuostralee, and Matt’s Wild Cherry. JSS has also offered Anna Russian and Tiger Tom in the past, and they may reappear in future catalogs. One just gets the sense that they love what they do there, and want to do it continually better, to serve the gardening public.

There would not be a Johnny’s Selected Seeds without its founder, Rob Johnston. Rob and I have been chatting occasionally over the phone for at least 5 years. We cover a lot of ground in our phone conversations. Although the initial cause for the call is something related to gardening, we often stray into other areas of common interest. Over the last few years, we have come to realize that we share interests in, among other things, weather, maps, and music, along with our obvious passion for heirloom tomatoes.  Rob is a willing audience for testing everything that Carolyn and I sent his way. And, much to our delight, a good number of our favorites can be found in the JSS catalog. Obviously, Rob has good taste! Since Carolyn and I are so fond of Johnny’s Selected Seeds, we felt that Rob would be an excellent choice for an interview. So, armed with a list of questions, Rob and I spent some time on the phone chatting about tomatoes, seed companies, and life in general.

Rob was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, in 1950. His dad hails from West Virginia, and his mom is from Ohio. When Rob was nine years old, his family and he moved to Massachusetts. He attended the University of Massachusetts, initially seeking a mathematics major. However, since this was in the period of 1969/1970 (a very socially enlightening time for our country), it is no surprise that Rob did not maintain an interest in math. As you can probably guess, it was then that he began to develop an interest in agriculture. After trying unsuccessfully to gain admission to Cornell to follow up on this new interest, he selected a different road to accomplish his goals.

Rob then became involved with food cooperatives, helping to start the Yellow Sun co-op in Amherst, Massachusetts. Rob also spent some time in Providence, Rhode Island, working in a natural food store started by his then girlfriend’s mother. A supplier to the Yellow Sun co-op had a small vegetable farm in New Hampshire, and Rob (after cutting his hair) moved there in 1972. It was then that he became interested in the seed business. The farm supplied a vegetable broker in New York who had an interest in particular and uncommon types of produce. Seeds for such ethnic or foreign vegetable varieties were hard to come by at that time.

Stimulated by such requests, Rob spent evenings developing a network of seeds. He went to Boston libraries in the evenings, reading the international trade directories and consulted with various countries. In this way, Rob familiarized himself with what was available for seeds outside of the United States. At the end of the summer of 1973, Rob once more moved in with his parents in Massachusetts. It was there that he published Johnny’s Selected Seed’s first seed catalog. The catalog was written at the farm, and printed by a friend in Boston. It also included hand drawings (by a New Hampshire friend). In this first catalog were seeds from a few foreign suppliers, as well as some family heirlooms, his orientation even back then being toward non-hybrid varieties. That first year, Rob realized sales of about seven thousand dollars. Rob moved to Dixmon, Maine in 1974 to establish the headquarters of his new company, and Johnny’s has been in Maine ever since, later moving to its current location in Albion.

I asked Rob about his first contact or awareness of the Seed Saver’s Exchange. He read to me parts of a letter from November 30, 1976, that he received from Kent Whealy, director of SSE. Kent asked Rob to mention the SSE (known then as the True Seed Exchange) in his seed catalog. The True Seed Exchange had 200 members in those days. Rob feels that the greatest value of the SSE as it currently exists is in the network of gardeners, the linking together of amateur enthusiasts. Rob himself occasionally offers seeds through the SSE. He mentioned a few ideas of improving the Winter SSE Yearbook. He suggested bold facing new information in any given year. This would certainly make it easier for SSE members to easily see the new seeds in the year’s listings. When asked if seed saving hurts companies that concentrate on non hybrid varieties, he replied no. Any activity that builds enthusiasm for gardening should be supported. For example, even those who save seeds from year to year need gardening supplies, books, and seeds of varieties that they do not maintain.

Rob, who still owns JSS, currently spends about 20% of his time on management responsibilities. Naturally, this is not the favorite part of his job. He spends the balance of his time on research and production. He feels that JSS is very ambitious concerning product development, and wants the company to continually strive to offer customers better seeds and better methods. At JSS, there is excellent staff stability, and good morale right now, though he admits that such things can be cyclical. Since delegating the presidency of the company in 1992 to another staff member, Rob feels that things are going very well there indeed. He is the first to admit that the public relations part of the job is not his specialty. He still likes to get his hands dirty!

JSS focuses upon such crops as squash, pumpkins, and peppers. These are species in which a modest size operation can make a real impact, in Rob’s opinion. There are also smaller projects ongoing with other crops, such as tomatoes. I asked Rob about his interest in heirloom tomatoes, and why JSS is carrying a selection of them in the catalog. Rob has been maintaining a collection of heirlooms since the late 1970’s, when people began to send seeds of various varieties to JSS for testing. He feels that he was late off the mark with heirlooms, as he thought that they were too primitive, inconsistent in performance, and matured too late in Maine. What he has found however is that they frequently grow very well there, and certainly have been a success in terms of sales. JSS rotates heirlooms in and out of the catalog. Brandywine is very popular, Cherokee Purple OK, but Anna Russian, Cuostralee, and Great White are tough sells. Nepal is actually out of the catalog as well.

I asked Rob about his hobbies, and he told me about his love of contra dancing, biking, skiing, and playing the guitar. As to his favorite tomatoes, he replied that he likes small tomatoes with lots of flavor, especially processing or sauce tomatoes. He particularly enjoys the new (to his catalog) plum tomato Debarao. He did admit relishing the flavor of the large heirloom beefsteak types, such as Brandywine. It is tough when they come in so late, however. Most of the popular SSE heirlooms do not ripen in Maine until late August, and are at their best in September. Rob and I have also frequently talked about the relative strengths and weakness of open pollinated vegetables, in comparison with hybrids. His opinion is that for self pollinated crops like peppers and tomatoes, the phenomenon of “hybrid vigor” is not as significant as for crops such as squash and corn. His belief is that the major advantage of hybridization is inclusion of disease resistance, as well as improved adaptability and consistency of performance year to year and over a wider geographic area that is provided by the hybrid vigor. For home gardeners who are not as concerned about concentrated fruit sets or ability to machine harvest, hybrids are certainly not mandatory. He did remind that heirlooms can be very variable season to season, however. A variety that is spectacular one year may be a near total failure the following season. Hybrids may not be as spectacular in terms of either success or failure.

Rob has been trying for years now to get Carolyn and me up to Maine to visit. The thought of helping Rob and the JSS staff taste through their tomato trials is exciting indeed. Up to now, work and family responsibilities have prevented me from taking the trip. Carolyn has similar issues with her teaching responsibilities. The year is definitely coming, however, when you will find me in Maine some September. Somehow, I have a feeling that Rob and I would spend some time with the tomatoes, then head off to play the guitar together!

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Rob and I maintain a friendship. We got to meet at an SSE campout and have regular email and phone conversations. JSS is now employee owned, and Rob and Janika are pondering where to move next - it seems the Maine experience is coming to an end. We still talk gardening - I sent him a sample of Marbel bean a few years ago, and he now is maintaining it.

Summery Million Bells flower on a fall day

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. “Off The Vine Disease Project” by Carolyn

The view from Devil’s Courthouse mountain, which Sue and I hiked to on October 6.

This is a very cool article by Carolyn - I completely forgot that she embarked on this sort of project.

Off The Vine Disease Project

Carolyn Male

A few months ago I got an email from Joe Imhof, one of our subscribers, who basically, but very nicely, challenged us to put up or you know what with regard to disease tolerance and susceptibility of heirloom tomatoes.  Joe knew that we didn’t want to deal with individual diseases but felt that assessing tolerance in heirlooms would be of great benefit to many people who are now growing heirlooms or would like to.  He is absolutely right and I thank him for being the impetus behind this project.  Many of us who grow lots of heirlooms have always known that potato leaf types are more tolerant than others to early blight and septoria leaf spot.  And I should mention that the correct term is disease tolerance, not resistance; no variety, be it open pollinated or hybrid, is totally resistant to any pathogen (according to most of the tomato pathologists I’ve talked to recently).  The type of information we can obtain should be of importance to those companies selling heirloom tomato seed, Seed Savers Exchange members, individual growers and magazines that carry heirloom tomato-related stories.  I called a few folks to feel them out about this project and there was uniform encouragement.  I must tell you about my chat with Kent Whealy at SSE.  I called to see if they would be interested in participating and Kent said that because of disease build up they were opening new ground this year and he wasn’t expecting much disease.  To which I responded that I was sorry to hear that!  I couldn’t believe I said that..I guess it all depends on what your perspective is on a given issue.

When I mention that potato leaf varieties are more tolerant of early blight I can document that fact.  In early 1993 Jon Traunfeld of Baltimore, MD called me and asked if I had any varieties of heirloom tomatoes that I thought were especially disease resistant (whoops!...tolerant).  I mentioned about the potato leaf types and sent him seed of Olena, a very nice Ukrainian pink.  I believe the field study was done through the Master Gardeners program; the farmer coopters are listed as Marty and Eric Rice of Frederick County, MD.  Jon is with the Univ. of Maryland Extension service and administers the Master Gardener program for Maryland as part of his duties.  The following information is taken from the report Jon sent me.  The two objectives of the study were to (1) determine the relative susceptibility of four tomato cultivars to early blight and (2) compare the early blight susceptibility of potato leaf varieties to regular leaf varieties.  The four varieties chosen for study were:  1.  Pik Red, a determinate hybrid commercial variety known to be fairly susceptible to early blight; 2.  Early Cascade, an indeterminate hybrid, early and small fruited with “purported” early blight tolerance; 3.  Brandywine; indeterminate, large fruited, potato leaf, and 4.  Olena; indeterminate, large fruited and potato leaf.

There were six randomized blocks, each containing 24 plants, for a total of 144 plants.  Spacing was two feet within the rows and six feet between rows.  The stake and weave method of support was used and a straw mulch was laid down.  The Rices’ farm is a certified organic farm with no sprays or fertilizers used.  As can be seen in Table one, the plants were observed five times during the summer to determine the percent of leaves affected with symptoms and the percent leaf defoliation.  The data very strongly show that Early Cascade, the hybrid variety with supposed tolerance to early blight, was the most susceptible.  It’s an early tomato so that might be expected.  Pik Red is not an early tomato and it suffered nearly as much as Early Cascade.  Look at the August 10 and August 25 data.  Do you now believe?  The statistical data are included for those folks who are interested.  All good field studies should have a known susceptible variety (Pik Red), a known tolerant variety (Early Cascade), and test varieties (Brandywine and Olena).  All good field studies should treat the data statistically.  This was a well designed field study.  A brief summary of the results was reported in Organic Gardening and I panicked a bit because Olena was mentioned and at that time I was the only person on the face of the earth who had seeds for that variety.

When I read a catalog description of Brandywine this year which said that it was susceptible to disease as were most heirlooms, you can imagine my response.  And yes, there are regular leaf varieties which are tolerant to early blight also.  The only person to report disease status for some heirlooms is Jeff McCormack at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange; just read his tomato pages!

We can’t do what Jon Traunfeld and his group did.  No one expects you to do percentages, etc.  And we’re interested in many other diseases than early blight.  And we can’t do this the way it should be done, in terms of each of you having known susceptible and tolerant varieties for each disease to be studied.  And we can’t control your seed source for each variety.  That’s an important factor because a number of diseases can be seedborne, such as bacterial canker, bacterial sport and anthracnose, to name a few.  Dr. Helene Dillard at Cornell has studied the effect of fermentation of seeds on the elimination of pathogens and found that while the total amount of pathogens is lessened, they are not totally removed.  Commercial seed companies usually do a triphosphate treatment of tomato seeds, but that’s pretty specific for Tobacco Mosaic Virus, which is not a major pathogen of tomatoes.  Dr. Dillard and others, whom I’ll mention in the materials to be sent to participants, have helped me generate lists of the most important pathogens for different parts of the country.  Right now I’m in envy of California – you poor disease deprived folks!

Here’s the game plan.  If you are growing at least two plants each of at least five varieties we’d love to have you participate.  Please send me a long self-addressed envelope with 78 cents worth of postage.  The first 100 responders will get, as an extra incentive, a very small field guide to tomato diseases published by Ciba-Geigy.  The guide is for farmers, has some excellent pictures, and is basically a promotional for Ridomil, one of their products.  I’m indebted to Joyce Soltis, a Ciba-Geigy representative, for the donation of 100 of these guides.  If we get more than 100 participants and I can’t send you a field guide I’ll assume you’re making a 46 cent donation to the cause because I just don’t have it in me to take the time to write out checks for 46 cents.  I’ll send you instructions and data sheets.  Using your own knowledge of the diseases listed for your area, and/or the guidance of the field guide, fill in what you can in terms of tolerance and susceptibility.  If you don’t feel confident about certain diseases, don’t assess them.  Another excellent guide is called “Identifying Diseases of Vegetables” by MacNab, Sherf and Springer.  It costs about $18 and is available from Southern Exposure Seed company and Johnny’s Selected Seeds (addresses in the February Off The Vine).

Please participate.  This summer we’ll collect as much data as we can, and then refine our methods for next year, and maybe open it up to others.  Jon Traunfeld is pretty sure that he can get the cooperation of the Master Gardeners program in the US, and there are other ways of soliciting input from others.  But let’s us do the initial work to see how it goes.  I need help!  I have no experience with computer data-based software.  Is there someone out there who would volunteer to computerize the data in a meaningful fashion?  If so (pretty please) email me at malec@rosnet.strose.edu and we’ll chat.

I’ve got the tomato field guides now and should finish my research work with tomato pathologists around the country in a few weeks, after I get this issue of Off The Vine mailed.  So please send me a long SASE with 78 cents postage (my address is in the masthead on page 2) and I’ll mail you the materials in early July.  And I’ll be checking my email to see if we have a volunteer tomato tabulator!

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As you will read in a future article, Carolyn got very few takers, so the project never got off the ground. But - this is a great early example of citizen science with respect to a garden project. The lack of volunteers is also a testament to how challenging it is to do this sort of thing.

Sue and Koda in the midst of the hike, passing beneath a tunnel of trees

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. "Alexander Livingston and the Tomato" by Andrew Smith

Koda and Marlin on the Ivestor Gap trail in late Sept

One of my favorite gardening books is “Livingston and the Tomato”, published as a reprint with additional information by author and historian Andrew Smith. Carolyn and I were delighted that Andrew submitted the following article for publication in our newsletter. Enjoy!

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Alexander Livingston and the Tomato

Andrew F. Smith

Ever since I began researching tomato history, I have been in awe of Alexander Livingston.  Although several tomato pamphlets had been published previously to his book, “Livingston and the Tomato” was the first major work published about tomatoes in America.  Previous works concentrated on how to make a profit from growing tomatoes.  Livingston’s book was comprehensive; it included more than sixty five tomato recipes, a wealth of cultivation tips and techniques, and a description of his progress in developing and introducing tomato varieties.  In all, he launched thirteen tomato varieties between 1870 and 1893.  If copying is a form of flattery, Livingston was highly praised by his contemporaries and competitors.  All of his varieties were pirated by others and were issues under a variety of different names.  No other 19th or 20th century seeds-man came close to introducing as many influential tomato varieties as did Livingston.

Due to Livingston’s prominence in tomato history, I have always wanted to visit Reynoldsburg, Ohio.  Reynoldsburg has not forgotten Livingston or its tomatoey past.  Every year for the past three decades, Reynoldsburg has sponsored an annual Tomato Festival, which, of course, includes contests for the largest tomato plant, the heaviest fruit, the smallest fruit, and forty one other categories.  In addition, the town of Reynoldsburg purchased the house in which Livingston had lived during the 1860s and early 1870s.  The house now is a historic site on the National Register.

A few weeks ago after concluding some business in Pittsburgh, I decided that the moment for my pilgrimage had arrived.  I traveled west on I-70, exiting at Reynoldsburg, a few miles east of Columbus, Ohio.  As soon as I left the interstate, I knew that this was my kind of town; a sign announced that Reynoldsburg was “the birthplace of the tomato”.  A few minutes after settling down in my motel, I telephoned OTV member Jim Huber.  Jim is a Livingston aficionado, who collects seed catalogs, letters and other memorabilia related to the Livingston Seed Company.

Jim acquired the key to Alexander Livingston’s home, which serves as a community center for Reynoldsburg today.  The Livingston House Society, an all-volunteer nonprofit group, has tried to furnish the house with furniture typical of the 19th century.  Alan Livingston, great grandson of Alexander, helped refurbish it.  Others donated or lent items.  Local history buffs have attempted to reconstruct the house in historically appropriate ways.  Pictures of Livingston Seed catalogs adorn the walls and the house has been furnished with mid-19th century antiques.  The house and the adjoining property had been lovingly cared for and there are plans to grow some of the Livingston tomato varieties in the surrounding yard.  As we toured the house, Jim discussed Livingston and his contributions to tomato history.

Livingston had been born in Reynoldsburg in 1822.  When he was 23, he married Matilda Graham.  Their marriage produced ten children, only one of whom died in infancy.  Livingston leased property and began farming.  He also began experimenting with growing seed for trade.  In 1850 he purchased a seed consignment business.  Based on the proceeds, he built the home in 1863-64.  He began experimenting with developing new plant varieties during this period.  Although he worked with many different plants, Livingston’s true love was the tomato.

After our tour and discussion, Jim recommended that I contact Connie Parkinson, a Reynoldsburg historian, who had authored “Alex Livingston:  The Tomato Man 1821-1298” in 1985.  When I spoke with her on the telephone, she had just finished revising the pamphlet.  She kindly forwarded a copy of her new manuscript “Alex Livingston:  The Tomato Man and His Times”, which helped fill in Livingston’s life and his contributions toward developing tomato varieties.

Like many other businesses in America, Livingston’s seed business went bankrupt in the crash of 1875-76.  He sold his home in 1876 and turned over his business to his son Robert.  The firm moved to Columbus and was renamed Alexander Livingston and Sons.  Alexander moved to Iowa, where he established a site for a new company.  He had originally planned to move the entire seed company from Ohio, but under Robert’s management the business prospered.  In 1890, after the death of his wife, Alexander turned over his Iowa seed business to another son, Josiah, and returned to Ohio.  He lived the remaining years of his life in Columbus, where he died in 1898.

Livingston was neither the first nor the only American to develop significant tomato varieties, but he was unquestionably the most influential tomato developer in the 19th century.  During the 1860s, he located an unusual plant in one of his tomato fields.  It had uniformly round fruit of similar size, but it was too small for commercial use.  In the following years he grew seeds from this plant and its offspring.  He ended with a plant of similar characteristics as the original, but with much larger fruit.  In 1870 he introduced it as Paragon.  Its fruit was larger than many of the standard tomato varieties then available.  It was solid, uniform and well flavored.  According to Livingston, it “was the first perfectly and uniformly smooth tomato ever introduced to the American public, or, so far as I have ever learned, the first introduced to the world”.

Whether or not the Paragon was the first tomato variety to be uniformly smooth and round was challenged by historians.  What was indisputable was the popularity of the Paragon in America.  It quickly became a favorite among market gardeners and canners, and was sold by many other seedsmen.  According to a major competitor, the Landreth Seed Company in Pennsylvania, the Paragon “was the perfection of a tomato – large, solid and smooth as an apple, and deep red”.  They believed it was a superb variety for which “no praise can be too high”.  Of course, the Landreths forgot to mention that the Paragon had been developed by Livingston.

Seventeen years after the Paragon was first introduced, the renowned botanist Liberty Hyde Bailey reported that it was “constant in size and shape, three to four inches across and two inches deep, usually perfectly regular when ripe, bright light red, firm and good”.  It continued to be marketed for seven decades after its initial introduction, a remarkable feat for any variety.  In addition, other seedsmen grew the Paragon, renamed their results, and sold them as new varieties.  For instance, Bailey could find no difference between the Paragon and other varieties subsequently sold under the names of New Jersey, Arlington, Emery, Autocrat, Mayflower and Scoville.

Unlike others who developed a significant variety, Livingston did not rest upon his initial success.  He continued searching for new varieties and he continued crossing different varieties that had particular characteristics.  These efforts resulted in a regular flood of new varieties for 20 years.  In 1875 he introduced Acme, which was an early ripener of medium size.  Its fruit were slightly oval, but smooth.  Its color was maroon or red with a slight tinge of purple.  Its flesh was solid.  According to Landreth, it was “a popular sort everywhere”.  According to Bailey, the Acme was one of the best varieties in cultivation.  Other seedsmen liked it so much that they released “new” varieties that were indistinguishable from the Acme, including the Rochester, Rochester Favorite, Climax and Essex Hybrid.

In 1880 Livingston introduced the Perfection, which was aimed at the shipping market.  Derived from the Acme, Livingston had created a blood red tomato with a uniformly smooth fruit.  It ripened earlier and had a tough skin not easily broken, and therefore was useful to shippers.  The Perfection continued to be sold until 1922.

Three years later he introduced Livingston’s Favorite tomato, aimed at the fast growing canning industry.  The Favorite was one of the largest, perfectly shaped tomatoes then in cultivation.  It was smoother than the Paragon and did not crack or rot like the Acme.  It was a darker red than the Perfection, and evenly ripened as early as other good varieties.  It was very prolific, and possessed a good flavor, few seeds, solid flesh, and survived shipping long distances.  When it was introduced, the Joseph Breck & Sons seed company in Boston reported that the Favorite along with the Acme and Perfection “were three of the best tomatoes ever introduced”.

As canners were interested in a purple colored tomato, Livingston found one growing in his Paragon tomatoes.  He christened it the Beauty, and introduced it in 1886.  Its fruit was large and showy; its color was deep red with a slight tone of purple.  It grew in a cluster, and was “solid and meaty, smooth and free from rot or green core”, according to a Landreth seed catalog, which again failed to mention that Livingston had developed the variety.

Livingston was always on the lookout for new varieties with unique characteristics.  In 1885 he obtained a specimen from a market gardener near Columbus that appeared particularly promising for it produced a thick, solid, red fruit.  It was shaped like the Beauty and Favorite.  Livingston continued experimenting with it, and released it in 1889.  As the fruit weighed more than any other of his varieties, he called it the New Stone.  It was subsequently used to develop several other important 20th century varieties, including the Earliana, Globe and Greater Baltimore varieties.

Livingston also worked with yellow varieties.  His Golden Queen was a bright creamy yellow tomato, with a slight tendency to be reddish at the bottom.  Its fruit was flattish and reached two and one half inches in diameter, and it often became slightly angular.  His Gold Ball was a bright golden-yellow color; round as a ball, one and one half inches in diameter, few seeds and very productive.  The Golden Queen is one of the few Livingston tomatoes sold continuously since it was introduced in 1882.

The other varieties that Livingston introduced were the Potato Leaf, Royal Red, Buckeye State, New Dwarf Aristocrat, and the Large Rose Peach.  None of these varieties were commercially as successful as the Paragon, Acme, Perfection or the Favorite.

After Alexander Livingston’s death, the Livingston Seed Company prospered under the control of his sons and grandsons.  Livingston’s sons continued to develop new tomato varieties.  The 20th century varieties included the Globe, which was a cross between Livingston’s Stone and the Ponderosa.   In 1917, the USDA crossed the Glove with the Marvel – a French variety, and the union produced the Marglobe released in 1925.  In all, the Livingstons introduced thirty one varieties of tomatoes.  Alan Livingston sold the company in 1979 to Forest Randolph.  The company was later acquired by Robert Johnston, who continues to operate it under the name of Livingston Seed Company in Columbus.

Of all of the Alexander Livingston’s introductions, only the Golden Queen and the New Stone were continuously sold since their introductions.  As previously noted in an OTV article by Craig LeHoullier (Volume 1, number 3), until recently few of Livingston’s other varieties were thought to have survived.  However, Craig and Carolyn Male searched the USDA’s list of tomato accessions and found several varieties thought extinct.  Some of these are now for sale by seedsmen, such as Jeff McCormack at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, who seeds the Stone, Paragon, Beauty and Favorite.  The Tomato Growers Supply Company sells the Golden Queen.  Others are available through the Seed Savers Exchange, including Livingston’s Perfection.

Sources

Sources include Connie Parkinson of Reynoldsburg Ohio, Linda Sapp of Tomato Growers Supply Company and Jeff McCormack of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  Addresses and phone numbers available by request.

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I’ve read the book many times, and Mr. Smith’s book sent me on continuing searches through seed banks to locate not only the original Livingston varieties, but other important commercial varieties listed in various old seed catalogs thought to be extinct. A fringe benefit of my old tomato interest is meeting and befriending Mike Dunton, of Victory Seeds, who was pursuing old tomatoes in the Pacific Northwest with identical vigor to my efforts.

A lone black balsam with the Blue Ridge mountains as a perfect background - taken on Ivestor Gap Trail

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. "1996 Summer Tomato Growouts" by Carolyn

View from the Graveyard Fields hiking area along the Blue Ridge on Sept 22 2022

The last repost was my overview of my 1996 tomato garden - here is Carolyn’s. Reading it again was a joy. It is a gem!

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1996 Summer Tomato Grow-outs

Carolyn Male

This summer will be a summer of surprises since most of the varieties I’m growing are totally new to me.  As always, first priority goes to replenishing seed stocks of those varieties I offer through the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE).  This past spring I completely ran out of several varieties such as Omar’s Lebanese, Yellow Brandywine (Platfoot) and Dr. Lyle.  It’s true that I wrote a glowing report for Omar’s, but that’s because it was exceptional for me.  In the SSE Yearbook I also described one tomato as being “vile” and one person said she just had to have it to see what bad really was.  I hope, for my sake, it’s bad for her, too!

So, the first fifty of my growouts were for new seed stock.  Then came a small series of various crosses to be used to generate F2 varieties to offer to OTV subscribers next spring.  So far, the most interesting appears to be a Galina X Black Krim cross donated by Steve Draper and a possible Brandywine X Big Rainbow cross donated by Stanley Zubrowski.  We could use more F2s, so if you see a cross in your trials please save lots of seed for us if you can.  Velvet Red (angora foliage), Brianna, Pink Ice and several others were from Joe Bratka.  Chuck Wyatt wanted to be sure I tried Korean Love and Sojourner, so he sent me the seeds.  Steve Draper sent along the above cross and a few others including something labeled “Surprise”.  When I asked him a few weeks ago if Surprise was indeterminate or determinate, he professed to not know!  Ha!  I’ll get him next year.  Next there were about 40 varieties from various seed companies in France and from an SSE member in Sweden that I got from a friend in England.  Most of those I could spell, but then came a series from an American friend with names like Vesennij Micurinskij (my label reads “Ves”) and Slivovidnyj (my label reads “Sliv”).

Next came a series of 19 varieties I’m trialing for someone; seed will not be reoffered by me.  Then comes another series of 11 Russian varieties I’m trialing for someone else and I won’t be reoffering seed of these either.  This latter series came labeled with numbers only for identification.  So there’s no chance of seeing a label that says Humungous Heavenly Rich Red and saying “by gosh, it is!”.  And the total count at this point is 156 and I’m getting worried.  Of the varieties obtained from the USDA this year I have room for only Livingston’s Perfection and Peach Blow Sutton.  Arriving late, but not too late to sow are 22 varieties from Tom Wagner as explained in the last issue and in the current C and C’s column.  Of course I am just trialing these and no seed will be available.  So as you can see from the above, a good portion of my 200 varieties are varieties I’m excited to experience and trial for others, but will not be offering seed from these for obvious reasons.

Then I had to plant the varieties I’d be using in the 1850s Shaker reproduction garden I do; varieties such as King Humbert, Green Gage, Red and Yellow Pears, Early Large Red and Triumph.  The very last think I do is to look over the varieties sown and be sure I’ve got most of my favorites and to be sure I’ve got representatives from all color classes and shapes and foliage in case a field demonstration day is scheduled.  I cannot be without German Red Strawberry, Large Pink Bulgarian, Riesentraube, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Orange Strawberry, Marizol Gold, Regina’s Yellow, Green Grape, Dr. Carolyn (my Galina ivory mutant), Sandul Moldovan, Russian #117, Golden Queen, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Opalka and several others!  I’d like to thank Steve Draper for naming my Galina ivory mutant “Dr. Carolyn” and introducing it to the SSE.  It’s a bit embarrassing but it’s a good tomato!

And it appears that there might be a field demonstration day this year via the Cornell Cooperative Extension of a five county area in Eastern NY state; I’ll know for sure in mid-June.  Our regular readers will know that I have a commercial farmer friend named Charlie who allows me to transplant everything at his greenhouses and then he grows on the plants for me.  Charlie also prepares the fields for me and his “folks” do all the early cultivating and fertilizing for me.  I thought Charlie would be pleased when I told him about the possible field demo day, but he winced, badly.  You need to understand that Charlie tolerates heirloom tomatoes, he doesn’t like them…he humors me.  You also need to understand that Charlie’s fields are meticulous, with nary a weed anywhere.  That’s why he was wincing.  I have a good close personal relationship with weeds, he doesn’t.  Last fall we went nuts cleaning mine out because a photography crew was coming, and he wasn’t going to go through that again.  So, here’s what I got.  For the first time ever Charlie put weed retardant on MY field.  And for the first time ever the rows are commercial distances apart so we can cultivate longer into the season.  And for the second year in a row Charlie made the row marks for me with his plant setter.  Until two years ago the highlight of the season was watching yours truly try to make a straight 250 foot row so all the others would be straight.  I’m not very good at it, even using his furrow marks.  Now I have no problems with the rows being straight, but crawling along and planting nine rows each 250 feet long is not kind to my arthritic knees.  And I also got the soil saturated with this noxious chemical which costs about $600 per gallon and is supposed to protect against Colorado Potato Beetles for the whole year with just one application.  I won’t tell you the name for two reasons.  First, it’s available only to those with a certain class pesticide certificate and can only be used in those states and counties where it has been approved.  And second, I don’t know if it’s going to work yet.  I’ll need a few more weeks of observations.  I have too many plants to hand pick the beetles or use BT (San Diego) easily, and my beetles are so smart they head for the potato leaf plants first.  I tell you truly!  After planting a third plant this year I saw my first beetle.  It had a megaphone and was broadcasting the news that the nice lady was setting out breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole crowd for the next few months.  OK, so I don’t grow organically.  I do let Charlie use chemicals.  You try taking care of 600-800 plants in a disease prone area…and I’m “up” on my disease prone areas after doing the research for the OTV Disease project.  Hope you’ll still love me knowing I personally don’t put the noxious chemicals on the tomatoes…I let Charlie do it!

One of my favorite times of the growing year occurs after I transplant my plants from Charlie’s greenhouses to my greenhouse for hardening off.  My greenhouse hasn’t had sash for 20 years.  My greenhouse has birch trees, blackcaps, nightshade, Queen Anne’s lace, perennial sweet peas and wild grapevine growing inside.  My greenhouse has falling down, rotting benches, except at one end which is roofed over where the old furnace sits stoically gazing at the old oil tank.  When I was a child all the furnaces in all the greenhouses burned coal and the conversion to oil was a big event.  It takes me several days to sort out the plants in the order I want and to label the extras to give away.  Those few days are heaven.  The light is filtered by the birth trees and it’s so peaceful.  No phones, radios, TVs, etc.  Occasionally my mother’s cat Boots, a Tiger cat with notches in his ears from various “life experiences” and a gimpy front left leg as a result of a luxated joint from fighting some critter, comes to join me.  We talk, but he always gets bored first and leaves.  I don’t take it personally; he’s a cat and needs to feel superior!

All the tomatoes were planted out in the last week of May.  The last row in the field has many varieties of watermelons, other melons, cucumbers, and peppers.  I am growing very few peppers this year knowing that I’d have so many tomatoes.  I have another smaller garden, about 50 X 70 feet, where I grow my beans, carrots, squash, Chinese greens, lettuce, kohlrabi, broccoli, peas, beets and the rest of the “vegetable stuff”.  I don’t “do” corn; that’s one of Charlie’s specialties so I finger prune what I need.  And this is the year I should get melons to eat.  Three out of four years they go down with various wilts/mildews before I get anything to eat.  This is the fourth year.  I believe in statistical averages.  I’ll let you know in October/November.

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See? A true gem - and a joy to read. It is sad to think that so many of those tomatoes Carolyn planned to grow but not reoffer will remain unknown to us all.

Latest specimen for the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project - Glory F2, plant 1 regular leaf.

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. "Craig's Picks for '96" by Craig

Zinnias still going strong on Sept 18

I enjoy going down memory lane to revisit what sorts of things I grew in my gardens back then. Just a quick scan pulls out a highlight - what I called “Cherokee Brick Red Cross” - now, of course, known as Cherokee Chocolate. I’ll reflect more after the article.

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Craig’s Picks for ‘96

by Craig

This is my favorite time of the gardening season. The seed requests from SSE members have just about dried up and the weather is near perfect for working the soil. In fact, nearly all of my garden is planted as I sit typing this article in mid-May. As usual, my original plan of limiting the number of varieties of tomatoes has gone out the window! The population in the soil will end up at around 90 types. There will also be about 30 pepper plants. I guess that I owe Carolyn that bottle of wine; she clearly knows me only too well!

This year, the decision of what to grow was the most challenging yet.  The past two years focused upon older commercial varieties that Carolyn and I “rescued” from the USDA seed storage facilities. This year I returned to concentrating on the true heirloom tomatoes. Over the past five years I have requested many varieties from the Seed Saver’s Exchange members. This is the year to see what they look and taste like in my garden. There is always room for some old favorites, of course, and even a sprinkling of oddities and mysteries. Yes, it will certainly be an adventure in the garden this summer. Hopefully, the deer who keep visiting the garden for nibbles (a habit that they developed last fall and continues through the spring) will find a better food source. It would be nice if my plants can avoid the foliage disease that was so prevalent last year, due to the cold and rainy June. So, I will arm myself with bars of red Lifebuoy or Irish Spring soap, or eggs, or kitty litter, or hair (all various deer-away ideas related to me by various other gardeners) and prepare to defend my tomatoes and peppers from the critters! Some consistently good weather would also be appreciated, but that factor is in hands much more powerful than mine.

Enough chatting; it is time to get down to the business of showing you how I lost my bet to Carolyn. Let’s start with my old friends, shall we? Among the tomatoes that I would not be caught dead without are Aunt Ruby’s German Green (large pale green), Yellow Brandywine (large smooth potato leaf gold), Polish (large potato leaf pink), Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom (large potato leaf bright yellow), Cherokee Purple (large dusky rose), Green (large amber green), Halladay’s Mortgage Lifter (huge pink), Brandywine (large potato leaf pink), Anna Russian (large, early heart shaped pink), and Sun Gold (gold cherry tomato) hybrid. Other more recent favorites that are now an addiction are three delicious yellow tomatoes, Orange, Azoychka, Golden Queen (the bright yellow version originally developed by Livingston in the late 1880’s), Mennonite (huge red/yellow bicolor), Indische Fleische, Great White, and Abraham Lincoln (the large, red, USDA accession). The tomatoes that I have not grown for some time, but will experience again this year, are Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo Red (very large red), Yellow Bell (bright yellow, indeterminate plum tomato), Gallo Plum (long red sauce tomato), Black Krim (for the appearance, being a dark, dusky rose, not the flavor, which is a bit odd to me), Soldacki (large potato leaf pink), Marizol Purple (large pink), Indian Reservation (large red/yellow bicolor), Grandpa’s Cock’s Plume (very large pink heart, and the weakest seedling I have seen), Giant Syrian (very large red heart), Price’s Purple (large, potato leaf dusky rose), Gregori’s Altai (medium to large pink), and Coyote (ivory colored cherry tomato, grows wild in Mexico).

This is the large list of heirlooms that I have collected over the years but will grow and taste for this first time in 1996. The list consists of Aunt Ginny’s Purple (potato leaf pink), Tap (I have both potato leaf and regular leaf seedlings, so of course will grow both; sent to me by James Garvey of PA, color unknown), Aker’s West Virginia (from Carl Aker, PA, color unknown), Page German, Druzba, Zogola, Sandul Moldovan, Manyel, Eckert Polish, Olena Ukrainian, Mirabelle, Russian 117 (these 9 from Carolyn’s Hall of Fame), Kellogg’s Breakfast, Green Zebra, Snowball, Amelia Rose, Whittemore, Plumsteak, Sojourner, Plum Lemon, Selwin Yellow, Leo Harper Yellow, Elfie, Arlene’s Poland, Pike County Heirloom, Adelia, Middle Tennessee Low Acid, Penny, Early Annie, Old Virginia, Bridge Mike’s, Guiseppe’s Big Boy, Brown’s Large Red, Red Brandywine, Deep Yellow German, Regina’s Yellow, Berwick German, Russian, Hungarian, German Heirloom, Rasp Red, German, Niemeyer, Brown’s Yellow Giant, Honey, Curry, Big Junn, and German Pink (the first tomato listed in the Seed Saver’s Exchange list, originally from Diane Whealey’s Aunt).

The short list of mysteries include recently appearing potato leaf versions of Bisignano #2, Madara, and Sun Gold F4 generation, Cherokee Brick Red cross, Robinson’s Red (sent to me as a bicolor, but this red one showed up the first year I planted it), and Purple Perfect X Price’s Purple F2. Finally, there are five new USDA accessions, including Perfection (one of the original Livingston pre 1900 varieties), Dwarf Perfection, Yellow Beauty, Chartreuse Mutant, and Peach Blow Sutton, of all things!  (Your guess is as good as mine for the last two!!). So, as you can see, I will have a lot of good eating this year if the weather cooperates. I cannot even think yet about all the cups of moldy, stinky fermenting seeds that lie ahead.  The fruit flies are planning on it, you can be sure! 

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It is amusing to read about my various unsuccessful attempts to ward off deer. Soap? Fat chance! I eventually went to an electric fence - but the only thing that truly worked over the long haul was the water scarecrow motion detector sprinkler.

The "must grow” list includes some that I no longer consider such - Aunt Ruby’s German Green, Green (which I renamed Dorothy’s Green) and Halladay’s Mortgage Lifter are fine varieties, but I am content to grow them only occasionally.

The list of those new to me include some that have become garden staples - Aker’s West Virginia and Red Brandywine in particular. There are many on that list that I really should revisit - there are some fine tomatoes in that list. That was really a fun garden, and it is interesting to see the variety list prior to my immersion into the dwarf tomato breeding project.

Some really pretty Royal Purple, on their way to dark red - on very happy plants on September 18.

Off The Vine Volume 3, Number 1. "How Are Tomatoes Folklore?" By Dr. Bill Ellis

Sunset 10 years ago on an Ocracoke trip

This is a wonderful, charming contribution to our newsletter. Dr. Ellis sent me a tomato that I still love today - Polish. He and I had a pleasant phone conversation some years ago - sadly, I believe he has passed on, but I’ve not been able to find out the details. To show his rather remarkable credentials and areas of focus, his Penn State CV is shown here.

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How Are Tomatoes Folklore?

Bill Ellis, PhD

“I didn’t know that was folklore!”  This is one of the most common remarks I get from students or community groups when I talk about my academic field.  For most people, the term “folklore” means something romantic surviving from a simpler past age.  It stirs up images of Paul Bunyan, barefoot mountaineers picking banjos, and outlandish rituals for ensuring luck and love.  “We” don’t think of ourselves as possessing folklore.

But such images themselves represent the survival of older, simpler ideas about culture.  When the academic study of folklore was created in the 19th century, it was a reaction to rapid changes occurring in American culture.  The increasing visibility of non-Anglo cultures, the growth of mass media, and physical and economic mobility of Americans, all this led to social leaders to believe that “folklore” was dying out and with it our sense of national identity.

What really happened was that our identity changed, and continues to change.  And so our folklore changes; now stories that would have been told over backyard fences are circulated over the Internet, and what might have been “charming” in a previous age reappears as “alternative medicine” in ours.

But whether in the present day or in the past, the nature of folklore remains the same; it is knowledge that the members of a small group choose to preserve for reasons of their own.  And such it is the part of culture controlled by families, work circles, neighborhoods, and any other clusters of people who enjoy sharing information.

Anything can be the topics of activities or storytelling, so there can be many kinds of folklore about tomatoes.  How we grow a tomato could be a favorite family or regional activity.  What we say about them could embody some kind of local history.  But how can tomatoes be folklore?  Most intriguingly, the tomato varieties we pass on embody a kind of folk creation.  Understanding the choices we make when we use and preserve tomatoes can help us appreciate their diversity – and our own.

How We Grow Tomatoes

 “How to you plant tomatoes?” I once asked an old-timer in the Hazleton area.  “In the ground” he blandly responded.  Of course, he also had so many planting tips on how to get the best out of his home-started seeds that following them took much of his retirement leisure time – which is precisely why he enjoyed tomato growing.  Anyone who has contacted a master gardener has appreciated the wealth of information they carry, ranging from exactly when to start seeds (Tax Day, or April 15 here) to when to put them out (not till Memorial Day!) to whether to stake or cage them (sharp disagreements block by block).

Or when to pick a tomato – this varies from variety to variety.  Brandywines, for instance, need to be picked just as they blush, or they will get mealy and blank on the vine.  But other varieties such as Dr. Neal need to be left untouched until they are good and ripe – provided the crows let you! (cover the big ones with panty hose, unwashed if available – and they won’t peck them).

On a larger level, the starting and nursing of one’s own patch of tomatoes can embody rituals of complex significance.  When I sold some plants at a community flea market, one buyer quizzed me specifically about exactly when my Polish tomato would ripen its first fruit.  As it turned out, he and his neighbor had a running contest on who could produce the first ripe fruit, and he was always looking for some variety that was a week earlier than last year’s (a dirty trick – spade around the roots of your most vigorous plant, cutting some of its feeders; the plant will react to this stress by rushing its fruit to ripeness).

Obviously, when the tomato comes ripe, different families will integrate it into their Foodways in diverse ways.  One local family proudly claims that its tomato sauce is not like anyone else’s since it is made only from its family’s own breed of paste tomatoes.  Probably the same could be said of my own sauce, which I make only once every three years when I grow out my White Potato Leaf variety, and make about four quarts of greenish-white, fruity sauce for special occasions only.  Or then there’s a raw, “grew in the garden” style (with a little salt? Or sugar? Or nothing?) that my little girl became so addicted to one summer that she actually broke out in a rash from over-indulgence.  The German (or big pink) varieties popular in this area, however, are sometimes a little bland, so my wife’s mother would jazz them up by cutting them up in chunks, then adding a little vinegar, an equal amount of sugar, and a generous amount of black pepper.  “Sweet and sour tomatoes” now are a regular part of our summer Foodways.

Other areas show even more choices; sun-dried?  Made into jam?  Fried green?  I wouldn’t be surprised to find the leaves used as a seasoning in some areas.

What we Say About Tomatoes

But when Foodways develop around certain varieties, then we naturally want to talk about what this tomato is and where it came from.  Names become pegs on which to hang such information.  A name, of course, could be misleading; if you assumed that every “German” tomato in the Hazleton area was the same, you’d be surprised when you grow them out together.  The term “German” simply means “non-commercial” or “home-started” as the Pennsylvania Dutch descendents held onto this skill the longest.

Some more specific names tell you what to expect:  Tompepper looks like a bell pepper and is hollow inside for stuffing.  Riesentraube sets fruit just like the German says, in “a big bunch of grapes”.  Lutescent does turn “brownish” at one stage of ripening.  Others give a hint of history or geography:  McKinley, Madagascar, Big Sandy.  I named my best paste tomato variety “The Conyngham Sewer Tomato” to honor the tough survivor I found growing in gravel just downstream from our antiquated system’s relief vent.

But with names also come Stories about Tomatoes.  When we grow a tomato with a name like Mortgage Lifter, it’s impossible not to remember the heroic “Radiator Charlie” who paid off his house by breeding and selling this strain.  And tomatoes themselves become the subjects of stories.  Long-time members of the Seed Savers Exchange recall the intensity with which people sought the legendary “Pruden’s Purple”, a potato leaf tomato with a black fruit, allegedly still grown in the Kentucky mountains. (A variety with this name emerged, but alas it was pink not black – yet the crusade continues with many “black” tomatoes being imported from Russia and grown with bated breath.)

And who hasn’t heard the story about so-and-so who proved that the Lycopersicon or “wolf peach” was not poisonous by eating a bushel of them on the steps of the such-and-such courthouse?  Alas for the story, a time can’t be traced when tomatoes weren’t grown and bred eagerly for taste, so the well-traveled legend is just that.  But it seems to have touched an agricultural nerve, as many of the tomato’s nightshade cousins are in fact poisonous (although Aunt Minnie once made a pie of them and said they were good…)

Witness the fuss when a NASA source warned that the fruit grown from seeds exposed to cosmic rays aboard a satellite might revert to “wild” state and produce poisonous fruit.  If anything, the “NASA” tomato seeds were the more widely circulated, grown, watched, and eagerly eaten to see if a “killer tomato” had been produced.  These gardeners were, in their way, continuing the legend by risking their lives to prove the “wolf peach” is still really a “love apple”.

What Tomatoes Are.

Finally, the thing itself constitutes a kind of folklore.  Anyone who has gardened recognizes that seed swapping is a complex ritual in which more than seeds are exchanged.  People who are interested in growing a variety I have probably share my fascination with diversity and with history, and probably also are like me suspicious of “superior” commercial varieties that require you to buy fresh seed from the same company year after year.  And those people’s seeds probably express their own unique preferences in tomato taste, habit, adaptability.  When we grow each others’ tomatoes, we grow a bit of each others’ personalities.

Hence it’s at first a little flattering to have local farmers pass on a bit of their prized varieties.  I feel included and trusted.  Then I get phone calls about Tax Day: “You’re starting some of those German tomatoes, aren’t you?  Well, could you start about 18 plants for me, too, while you’re at it?”  Eventually I recognize I’ve not only been included, I’ve been indoctrinated, and fitted into an ongoing community role.  On some level, I’ve been transplanted and cultivated too, thorough the agency of the seeds I’ve shared.

Another widely traveled legend concerns a variety said to have been found inside an ancient tomb.  In the nineteenth century, for instance, there was a fad of growing “mummy wheat”, allegedly an ancient variety grown from a seed found inside an Egyptian mummy several thousand years old.  In our time, the story is apt to refer to a tomato or bean variety allegedly found sealed inside a pot by prehistoric Indians.  Horticulturalists assure us that such stories have to be apocryphal, as seeds remain viable for only a limited time regardless of how they are sealed up.

Yet that in itself may be part of the fascination of seed saving.  Germplasm, as a kind of genetic information, is something that has been handed down from prehistoric times.  Any tomato variety, by necessity, has to trace back to pre-Columbian times, however many gardeners have touched it in the meantime.  And having a rare or unique variety pass through our hands is, on some level, a responsibility:  its survival depends on our willingness to select, grow, and pass it on to others.

On some level, this action is just like that of hearing a new story, committing it to memory, and retelling it for a new audience.  Only “performing” a tomato requires a season’s commitment, from putting the seed carefully in the dirt on Tax Day to drying the new season’s seeds and putting them in envelopes for the next round.  If we lose our commitment, the old seeds die and with it some bit of genetic information dating to mummy times.  If we renew it, then we are the vessels who make sure that one generation’s tomatoes survive to another generation.

And that is what folklore is all about.

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Wasn’t that a great read?! I am so pleased to be able to share it with you all.

Buddy and Mocha playing fetch in the water at Springer Point, Ocracoke, an October 10 years ago