The State of Heirloom Tomatoes in 2019 - Part 2

In Part 1, I discussed the definition of “heirloom” and took you on a very brief tour of the history of the tomato in the US from its emergence as a popular food to eat and grow (mid 1850s) to the first commercially released hybrid variety, Burpee Big Boy, launched n 1949.

Before I cover the period between that and today, here is an interesting consideration about the possibility of a hybrid to be an heirloom, a point that arrived via a Tweet from a good friend. A bit of a twist of thinking is needed for this to be true. For the vast majority of gardeners, the ability to grow a variety, save seeds, share it and have it grow the same represents an open pollinated variety, which using my parameters means varieties in existence pre-1950 or so. This is how a non-hybrid can be passed along.

If, however, one knows the parents of a particular favored hybrid, the method of producing it - knowledge of the two parent varieties - can become an heirloom, akin to a handed down recipe. Let’s illustrate this with an example, using the story of one of the hybrids we created for our dwarf project, Sneezy. I love that hybrid - it is delicious, large, bright yellow and prolific. To create Sneezy, my Australian friend Patrina crossed two open pollinated varieties, Green Giant and Golden Dwarf Champion. When seeds are saved from the Sneezy hybrid fruit, growing them out provided a wild, diverse mix, some of which were worked on for years and stabilized to create some of our favorite releases from our Dwarf Tomato Project (such as Dwarf Mr Snow, Dwarf Sweet Sue and Summertime Green) But once Sneezy hybrid seed is gone, or becomes too old to germinate, one would have to go back and repeat the cross to experience the hybrid Sneezy again. Aside from hybrids created by home gardeners and amateur plant breeders, we typically have no idea what the parents of our favorite hybrid varieties are. Hence, if the hybrid producing company some day decides it no longer wishes to create Lemon Boy, or Better Boy, or Sun Gold, those varieties would vanish, never to be grown again unless one can pry the identity of the parents from the company, or social pressure induces the company to create and sell it again.

Tomato page from a 1952 Henderson catalog, featuring two of their large, open pollinated varieties, considered to be heirlooms today.

OK - let’s get back on track and return to the big breakthrough of Burpee. In the late 1940s, the company’s breeders crossed a large pink heirloom tomato with a medium sized red heirloom tomato (I’ve heard what those two may be through the grapevine, but nope…not telling!). The resulting hybrid, rather than used to breed an open pollinated variety, appeared to be such a superior variety that the actual hybrid seed was sold. It was christened Big Boy (which started a long line of other girl and boy tomatoes that arose over the coming decades) and started the predominance hybrids in seed catalogs right up until the emergence of the widespread availability and popularity of the heirloom types, beginning in the mid 1980s.

There are many examples of the big company seed catalogs providing text strongly suggests that customers focus on growing the newly created hybrids, instead of the older, open pollinated standard types. Aside from claims of higher yields, more plant “vigor” and larger fruit size, some specific disease tolerances were beginning to be included as well. This led to the listing of particular letters after the variety (F for tolerance or resistance to Fusarium wilt, N for Nematodes, V for Verticillium, etc).

Page from a 1952 Henderson catalog featuring two new hybrid varieties.

I am sure that all of you notice that hybrid seeds cost more, This actually makes sense, because each seed that winds up in the packet is the result of the physical act of transferring pollen from flowers of one parent onto the style of flowers of the other parent. Most hybrid tomatoes were (and largely continue to be) scarlet (also known as red) varieties, typified by Big Boy, Better Boy, and Celebrity. An occasional yellow or pink hybrid showed up in catalogs, but this is changing - more color variety is being worked in to new hybrid types, which I will cover in part 3.

For the coming decades, open pollinated varieties decreased and hybrid varieties increased, leading to the extinction of some older historic types. Disappearance of varieties would have been devastating if not for the emergence of the Seed Savers Exchange in 1975. Finally, an awareness of what was being lost, and effort to maintain what we still had, along with a mechanism, planted the seeds of the rapidly increasing popularity and awareness of heirloom varieties that continues to this day.

What is really remarkable is the realization that far more varieties of tomatoes with stunning diversity in terms of colors, shapes and sizes existed - but were often very local, limited to one community, or even one garden, arising from a chance mutation or cross. All of a sudden, green fleshed, yellow and red swirled, nearly white, deep orange and even striped tomatoes became options for the adventurous gardener. The Seed Savers Exchange provided the mechanism for sharing of the highly diverse, colorful heirloom tomatoes which can be found in so many gardens today. Small seed companies, such as Seeds Blum and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, emerged that featured these stunningly colored tomatoes along with many other heirloom/open pollinated vegetables of all types.

page from a 1970 Bolgiano seed catalog - note the featured hybrid tomato variety at lower right.

The first set of well known heirloom tomato varieties included such names as Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine, and Persimmon. Seed Savers Exchange winter yearbooks dating from the late 1970s offered hundreds, and soon, as the organization grew and participation exploded, thousands of varieties - green fleshed, white fleshed, swirls of yellow and red, canary yellow, rich deep orange - the diversity is truly breathtaking. In 1990, with Black Krim and Cherokee Purple, the dark fleshed (“black” - some purple, some brown) varieties started to appear. Not only was the color array remarkable, but those of us who sampled liberally and grew lots of different types learned about the matching diversity of flavors - sweet, tart, rich, mild and all sorts of nuances such as peachy or fruity.

Full tomato page from the 1970 Bolgiano seed catalog - note that 14 are red, 3 are yellow, and 2 are pink.

In part 3, I will take a look at where we are today in terms of tomatoes, and where we may be going.

A First! Fulfilling a Blog Suggestion. The State of Heirloom Tomatoes in 2019 - Part 1

Even grocery stores carry tomatoes in a range of colors in 2019….let’s talk about how we got here.

Each day I receive gardening emails. They are uniformly wonderful, insightful, and interesting - as well as deeply appreciated. An email received a few days ago from a Washington state gardening friend, David, was just remarkable. It was amazing to find that we have much in common (even the names of our wives!). What really struck me, though, is that he suggested a topic that has been on my mind recently. I hope that this blog fulfills your request, David!

This is turning out to be a really meaty topic, so I am going to do it in three parts….Part 1 (this blog) will provide a bit of background and look at US tomato history up until the advent of hybrids, starting in 1950 or so. Part 2 will cover Burpee’s Big Boy and what follows through the early days of heirloom tomato popularity. The final part will focus on where we are, and possibilities of future directions.

When I joined the Seed Savers Exchange in 1986, the organization was just 11 years old. The major annual seed share offering, known as the yearbook, underwent a major format shift, providing listings by type of plant and variety, rather than by member codes, thus making it much easier to peruse the full gamut of each veggie or fruit type. Growing heirlooms was still considered to be on the fringe. The major seed companies, and tomato research and development, focused on steady parades of new hybrids each year. Small seed companies focusing on open pollinated, rather than hybrid, offerings were sprouting quickly, led by outfits such as Seeds Blum and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Gleckler (the first company to offer the really odd and unusual!).

Here we are in 2019, the SSE is now 44 years old, Seeds Blum and Glecklers are no more, but Victory and Baker Creek and High Mowing and Fruition and countless others vie with ebay and Amazon sellers to create a baffling array of choices, with selection and quality and pricing all over the map. It is much more than heirlooms popping up in the tomatosphere - our own Dwarf Tomato Project, long time breeding efforts by Tom Wagner, Brad Gates, Fred Hempel and many others are blurring the definition of heirloom and increasing the available tomato number to the many thousands, represented in every possibly imagined combination of fruit shape and size and color and plant habit and leaf shape - even foliage color. We are at a true pinnacle of tomato diversity.

I’ve read articles through the years that opine on the use - and even definition - of “heirloom”. It has always been clear to me, perhaps because of my love of genealogy, history, stories and family. I think of it in general terms - the dictionary definition of “heirloom” is “a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several generations”. Some use the term “heritage” - “property that is or may be inherited”. In both cases, hybrid varieties are eliminated, because they can not be passed down from saved seed.

I have great discussions with my Oregon friend Mike Dunton of Victory Seed Company, and we’ve often discussed usage of the term “heirloom”. Since I tend to focus on tomatoes, I’ve applied a yardstick of around 1950 as a cut off date for designating varieties “heirloom” or simply “open pollinated” (equally valid terms for genetically stabilized varieties). When Burpee created and released their hybrid tomato Big Boy in 1949, it signaled a shift in the efforts of seed companies toward hybrid varieties rather than stabilized open pollinated varieties. This, of course, leaves more recently created types outside of the heirloom descriptor (varieties such as Green Zebra (1970s), Cherokee Chocolate and Lucky Cross (1990s), and our Dwarf Tomato Project varieties (2010s).) When will they be considered heirlooms, rather than simply open pollinated varieties? This is where we hit a grey area and opinions proliferate.

Does it really matter? Whether something is designated “heirloom” or “open pollinated” is a topic deeper than many gardeners will wish to dive. Often, the term “heirloom” is used to elevate its value (meaning more can be charged, as with the restaurant “heirloom tomato plates” which may or may not have heirloom varieties as components). The critical part of this is the distinction between “open pollinated” (stable varieties from which seeds are saved to carry it forward) and “hybrid” (varieties that will segregate into myriad possibilities if grown from saved seed). What concerns me about all of this is when early generation offspring of newly made hybrids get shared and circulated - what are they to be called? (this tangent deserves its own blog, so I will move along from it at this time)

I stated above my rationale for the 1950 cut off for tomatoes (heirloom vs open pollinated). What about corn, or peppers, or eggplants? Each crop type has its own history, its own progression of a move from traditional breeding, selection and development of stable open pollinated varieties that end up in seed catalogs, toward selling of the actual hybrids. Some crop types still focus on open pollinated varieties to this day - beans, for example. This is actually an interesting topic to dig into at another time, but for now, let’s stay on tomatoes.

Let’s look at “heirloom” varieties that were the best known at a few points in time. In truth, we don’t have to go that far back to see the very beginnings of tomato breeding and improvement in the US. Alexander Livingston, who had the ingenuity to do his tomato development by doing single plant, rather than single fruit, selection, led the way in expanding a handful of lumpy, irregular mostly red (along with an odd pink or yellow) tomatoes to dozens of “improved” varieties, typically smaller in size and smoother in contour. From his first important release, Paragon, in 1870, nearly 30 new varieties were introduced by 1911, as shown in the catalog scan below. I suspect that most tomato growing gardens back then included a good number of these historic varieties, such as Paragon, Acme, Golden Queen, Stone, Globe and Beauty (note how simple and relatively unimaginative these names are, when compared with those of some of the popular heirlooms and hybrids known today).

Of course, Livingston was joined by many other seed companies, some with significant tomato development efforts, such as Henderson, Burpee, Salzer and Maule. Aside from the Livingston varieties noted above, other varieties were very widely grown, such as Ponderosa, Mikado, Earliana, June Pink, Matchless and Chalk’s Early Jewel.

Seed companies developed new varieties by growing large plantings of known types and seeking the unusual single plant (indicative of a mutation or a cross) from which to develop a new tomato. Some companies crossed two known varieties to create a hybrid, then worked with seeds saved from the hybrid to find something distinct and worthwhile in the segregates that arose from growing out the second and beyond generations. (This is the process we are using in our Dwarf Tomato Project). Between 1911 and 1950, a few varieties gained great prominence and can also be considered heirlooms, such as Marglobe, Rutgers and Pritchard Scarlet Topper.

The above all represent a type of heirloom that I call “commercial heirlooms”. Gardeners today are much more familiar with “family heirlooms”, tomatoes that come to us with stories, such as Cherokee Purple or Brandywine. Though numbering in the many thousands, they tended to be extremely local - perhaps growing in one garden, one farm, one city. It is the formation of the Seed Savers Exchange in 1975 that provided the mechanism for those particular types to be more widely shared.

Part 2 will focus on the period from 1950 (Burpee and their hew hybrid Big Boy) to 2000 or so, where the effects of the work of the SSE and the many seed companies that arose really impacted gardens all over the world.

Page from 1925 Henderson catalog showing their large pink new tomato Winsall

Working through the mental cobwebs and beginning to plot my 2019 gardening adventures…

Sam and Pico preventing progress in my office

As I draft this blog, Mozart is playing on our Echo (Marriage of Figaro - we rewatched Amadeus the other night and it made me curious about his operas), the clouds are gathering for an afternoon rain (thankfully a mild one…mid 50s in mid January isn’t too shabby). Sue and I are both ready to flip our personal calendars, with my birthday today, and hers 2 days away….where does the time go? My birthday gift this year will be a big Patriots game and a nice dinner cooked by Sue. And a chocolate cake! (Sue will get a nice dinner of her choice and a carrot cake).

I remain in the amorphous state that is pretty typical for gardeners in January. For me, the coming months will see decisions made on which seeds to start, how many seedlings to prepare for sale and events, which projects to undertake….preparations for a reduced (but exciting) set of talks, including St Louis, Taylor (Michigan), Washington DC, Connecticut (White Flower Farm), and Longwood gardens (Pennsylvania), with a nice sprinkling of local events. The Dwarf Tomato Project book is in progress…moving slowly now, but soon to rapidly accelerate. Dwarf seeds continue to come in from our project members, which leads to documentation and cataloging into my “system”. We have our week in Ocracoke booked for the spring, and are just beginning to plan a fall trip to the Southwest, most likely visiting some of the National Parks in western Utah.

winter blooming camellia, reminds us of our beloved chocolate lab Mocha (her ashes are buried on this spot)

To help work the fog out of my noggin, below are a few early thoughts on gardening efforts for 2019.

My own driveway garden: As always, it will focus on tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, split between containers, grow bags and straw bales, with some greens, beans, squash and cucumbers, similar in size and scope to last year. With regard to tomatoes, I won’t work heavily on micro-dwarfs this year; they didn’t enjoy the hot, humid weather and significantly under-performed vs expectations. My dwarf project efforts will be reduced as well, focusing on the most promising leads yet to be completed. I do want to get to some indeterminate varieties that found their way into my collection over the past few years, and of course, will grow some of our flavor favorites. Peppers will again feature sweet bells from the Islander de-hybridization work, and eggplants from the Orient Express de-hybridization work, as well as a new selection that I named from a cross involving Casper, Mardi Gras.

Seed starting: I am going to hot water treat seeds prior to planting this year in efforts to reduce early blight and septoria issues, as well as eliminate the sporadic Fusarium disease (such as with Nepal last year) - I will do a blog specifically about this when it is underway. I also want to go back to some older Islander and Orient Express project seeds for some re-selection work - this, along with Mexico Midget (because it takes so long to wake up), will lead to some earlier seed starting - perhaps next week, nearly a month sooner than the main seed starting effort.

Cuttings of some of last year’s plants in my south facing office window…won’t be long before I ease them to outdoor living (with a close eye on the thermometer and forecasts, of course!)

Seedlings: yes, no, in between - and which ones? I am leaning toward offering another significantly reduced selection of seedlings - both in variety, and number. Stay tuned for more on this dilemma. I will not do much, if any, seedling shipping this year.

The book on the Dwarf Tomato Project: This will be a primary focus until complete. Current thoughts are to self-publish and hoping for mid-year.

Speaking opportunities: I am happy to entertain invitations to speak at various venues and events. My current slate of events is here. If anyone thinks that a local organization or venue would be interested in hosting me for a talk, please serve as a catalyst on my behalf. There are some major concentrations of gardening interest that have proven to be stubborn, such as the Denver/Boulder CO area, California, Oregon, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New York. Please pass on good leads to me; any help you can provide is appreciated!

There….the cobwebs are a bit thinned out, and all of the above will make for a delightfully and consistently busy year! I look forward to interacting with many of you - at events, swapping seeds, working on projects….here’s to a successful 2019 for us all!

Driveway, big container growing greens with the Reemay (floating row cover) removed to get some winter sun and warmth.

Christmas 2018. Lovely day, yet this one feels really different...(and a look back, and a look ahead)

Greetings, readers of my blog, gardening friends, tomato lovers - here’s hoping your chosen holiday is all that you hoped and wished for. Sue and I were just remarking last night, on our way to Christmas Eve service at Duke Chapel, that Christmas - any holiday, really - should be more than a single point in time, something that you throw the switch on for…and then, too quickly, off again.

The house is quite quiet this year (a few creatures were stirring - our cats Pico and Sam, and dog Koda - though they are all pretty chilled out). Sara and her family are celebrating Christmas in Olalla Washington (Sue and I were with them for the last two Christmases). Caitlin and Patrick are having their special day at their home in Abilene. Sue’s brother in law and niece are in Marathon Florida. And so we are strewn about, those of us who are left, to enjoy the music, stories, customs….and so, so many memories of Christmases past. (2 pics below…..me at age 3 or so, Sara and Caitlin in 2002)

Sue and I had our quiet but quite wonderful Christmas morning opening gifts that were pretty much all surprises (we are at that stage of needing little stuff - just lots and lots of more time with each other). Thanks to the website Smitten Kitchen, we tried something new - and really delicious - for our Christmas breakfast…gingerbread waffles. So, so good. Now we await the arrival of Sue’s friend for a meal and some games. The Christmas memories continue to be accumulated, and we are so fortunate.

Santa with just a few gifts for Sue and I this year

2018 was quite a year - it felt like several distinct years all stitched together. It was a gardening season in which I shared a lot - a big stretch of daily progress, heavy use of Instagram, a slew of podcasts and speaking trips and blogging….and, lots of gardening and harvesting and cooking. For the first time, as the year wound down, I felt some burn out - overexposure - and a need to re-energize and go a bit “underground”. It was in that place that I decided to pull back on a few things - the Dwarf Tomato Project is officially closed as of December 31 (though it will slowly continue on in a much smaller, more localized way until the many remaining promising leads are finished). I decided to separate from my adviser role with the World Tomato Society. There have been far less posts, shares and blogs, all by design. The country - the world - has become a fragmented, angry place and the noise hurts my head and my soul - hence more pulling back. It has been so temping to disconnect from all of the social networking apps - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter - but I do like to share my gardening things, and do like to learn from those of you who similarly share - so not yet, but…I am inching closer.

As for 2019 - the space created by stopping the Dwarf project and leaving the WTS will be filled by completion of my third book, the story of the Dwarf Tomato Project. Aside from that, and the speaking events on my calendar, I am leaving the rest to be filled in over time. The size of my garden, a decision on whether to sell seedlings, other possibilities such as garden videos or a podcast - no answer on any of those yet, but there will be with time, and at the appropriate time. My main focus will be spending time with Sue - with our rescue Koda (he continues to warm up to me, but it is baby steps, and some days they go backward). There are trails to be hiked, places to explore, books to read, music to listen to. I will continue to share what seems worth sharing, but perhaps with less frequency.

This is pretty typical me, actually - liking just a bit of structure…but the exact what, where or when are pending. All I an say is a big thank you for reading, for your friendship - and stay tuned!

Sue and I, Christmas morning 2018

A Special, Guest Blog - The Exchange, a Seed Saver’s Greatest Resource for Sharing Seeds

I am delighted to post this special guest blog written by Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) Exchange and Outreach Coordinator Kathryn Gilbery. It would be impossible for me to explain the incredible relevance of the SSE in the way we garden today, and in the vast array of heirloom treasures we who garden now are able to grow, enjoy and share.

Are you looking for a community of passionate and skilled seed savers or do you wish seed catalogs had more to offer? The Exchange, a gardener-to-gardener seed swap facilitated by Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), could be what you’re looking for.

The Exchange started in 1975 as the True Seed Exchange to allow gardeners to share their seeds with green thumbs around the country. Many of the original members were sharing their family’s heirloom seeds that may have been lost if other gardeners had not stepped up to grow, preserve, and share these seeds.

Today the Exchange features over 19,000 varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, herbs, and flowers grown and shared by hundreds of members. The Exchange still features many  family heirlooms, such as the Bradford Watermelon, immensely popular in the late 1800s but almost thought to be lost until a 7th generation family member was found to still be growing the melon his family had developed so many years before.

The Bradford Watermelon is now shared by Exchange lister, Bjorn Bergman

The Exchange is also a source for rare and historic commercial varieties, and more common or recent varieties of open-pollinated seeds. Members of the Exchange grow and share their seeds from all over the United States and 8 other countries so they are regionally adapted to a wide variety of climates. Seed Savers Exchange also shares a selection of varieties from their seed vault, which is currently preserving over 25,000 varieties of seed. The Exchange is the only way for gardeners to access many of SSE’s these seeds.

This year SSE Staff were able to sample 14 different kinds of squash from our seed vault. These, and many others, will be available in the 2019 Exchange and Yearbook.

Craig LeHoullier told me, “We’re the luckiest gardeners in the essence of time because we have Seed Savers Exchange.” Craig has been a member of SSE and has participated in the Exchange since 1986. He has cited SSE and the Exchange as fundamental in nurturing his garden obsession and acquiring many of the heirloom tomato varieties he has grown in order to write his best selling guide, Epic Tomatoes. He has also become good acquaintances with other Exchange listers, some of whom he has entrusted to grow plants for his dwarf tomato project.

The SSE yearbook, the receipt of which each year is a true highlight of the members….I always feel like a kid in a candy shop when mine arrives (comment by Craig)

Join the Exchange Today

Right now is a great time to join the Exchange because we are compiling the 2019 Yearbook, a print catalogue of our listers’ seeds, seen by thousands of people. Create a free account on the Exchange Website to share your seeds. The deadline to list seeds online is November 29th, which is fast approaching. Requests for seeds can be made all year.

Thanks for writing this, Kathryn - it is a pleasure to feature this on my blog.

Preparing for my last speaking event of the year, thinking back...and looking ahead

In an hour or so I will finish packing up and head out to the JC Raulston Arboretum. My tomato stories will be shared with the Gardening Club of North Carolina, and once that is over, my 2018 speaking schedule will be complete. It is gratifying to end on a local event, and the contrast to my trip to Monticello to speak at the Heritage Harvest Festival perfectly sums up the joy in having opportunities to speak both near and far, smaller more intimate events and some of a pretty significant size.

Talking tomatoes in a big tent at Monticello on a warm Saturday afternoon

The size of the event and type of venue really have no relationship with the core meaning of speaking opportunities…building community and fellowship, sharing a passion, two-way learning, and most importantly, doing what I can to reach out and stimulate more people to get their hands dirty and grow something - in essence, to grow more gardeners.

With the speaking part of the year about to be complete, things don’t become any less busy. I’ve got four flats of young seedlings ready to be planted for a fall/winter/spring garden; among the plant types are collard, mustard, kale, lettuce, scallions, chard and beets. I’ve also got a few microdwarf tomatoes to tuck into small containers for some additional results for that particular mini-project.

Recently transplanted seedlings sizing up for fall planting

I am about to do a bit more seeking of speaking opportunities for next year, tucking a few additional events into an already busy schedule. I do look forward to meeting new gardening friends in places such as St Louis and Wayne County, near Detroit, as well as a return to Longwood Gardens. I am hoping to add Washington DC, and, perhaps, upstate New York.

Work continues on the Dwarf Tomato project book (which will be book #3 for me), and that will keep me busy over the coming months. I remain undecided on ventures such as webinar training courses and a podcast - this is not a particularly energetic time of year for me, coming off a pretty intense summer of gardening….many will notice that I am less “out there” on social media, preferring to take a bit of a break to re-energize. I am about to have Carpal Tunnel surgery on my right hand, and the issues from that over the past few months are keeping me away from my laptop.

Finally, loads of results from this year’s dwarf tomato project efforts need to be analyzed and sorted; I owe lots of people lots of seed samples from my very small Bouquet hot pepper efforts, and hope to get those packed and off over the coming month. I’ve yet to catalog in seeds from the dwarf project volunteers, and anticipate the arrival of much more. You should see my office - I can hardly step into it. I guess all of this adds up into my typical state of too much to do and not enough time to get to it all. Obviously, this is a state that I don’t mind, since it is a common thread throughout my life.

Off I go to do one of my favorite things - telling heirloom tomato stories and sharing tips with an audience of enthusiastic gardeners at a wonderful venue. I do realize how lucky I am…it is the first thing that crosses my mind each morning.

Quite a difference! Early October 2018 driveway garden

After the summer garden...what comes next?

As I type this blog, the remnants of the extremely slow moving and stubborn (and wet and windy) Florence continue. We here in Raleigh were very fortunate, and our hearts go out to all of those who were not as fortunate. In thinking back to Hurricane Fran, this was a relatively minor inconvenience when compared to what could have been if the storm hadn’t weakened and changed paths.

A volunteer, apparently Mexico Midget, soaked from Florence but still carrying on

With the summer garden now but a memory (we are picking a few tomatoes and lots of peppers, but it is in serious and expected decline) it seemed a good time to bridge the summer 2018 to spring 2019 gap with a smaller scale gardening effort - this meant planting some seeds.

My decisions on the fall garden seeds to start

Though much of the driveway garden will soon be removed and reorganized, there are lots of straw bales and containers ready to receive seedlings that will hopefully provide us with some good eating in late fall, and provide a head start for early next spring.

My planting list for 25 cells in a plug flat: Feaster heirloom mustard, Yellow Cabbage collards, Red Russian Kale, a spinach, arugula, Bright Lights and Rhubarb Swiss Chard, Detroit, Cylindra, Lutz and Golden beets, Scallions, 8 cells for various lettuce and lettuce mixes, and three cells for microdwarf tomatoes from seeds saved this summer - 80X F2 and 79X F2 - red fruit, and orange fruit. I also hope to plant a few bales with peas, for the harvest of pea shoots - a delicious addition to stir fries.

The fall/spring planted flat after one week - planted Sept 9, status on Sept 16

I expect to start transplanting into 3.5 inch pots and/or plug flats within the week. Once the rain stops and we dry out, I will get the driveway arranged into the format that will take us through the winter….the key will be an ability to use floating row cover to protect against frosts.

We still hope that remaining warm days will give us come beans, squash and cucumbers from the second seeding.

Second planted cukes (foreground) and summer squash, well watered by Florence

The garden report card/check list for late summer 2018.

Various varieties in a mid-August picking, destined for canning

It is easy to take a look at the late summer, less-than-perfectly cared for garden, view the tippy plants, diseased foliage, blank spaces and feel less than thrilled with the outcome. Sometimes our mood is impacted by the persistent heat and humidity, or just a sense of being a bit worn down (a topic I covered in my last blog).

Yet, with 6 newly canned quarts of tomatoes in the cupboard, an ever increasing sleeve of coin envelopes of saved seeds, and newly sprouted squash, cukes and beans, a bit of reflection reveals a quite different outcome. 2018 was actually quite a splendid gardening experience. It was instructive, delicious, and interesting - and remains so, as the last varieties of tomatoes and peppers begin to ripen.

plates of drying tomato seeds, coin envelopes of saved seeds, cups of ornamental hot peppers ready for seed saving

It seems to be a good time and take a temperature check on the season, comparing expectations with results, even though there is still more to come.

some overall stats - varieties planted vs seed saved

• Total number of tomato plants in my driveway - 96
• Packets of saved tomato seeds from my driveway plants - 76
• Seeds from volunteers - 10 (a number that will surely rise soon!)
• Plants alive, optimistic for ripe fruit for seed saving- 4
• Plants alive but not optimistic for ripe fruit - 11 
• Pepper plants growing - 16
• Pepper seed types saved - 16 
• Eggplant plants growing - 6
• Eggplant types seed saved - 5 
• Eggplant types pending ripe fruit - 1 (hoping it matures - one fruit set, very late start)
• So, from 118 plants total, there will likely be  only 11 failures - 91% success rate. That more than meets my expectations, particularly in a year where I thought I'd have little to no garden!

...now for a bit of detail on various categories from my driveway garden

Indeterminate tomatoes in straw bales

I planted 15 of my favorite tall growing tomato varieties in straw bales on May 1, doubling up on Sun Gold. The following were stars both in terms of flavor and yield - Dester, Brandywine, Ferris Wheel, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Purple, Polish and Egg Yolk. The flavor was great but the yield less so for Speckled Roman, OTV Brandywine and Lillian's Yellow Heirloom. One variety was either mislabel on my part...or perhaps a cross. Lucky Cross produced tomatoes that were oblate and a bronze chocolate color, more in what was expected from Abraham Brown (a variety grown last year; I grew lots of seedlings to distribute). Then again, Lucky Cross grew next to Abraham Brown last year, so it will take growing out saved seed next year to solve the mystery - wrong label, or chance hybrid. Sun Gold was delicious but disappointing in health...the two plants live on still, but have been the unhappiest looking plants in my garden all summer.  It seems odd that there would be a straw bale problem two years in a row (last year Sun Gold performed similarly in a straw bale), so this is an as yet unsolved mystery. Well, except for poor Nepal, an even sadder story than the sick Sun Golds. Nepal went down quickly to either Fusarium wilt or Bacterial wilt; too bad, because it was loaded with green tomatoes and it is a long time favorite of ours. Finally, Red Brandywine yielded superbly, but the flavor is a tick off when compared with the best, listed above. 

The main issue was one my ability to maintain the plants well. A summer beach vacation was sufficient interruption of my daily attention that control was lost by late July. I never did top them for reasons I'll explain in a later blog. All of the summer rain and humidity finally resulted in widespread issues with fungal attacks of the foliage.

One of the most interesting observations was that of comparative fruit set in a challenging season. Two varieties clearly didn't like the temps and/or humidity and were very skimpy with yield; Lillian's Yellow Heirloom and OTV Brandywine. Ferris Wheel went through a period of early blossom drop but then turned things around and was one of the biggest tomato producers of the summer. Dester, the three Cherokees, and Red Brandywine had little blossom drop and gave us lots of great tasting tomatoes.

All in all, this portion of my 2018 garden rates an overall grade of A.  

Microdwarf tomatoes in 1 gallon grow bags

The microdwarfs - from seeds sent by my gardening friend Dan Follett, responsible for this sub-project (he carried out all of the crosses and subsequent selections that led to the seed he sent me) - provided some early season fun, but also confirmed that those early cherry tomatoes tend to get forgotten when the larger tomatoes ripen. All in all, the plants were productive, cute, potentially useful, but, ultimately, lacked the flavor of indeterminate cherry tomatoes. The best was a Dwarf Sweet Sue offspring that produced lots of nice yellow cherry tomatoes in a plant that was less than one foot tall. A second one of interest had fuzzy, dusty miller type foliage and produced red and gold striped, quite flavorful cherry tomatoes on a similarly short plant. Those, to me, are the two most promising; two plants have yet to produce a single tomato, but they live on. 

This garden mini project gets a grade of B.

Variegated hot pepper Trifetti in a one gallon container

Indeterminate and dwarf tomatoes in 5 gallon grow bags or self watering containers

These got a relatively late start due to my time availability in the early spring, which, I feel, hurt them a bit. The seedlings in most cases were already coming down with some early blight and/or septoria leaf spot. The hot, humid and often wet days provided further challenges. Despite the cards being a bit stacked against things, results were quite stunning in most cases. The two new family heirlooms given to me at events - from Mimi Koch at the Carolina Arbors talk in RTP (unnamed family heirloom) and from Nora Wojciechowski at the Oakland County event near Detroit (20 year old seed from a tomato grown by AZ Cutler) - did very well, and I hope to find a way to get each released through a seed company. Most of my grow bag tomatoes live on and are providing daily joy. The biggest issue was having time to stay on top of diseased foliage removal, and my loss of control on these tomatoes coincided with our summer vacation.

The dwarf project plants in grow bags did very well, and I got a good look at some candidates from the Anthy, Acey, Speckly and Lampy families, along with a few others. This was never meant to be a big time dwarf project research year for me, so everything learned was a bonus. 

The self watering containers I used last year (as a trial gift from Gardener Supply) were not as successful this year....a bit of a late start, less than optimal location, and some interruptions on care and maintenance.

Overall grade of this category - B+

Center straw bales - tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, squash, potatoes

I was utterly delighted with our Jade bush green beans, Zephyr and Raven summer squash, and Diva cucumbers. They all came on shockingly early (29 days from seed for the squash!), and produced very well. I've pulled the plants and reseeded them - the replants are up and growing. Straw bales are a great way to go with all of these.  As for the potatoes, I planted some sprouted pieces from a friend, but not all of them thrived. There are still living vines in the bale, and I am yet to dig in to see if any potatoes developed....so, the jury is still out.

Overall grade of this category - A (with an Incomplete for the potato bale)

Royal Purple showing it's unripe, dark purple color....it will ripen deep red

Peppers and eggplants in 5 gallon grow bags

As always, I find great success planting peppers and eggplants in black plastic 5 gallon grow bags, though last year's widespread attack of bacterial spot left me wondering what to expect this season. Happily, I had no disease issues at all with either peppers or eggplants. I was pleased to have advanced my eggplant Mardi Gras another generation, though my two Skinny Twilight plants did not fare all that well. Late planting once again seems to be the culprit. My Islander dehybridization peppers - Carolina Amethyst, Fire Opal and Royal Purple - all did wonderfully and we are right in the middle of peak harvest. Three plants from a variegated variety growing in a test garden at JC Raulston Arboretum are quite beautiful and prolific, and show slight differences...the best is that they are sweet, rather than hot. Finally, my single Espelette is thriving; rather shocking considering the one seedling I managed to germinate had a stuck seed coat issue and was at risk of never developing a central growing stem. We are just beginning to pick them. 

Overall rating of this category - A-

Sweet pepper Fire Opal on its way from lavender to golden yellow

Ornamental hot peppers in 1 gallon pots

I decided to revitalize my colorful pepper efforts, focusing on a named variety that is yet to be finished - Bouquet. Six plants from last year's saved seed, as well as a pepper plant from my friend Ralph that looks just like Trifetti, are providing color to the driveway and heat to our cooking. The six plants are all slightly to very different, and my job is to decide which is THE Bouquet that I want to further refine; all are attractive, so more selection and naming is likely.

Overall rating of this category - A

A lead candidate for a new variety, Bouquet

Dwarf tomatoes and basil in straw bales

This is my single disappointing category for this year's garden. My second batch of bales were prepared late, and the delayed planting put their maximum growth at a time when my garden attention wasn't what it should have been - staking, and diseased foliage removal, lapsed. Most of my tomato misses - no fruit at all - were in this category. The basil thrived, however.

Overall rating of this category - C-

In future blogs I will get a bit more specific about the dwarf project tomatoes, and share thoughts on what may be on the grow list for 2019. I will also discuss what will be planted for the late summer/fall into next spring containers (greens, beets, perhaps some microdwarf tomatoes). In fact, tomorrow I hope to start taking down the dead plants, rearranging the driveway, and starting some seeds.

Variegated sweet pepper selection

Time for the honest blog - the garden (and I) are a bit worn out as mid-August arrives

Cherokee Green and Ferris Wheel tomatoes waving in the breeze in mid August

Turn your back - blink your eyes - take a week's vacation (or do all three) and the garden goes out of control. Spending hours each day when the thermometer shows temps in the mid-90s and humidity is high takes its toll. The promises and resolutions made in the spring start to feel a bit superfluous months later. Top the plants? Stake everything with care and attention? Remove every bit of blemished foliage? All important, all great ideas, all on the radar screen - and all easy to dismiss in the dog days of summer. 

June 25 view of the garden

At some point, the objectives for the garden start to take precedence over discipline and attention. If we had canning targets (20 quarts of tomatoes in the cupboard), or neighborhood bragging rights for yield (just to name a few possibilities), some of the omissions and oversights would have been dealt with more carefully.  But as a research and development and daily eating garden, a few ripe tomatoes on each mystery plant, and enough yield to make daily meals throughout the summer interesting fit the bill just fine for Sue and I.

July 11 view of the garden

It has been a truly excellent season, in many cases exceeding my expectations. Yields and flavors of the indeterminate tomatoes planted in straw bales on May 1, and cucumbers and summer squash and green beans (also from straw bales) have been wonderful. Later (June 1) planted seedlings - particularly dwarf tomato plants in bales and dwarfs and eggplants in 5 gallon containers - didn't reach such heights. Peppers are doing very well in their grow bags, though later than typical due to the late start. Fortunately, last year's bacterial spot issue is a no-show this year. Basil downy mildew is also limited to the plants in deck containers; the straw bale basil is in great shape.

August 12 view of the garden

All was well and in good control until about mid-July; that is when our daughter Sara and our grandchildren arrived from Seattle for their two week visit, one of which was spent at Topsail beach. Quality time with family - and then distance - took me out of my garden care routine. When family departed, on August 1, it was clear that it was time to switch to a different mode - less maintenance, more "let's harvest what we can". And that is where things currently are....no longer an aesthetic beauty, but still reasonably productive and providing a few daily surprises and delights.

The carousel of pics below show cucumber and squash plants that were pulled and now replanted (you can see each bale - seeds await germination in the center refreshed potting mix). You can also find various issues on this or that plant. That's enough for now - time to go out into the heat and pick beans, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes.  I hope that your 2018 gardens were, or are, successful. As you can see, productive gardens are not necessarily very "pretty" once time and weather and fatigue hit...even for the NC tomato man!

The joys of a tomato and wine dinner at a great restaurant...such the one coming this week. What are they like, you ask?

On Wednesday, August 8 at 7 PM at Hummingbird Restaurant's sister event space (Whitaker and Atlantic), one of those perfectly magical summer events will take place - a multi course dinner prepared by a great local chef focusing on that most treasured summer crop - tomatoes - enhanced by specially chosen Rose wines for each course. All that you need to know about the event - menu, opportunity to sign up - is at this link.

I can tell a few stories about summer time tomato dinners. My rather well known obsession with heirloom tomatoes led to my involvement in many such events over the years - starting with two at Enoteca Vin, by Ashley Christensen, the countless dinners over many years at Zely and Ritz hosted by Sarig (how I miss you, my friend) and Nancy Agasi - then again with Ashley for two at The Bridge Club, one by Arthur Gordon at Irregardless Cafe, and most recently, wonderful dinners at Acme Food and Beverage prepared by Kevin Callaghan. Now I get to add to my stories with the creativity of chef Coleen Speaks in what looks (judging from the menu) to be a memorable and delicious evening.

All of the events described about were marvelous, delicious, memorable and eye opening, in a culinary sense. But perhaps it's best to discuss what one of these events are like (and yes, I am working to entice you to register for the event, attend and see and taste for yourself!).

Tomato dinners bring out a mix of the adventurous, the tomato lover, the wine lover, the curious, and the social. For some attendees it is one in a series of every tomato dinner that is locally held - they are that beloved. For many others, it is something totally new. 

All of us who grow and/or purchase and love tomatoes understand a few - some of us more than a few - perfect uses for great tomatoes. At a tomato dinner, the application is extended beyond what is imaginable - whether used creatively in starters, soups, salads...or stuffed, or made into chutneys or sauces - the desire to apply tomatoes to four courses - pair with wines - and perhaps the biggest challenge of all, in a dessert - results in many surprising and delicious combinations and memorable creations. 

My part in these dinners tends to be one of sharing information, education, telling stories - helping the dinner guests move beyond the red tomato into the people involved with the very route of many varieties that grace the plates in front of the diners. Each tomato variety has a history and a lineage. Each has a personality - a size, shape, color, flavor - and each elicits a response from we who eat it. Tomatoes are nostalgia for many of us. They take us back to gardening with loved ones and back yard cookouts. I also love to answer questions - gardening questions for those who want to grow them (or grow them more successfully themselves). If anyone has a hankering to purchase my books, I will have them there with me as well.

Tomato dinners are noisy, festive, fascinating, delicious - and rare. I am so excited that Hummingbird is joining the growing list of area chefs who can't wait to show off their creative skills by incorporating an ever increasing selection of tomatoes into a complete multi-course dinner.

I hope to see some of you at Hummingbird on Wednesday...be sure to say hello - my wife Susan and I will be pleased to meet you.