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

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

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

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Riesentraube Wine

by William Woys Weaver

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tomato Wine: Weaver’s Method

1 gallon (4 liters) tomato juice

3 lbs. (1 ½ kg) white granulated sugar

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

1 teaspoon dry yeast

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

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

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

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

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

Mid May Garden Update, Part 2 - Focus on the Tomatoes

Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet, on May 21

Now, on to my favorite crop - the tomatoes! I am growing far less than last year, but they will be no less interesting.

The following are indeterminate varieties planted in strawbales, two plants to a bale.

Cherokee Chocolate (2 plants) - I used lot T16-119 - I planted 2 because I am going to grow them very differently. One plant will be grown in a cage and only minimally pruned, the other grown allowing just one sucker develop. Fruit size, yield, fruit set, plant health will be compared. I am growing this because it is a can’t-do-without variety for us. By the way - T16-119 was grown from T11-13 - which was from T96-3 - which was grown from T95-47, the chocolate tomato that started this variety.

Cherokee Purple - I used lot T16-104 - Another can’t-do-without variety. T16-104 is from T02-3, which is from T91-27, which is from #287 - the seed sent to me by JD Green as an unnamed variety in 1990.

Cherokee Green - I used lot T20-8 - and, yes, can’t do without this one either! T20-8 if from T19-17, which is from T18-7, which was from a packet from Johnny’s Selected seeds - I was the source to Johnny’s.

Glory F1 hybrid - Last year I crossed pollen from Dester onto a flower of Dwarf Gloria’s Treat - this is the hybrid that was created. I have high hopes - and expect slightly heart shaped pink fruit. My friend Marsha in Florida grew it and reported it to be absolutely delicious - and, yes, pink and slightly heart shaped and large!

Lucky Cross - I used lot T21-24. I love this variety and don’t wish to do without it. T21-24 is from T20-4, which is from T19-10, which is from T11-14, 19 or 21 - all of which are from 2002 saved seed. This variety has a very complex genealogy!

Polish - I planted lot T20-7. This spectacular tomato is one that it is the very top tier of my collection. T20-7 is from T18-14, which is from T12-21, which is from T01-45, which is from T90-8, which is from #89 - the sample sent to me by Bill Ellis as a SSE transaction.

Estler’s Mortgage Lifter - Since the seed from the SSE storage gave an apparently incorrect variety, I am going with a seed sample from SSE member Neil Lockhart. My hopes is for a huge pink tomato, in the 2 lb range.

Captain Lucky - I’ve wanted to grow this Millard Murdock’s selection from Lucky Cross for some time. It is potato leaf, and should produce green fleshed tomatoes with swirls of other colors.

Yellow family heirloom - this was sent to me by Joann Jacobs of Wisconsin last year. It is regular leaf - aside from that, it is one of this year’s mysteries!

Mary’s heirloom - Supposedly a very old family heirloom from West Virginia, sent to me by Harry Moran. Another mystery! Gorgeous regular leaf plant so far.

JD Special C-Tex, potato leaf variant - sent to me by Randy Dowdy of Texas in 2020, I am finally getting around to test this. I love JD Special C Tex - a big Cherokee Purple type, but he claims this is same fruit on a potato leaf plant. We shall see!

Blue’s Bling X Little Lucky, potato leaf, variegated F2 selection - This is a selection from the hybrid I grew out last year and loved. There are all sorts of color possibilities and I wanted to grow one each of a variegated potato leaf and regular leaf plants (see below). Fruit size should be from medium to large, and round to oblate.

Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom regular leaf F2 selection - This hybrid I created was the best tasting tomato in my garden last year. I am growing out a regular leaf and a potato leaf F2 selection. All sorts of colors are possible! Fruit size should be large and oblate. Pink, red, chocolate, purple, shades of yellow are all possible.

Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom potato leaf F2 selection - see above

Blue’s Bling X Little Lucky, regular leaf, variegated F2 selection - see above

Blue’s Bling X Polish, potato leaf, variegated F2 selection - An F2 selection from another of my recent hybrids. I wanted to grow out a potato leaf variegated selection - we shall see what the fruit color is like. I expect we will see pink or purple tomatoes, of large size and oblate shape.

German heirloom - This was sent to me by a gardener from Indiana in 2017 and I am finally getting to grow it. It is regular leaf. Of course, I love mysteries - and my garden will be full of them this year!

World War II - This was sent to me by Geny Laroche of New Hampshire in 2020. I am finally getting to it, and it is regular leaf.

McCutcheon - my friend Adam Kirk gave me seed earlier this year - it is a West Virginia heirloom that should have very large fruit. It is regular leaf.

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The following are dwarf varieties, and a few determinate varieties, in 5 gallon grow bags

Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry X Blue’s Bling F2 variegated selection - This whole section contains F2 dwarf selections from recent hybrids. I can’t wait to see what sort of tomatoes are produced on all of these. For this one, the fruit color is likely purple, but size, shape and antho coverage - and flavor - have many possibilities.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum F2 regular leaf selection - See above. Wide color variations are possible.

Lucky Cross X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum F2 regular leaf selection - See above - another with wide color possibilities.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum F2 potato leaf selection - see above.

Coastal Pride - sent to me by my garden friend Mike, he really likes this orange fruited dwarf - it is not one of the Dwarf Tomato Project creations. I’ll look forward to seeing and tasting this! This variety was bred in Canada by the McMurrays.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Speckled Heart F2 regular leaf selection - see above. All offspring should have stripes, and heart shapes are likely too.

Blazey family selection orange fruit F4 regular yellow leaf selection - Blazey was an odd cross I did between Honor Bright and Dwarf Blazing Beauty. I am hoping for good tasting orange tomatoes on a yellow foliaged plant.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum F2 potato leaf selection - see above

Blazey family selection orange fruit F4 potato leaf selection - see the Blazey entry, above

Don’s Double Delight X Dwarf Mocha’s Plum F2 potato leaf selection - all sorts of colors, and stripes, are possible with this one.

Dwarf Irma’s Highland Cherry pre-release selection - This is from the Teensy family - Mexico Midget X Summertime Green, with Dwarf Eagle Smiley the first release. This should be the next one, and will have tasty chocolate cherry tomatoes.

Cancelmo Family Heirloom X Dwarf Moby’s Cherry F2 selection - Cross a big pink heart with a dwarf yellow cherry and all sorts of things are possible!

Fuzzy X Cherokee Purple F3 purple fruited fuzzy leaf selection - I was delighted to find purple tomatoes on a fuzzy plant - let’s see if it continues.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom X Dwarf Speckled Heart F2 regular leaf selection - see above - this is a second plant from this particular cross.

Fuzzy X Cherokee Purple F3 pink fruited fuzzy leaf selection - Seed for this was from a quite large pink tasty tomato on a fuzzy plant. Let’s see what I get!

Lucky Cross X Dwarf Buddy’s Heart F2 potato leaf selection - see above - all sorts of colors possible, and heart shape too.

Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet -This was given to me as a plant at my Marion NC speaking event by my TN friend Eddie Lambert. The plant is showing the characteristic bright chartreuse leaves and there are already a few small tomatoes.

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The following are indeterminate tomatoes in 5 gallon grow bags

Tennessee Surprise - This is also a plant given to me by Eddie. The tomatoes should be large and orange.

Ribbed Mystery Variety - This is yet another plant given to me by Eddie and I’ve no idea what it will produce.

Yellow Fruity - Fruity Red is a tasty red cherry tomato - this is a yellow one out of the same breeding work by Tim Peters.

Orange Fruity - This is the orange fruited specimen from the Fruity family.

Egg Yolk, potato leaf - “Wild Thing” - seed sent to me by Walter Roos of Georgia this winter.

Sun Gold F1 hybrid - Seed from Johnny’s - how could I NOT grow it!

Suzy’s Wild Red - This is from seed sent to me by Allan Robins of Georgia. I am going to compare it to Mexico midget.

Suzy family F4 selection potato leaf indeterminate fuzzy fruit - This family was created when I crossed Peach Blow Sutton with Dwarf Sweet Sue, with the goal of getting dwarfs with fuzzy fruit. A friend sent me this last year, but it seems that the plants are indeterminate, not dwarf. I am growing out one potato leaf example.

Egg Yolk, red fruit - Also from Walter Roos of Georgia.

Suzy’s Wild Orange - Also sent to me by Allan Robins, this is an orange or yellow fruited variant of Suzy’s Wild Red. We shall see.

Egg Yolk - Not only is it a favorite of ours, but I need fresh seeds.

Mexico Midget - A regular in all of our gardens, the perfect snacking tomato morsel.

Mortgage Lifter, Halladay’s - This and the one below are part of an Epsom Salt application mini-project. Grown from 2013 saved seeds, this one will not get regular Epsom Salts.

Mortgage Lifter, Mullens - And this one will - also grown from 2013 saved seeds. What will the Epsom Salts applied weekly to this plant do?

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I also have seedlings of a variegated microdwarf from a cross I made between one of Dan Follett’s Micros and Cherokee Purple. The fruit were red last year. I am going to squeeze some into my raised bed once the garlic is harvested, in a few weeks. Finally, a red fruited multiflora Micro that my friend Justin sent me.

All in all, total number of tomatoes planted - 51, with up to half a dozen of the micros.

This is significantly down from last year’s 109 plants - just as planned! And I am sure some of you didn’t believe I could do it!

Dwarf Irma’s Highland Cherry, on May 21

My Tomato Collection Tour - Part 17. Tomatoes #211-#220

Straw bale planted tomatoes as of May 21 - Cherokee Purple and Cherokee Green

I’ve decided that once I hit tomato #250, I will take a summer break. The weekly Off The Vine republish posts will continue, and regular garden update blogs will occur too. I will resume the seed collection tour once the garden is complete. This entry won’t be a particularly fascinating set of tomatoes. It will be just a temporary lull, as some heavy hitters will show up in the next entry.

Tomato #211 - LIllian’s Large Yellow #2 - sent to me in a second envelope by Robert Richardson in 1989. I grew it in 1990, and it grew exactly like Lillian Large Red Kansas Paste.

Tomato #212 - Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom #1 - also sent to me by Robert Richardson in 1989. - This grew exactly like Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - the large fruited bright yellow with potato leaf foliage.

Tomato #213 - Abraham Lincoln - sent to me by Jean Crumpler in 1990. I grew it in 1990, and it was yet another disappointment - a semi determinate, medium sized round prolific red that was nothing like the description of the variety when it was released in 1923.

Tomato #214 - Ole - also sent to me by Jean Crumpler in 1990. I never did grow it. I can’t find anything about this variety aside from a listing in the Seed Savers Exchange, describing it as a red, slightly blocky 6-12 ounce tomato. It does seem to be available if I ever with to acquire the seeds and finally grow it!

Tomato #215 - Jackpot - from Ted Telsch, 1990. I didn’t grow it. It may be a no longer available hybrid - I could find nothing about it.

Tomato #216 - Macero II - purchased from Harris Seeds in 1990. I grew it in 1990, and it was essentially just like a typical Roma type - Red, medium plum, determinate, prolific - and bland. I suspect this was a Harris produced variety as an improvement on Roma.

Tomato #217 - New Hampshire Red - sent to me by B. George in 1990. I never did get around to growing it. Very obscure, couldn’t find a bit of information.

Tomato #218 - Fireball - from Barney Laman, CA, 1990 (he of Mexico Midget fame). I grew this in 1986, and was not impressed - I didn’t grow the seeds from Barney. Refer back to my very early tomato collection blogs.

Tomato #219 - Beefmaster - also from Barney in 1990 - I never did grow it. It is a large fruited scarlet red hybrid that still could be found in some catalogs.

Tomato #220 - Gurney Hy-Top F2 - yet another from Barney in 1990. I never did grow it. Odd for Gurney to release an F2 generation. Seems no longer available - suspect it was a medium red tomato, perhaps a determinate.

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So - what tomatoes from the above set are must-grows? Aside from the extra Lillian’s samples sent to me, there’s nothing worth recommending here, and I didn’t even grow many of them. At this point, I was involved in some garden magazine seed swaps, and people were sending me tomato seeds that I didn’t request - but that they clearly thought highly of.

We’ve had this since 2020 - just bring it into the garage in the fall, loses its foliage, water just occasionally - put it out in spring, Osmocote the heck out of it - and voila!

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

Marlin keeping an eye on things, mid May 2022

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

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

 by Craig

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Betts keeping an eye on things, too!

A Deeper Dive into my 2022 garden choices - Part 1. Peppers and Eggplants

Rear view of the main garden, May 16

One significant improvement I hope to realize in this year’s garden is improved results with two of our favorite crops, peppers and eggplants. In our first two Hendersonville gardens, I tucked them into the gravel driveway area in grow bags. The hours of sun were not optimal, and though I had reasonable yields, it was not what I hoped for. In addition, getting ripe fruit suitable for seed saving didn’t go all that well. The bell peppers tended to rot or suffer insect damage, and the eggplants didn’t make it to the golden stage of over-ripeness best for seed saving.

The major change this season is to use strawbales for most of the peppers and eggplants, augmented by plants in grow bags sitting in front of the bales. Better staking, more sun, and the amazing environment of the straw bales should provide far more success. We shall see!

Bell peppers in straw bales, on May 17

The following peppers are planted in straw bales - all planted on May 6.

Orange Bell - this is a selection of the Orange Bell I’ve grown for many years, acquiring it in a SSE transaction. My garden friend Darrel Jones selected for various improvements. It is a wonderful pepper, one of my favorites - thick walled blocky medium green bells that ripen a rich orange color, at which time it gets very sweet.

Chocolate Bell - This is a pretty stable selection from a Stokes hybrid - called Chocolate Bell - offered only briefly nearly 20 years ago. The original hybrid, no longer available, was quite unique - a big blocky thick walled bell that goes from deep green to chocolate brown, and very sweet at that stage. Last year, it was excellent - interestingly, the interior wall is deep crimson despite the outer appearance ripening to deep chocolate brown.

White Gold - This, and the next three, are advanced selections from my dehybridization efforts from Islander. I think that all are quite stable. White Gold is a slightly elongated bell, with an unusual color progression - cream to golden yellow.

Carolina Amethyst - This selection is released and available here and there. This selection mimics the hybrid - color progression cream to a gorgeous lavender, finally ending up medium red.

Fire Opal - This is my favorite of the four selections, a slightly elongated bell that starts cream, then to lavender - finally to golden yellow.

Royal Purple - This last of the Islander selections is the most blocky shaped bell - it starts out pale chartreuse green, then turns black purple, finally ending up a deep crimson red.

Shishito - We ended up purchasing these from a local farmers market all summer long. It seemed appropriate to grow them, since they are a very prolific plant. I don’t find them the best flavored, but we do like to brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss them on the grill until they are blistered with black patches and soft.

Padron - Unlike the very mild Shishito, Padron can throw some real spicy specimens, providing quite a burn in the mouth. We also enjoy grilling them. Like Shishito, they are very prolific.

The following peppers are in 5 gallon grow bags, planted May 14. The grow bags are situated in front of the straw bales, one bag per bale.

Pinata - We LOVE this unusual Jalapeno type, bred by the Chile Institute in New Mexico. The plant is super prolific - the peppers go from cream, to yellow, to orange, to red, with all four colors on the plant at various times of the season. They are utterly Jalapenos in heat, use and flavor.

Shishito - We decided to do for two plants - one in the bale, on in a grow bag. I think we will have plenty!

Eggplant Mardi Gras in a straw bale as of May 17

The following eggplants were planted in straw bales on May 6.

Skinny Twilight - This, Twilight Lightning and Midnight Lightning are all my selections from the Johnny’s hybrid Orient Express. Skinny Twilight is the same shape - a long, slender Asian type - with medium purple skin and pale greenish flesh. It is very prolific.

Twilight Lightning - This selection is very slender, very productive and is a pale lavender with white streaks. The white flesh is sweet and has few seeds.

Mardi Gras - This unique variety is my selection from a bee-made cross between the white eggplant Casper and another variety. I’ve worked on it for many years and believe it to be stable. The teardrop shape fruit are pale green, with an unusual pale lavender blush over the green. The flesh is quite green.

Midnight Lightning - This is the selection most like Orient Express. The plant is very pretty, with significant purplish shading. The fruit are black purple, slender and prolific, with pale green flesh. This plant is from 2021 saved seeds.

The following eggplants were planted in 5 gallon grow bags on May 14.

Midnight Lightning - See above - this plant is from 2019 saved seed.

Mardi Gras - see above.

Green Ghost - This is another selection from the unexpected cross that yielded Mardi Gras. The plentiful eggplants have skin of pale green and are quite slender in shape, with pale green flesh.

All in all, that makes 10 peppers and 7 eggplants, which should do the trick for our cooking needs.

Right hand column - peppers and eggplants, bales and bags - guarded by Marlin - on May 17

Mid-May Garden Update

State of part of the garden after lots of planting, on May 14.

Lots is planted, and lots is growing! The garden at our Hendersonville home is a patchwork, with fun to be had all over the yard. We have a front flower garden (viewable from Sue’s sewing room), a strip garden along the front of the house, a side garden that is mostly hosta, then our back yard array. There are 5 discreet flower or shrub gardens, as well as the two raised beds and the various straw bales or containers in the center of the yard.

The weather has been pretty much ideal, following a cool, extended spring with a few late frosts. Right now the days are perfect - upper 70s to low 80s, a few showers, nights in the 50s. If I could bottle this up for use later in the summer, I would!

Yukon Gold potatoes growing in large containers, in partially composted wheat straw from last year’s bales

At this point, the following is up and growing:

Potatoes - Yukon Gold, in four containers filled with composted wheat straw from last year’s bales

Swiss Chard - in a container, and in a raised bed

Lettuce - in a container, and in a raised bed

Spinach - in a container

Garlic - planted last September, in two raised beds - probably a month from harvest

Sugar Snap Peas looking good - blossoming and climbing

Sugar Snap Peas - planted quite early, trellised

Strawberries - plants from a friend, in a raised bed and in a container

Summer Squash - up and growing well, direct seeded into straw bales, 4 types

Bush Beans - up and growing well, direct seeded into straw bales, 6 types

Cucumbers - up and growing well, direct seeded into straw bales, 2 types

Eggplants - some in straw bales, some in grow bags - total of 7 plants, including the varieties Mardi Gras, Green Ghost, Midnight Lightning, Twilight Lightning and Skinny Twilight

Peppers - some in straw gales, some in grow bags - total of 10 plants, including Chocolate Bell, Orange Bell, Fire Opal, Royal Purple, Carolina Amethyst, Shishito, Padron and Pinata.

Tomatoes - total of 49 plants, in grow bags or straw bales. Only a few are my typical favorites (Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Cherokee Chocolate, Polish and Lucky Cross). 32 are indeterminate, the rest are dwarfs.

I’ll give a full report on the tomatoes in a future blog. I still have some microdwarf tomatoes to plant - they will go into the raised beds once the garlic is harvested.

Bush Beans (foreground) and Summer Squash (rear), in straw bales

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

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

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

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Desert Sweet Tomatoes: Jewels of the Negev

by Amy Goldman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Tomato Collection Tour - Part 16. Tomatoes #171-209

Our spectacular blood red rhododendron, in full bloom in our yard

Getting busy, so I better get this next one posted. The numbers are funky because some in this range were used for saved seed. There are a few really major tomatoes in this batch. Read on!

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Tomato #171 - Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter - I purchased the seed from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in 1989, and, sadly, never did grow out the seed. I went into the history of the variety in a prior blog, tomato #26.

Tomato #172 - Tappy’s Finest - Also from Southern Exposure in 1989, I did grow out - and enjoy - this tomato in my 1989 garden. Reportedly a West Virginian heirloom, but prior to that from Italy, it was named for “Tappy”, who did selection work to result in the released variety, in 1983. It is a big fruited regular leaf pink beefsteak type. First fruit came in at 72 days. I picked 23 tomatoes from the plant at an average weight of 16 ounces - so the plant gave me 23 pounds of nicely flavored tomatoes, flavor rating A-.

Tomato #173 - Peron - I already covered this tomato as Tomato #71, including my growing of the variety. This Peron seed was from WI BA L, SSE member, in 1989. I never did grow out this seed.

Tomato #174 - Anna Russian - Now we arrive at a classic - one of my very favorite tomatoes. It was sent to me in 1989 by Brenda Hillenius of Corvallis, Oregon. Her grandfather, Kenneth Wilcox, was given the seed by a Russian immigrant. I’ve grown it many times - first in 1989, and in my 2021 garden, last year, where it was a star of my garden. The very lanky weepy regular leaf plants (not atypical for heart shaped varieties) produces a heavy yield of medium to medium large, gorgeous true heart shaped pink tomatoes. The flavor is far superior to most pink heart shaped tomatoes, full and delicious with a tilt toward sweetness. I do remember in 1989 being amazed at how sickly the plant looked. First fruit was in 68 days. I picked 34 fruit averaging 8.4 ounces, so that straggly plant produced 18 pounds of tomatoes - rated an A for flavor.

Tomato #175 - Mrs. Lindsey’s Kentucky Heirloom - This tomato has been described several times under various names, initially my tomato #142, Yellow White. I received seeds from tomato #175 from Edmund Brown of Missouri, SSE member, in 1989, but never did grow out the seed.

Tomato #176 - Radiator Charlie - This tomato, essentially Mortgage Lifter, was sent to me in 1989 by Edmund Brown of Missouri, but I never did grow it out.

Tomato #177 - Viva - Another name for Yellow White (tomato #142), and sent to me by Edmund Brown in 1989, I did grow it that year. First fruit arrived in 78 days. I picked 39 tomatoes at an average weight of 10.9 ounces. The plant produced 26.5 pounds of fruit, but the very mild flavor rated only a B. I liked what should have been the same tomato, Yellow White, a bit more. I found Viva to be a bit shorter, the fruit a bit smaller, but the same color.

Tomato #178 - Believe it or Not - Already described as tomato #118, I received this seed from Edmund Brown in 1989. I’ve never grown it out.

Tomato #207 - Indian Reservation - Now here’s an obscure variety, a West Virginian heirloom sent to me in 1989 by Edmund Brown. Edmund received the seeds from West Virginia seed saver George Pesta. I grew out the variety in 1991. It produced typical yellow/red swirled beefsteak type fruit on a regular leaf plant. The flavor was typically mild/sweet/peachy, the dominant flavor of these yellow/red beefsteaks. The original history of the variety is not known.

Tomato #209 - Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom #4 - This was a follow up seed sample sent to me by Robert Richardson. The labelling must have been incorrect - this tomato grew exactly as Lillian’s Large Red Kansas Paste. I grew it in 1990.

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It is odd to realize that I’ve never grown the Radiator Charlie strain, authentic Mortgage Lifter. I’ve grown the Halladay and Mullens strains. Also huge in this list is Tappy’s Finest, and maybe the star of the list above, Anna Russian.

The view of Davis Mountain from our deck this evening

Off The Vine, Volume 2, Number 1. "C & Cs Corner" by Carolyn

Cherry tomatoes from July 2019 harvest - our last garden in Raleigh

Wow - somehow we are one third of the way through this mini project. Now that all of Volume 1 has been posted in weekly blogs, let’s dive in to Volume 2. This is the typical Carolyn opening post, laying out her , thoughts, details on subscriptions, articles, our newsletter aims, and our seasons. These types of columns are certainly the most “Carolyn” of the articles she wrote for Off The Vine - and they are such fun to read.

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C and C’s Column

by Carolyn

It’s time to renew your subscription if your mailing label has 21 written next to your name (21 means Volume 2, #1). If we’ve educated and entertained you we hope you’ll stay with us. Separate renewal notices will not be sent out so please send your renewal after you’ve read this issue. I would deeply appreciate it if you would write renewal on your check or on a short note; I sent second copies of Vol1, #3 to several folks who didn’t write renewal and I thought they were new subscribers. Until last December I could remember the names of most of our subscribers but I no longer can do that. Also please mention your favorite large red and pink tomatoes; I’ll have enough data to do that article for the fall issue of Off the Vine.

Subscription renewal prices for SU residents are $5 for one year and $12 for year years, for Canadian readers renewal rates are $6(US) for one year and $14(US) for two years and the renewal rate for other foreign addresses is $7(US) for one year and $16(US) for two years. The two-year rates reflect the increase in rates, starting with Vol. 3, that we announced in our last issue. Please check your address labels to be sure they are accurate and let me know if there is a problem with the expiration date given. Also, please remember to notify me of any address changes.

First, I’d like to apologize to those Off the Vine subscribers who received copies of 13 which were not of good quality. New subscribers received good copies. I had hired two students to help with the stapling and stamping and when I went to pick up the copies from the copy place, a national chain, they were bad. The manager agreed, but they didn’t know when their machine would be fixed and so I made an instant decision to take them because I had already hired the students to work at a specific time period. While the copies were a bit smeared and some of the print was wavy they were still perfectly readable. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

The months of February, March and April challenged me as those months have never challenged me in the past. Between trying to meet my academic obligations and process SSE seed requests, new subscriptions to Off the Vine, F2 seed requests, back issue requests and renewal return I was totally snowed under! Craig also was very busy with SSE seed requests, planting seeds, work and taxiing two daughters to all their various activities. All seed requests went out within one week and all new Off the Vine’s within two weeks but it was difficult. Craig and I were pleased and surprised to find so many of you interested in the F2 seeds we offered, so we definitely will do it again next year, but we’ll have someone help me and you can send your requests for F2’s directly to that person (details in our fall issue). Many of you asked specific questions which I simply didn’t have the time to answer and I asked you to please call me at home before 9PM; I hope you still will because I love to help folks if I can and I hope you can appreciate the time constraints that I have at that time of the year. Summer is better!

 I’d like to acknowledge the help of two very important people in getting your Off the Vine’s to you. Starting with the last issue, Jeff Fleming of Michigan is generating by computer the mailing labels, for which we are ever so grateful. Jeff is an SSE member and also a long time friend of Craig’s. Jeff works for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals and his computer skills are deeply appreciated. The layout is now being done by a colleague of mine in computer sciences. His name is Mike Kuhrt and I don't’ know if he even eats tomatoes! Mike and I need to tinker with the format to get what we want, so be prepared to see changes in the future. Starting with this issue we’ll try to do articles more sequentially so you won’t have to flip so many pages, and you won’t have to flip so many pages because we want to get the format back to what we promised in issue one, which was 4-5 (or so) pages double sided. That will mean reducing the font size back to what we started with. At least I’m learning!

 We have a mix of interesting articles for this issue. Amy Goldman of Rhineback, NY has contributed an article about Desert Sweet tomatoes, which are a group of tomatoes developed in Israel that are grown using brackish or saline water for irrigation. With lowered water tables and increased salinity being seen in many places in the US and elsewhere, the research that went into developing these tomatoes is of major importance.

Amy is an SSE member, a psychologist currently on “sabbatical,” a wife to Larry and a mother to young Sara, Executive Director of the Sol Goldman Charitable Trust and gentlewoman farmer who is determined to take the top prize in the Dutchess County Fair! This year she’s growing about 95 different varieties of tomatoes, 50 kinds of peppers, 26 varieties of winter squash and anything else that might garner her a blue ribbon. She “doesn’t do corn” like I don’t ”do windows or pump gas.” Amy and I met about a year ago after I got a phone call from her the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend when she explained that her tomatoes had been “frosted” and she was seeking replacements . We untangled about 200 plants from my seed pans, which I keep until the transplants are out in the field and flourishing, and she happily drove home with her new varieties. Typical of Amy, she insisted that I must taste some Desert Sweet tomatoes. They were flown in from Israel and she had them delivered from Rhineback to Loudonville where my mother and gerdens both reside because I was teaching. I expected to find medium size or beefsteak type fruit and was very surprised to find cherry tomatoes on the vine! The gorgeous deep red fruit were still attached to the vine, in clusters, but the leaves had been removed. What can I say, they were delicious: they kind of “popped” in my mouth, were sweet and full flavored. I was very very impressed! Amy states in her article that seed is not available, but naturally I had to save some. While they are probably hybrids, there’s only one way to find out: they’re on the list for next year.

Our second guest author is William Woys Weaver of Paoli, PA. Will is a well known food historian who has specialized in Pennsylvania Dutch cookery and has authored several books and articles on that subject. His most recent book, entitled Pennsylvania Dutch Country Cooking (ISBN 1-55859-568-6, Abbeville Press), won a prestigious Julia Child award. I was fascinated by the food history and the color illustrations are exquisite. I’m even more excited by the book Will is currently working on which is about heirloom vegetables. It will be called Epicure with Hoe, and is expected to be published by Henry Holt, Publishers, in the fall of 1996. We’ll keep you updated. This summer is a special challenge for Will because he’s growing all the vegetables that will be photographed for the book. Will grows a tremendous variety of flowers, fruit and vegetables at Roughwood, his restored 1805 farmhouse. He also develops and tests recipes for inclusion in his books and articles. Would that I lived closer! I first got to know him last year when he sent me an SSE request for a particular tomato that I thought had no redeeming virtues and had said so in the SSE Annual. I wrote him a little note telling him that I didn’t think it was a good tomato and that I was sending him some extras to make up for its deficiencies. Back came a letter explaining that he was researching the introduction of tomatoes from Haiti to Philadelphia and thus his interest in the tomato he had requested, Plate de Haiti. We had further chances to chat about what heirloom tomatoes he might include in that chapter of his new book. And yes, as he points out in his article, I did challenge him to make Riesentraube wine after he told me about the recipe he’d found. To be honest, I really didn’t think he’d do it, but I’ve since discovered that Will thrives on challenges! He recently sent me a sample of the Riesentraube wine and I think it is fantastic. It tastes, to me, like a medium sweet sherry and if, as he says, it will get better with age, I’ll be happy to sip from time to time to judge its progress! I’m delighted he’s written the Riesentraube article for us and hope that he’ll contribute more in the future … after the copy for his new book is completed!

A third article is the result of Craig’s interview with George Gleckler. Many of you, I’m sure, have ordered heirloom tomato seed from Gleckler’s and most of you should be interested in the insights George shared with Craig concerning the seed business. As usual, I write this column to update you on this and that, introduce our guest authors and outline the articles being presented. Finally, Craig and I have each written articles which share with you the mental processes we go through when deciding what to grow out each year.

Recently I had an opportunity to taste a very special tomato. I got a call from Rolf Boessmann, who lives her Rochester, NY, who said that the Wegman’s food chain in the area had been chosen as the initial world test market for a genetically engineered tomato called Endless Summer. He made an offer I couldn’t refuse. Rolf packed them well and one week later I received two 10-12 oz. deep pink (red?) fruit which were not soft. I took them to work and we had a taste testing at the start of a committee meeting. We were not impressed. Visually they were prettier than the standard picked green and gassed with ethylene winter types, but if there was an improvement in taste it was in the range of perhaps 5-10% over the standard winter rocks called tomatoes. At $2/lb. I’ll wait for summer. They were developed by researchers at DNA Plant Technology Corp. in Oakland, CA who identified a ripening gene and “switched it off”. Presumably they can be picked later than the winter rock type, thus improving the natural flavor. While the shelf life of standard tomatoes is 7-10 days the shelf life of Endless Summer tomatoes is stated to be 30 days. I believe it! A few weeks later George Losoncy, an Off the Vine reader, sent me an article which appeared in the NY Times on 4/11/95 about Calgene’s genetically altered tomato called Flavr Savr. I knew about these two years ago, but have never seen them offered. The NY Times article explained that the genetic changes made to the tomato resulted in fruit that bruised easily and Calgene is having major problems with adequate packing and shipping. I’m not sure what I expected from genetically engineered tomatoes: probably some taste in a winter tomato, but I know I haven’t seen it yet!

As of May 17th, Craig has already planted outside his 120 or so tomato varieties while mine are still in the greenhouse of a commercial farmer friend who grows them for me after I seed and transplant them. It’s been cold and windy here in upstate NY; I’m probably not even going to start hardening them off until this weekend. I’m growing about 160 varieties this year and that means 500-600 plants in the tomato patch! Germination was excellent save for two varieties received from others, which didn’t germinate at all: they’ll be candidates for potassium nitrate treatment next year. Since we have both received inquiries about germination problems we will write an article for the call Off the Vine issue telling you how we germinate seeds. It’s very distressing to me, for instance, to have someone tell me only one seed out of 10 came up while I get close to 100% germination with the same seed. We promised ourselves that Off the Vine would not publish articles about tomato culture, that’s not what our mission is about, but we think the germination situation requires some comment.

Once again we encourage you to consider writing an article about some aspect of heirloom tomatoes. Please check with us first, and if we can use it, we will. We’ve repeatedly stated that we want Off the Vine to be interactive with our readers, and that can’t happen unless some of you participate with contributions.

Have a wonderful summer growing season, without late blight, and we look forward to sharing with you again in our fall issue.

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Wow, this is a pretty interesting and packed issue - Some big time names for sure - Amy Goldman and William Woys Weaver, as well as Gleckler - and GE tomatoes. Lots to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Some eggplants and tomatoes from July 2019 from our last Raleigh garden

Off The Vine, Volume 1, Number 3. "Nothing in Moderation - an interview of Thane Earle" by Carolyn

Polish tomato plant, set into a straw bale a few days ago. The 2022 season begins!

Here it is - the last article in Issue number 3, which wraps up Volume 1.

Any SSE tomato collector who got going in the mid 1980s or earlier know of the code “WI EA T” - as in Thane Earle of Wisconsin. He wasn’t much on descriptions, but listed loads of interesting tomatoes. Carolyn had a great chat with Thane, and she captured the essence, below.

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Nothing in Moderation! An Interview with Thane Earle

by Carolyn

Whether it’s having 1200 varieties of tomato seed, 120 kinds of bantam chickens, 450 kinds of beans or going on photography safaris to Kenya, Africa twice, Thane Earle does very little in a modest way! His love of gardening began as a child when he helped his grandfather and mother in their one-acre vegetable garden. His father and grandmother tended to other chores on their general farm. Thane remembers leading the horse that cultivated the garden and remembers picking the tomatoes (Bonny Best, Marglobe, etc.) that the family would can and use for juice. Born in 1921 just a few miles from his present home in Whitewater, WI, Thane and his younger brother had an incredibly rich childhood in terms of family and memories. His grandfather was a great storyteller and every night thane listened to marvelous tales of hunting and fishing and ultimately, the discussions about Africa which culminated in two trips to Kenya. He and his grandfather had a book written by Teddy Roosevelt in 1909which described his trips to Africa to obtain animals for the New York and Chicago museums and this furthered Thane’s determination to visit that continent.

Following Thane’s graduation from high school he went into the carpentry/construction business for 25 years. During this time he and his wife raised two boys. The boys had a private zoo with lions, bears, snakes, monkeys and heaven knows what else! Thane says he was bitten only once, by a semi-tame fox to which he was giving a bowl of food. After leaving carpentry he gardened and raised fowl … in no small way. He had about 600 fowl he would load into a truck and do a “show string,” going to State and County fairs to compete for prize money. At the peak of this enterprise he had 140 different kinds of large fowl, 120 kinds of banties and about 30 kinds of pigeons!!! He and his wife, a teacher, also traveled extensively. Their first trip was to Guatemala, then to England (twice), France and the Continent, Africa (Kenya) and Egypt. Naturally I had to ask him how much local tomato seed he picked up on those trips but he said just a few, from England. Tragically, his wife was killed in an auto accident about five years ago. He has since remarried, to an old high school “sweetheart”, whose husband died many years ago. Their recent travels have been to Kenya and Tanzania, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (Thane says he’s 95% English with a touch of Scottish and Norwegian), and most recently to Costa Rica.

Thane joined SSE one year before Diane and Kent moved to Iowa and has attended every one of the Campouts at Decorah since 1984. Although he grows many different kinds of vegetables, those of us in SSE know him mainly for his tomato offerings although he says he’s currently checking out the germination on about 200 kind s of corn, 450 kinds of beans and “lots” of peas. I told him about a 14’ high corn I grew this year for an historical garden I did for the local Shaker Heritage Society and how impressed I was with the height. He countered that he remembered a variety of Central American corn that he once grew that was so tall he had to use a ladder to accomplish pollination. Over the years he built up a huge tomato collection. He did a lot of trading with Gary Staley, Fax Stinnett (Off the Vine Vol. I, #1) and Don Branscomb and had contacts in France, Australia and Germany. When I asked him why he settled on tomatoes he said it was because of the low rate of cross-pollination. He used to grow out about 300 varieties each year but now does about 100, and grows one plant of each kind in cages made from concrete reinforcing wire; the plants are spaced 4’ in all directions. I was a bit taken aback when he said he didn’t fertilize, but then he said he does add aged chicken manure to his already rich, black topsoil which was once a lake bed in prehistoric times. He sprayed one year, once, for early blight and that was it for the chemicals. He says he’s never grown a variety that he didn’t get seed from the fruit. Knowing the possible “critter” damage and disease that inevitably appears, that’s a good track record.

His transplants for the field are grown in 14 oz. Styrofoam cups and he plants with a bulb planter … works great. If his transplants get leggy he always digs a deeper hole because he feels that layering them on their sides in a trench doesn’t give you a vigorous plant. He does have a greenhouse and cold frames where he gardens them off. Favorites that he mentioned included Amish Paste, Persimmon, Nepal, Cabot, Green Grape and Georgia Streak. Noticing that he hadn’t included any pinks, I asked him, but we got off on another subject before completing the list. He gives away a lot of his tomatoes but only if he picks them first; it seems like folks don’t want to do their own picking. He chuckled when I asked him why he didn’t write more about his tomatoes in the SSE Annual and he answered that he didn’t have the time. I protested that I got frustrated seeing only 4” listed after one of his tomatoes to which he responded that at lest I knew how big it was. He says he doesn’t list days to maturity because it can vary from year to year and with this I will agree with him completely. He and his wife will continue staying on the farm. When he’s not growing vegetables he continues with his woodworking by making toys and clocks and he raises various kinds of chickens. For the past 8 years he has been a Horticultural Aide with the Cooperative Extension in the summer, working two days per week, where he says he gets the questions no one else can handle. He completed the Master Gardener Program several years ago. I could tell that he really enjoys this part time position.

Next time you read a WIEAT listing in the SSE Annual perhaps you’ll now think of Thane as the complex, interesting person who does very little in moderation. And we hope Thane and his wife will continue their travels and that he will continue to participate in the activities of SSE, an organization he thinks has done a fine job in fostering the preservation of heirloom varieties.

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Sadly, Thane Harley Earle died on June 15, 2010 in Wisconsin. His obituary is here. I recall getting to meet Thane on my first visit to Decorah for the SSE campout in the late 1980s. To me, he is a seed saving legend, right up there with Fax Stinnett and Ben Quisenberry - folks who played such a significant role in getting the SSE off the ground and helping its incredible relevance.

The next post will begin the posting of the entirety of Volume 2. Things are moving right along - I hope you are enjoying these articles.

Our amazing true red rhododendron just started to open!