Heirloom Tomato Chat With Beth Bee

 I'd like to introduce people to Beth Bee, one of my admins in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous or, more commonly referred to as HTAA. I knew when I started this group that I wanted people to manage HTAA that were knowledgeable and Beth is one of those people.

Since we are friends on Facebook, outside of HTAA, I know what she does with her excess tomato plants every year and this woman is amazing. Just amazing. She is another person that I'm damn lucky to have in HTAA. When I started HTAA, it was with the intent of having a wealth of knowledge that would be freely given for the price of a simple question. Beth and her tomato tasting parties are very much noteworthy.

I did a quick Q & A with her.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: heirloom tomatoes. More specifically, black & purple varieties.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: started accidentally 10-15 years ago. I bought seeds AND ordered plants from a friend. Every seed came up, I had to give some away, everyone wanted to taste all the varieties, and my tomato harvest party was born. My customer base has gotten bigger each year and the party sometimes gets 100 people.

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: Probably Gary'O Sena. It's a stable cross of Brandywine and Cherokee Purple, and better than either one. Or maybe Perth Pride, which is a stable cross of Paul Robeson and a dwarf tomato. I lost the tag for most of a season and just referred to it as "perfect mystery dwarf."

Q: On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?
A: 300-500. Usually 20-30 different heirloom varieties, and Sungold.




On a side note, disasters (or near disasters) can happen to the best of us. It depends on if you let that get you down or if you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back going again. That's what matters and that's what Beth did when this happened to her just a week ago.

She told me, "There was a sudden wind event while I was at work last Friday. Everything fell over - yes they were weighted down. But most plants survived & many have some new growth already. Tomatoes are pretty tough!"

Not to be deterred, she fixed them up and they are still growing.

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: I don't know if I have a mentor. I have gathered information and knowledge from many people and many books. I do have a vivid memory of watching Sesame Street and they pulled a carrot right out of the ground. I was fascinated. My grandfather also grew tomatoes and I remember being sent to the backyard to pick one. My elementary school did a fundraiser selling seeds, and I kept some for myself and sowed them in Dixie cups way too thick.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: 25 to 30. I have hundreds of types of seed and it's hard to decide which to grow each year!

Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: fb or email beth@corooted.com

Q: Are you planning on having a website in the future?
A: Nah. I'm small scale and this is about all I can do. I work full time as a psychologist.

Q: What is the rarest tomato seed in your collection?
A; probably Coeur de Bob. One year, my tomato buddy, the father of a friend of mine, died. He used to come from Atlanta for my tomato party (in Denver) every year. Also to visit his daughter, but you know. The year he died, I did a search and grew all kinds of things that had Bob, or Dad, or Georgia in them. Dad's Sunset was a beautiful tomato. Big yellow slicer. But Coeur de Bob is a sweet little red that we've kept on growing since then. We have to save seed because it's very hard to find.

Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: HTAA isn't bad and I also really like the Baker Creek Group.

For clarification, Beth starts between 300-500 tomatoes every year but she only grows 20 at her house. The rest go to other people's homes.

She stores her tomato seeds in a big binder with baseball card pages and alphabetical dividers. The rest of her seeds for everything else are thrown in plastic bins.

So, what does Beth do with these excess tomatoes that she sells? That is where this woman is truly amazing. Here's her answer for that: This year my sales will go to World Central Kitchen in Ukraine. Last year, The Color of Autism. Before that, Food Bank of the Rockies. Once we bought new basketball uniforms for Special Olympics. It's different each year.

So, now you all know why I wanted Beth on the admin team for HTAA. This person is truly selfless and giving, not only information, but for really good causes.

And, this is her first year growing in soil blocks. I'm very interested in doing this.