My Tomato Collection Tour resumes - Part 10. Tomato #113 - #120

Marlin keeping squirrels away from our perennial garden a few days ago

Though this is part 10, there won’t be 10 tomatoes, as the awkward numbering I used early on gets in the way. In the next installment we can resume 10 at a time, until we get to another break for using numbers for saved seeds - we will actually end on #178. Then will be a summary post, then resumption at tomato #207 - it is then clear sailing up to #300 and beyond. (that may be the most boring paragraph I’ve ever written!). Let’s dive in!

Tomato #113 - Kotlas (formerly called Sprint) - it is hard to find historical info on Sprint (a variety I remembered in Stokes catalogs from the 1980s), but Kotlas was a new name given it by Johnny’s Selected Seeds for its sister city in the old USSR. It is very similar to the tomato Matina. I purchased the seeds from Johnny’s in 1989. I never did grow Kotlas, but it is described as a rather sparsely foliaged potato leaf plant with small, saladette sized scarlet tomatoes. It is also likely very similar to Siberian, Stupice and Kimberly - all potato leaf early small scarlet tomatoes.

Tomato #114 - Gold Nugget - this tomato was also purchased from Johnny’s, in 1989. I never did get around to growing it. The variety was bred by Dr. James Baggett of the University of Oregon and released in 1983. One of the parents he used was Yellow Plum. It is unusual in being a determinate yellow colored cherry tomato, a bit oval in shape, with what is described as a mild, somewhat sweet flavor. Determinate tomatoes are good for those in short season areas that need their tomatoes in a very concentrated harvest.

Tomato #115 - Taxi - This completes my trio of purchases from Johnny’s in 1989. Unlike the other two above, this one I grew, enjoyed, and return to often. Its history seems unknown. Even when I asked Rob Johnston, he was not at all familiar with its lineage. The plant is determinate, the yield very heavy and concentrated and quite early for a tomato of its size. The bright yellow round fruit are in the 3-4 ounce range, and their flavor is actually quite good - well balanced and tasty. Since they come in pretty much all at once, they are a great early season canning tomato. Before the dwarf tomato project started releasing varieties, Taxi was one of my top recommendation for a fine tomato that is compact and would be happy in a 5 gallon container. I grew it last year and was once again amazed by the earliness, the yield, and the excellent flavor for such an early variety.

Tomato #116 - Amish Paste - acquired as a SSE transaction from Jim Donovan of California in 1989, I finally got around to growing it in 1994 - and several times through the years, though it struggled mightily with disease in the hot Raleigh summers. The tomatoes are a bit mixed in shape, from nearly round to plum to nearly hearts. The plant is wispy and straggly, but the yield of fruit is adequate. The scarlet medium sized tomatoes are very tasty and certainly not just for sauce (as the paste name indicates). They are a fine slicing, salad and sauce tomato. The history seems quite convoluted - a late 1800s Wisconsin heirloom that made its debut via a Pennsylvania seed company. Thane Earl from Wisconsin first offered it through the SSE in 1987. It is a similar tomato in shape and use to Bisignano #2, though that one can run a bit larger. I will have to give it a try in Hendersonville, where diseases may not bother it so much.

Tomato #117 - Andrew Rahart’s Jumbo Red - I love this big red tomato because it seems to define the classic scarlet red heirloom “beefsteak” type. I acquired it from SSE member CA CO A in 1989 and squeezed it into that garden, despite receiving it quite late in the season. (data from 1989). It is supposedly an old Italian tomato collected by Andrew Rahart of New York. His son, John, living in Wyoming, was responsible for it being widely distributed through the SSE. The vigorous indeterminate plant produce lots of large oblate scarlet red tomatoes that have what folks would describe as a “full, old fashioned flavor”, probably because it allows its acidity to show through a bit. It is a somewhat late variety, with first ripe fruit 87 days from transplant. I harvested 10 tomatoes at an average weight of 12 ounces, so the late start led to only 7.5 pounds of tomatoes. I grew it last year and can affirm that it is a very heavy yielding variety. I enjoyed the flavor, and rated it A-.

Tomato #118 - Believe it or Not - I received this tomato from seed saver IN SU G in 1989. It seems that the first listing in the SSE yearbook is Dorothy Beiswenger of Minnesota in 1984. I wonder if it is the tomato that was offered associated with Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Sunday inserts. I first grew it in 1989, and was amazed at the size of the oblate scarlet fruit. For the size, it was quite early, with first ripe fruit in 71 days from transplant. I ended up picking 21 fruit from the plant at an average weight of 19.2 ounces. The plant therefore provided a bit over 25 pounds of tomatoes. I really enjoyed the full, old fashioned flavor with a nice tart bite, and rated it an A-.

Tomato #119 - Big Ben - Faxon Stinnett sent me seeds of this tomato in 1989. It is associated with Ben Quisenberry, he of Brandywine fame. Ben apparently received it from Bob Dyke of Kentucky in 1967. The Big Ben I grew was a large potato leaf pink. Some say that Big Ben is the original name for Stump of the World (which Bob Dyke didn’t care for). Big Ben was also offered by Ben Q as a three pink tomato seed mix, along with Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter. So we have a bit of a mess - is potato leaf Big Ben (and potato leaf Stump of the World) actually Brandywine? I grew Big Ben in 1989, and though it was a very good potato leaf pink variety, it was not as flavorful as Brandywine or Stump of the World. I don’t have the typical detailed information for this variety because it was grown in a friend’s garden, and I wasn’t weighing and counting tomatoes from plants in that garden.

Tomato #120 - Brown’s Large Red - I received this tomato from Don Sparks of Kentucky in 1989. I didn’t grow it until 1996, which was my third garden in Raleigh, planted in the ground on the side of my house. It was a regular leaf large oblate pink, not scarlet red, variety, with very good flavor, rated an A-. It was quite a late variety, first ripe fruit in 91 days from transplant. The plant was quite spindly, similar to the larger older Ponderosa type tomatoes dating from the late 1800s. I never did regrow it.

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So, we are now into the next one hundred. The next set is not the most impressive 10 of my collection, and I only planted a few of them. But let’s leave that for the next blog in this series.

Some of my early seedlings showing the anthocyanin present in one of the parents - these are F2 generation seeds between an indeterminate and a dwarf.

It feels like spring - and it is starting to look like it too. 2022 garden update!

We didn’t plant these (thanks to the birds or squirrels!) - but we are certainly enjoying them!

All of a sudden I am incredibly busy - blogging much more frequently (I hope you are enjoying the trip through my seed collection, and the republishing of Off the Vine!), weekly office hours (live Zoom) for the Growing Epic Tomatoes course with Joe Lamp’l, answering a lot of emails, starting seeds, mowing the lawn, cleaning up the garden, writing some articles, and preparing for some Zoom garden workshops. We are also finding time to hike in Pisgah or DuPont 3 times a week with our dogs.

I’ve gotten an idea of what will be in my garden, based on germination results. Most will be in straw bales, some in grow bags.

The tomato flat a few days ago

Eggplants - Mardi Gras, Skinny Twilight, Twilight Lightning, Midnight Lightning, Green Ghost

Peppers - Pinata, White Gold, Royal Purple, Carolina Amethyst, Fire Opal, Chocolate Bell, and hopefully (because they were just seeded - no germination data yet), Shishito and Padron.

Tomatoes - Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate, Lucky Cross, Polish, Captain Lucky, Estler’s Mortgage Lifter, three new family heirlooms sent to me, a new dwarf X indeterminate hybrid - Glory (Dester X Dwarf Gloria’s Treat), some mysteries that are F2 generation from a few of the hybrids I created a few years ago, Coastal Pride, Irma’s Highland Cherry (a new chocolate colored dwarf out of Teensy that we hope is ready for release), and various other experiments and mysteries.

There will be squash and beans and sugar snap peas and some spinach and chard and lettuce, perhaps cucumbers (though they really do struggle with disease here), basils and flowers. The weather looks quite iffy over the coming weeks, with one really deep freeze possible. We hope that it doesn’t bite the buds on the flowering shrubs and trees, something that occurred last spring.

I won’t be selling seedlings this year, but sharing a few extras locally. I won’t be shipping plants any longer. I’ve completed fulfilling seed requests. What comes next is purchasing and prepping the straw bales. My target plant out date is around May 1, depending upon the night time temperatures. I expect to be doing transplanting - separating and bumping up seedlings into separate containers - in early April.

For those events that are open more broadly, I will post links here, and on Instagram (I am @nctomatoman there). I will be on the WPTF (Raleigh, NC) weekend gardener on April 16, as well as Niki Jabbour’s Weekend Gardener radio show out of Nova Scotia, Canada on May 8. You will be able to listen live to each - watch for more news as the dates approach.

Double spirea just popped into bloom yesterday

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. Craig's article "On the Trail of "Lost" Commercial Varieties - Success at Last"

Spring showing up in Hendersonville on March 4

Here is the third article from Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. It is an article I wrote that makes it very clear I was deep into hunting for lost varieties that appeared in seed catalogs between the mid 1800s and early 1900s. This is a pretty info-packed article - I am going to give it a read and have quite a reaction piece at the end.

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On the Trail of “Lost” Commercial Varieties:  Success at Last!

by Craig

The tomatoes in the SSE collection, though numbering in the thousands, can be divided into three general types.  First are the huge number of heirlooms that have been maintained by families or individuals.  These are the ones that have been handed down over the years, finally reaching an SSE member, who grows it out and makes it available for all of us to try.  Sometimes, these varieties have detailed and interesting histories attached to them, such as Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter, Viva Lindsey’s Kentucky Heirloom, or Cherokee Purple.  Often, the history is sketchy at best, or even absent, or forgotten.  Even more surprising to note is that in many of these cases, varieties matching the descriptions were never commercially developed, or available.  The most obvious case is of the bicolored beefsteak varieties, such as Ruby Gold and Georgia Streak.  Among the possible origins of these tomatoes are introduction from other countries, crosses or sports that appeared in gardens over the years, or renamings of commercial varieties by various gardeners.  For example, if a particular family was growing Acme for generations, somewhere along the line it may have received a different name, such as Fritsche Family, or Hunt Family Favorite, in order to personalize it a bit.  All of these reasons, and perhaps others, could conceivably have contributed to the observation that thousands of named tomato varieties exist in the various seed collections (SSE, USDA, Davis), yet far less than 500 types were commercially produced and released by seed companies.

Another group of tomatoes that are represented in the SSE collection is the newer commercial open pollinated varieties, such as Fireball and Rutgers, and some of the experimental varieties that have been generated by amateur plant breeders.  Examples of these are Green Grape, Purple Perfect, and Elberta Girl.  Many people are (unfortunately) also beginning to offer seeds saved from hybrids, such as Sweet 100.  There has been little interest or activity in using the old fashioned methods of tomato “breeding,” such as looking for sport plants in the fields, or hybridizing for the sole purpose of stabilizing the offspring for release of new open pollinated types.  A major reason is the one of profit; hybrids are big money for seed companies, since they force you to return to them each year for seed.  Of course, you can save seed and grow tomatoes from hybrids, but it is any body’s guess what you will get.  I am currently working with a truly fine hybrid cherry tomato, Sun Gold, growing out 4 or 5 of the F2’s each year just to see if I can get an OP version that has the excellent qualities of the hybrid.  Seed savers should be warned that it takes years of grow outs to truly stabilize varieties that originate from F1 hybrids.

Finally, there is the small number of authentic heirloom commercial varieties that were developed between 1870 and the 1920’s.  Among well-known examples of this type are Abraham Lincoln, Stone, and Marglobe.  This category, in particular, has interested me for a long time, for a number of reasons.  These old varieties represent the first attempts at improving the tomato in America.  Growing out these varieties gives us an opportunity to see what people were growing and eating at the turn of the century.  And, many of these varieties were used as breeding stock for future tomatoes.  And so, one can be assured that they are growing something old and historically interesting when some of these varieties are in the garden.

In the mid 1800’s, tomatoes of various sizes and colors were being grown, having probably come to this country from Europe.  It seems as though the fruits of these old varieties were quite rough and irregular, and reading the reprints of the Fearing Burr and Vilmorin books give a pretty good image of what was available back then.  Early attempts at improving the tomato involved selecting the fruits on a particular plant that had the desired characteristics, such as saving seed from the largest or smoothest fruit of a particular plant.  Of course, growing the saved seed gave fruit that were very similar to the parent plant, since selecting particular fruits do not lead to improvement or genetic variation.  The major breakthrough occurred when Alexander Livingston of Ohio realized that identifying and selecting seed from superior plants in a particular plot of a variety would lead to the desired improvement and refinement in the tomato.  Nearly all of his early releases resulted from his careful observations made in large plantings of tomatoes.  We will report on his efforts in a more detailed article in the future.

It has been assumed that many of the early varieties of commercially released tomatoes are extinct.  In reading Carol Deppe’s book on home plant breeding, I was alerted to the USDA tomato germplasm collection, and decided to see what they had in storage there.  Much to my delight, Carolyn and I found that they had a significant number of the Livingston-bred varieties, as well as numerous other commercial OP varieties, in their collection.  We requested from the USDA, and received, a large number of these old varieties, and in fact, are growing them in our gardens this year.  This discovery has led to what is the most exciting garden that I have yet planted, and many of these are setting fruit as I type this article.  The best information source that we have found for descriptions of commercially released varieties is the Michigan State College Special Bulletin 290, Tomato Varieties, 1938, by Gordon Morrison.  Much of the information cited below is from that source.

Among the varieties we will soon be harvesting and tasting are the following Livingston-bred varieties:  Acme (1875), Magnus (1900), Favorite (1883), Lutescent (probably same as Honor Bright, 1897), Beauty (1885), Dwarf Stone (1902), Paragon (1870), and Golden Queen (1882).  Other old commercial varieties that we are growing are Buckbee’s Beefsteak (Buckbee, early 1900’s), Landreth (synonym for Earliana, 1900), King Humbert (similar to San Marzano, very old, from Italy), Triumph (1879), Early Large Red, Beauty of Loraine, Optimus (Ferry Morse, 1885), Queen Mary, King George (these two from the Blood collection of the 1930’s), Mikado Scarlet, Redfield Beauty (a selection from Beauty), Alpha Pink (Isbell, early 1900’s), Excelsior (1900), Mikado (Henderson, 1889), Wins All (Henderson, 1925), Geswein’s Purple Bonny Best, Early Ruby (1891), White Queen, Alpha (1882), Essex Wonder, Banana Leaf (a curiosity!), Queen of the Purples, Green Gage (1879 is listed, but much older, from Europe), Alice Roosevelt (1900), Trophy (1870), Royal Purple, and Abraham Lincoln (Buckbee, 1923).  In a number of cases, the varieties growing from the USDA collection seed look very different from our previous experiences with them, such as Abraham Lincoln (larger fruit, later) and Acme (smaller, smoother fruit, off color).  A number of the above, such as Trophy (the seeds of which were sold for $5.00/20, very expensive for the 1870’s), Paragon (Livingston’s first introduction, said to be the first really smooth, large tomato), and Acme (the first smooth pink by Livingston), were the breakthrough varieties of their time. 

Among other old commercially developed varieties which are already in the SSE are Early Michigan (1889), Peach (1891), Dwarf Champion (1892), Stone (1891), Earliana (1900), Chalk’s Early Jewel (1905), Globe (1906), Ponderosa (1891), June Pink (1906), Early Detroit (1909), Bonny Best (1916), Gulf State Market (1921), Greater Baltimore (1925), Cooper’s Special (1926), Marglobe (1927), Break O’Day (1932), Oxheart (1932), and Pritchard’s Scarlet Topper (1932), and Rutgers. 

We will be making close observations on these varieties, and then comparing this data to descriptions from the old seed catalogs.  Also, we will report on our findings in the next issue of Off The Vine.  And, we will be saving lots of seed from these types, in preparation for the potential high interest that the SSE members may have next year. 

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Whew - that is indeed a LOT of information. We found out quite a bit of info in the years to follow, so I can provide some corrections and updates. As I suspect you all know, I am a real stickler for historical accuracy.

In the first paragraph I note that the large red/yellow beefsteak types never appeared in seed catalogs. The variety Ruby Gold did indeed appear in a seed catalog - it was released by the John Childs seed company in 1921.

In a future article, I talk about how all of the USDA-acquired varieties performed in my garden, so I won’t provide any comments in that regard in this blog post. Do take a look at all of the varieties we ended up locating. It was quite thrilling to realize that Magnus was sitting in the germplasm collection - a variety adorning the cover of one of my first seed catalog purchases (1900 Livingston). Growing it in my garden was just priceless!

Cell of tomato seedlings on day 4 after seeding - getting some filtered sun on a mild day

My Tomato Collection Tour - First Hundred Summary

The start to my 2022 garden - first flat of eggplant, pepper, tomato and flower seedlings getting some filtered sun - day 8 from seeding!

Well, that went by quickly - covering the first one hundred varieties of tomatoes in my way-too-large, out of control collection was really fun, and quite nostalgic. It is amazing how, when describing each variety that I grew, I could picture the garden, the plant, my joy of discovery. I found it fascinating to see what varieties ended up in my collection at the outset of my tomato obsession.

From the first 100, a few varieties really have established themselves as regulars in my garden, even after more than 30 years of first growing them. This is the list of tomatoes that made really huge impressions. 9 varieties of that first 100 - 9 percent - are among the my very favorite varieties to this day.

I do wonder if there is a factor of “discovery” that is responsible. When a hobby is new, when experiences are fresh and exciting, it could be that some of the first superstars remain so, and are hard to displace. Of the list below, a few do have a bit of a romantic element, a love of the story involved, or the letter sent with the seeds - this is the case with Tiger Tom, Mortgage Lifter, and Bisignano #2. In the case of Winsall, my love of the variety is certainly colored by the visit of the elderly man to the Raleigh Farmers Market so many years ago and his joy at being reunited with a beloved variety he thought was gone forever. For the rest, it is all about consistent excellence and flavor. Brandywine and Polish are simply among the best tomatoes I’ve ever tasted.

This is the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the highlight of the first 100.

• Brandywine - in years it is happy, it could be the BEST tomato I’ve eaten

• Mortgage Lifter - great story, great tomato

• Sun Gold F1 hybrid - often the only hybrid I allow in my garden

• Nepal - a favorite in 1986, a favorite in my 2021 garden.

• Tiger Tom - for those who like them tart!

• Bisignano #2 - Great story, not flashy, but always solid (pun intended!)

• Winsall - gave me my favorite tomato story, reconnecting someone with their past

• Polish - to tell the truth, the equal of Brandywine, but more consistent

• Hugh’s - this tomato is simply so impressive in so many ways.

  With this significant milestone now elapsed, it is time to dig in to the next 200!

View from the rear - my straw bale indeterminate tomatoes in late July, 2021. Can’t wait to repeat the view this year!

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 2. Early American Tomato Varieties, guest post, by Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith’s republish effort of Livingston and the Tomato, and his The Tomato in America - both essential reading

Craig’s intro to this article

Carolyn and I both got to know great author and historian and friend Andrew Smith. He was responsible for ensuring that “Livingston and the Tomato” was finally back in print, and has a host of fascinating historical book on a variety of topics. We were so delighted that he penned the following article for our humble little newsletter.

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Early American Tomato Varieties

by Andrew Smith

The tomato plan originated in the coastal highlands of Peru, Ecuador and northern Chili. Of the nine species of Lycopersicon, only two, L. esculentum and L. pimpinefolium produce fruit that are edible. The fruit of wild tomato plants (L. Esculentum) are similar to today’s cherry tomato varieties. Through some unknown means the tomato migrated to Central America. Mayan and other Mesoamerican peoples domesticated the plant and used its fruit in their cookery. They capitalized upon a mutation which produced large lumpy fruit. By the 16th century, tomatoes were cultivated at least in the southern part of Mexico. The Spanish first encountered them after Hernan Cortez began his conquest of Mexico in 1519. The Spanish then introduced the tomato into the Caribbean and the Philippines. From the Philippines, its culture dispersed to Southeast Asia, and ultimately the rest of Asia. Through the Spanish, the tomato was also disseminated into Italy and Spain where it was quickly dispersed throughout Continental Europe.

 The first known reference to tomatoes in what is today the United States was published in Botanologia (London, 1710) by William Salmon, who reportedly saw them growing in “Carolina” in the late 1680’s. Within a hundred years, tomatoes were grown and consumed in all regions of the nation. They were particularly prominent in North and South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, and probably in Georgia and Alabama.

In 1793, Charles Willson Peale, a portrait painter and the creator of one of America’s first museums in Philadelphia, received “Red Tomato” seeds in a shipment of “a number of subjects of Natural Science” from France. He gave them to his twelve-year-old son, Rubens Peale, who planted them in his garden and gave seeds to Cuthbert and David Landreth. In the 1790’s, the Landreths sold fruits and vegetables from a garden stall by the side of the old Philadelphia courthouse. They sold tomatoes to the French immigrants, but there was little demand from others. By 1800, tomato seeds were also sold in Philadelphia by John Lithen and Bernard M’Mahon. In New York, they were sold in 1807 by Grant Thorburn who established a seed farm and began selling seeds shortly after the turn of the century. Seeds were sold in Baltimore by 1810 and in Boston by 1827. By the 1830’s, tomato seeds were sold throughout the country.

Specific tomato varieties were rarely listed or described in early broadsides and seed catalogs, but many different types of tomatoes were grown in the United States. For instance, Thomas Jefferson exported tomato seeds from France during the early 1780’s to America. While president (1801-9), he noted that tomatoes were sold by market gardeners in Washington. After he retired to Monticello, General John Mason sent him some “Spanish” tomato seeds, whose fruit was “very much larger than common kinds.” Jefferson also planted “dwarf” tomatoes, by which he may have been referring to cherry tomatoes. In 1824, he imported seeds from Mexico. Jefferson was not alone in the quest to explore the diversity of the tomato.

During the 1820’s, large and small varieties with red and yellow colored fruit were noted in agricultural periodicals and advertisements. During the 1830’s, currant tomatoes (L. pimpinellifolium) were found growing wild along the banks of the Mississippi river. By the mid-1830’s, the number of varieties spiraled to several types differing in size, shape and color. In 1835, self-proclaimed botanist and medical practitioner Constantine Rafinesque enumerated fourteen varieties, although, based upon his descriptions, it is difficult to determine the distinctions among many of them. In 1840, the Geneses Farmer advertised large, red, large yellow, small red cherry and Cuba or Spanish tomatoes. More varieties appeared as the decade progressed, such as pear-shaped, cluster, preserving, fig-shaped, yellow cherry and egg-shaped varieties.

Of special interest to tomato growers was a variety brought back from the South Pacific in 1841. An American Exploring Expedition had run across some tomatoes, which were dubbed “Fegee” tomatoes. A sailor had sent seeds back to a friend in Philadelphia, while Charles Wilkes, the Captain of the expedition, sent seeds to the Secretary of the Navy, James Pauling, who evidently dispersed them throughout the United States. They had no discernable effect upon tomato culture, and died out after a few years of cultivation. This variety was later incorrectly identified as the forerunner of the Fejee tomato, which became a popular variety after the Civil War. Despite its name, this later variety originated in Italy.

Several plants advertised as tomato varieties in the 1850’s were not botanically related to Lycopersicon at all, including the Tree Tomato, imported from France around 1859, and the Cape Gooseberry. This suggests that by the 1850’s the name tomato was in such high esteem that it was used to sell other plants. Despite this inflation in the number of purported tomato types, the American Agriculturist maintained that four varieties were most esteemed and cultivated. The large smooth-skinned red, an excellent variety, differed “from all other large sots, in having a smooth skin entirely free from protuberances or inequalities of any kind.” The common large red, with the fruit depressed at both ends, furrowed on the sides, and varying in circumference, from three to eighteen inches, “was a prolific bearer” and was “universally cultivated.” The pear-shaped was “much smaller than either of the preceding, very fleshy, and contained fewer seeds.” The cherry-shaped red has a beautiful little fruit, much resembling a cherry in size and appearance. While some varieties were considered oddities or curiosities, there was a nascent relationship between some varieties and their culinary usage. Red tomatoes were best for ketchup and cooking. Fig-shaped tomatoes were frequently recommended for making confectionary. Pear-shaped, cherry-shaped, yellow types, and the pink-red tomatoes were used for pickling.

Precisely what these varieties looked and tasted like is unknown. Few paintings or illustration s of specific varieties have been located. Vegetables were never a popular subject for still-life artists, and only four American paintings containing tomatoes are known to have survived. These paintings, one by Raphaelle Peale (the brother of Rubens Peale) dated to about 1795, one by an unknown artist painted about 1840, and two by Paul Lacroix painted in 1863 and 1865, show dramatic changes in the tomato’s shape. Peale’s tomato is extremely ribbed and lumpy; the next is less lumpy, but extremely large; and Lacroix’s tomatoes are much smoother and more closely resemble today’s varieties.

Tomatoes sold in the market were described as “thick-skinned, hollow subjects, which bounced like a football.” Farmers and gardeners slowly bred tomatoes with different characteristics, such as a round shape, smooth skin, solid flesh and ripeness all over. Also, American farmers consciously began breeding tomatoes which ripened earlier and yielded more abundantly. In Rochester, New York, J. Slater began saving seeds from the roundest and smoothest tomatoes he could find. His tomatoes were neither flat nor wrinkled, “but as round as an orange, and as smooth and as large as the largest Northern Spy apple.” Dr. T. J. Hand, originally from Sing Sing, New York, began crossing the small cherry tomato with larger, lumpy varieties. The benefits of these breeding efforts began to bear fruit just after the Civil War. Hand’s efforts were rewarded when he ended with a tomato with a solid mass of flesh and juice, with small seeds and smooth skin. Under the name Trophy tomato, its success was unbounded with the promotor, Colonel George Waring, who sold seeds for 25 cents apiece.

During and after the Civil War, the number of tomato varieties increased spectacularly. Fearing Burr’s Field and Garden Vegetables of America, initially published in 1863, reflected his experience as a seedsman and gardener in Massachusetts. He listed 22 tomato varieties, only one of which was not botanically within the Lycopersicon genus. His 1865 edition included two more varieties. Alexander Livingston, who, as a child, was told by his mother that tomatoes were poisonous, became one of the most important developers of tomato varieties in America. By adhering to the principle of single plant selection to clearly define demands in the tomato trade, he developed or improved thirteen major varieties from 1870 to 1893. Among the more important were paragon, acme, perfection, golden Queen, Livingston’s Favorite, Beauty and Stone tomatoes.

In 1866, Liberty Hyde Bailey located and tested seventy-six varieties sold by seedsmen. The following year he included 179 sorts from American, British, French and German seedsmen. This increase was due to several factors: the development of many new American varieties; the introduction of renamed European varieties; the tendency of seedsmen to list as distinct varieties those which differed little from already named ones; and the reluctance of seedsmen to remove duplicates from their list because of customer loyalty to particular names.

Nearly all 19th century tomato varieties were indeterminate, with the exception of “dwarf” or “tree” tomatoes such as Dwarf Champion. The plants were long and straggly, and their fruit continued to set until the frost destroyed the plant. In 1914, Bert Croft found by chance a seedling that was determinant and self-topping. It was a spontaneous mutation which occurred in a tomato plant in Florida which caused the plant “to grow in an orderly, compact, determinate fashion.” It was called the “Cooper Special” after C.D. Cooper from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, who marketed it. This mutation has benefited tomato-improvement programs ever since, and most tomato seeds available today, except for the heirloom varieties, are determinate.

Unfortunately, few of the tomato varieties cultivated in America before the Civil War have survived. The Oliver Kelly Farm in Elk River, administered by the Minnesota Historical Society, purports to grow several tomato varieties that date to the 1850’s. heirloom seeds from the latter part of the 19th century are available today through several different seed companies and organizations. (Please see article on USDA varieties in this issue of Off the Vine. Eds.) Seed Savers Exchange lists several thousand varieties, available to members, and Southern Exposure Seed Company in Earlysville, VA. documents the history of many important heirloom varieties. There are several other seed companies that carry heirloom varieties. Despite the efforts of SSE and others, large numbers of tomato varieties known to have existed during the 19th century have disappeared.

Bibliography

In the interest of space we won’t print the 11 references which accompany this article. If any of our subscribers have a particular interest in the original literature citations, Carolyn will be pleased to provide the bibliography to those folks

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Craig’s comments after reading the above for the first time in a long time

Wow, there is so much to absorb from this really entertaining, informative article. To start, I must say that the phrase at the very end - Bibliography - will remain unfulfilled. Carolyn didn’t share that list with me. I would highly recommend these books from Andrew Smith for additional info and an expansion on the above - The Tomato in America, by Andrew F Smith, published 1994, and Livingston and the Tomato, in which Andrew republished Alexander Livingston’s book with lots of additional information that follows Livingston’s text.

The main takeaway, to me, is that though we seem to have relocated quite a few of the Livingston varieties (Mike Dunton and I actually met and became friends over our individual efforts to find them), many of the very earliest varieties have indeed been lost - at least under the names they were originally called. Most varieties between 1850 and 1880 were not likely very refined, stable varieties, however, so the loss is probably not all that devastating. When I grew Early Large Red (from Oliver Kelly Farm), I feel as if I did indeed view what many of those earliest tomatoes looked like - flat, convoluted, corrugated, pleated, folded, partially hollow - and not particularly appealing!

Inside front cover of Livingston and the Tomato

So much happening - and poised to happen! Growing Epic Tomatoes - New York Times article - peppers and eggplant seeds in the flats!

Let the 2022 garden begin! Peppers, eggplants, some flowers seeded on Feb 18

Oh well, things were (relatively) slow for the last month and a half….aside from fulfilling a load of seed requests, being really active on my blog, cataloging seeds from my dwarf tomato project participants, doing some great Zooms with various garden groups.

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All of that was nothing compared with what lies just ahead. It is time to relaunch Growing Epic Tomatoes, the collaborative course between Joe Lamp’l and me that was such a wonderful experience last year. It will be different this time in that the entire 10 module course is complete! Last year our students had to adjust their pace to the real time progress of the course. This year, it will be all there, ready to be accessed at the pace of each student no matter where they are in their growing season. The Friday Office Hours will proceed as they did last year - weekly opportunities for the students to ask Joe and I their questions - live.

The key dates for the informational course webinars - free opportunities for prospective students to learn everything about the upcoming course and a chance to ask us questions - are as follows:

First - the course is now open for early enrollment at a reduced price - click this link (it is also on my website banner).

The webinar that explains the course - Five Keys to Growing Your Own Epic Tomatoes - is scheduled three times, to provide options for your convenience:

• Wednesday, February 23 at 3 PM EST

• Thursday, February 24 at 3 PM EST

• Friday, February 25 at 10 AM EST

You can choose which of these you wish to attend by signing up at this link.

Creating this course was an immense amount of fun. The feedback from our first year students has been overwhelmingly positive. Join one of the webinars and find out all about the course. I can confidently say that Growing Epic Tomatoes is the perfect way to make my book, Epic Tomatoes, come alive, strengthened by all of Joe’s gardening experiences that we’ve found blend so well together with my own. Though I am still so pleased with Epic Tomatoes and its information, it was written in 2012-2013 - I’ve learned so much more in the 9 years since publication, and all of that new knowledge is incorporated into the course.

A few uniquely wonderful features about this course:

• It is composed entirely of self-paced video modules, so students can watch us discuss the topics.

• It is entirely self-paced - each student can progress as their own season progresses.

• Course additions, bonus modules, and enhancements occur throughout the season, accessible to all students, including last year’s class.

• The weekly live Office Hours are also for all GET students, new and first year (and for all future) - there will be life time access to Joe and I to answer gardening questions throughout the season.

• All students have access to a community on the Circle platform, providing yet another way to pose questions, post pictures, and have meaningful interchange with Joe and I. I spend a lot of time in that community daily, ensuring all questions are answered - as well as providing updates from my own garden. It is free - it is NOT Facebook - and there are no ads or sales pitches.

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Speaking of Joe Lamp’l, our mutual good friend and fellow talented gardener, author and educator Margaret Roach (A Way to Garden) interviewed Joe and I about starting tomato seeds. The article is in the New York Times, and can be found here. Thanks, Margaret - the article is just lovely.

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Finally - the 2022 garden is officially begun with the planting of a selection of pepper, eggplant and flower seeds, shown in the top picture. This is a significant reduction of filled cells (30, compared with perhaps two flats of 50) in previous gardening seasons. My decisions to stop seedling sales and reduce garden size mean things will be far less hectic this spring. I am testing Metro Mix 830 as my seed starter. I will update varieties and progress in future blogs.

In the mean time, enjoy the republished Off The Vine article blogs, and my seed collection journey blogs. They will each appear weekly for months and months to come! Feel free to post comments against them!

Betts and I in Downtown Hendersonville this morning, while Sue shops!

My Tomato Collection Tour - part 9. Tomatoes 91-100.

It’s February 17, and the bulbs are saying hello (despite lots of sub-freezing nights lying ahead)

How I’ve enjoyed taking you all on a tour of my tomato collection. We’ve reached our first big milestone - the first 100, with this as the last installment on the way to that figure91.What are we waiting for? Here goes!

91. Whopper F1 hybrid - purchased from Parks Seeds in 1988 and grown that year. Whopper was actually the very first tomato I successfully grew from seed, in 1982, in our graduate student garden in West Lebanon, NH. I also grew it from seed for our first Pennsylvania garden, in Villanova, in 1984. In 1988, the first ripe fruit were picked in 73 days from transplant. I harvested 49 tomatoes at an average weight of 6.2 ounces, giving a plant yield of nearly 19 pounds. The flavor was very, very good, receiving an A-. This was the original “Whopper” - a few years after, Parks started selling “Whopper Improved”, which I never did acquire and grow.

92. Chalk’s Early Jewel - obtained from Edmund Brown, Missouri, SSE transaction, 1988 but not grown until 1991. I wasn’t all that impressed with the size or productivity; I expected a bit more than a small to small medium sized scarlet tomato that was prone to radial cracking. The history of this variety is that it was 10 years of selection work by James Chalk of Norristown, PA, after he crossed Livingston’s Perfection with Hubbard’s Curled Leaf in 1889. The variety was released by Moore and Simon of Philadelphia in 1900. It is a parent of the very popular (in its time) tomato from Stokes Seeds, Bonny Best, from 1908. I note that Mike Dunton got his sample of Chalk out of the USDA - I would like to give this a try again some day, from his seeds. It does illustrate that the favored tomato type of that time period was medium sized and scarlet red, with an emphasis on smoothness.

93. Hungarian Italian - purchased from Seeds Blum in 1988, and grown that year in our Berwyn PA garden. It was clearly determinate in growth habit and began fruit production in 78 days from transplant. We harvested but 24 tomatoes, which averaged 3.5 ounces. The total yield of 5 pounds was very low for a determinate paste type - I seem to recall it struggled with disease. The fruit were quite hollow and dry, and my flavor rating was B- (which in retrospect was generous). There seems to be no real history available for this variety.

Cover of the 1908 Stokes catalog - the introduction date and company for Bonny Best

94. Bonny Best - purchased from Pine Tree Garden Seeds in 1988. I never did get around to growing this historically important tomato. It is featured in the Stokes 1908 catalog as a real breakthrough, supposedly selected by George Middleton from a field of Chalk’s Early Jewel. From tasting notes, it seems to be for those who enjoy a more tart element to tomato flavor. I suppose this tomato deserves a spot in my garden some day, due to its historical significance.

95. Hugh’s - obtained from Archie Hook, SSE member from Indiana, in 1989 and grown that year (and many since). Everything about Hugh’s elicits a “WOW”. It is massively vigorous and tall, often setting the first cluster nearly 5 feet up the plant. It is also on the late side, first harvest coming in at 81 days. The real wow factor was the harvest of 35 tomatoes averaging 19.5 ounces - well more than one pound. The plant yield of 42.7 pounds was one of the highest of my experience. The bright yellow, oblate fruit have a delightfully mild, sweet flavor. I rated it an A-. I grew it last year with equivalent success. It isn’t quite Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom in total flavor balance and intensity, but is right up there with the very best yellow fruited tomatoes. Actually, it is highly rated no matter what the color of the tomatoes. As far as history, there is a possibility that Mr. Hook started with a large yellow variety, such as Yellow Colossal, and that Hugh’s is a superior selection of that variety. From Mr Hook’s general geographic area, the Isbell Company released a large, bright yellow tomato called Isbell’s Golden Colossal in 1915, and the Burgess Company Colossal Yellow in 1927. No matter what the history, this is a true gem of an heirloom tomato.

96. Georgia Streak - also obtained from Archie Hook and also grown in 1989. Sharing the garden with Hugh’s (described above), this vigorous indeterminate variety began to bear fruit in 68 days from transplant, which is surprisingly early for such a large tomato. I harvested 21 fruit at an average weight of one pound, giving a total plant yield of 16 pounds. The bright yellow tomatoes were swirled in and out with crimson red. I gave the flavor rating a B+, but it really is no different from the other big yellow/red tomatoes of my early gardening experiences, such as Ruby Gold, Pineapple or Mortgage Lifter, Pesta Strain. They do resemble a peach more than a tomato to my taste buds. Mr Hook received seeds from someone originally from the south. There really is no way to completely trace the history of the many named yellow/red bicolored types.

97. Square - obtained from Grace Seed company in 1988. This variety may well be cultivar VF-145, produced at UC Davis as a disease tolerant paste type that didn’t roll off the processing conveyor belt. I never did grow it, but feel like I didn’t really miss anything. I predict a typical rather dry, flavorless Roma type.

98. Tice’s Yellow Better Boy - obtained from California SSE member Jim Donovan in 1988. I grew it in 1989, and it resembled Golden Oxheart very much. The indeterminate vines began to ripen fruit in 67 days from transplant. I picked but 13 tomatoes, averaging 9.4 ounces, giving a plant yield of about 7.5 pounds, definitely on the low end of the yield spectrum. The flavor was OK - mild, sweet, B+ is the grade I gave, but far behind the similar looking Golden Oxheart. This tomato was smooth and round and a nice medium orange. There is no real history for this variety - all I know is that it is tomato #1522 in the SSE germplasm bank for tomatoes. Since I never grew it again, it didn’t make much of a lasting impression.

(99 and 100 and 101 were both used for saved seeds - Red Robin and Abraham Lincoln and Bisignano #2, respectively).

102. Pixie F1 hybrid - obtained from Burpee in 1988. I never did grow this variety, which, from reading on the web, were a hybrid form of a compact dwarf or microdwarf variety with small scarlet fruit. Burpee seems to have discontinued producing this hybrid in 2000

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This ends the first segment of the tour through my tomato varieties. We will pick up with #113 in the next blog - #103-#112 were all vial numbers used for saved seeds. Before we get into the second hundred, my next blog in this series will be an overall assessment of the first 100 - the key points, the can’t-live-without the varieties that are still important to my gardens to this day.

Our back yard flower garden. Ravaged by winter, we will see things popping up very soon!

Off The Vine Volume 1, Number 2 - first article - "C and C's Corner"

Page 1 of Off The Vine, Volume 1, number 2

Volume 1, Issue #2 is when we started a regular article in each newsletter called “C and C’s Corner” (for Carolyn and Craig, of course). We laid out the issue contents and also addressed some feedback and comments from prior issues. It surprises me, in reading these newsletters, how much ground we covered, and how much we packed in to each issue. This will be a fun and informative set of articles for you all to read (me too!)

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C&C’s Corner

(written by Carolyn with input from me, likely via some phone calls)

What a wonderful surprise to find so many folks interested enough in heirloom tomatoes to subscribe to our Off the Vine! As of mid-August we have about 150 subscribers. Since it should be fairly obvious that we have no budget for advertising, we thing that’s great. About 75% of you are SSE members and the rest of you responded after seeing Craig’s article in The Carolina Gardener, Carolyn’s article in a lovely new magazine called The American Cottage Gardener, the article in the Heritage Seed Magazine (Canada), both of our articles in The Tomato Club Newsletter (unfortunately no longer in business), or the announcement in Southern Exposure Exchange Seed Catalog. We’d like to have enough subscribers to be able to print the newsletter instead of xeroxing, but not too many such that we can’t handle it. We now have enough money to get Off the Vine computer typeset near Carolyn’s tomato patch and someone has offered to attempt the address labels, in the future, by computer. Thank Heavens for both of those development since Carolyn’s computer skills are limited to very basic WordPerfect for Windows!

It’s become clear from your letters that many of you are “new” to the fun of growing heirloom tomatoes and are asking for guidance relative to good varieties to grow, reassurance about saving your own seed, knowing how to tell when a seed sample is “pure”, how to hybridize tomatoes, what varieties do best where and all sorts of other topics. We hear you and will try to oblige. We expect our third issue to be out in December and have already decided on most of the articles. Again, we encourage you to let us know what you want to know and we encourage any of you who might wish to write an article to discuss it with us first to see if it “fits” with what we have in mind for Off the Vine. No, we don’t pay for articles and we don’t give free subscriptions; we want to remain on a friendly, low-key basis and have this newsletter be written by all of as equals in the name of THE TOMATO.

Let’s discuss the contents of this issue first, and then discuss the responses received to the question about reoffering of seeds through SSE, which was posed in the first issue. Our featured “tomato” person for this issue is Dr. Charles Rick of the University of California at Davis. His name will be new to many of you, but after reading Craig’s article about him I think it will be quite clear why we want you to know about him. We just hope, that when we reach our 80’s, we will still be going into the office every day as does Dr. Rick. Andrew F. Smith (aka Andy) is the author of a brief summary article on the early history of the tomato. Andy runs an educational consulting company and has written several books on various topics. I know many of you will be interested in his new book entitled The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture and Cookery, which will be available from the University of South Carolina Press this October. Seven year in the writing, this informative book can be ordered from the Press (1-800-768-2500 toll free). The ISBN number is 1-57003-000-6, and the price is $24.95 plus $3.50 for shipping. Carolyn has seen part of the chapter dealing with the purported medicinal qualities of the tomato and enjoyed and learned from it immensely. Andy has already started work on the sequel which will start with the period after the Civil War. Craig has written an article on the historically important varieties we obtained from the ISDA through the PC:GRIN program. Since some of these varieties were previously thought to have been extinct, and so stated in Craig’s article on historic varieties in Vol.I#1, we are both terrifically excited about this summer’s growouts. Since Carolyn’s garden is about one month behind Craig’s garden, we won’t have the final observations for you until next issue. As promised in the last issue Carolyn has written an article on her current favorites. This article was adapted and expanded from one that she wrote for the Tomato Club Newsletter which, unfortunately, is no longer being published. Many of the varieties cited are available only through SSE and that might pose a problem for some of our non-SSE members. Since future issues, we’re sure, will also mention varieties only available through SSE, we’ll have to give some thought to this problem. We would encourage any of you who have strong feelings about the preservation of heirloom fruits and vegetables to join SSE. An informational brochure is available for $1 (include SASE); membership is $25/year (Seed Savers Exchange, 3076 North Winn Road, Decorah, IA 52101). There are also commercial sources for some of the varieties to be mentioned and we will give you a source list in the next issue.

In our first issue we discussed the fact that very few people were reoffering in the SSE Annual seeds that they had acquired from listed SSE members and that if that trend continued only a few listed SSE members would be preserving the bulk of heirloom varieties … not a good situation. A word of explanation to our non-SSE subscribers about the structure of SSE would be in order. All members of SSE pay $25 per year. About 1000 members elect to list and offer seeds through the Annual; they are called listed Members. About 8000 members do not offer seeds and they are called unlisted members. Currently, for tomatoes, listed members can order from each other for 50 cents per pack (bargain of the century!) and unlisted members can order from listed members for $1 per pack (bargain of the century!). In our experience the bulk of requests, obviously, come from unlisted members who, for a variety of reasons are not reoffering the seed and becoming listed members. Many seem to be using the Annual simply as a seed catalog and have no intention of becoming listed members. To those of us germinating, transplanting, planting, fertilizing, weeding, picking, fermenting seed and spending hours filling requests this is not a good situation. But there are many reasons why someone might not reoffer seed. We received several letters in response to our question and would like to share some of the responses with you.

Many folks said that they had not even considered reoffering seeds, didn’t realize it was a problem and planned to do so in the future. John Chambers of CA was equally forthright in stating that he didn’t have the time to do it. He’s retired from teaching, is active as a judge in the Odyssey of the Mind program, has extensive gardens and raises several thousand irises each year as a part of his breeding program. Denise Rifenbert of NY echoed a common theme in stating that she was concerned about purity of seed that she might send out. (We’ll address this issue soon. Eds.) Denise also mentioned that she DOES reoffer extra seeds in packets to others, so that, in a way they do get reoffered. Beth Crowder of NM suggested that it might make sense for Off the Vine readers to designate certain varieties as the ones to save in a certain year … an interesting idea. Summarizing the major themes it appears that the following are barriers to reoffering seed: 1) Not knowing about the option of reoffering, 2) Not realizing the importance of reoffering, 3) Concern about the isolation distances, 4) Concern about the purity of seed, 5) Not knowing how much seed to save and 6) Concern about seed isolation techniques. Numbers 1 and 2 might be addressed by a discussion in the SSE Annual; I (CJM) have written a letter to SSE asking that this be considered. Numbers 4 and 5 we can address in an upcoming article and #6 was addressed in our first issue.

Let me share with you some of the thoughts others had about increasing the reoffer rate. Jeff Fleming of MI was one of several who suggested that unlisted members pay a price for seeds considerably higher than that of listed members, thus increasing the incentive to be a listed member. This has been brought to the attention of SSE in the past by others. So far the price differential has remained the same; no doubt there is a reluctance to possibly discourage new and renewing memberships. It is our understanding that the pricing structure is currently under review. Chuck Wyatt of MD, a retired military man, suggested that instructions for seed saving be included in packets of seed sent out. That is certainly “doable”: What do you think? Would it help?

I (CJM) must confess that there was one response I favored. I won’t use the gentleman’s name, because I couldn’t reach him on the phone to obtain permission. In addition to starting that he “devoured” our first issue, and expressing concern about determining purity of saved seed, he went on to say that I sounded, “incidentally like my kind of wild woman, although you are ever so slightly more substantial than my wife of X years. If she ever dumps me (not likely), I’ll look you up.” I was flattered! His optimism in sending money for several years worth of Off the Vine was both encouraging and daunting at the same time!

Our NEXT QUESTION FOR YOU TO RESPOND TO deals with sharing with OTV readers WHAT your favorite heirloom tomatoes are and WHY they are your favorites. Lots of folks would like some guidance in this area of pickling good ones and you, the growers, are the logical ones to respond. Some readers have suggested doing this by geographic area, but I don’t think we have a large enough base to make that feasible at this time. So, write to Carolyn (address at the end of this article) and let us know what your FAVORITE LARGE PINK AND LARGE RED heirloom tomatoes are, why they are favorites and where seed can be obtained. We’ll get around to the other colors/shapes in a future issue. Since Carolyn’s phone bill is going out of sight (no, the tomato calls are not factored out and charged to OTV), we will feel free t publish what you write unless you state otherwise. Remember we want to make this newsletter interactive so YOUR RESPONSES ARE CRITICAL TO OUR GOAL OF SUBSCRIBER INVOLVEMENT!

Lastly, we’d like to give you an update on our summer 1994 growouts as of mid-August. Thus Craig has seen most, but not all of his varieties and Carolyn’s are just starting to ripen. Carolyn doesn’t plant out until after Memorial Day because of the inability to protect so many plants from frost and indeed, this year, there was a killing frost and indeed, this year, there was a killing frost on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. She is growing 152 varieties this year, and 33 kinds of peppers. But, practically nothing else got planted because of her encounter with three kidney stones, blockage and concerns about kidney failure. She underwent Lithotripsy (bursting up the stones with directed ultrasound) on an outpatient basis, and had an uneventful recovery. But the whole problem started in early May, the stones weren’t confirmed until after several ER visits in early June and lithotripsy was done at the earliest possible date on June 23. Nevertheless, crawling along the rows to plant, sometimes in less than good shape, she got them all in. on the other hand there were no carrots, beets beans, squash or anything else. Actually all she has are tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and melons. Oh well, there’s always next year. The growing season for her has been great, no irrigation needed since early June, and the “big ones” are turning now. of course prime interest is being paid to the USDA varieties mentioned elsewhere, but there are many new varieties she’s obtained from Latvia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia through contacts at work. She’ll have to defer discussion of her heirlooms until the next issue.

A report on Craig’s garden will be found in a separate article in this issue.

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Craig’s comments on reading the above

Wow! There is a lot of information packed into the introduction column that Carolyn penned. It is so - well, HER - Carolyn’s personality, approach, points of view are never in doubt when one reads her writing. I was surprised to be reminded of the number of our subscribers (not bad at all!). I was surprised to be reminded of how “out there” each of us already were, in publications, seed catalogs, etc. I think that I have all of the the issues of Bob Ambrose’s Tomato Club newsletter somewhere, and may consider reproducing them in future blogs, once the Off The Vine articles are all posted.

I found it all really interesting. What a treat to be reading through these again! For those of you who subscribed, I hope you are enjoying these as well. For those who never heard of Off The Vine, or were hoping to get to read them some day - enjoy! And please, don’t pay much attention to addresses and costs of things above (as something that would be accurate today!).

Color appearing this morning - February 17 - and these crocus were not planted by us. I think that the squirrels and birds have been doing some of their own gardening in our yard.

I will be speaking at an event in Marion, NC on March 12 - see below for details

A local event! Be sure to register and join us on March 12

I know, I know - I’ve quit the road. Well, it turns out I’ve quit the road for getting onto planes and traveling to events. But this great opportunity arose, a chance to be among gardeners again, and share my tomato stories, an hour or so from my home - in Marion, NC. And so I will be there, for an event on March 12 (really! I messed up the day in my first shot at this blog - the poster above is correct!)- my tomato talk will be at 10:30. I will have my books, and some seeds.

After two years of Zooming and Instagram Live-ing, this will be a really nice change for me, the opportunity to share knowledge with gardeners, in person!

You can find out more here

And register here

For those in western NC or other intrepid souls from elsewhere that wish to make the sojourn…I hope to see you there!

Lake Julia, DuPont Forest, on February 12

My tomato collection tour - part 8. Tomatoes 81-90

A specimen of Polish, described below, tomato #89 in my collection

Tomato #100 from my collection is in sight! Let’s continue the trip through my seed numbers, vials and packets. Going down memory lane sure is interesting for me - hope it is for you as well.

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Tomato 81 -Bisignano #2 - This is one of the stars of my tomato collection, obtained by SSE member Elaine Reidy of Massachusetts in 1988. She claims that the seeds came from a Mr. Bisignano, a finalist in the Victory Garden TV contest of 1984 (a show I used to watch often - Jim Crockett’s books were a foundation of my early garden library). They are supposedly from Italy in the 1950s. It was a star in my 1988 garden, with first ripe fruit in 67 days, a total harvest of 45 tomatoes averaging half a pound. The plant produced 23 pounds and the flavor was really excellent. A unique aspect is that the fruit shape varies from oblate/beefsteak to heart/plum, on the same plant. I love this one so much it was featured in my book, Epic Tomatoes. This is a tomato that although balanced in flavor allows the tartness to show. It’s perfect for slicing and eating as well as cooking/sauces.

Tomato 82 - Egg - This not particularly creatively named tomato was obtained from Gleckler in 1988 but I never did get around to growing it. It is a variety they carried since the late 1950s. The Gleckler catalog stated “Something altogether different than the ordinary tomato. An extremely heavy fruit setter, the size and shape of a medium-size chicken egg, and having only a very tiny stem scar. Fruits possess extremely high solids of blood-red color, with a very sweet delicious flavor. Maturity is mid-season, but bearing and ripening over a very long period. The fruits resist both cracking and sunburn, almost completely. This strain is one of the longest keeping tomatoes after ripe that we have ever seen. Medium size, indeterminate vines with quite heavy foliage. The old saying, "good thing come in small packages," certainly applies to this tomato.”

Tomato 83 - Winsall - This historic tomato has elevated itself in relevance to my hobby. It is a variety that was released by the Henderson Seed Company in 1924 with the name “Number 400”, with a contest launched to give it a name. It was supposedly a selection from their 1890s release Ponderosa (itself released as “Number 400” prior to a customer providing the eventual name). It is a curious name that I think would be more appropriate as “Wins All”, but it was their decision. When we sold seedlings in the late 1990s in Raleigh, it was one of the varieties we carried. An elderly gentleman was transfixed when he noted the plant tag, telling us that he thought the tomato was long gone, not having seen it since he was very young and gardening with his father. He came back to obtain seedlings from us for several years. I told this story at the outset of the 2016 taped Growing a Greener World episode, by Joe Lamp’l, and through that, I am often asked for seeds. I first grew it in 1993 and really enjoyed it - not my favorite regular leaf pink type (that would be Dester), but certainly better in flavor and performance than German Johnson. I grew it last year in a straw bale so it could be featured in the tomato course Growing Epic Tomatoes. It did just wonderfully, with a great yield of one pound average smooth oblate pink fruit - I rated it a solid 7.5.

Tomato 84 - Hunt Family Favorite - Obtained from SSE member Edmund Brown of Missouri in 1988, alas, I’ve never gotten to experience the true Hunt Family Favorite, described as a large pink tomato. I grew it in 1989, and though obviously crossed (it was an oval scarlet tomato), it was a garden standout. First fruit coming in at 57 days, the plant produced 57 tomatoes with an average weight of half pound - 29 pounds from that one plant, and the flavor was really full and special, receiving an A. I never did return to it again, and didn’t resume my search for the authentic pink strain. It supposedly dates to the Hunt family of Missouri in the early 1900s.

Tomato 85 - Valiant - I was sent this historic, early US commercial variety by Florida SSE member Gary Staley in 1988. Alas, I never did grow it. It is a Stokes Seed Company 1937 introduction. From that catalog description it is a determinate variety with relatively sparse foliage and maturity in season with Earliana. It is noted for being quite solid, nearly round, scarlet in color and averaging 6 ounces. It clearly was bred to be a commercially farmed variety to supply the tomato industry.

Tomato 86 - Purple Smudge - This rather weird-o tomato, which I never grew out, also came from Gary Staley. The name came from a phenomenon similar to what we see in the recent anthocyanin-rich varieties, the presence of a purplish pigment on the shoulders of fruit exposed to the sun. The seed was originally obtained from USDA germplasm, into which it was donated in 1962. The parentage is quite complex, but the purple shoulder smudge apparently came from one of the parents, a Lyco. Peruvianum - a different species of the tomato.

Tomato 87 - Golden Oxheart - The third of the Gary Staley tomatoes sent to me in 1988, this was actually a tomato I really enjoyed in my early tomato gardening. I grew it in 1989, and the first tomatoes were harvested in 77 days. The plant was on the compact side, and I picked 27 tomatoes at an average weight of 9 ounces, giving a plant yield of 15 pounds. I enjoyed the full, balanced flavor and rated it an A. The fruits were typically smooth and round. Gary got the seeds from Fax Stinnett of Oklahoma in 1982. I didn’t see a heart-shaped nature in the fruit, and the plant didn’t have the weepy foliage characteristic of heart shaped varieties. The closest tomato in color and shape of my knowledge is the Jubilee/Sunray types. No matter, the tomato was delicious. Writing this reminds me to seek it out again so that I can experience it again. The last time it was in my garden was 1993, and it is doubtful nearly 30 year old seed will germinate.

Tomato 88 - Stone - This tomato was also sent to me by Edmund Brown. Stone is a historic variety, released by the Livingston Seed Company in 1889. I didn’t get to grow it until 1991. I recall an indeterminate plant with radial-crack-prone scarlet fruit that were on the small side - 3-4 ounces. My expectations of Stone. Victory Seeds reports tomatoes in the 6-8 ounce range from seed I sent Mike - it is time to get some seed back and give it another try. Another source would be the USDA germplasm collection, which does carry a sample. I have no recollection of the flavor from that 1991 attempt.

Tomato 89 - Polish - Here is a true superstar tomato. This really is about as good as a tomato can be, and I’ve always considered this to be as flavorful as Brandywine, but with a more consistent performance year to year. I requested the variety from Bill in 1989 and grew it in that year’s garden in Pennsylvania - and many others in between, in Raleigh - and the last two years here in Hendersonville. First, the 1989 performance data…first fruit harvested in 73 days, with 23 tomatoes at an average weight just under one pound, nearly 23 pounds from the plant with a solid A in flavor. A few things set Polish apart. When the first true leaves emerge, they are the most distinct, rounded, potato leaf form I’ve seen. It is such a happy, vigorous seedling. The variety seems to be happy with a range of conditions, excelling in all of my gardens. Bill obtained a seedling of this variety from a roadside stand in Trenton, New Jersey. The seeds came from Agnes Lynn of Conyngham, Pennsylvania, and was said to have originated in Poland. Though a pink tomato (red flesh, clear skin), I actually found it listed in the “red” section of the SSE yearbook. Many gardeners use the terms “red” and “pink” incorrectly, and I am convinced different people see those two colors quite differently. As for the flavor…it has it all - it has everything - tartness, sweetness, intensity, complexity, as well as the most enticing juicy texture.

Tomato 90 - Old Brooks - This was another Edmund Brown sourced seed in 1988. I have some data on my 1989 grow out of the variety in my West Chester, PA garden. Producing first fruit in 69 days, I harvested 19 tomatoes at an average weight of 11 ounces. The 12.7 pound plant yield is on the low side, and I recall this being quite a small plant. The scarlet oblate tomatoes did have a nice, balanced flavor and received an A-. It seems to have entered the SSE in 1984 by a member with the name code MS FO C.

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Some real favorites emerged from this group. Only a few went ungrown. I also learned about the possibility of receiving crossed or incorrect seeds, with my result from Hunt Family Favorite. But….Polish! I can’t imagine a summer going by without this gem in my garden. Thanks, Bill Ellis!

The next set, which will take us to Tomato #100 (actually it will take us to #102, because a few numbers in this set were used for saved seed), has a few really important ones, such as Whopper hybrid, the historic Chalk’s Early Jewel, and the spectacular yellow monster Hugh’s.

Once I reach that century mark, I will take a pause and do a highlight post to summarize my feelings about reviewing the first 100 tomatoes of my now out-of-control, huge, seed collection.

Marlin and Betts resting after their hike at DuPont