Heirloom Tomato Chat With Kim Lund

 I got a chance to chat with Kim Lund regarding her passion for heirloom tomatoes. This woman is a steward, not only of tomatoes, but heirloom bean varieties. I know I'll be buying seeds from her for my 2023 garden season, for sure!

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: I specialize in tomatoes. They are my true passion.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: I once, years ago, bought a Heirloom tomato variety called Belgium Giant and I fell in love with it and started researching heirloom varieties and got hooked.

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: I love all tomatoes, I have several favorites that will always have a space in my garden, Giant Belgium is one. Cour Antico de Acqui Terme is a great tomato, large and in charge, great for all things tomato, Monkey Ass, Girls Girls Weird Thing.

Q: On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?
A: I try to get about 120 or so. I sell to the local restaurant so I need a lot of varieties.


Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: My father was my mentor, we gardened together for many years. He handed his passion down to me. Then when I met Martin Longseth and he became my mentor and teacher. The man was full of knowledge. He taught me a lot about not only tomatoes but different things to do with gardening. He was a great friend who is greatly missed.


Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: I currently have well over 4000 varieties, over 100 categorized in Seedsavers. (seedsavers.org)


Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: They can contact me on Facebook or at Seed Savers Exchange online.


Q: Are you planning on having a website in the future?
A: I have been looking into it, but with running the farm and greenhouse sales and the garden I just don't really know when I will find the time, but it is in the future. I have many rare varieties. I am collecting rare to the United States varieties as we speak. I have several family heirlooms from many other Countries that are not available here in the U.S. The rarest I have now I would say is Campbells 33.

**Side note: Kim has many of the Campbell's varieties. These all come with a number. I ordered my Campbell's 1327 from her last year. She also has many of the different Heinz varieties in her collection. Those, like Campbell's, come with a number after the name. I find these varieties fascinating because I grow to preserve for winter use. Campbell's and Heinz are forever developing newer and tastier tomato varieties. My thoughts are that you can't go wrong with those if you are growing out to can up sauce, paste, ketchup, etc.


Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: I find them all to be great groups. I like to see what the daily subject will be on all of them. I don't usually do much on them but I do peruse them all.


I very much enjoyed my chat with Kim. She's super knowledgeable and helpful when I was placing an order with her last year and told her what I was intending to do. Her seed prices are more than reasonable and shipping was fast!
As a matter of fact, I have some Julia Child tomatoes going that are from the seeds that I bought from Kim.

Click here to visit Seed Savers Exchange.
Click here to visit Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. You can always post and tag Kim in there.


Thank you, Kim, for indulging me. I know how busy you are so I do feel honored that you took a bit of time out to chat with me.

Heirloom Vegetable Chat With Ken Fry

 I got to visit with Ken Fry and have a chat with him regarding how he got into gardening, etc. I've ordered from Ken before and it's his fault that I'm really into growing obscure Native American varieties of heirloom beans. I had gotten a hold of one particular variety last year, quite by accident, and now it's on!

I requested this photo of Ken's supervisor. She is hard at work here. It's hard work to maintain that level of cuteness and she does her job well.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: Heirloom tomatoes that have a story to be told. Peppers from super hot to sweet. Cool beans.

I have several of those little envelopes in my seed collection. The one I'm looking most forward to this years is Hobb's Goose Bean.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: I have always had a garden, but around 2016 is when I really started saving seeds.

*Side note: That photo of Ken's high tunnel? That's garden goals for me!

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: Not one particular one no. I love all tomatoes.

Q: On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?
A: 300 plants, 150 varieties.

*Side note: Would you please talk to my husband and tell him that planting 75 tomato plants is NOT ridiculous??

Q: What is the rarest tomato seed in your collection?
A: Probably the Inciardi Paste. That one really got me into collecting tomatoes with a back story. One day I was on Slow food, ark of taste looking at all the endangered tomatoes and I was bound and determined to find the Inciardi Paste that was listed on there. So I kept googling until I found Vickie Nowicki who is the steward for the seed. I sent her an email not really expecting a reply and not only did she reply back she agreed to send me seeds. I received 10 seeds dated 2014. Planted them and they all germinated. And it is heck ya, I am saving this tomato from being endangered. I have been growing every since.

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: Don't really have one. Although I do hold Tomato Jim in hi regards. He is the one that got be going to seed swaps and being a vendor.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: 93 varieties, although some may be out of stock until fall.

Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: On my website. Or if you have an interesting trade pm me. I am always looking for that family heirloom tomato.

Ken's website is called Forgotten Heirlooms. Click here to visit.

Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: Of course, Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous.

I'd like to thank Ken for having a chat with me. He's the newest person on the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous admin team and I'm damn lucky to have him, just as I'm damn lucky to have every single admin. 
Below is a list of all the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups. Feel free to ask to join.

Click on each group name and ask to join.
Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Cucurbit Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Root Vegetable Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Lettuce/Greens Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Pepper Addicts Anonymous
Heirloom Herb & Flower Addicts Anonymous

Heirloom Vegetable Chat With Terry Lambert

 I got a chance to chat with Terry Lambert, who is in both Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous and Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous, about gardening. Terry has always been super supportive of the groups.


Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: I grow a little bit of everything but my passion is tomatoes, beans, peppers, and anything unusual or not usually grown for food.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato and bean varieties?

A: I’ve been gardening for over 50 years but my passion for seed saving started after I had a stroke in 2016. I was unable to garden for a few years and lost almost all my seed. When I started back I had trouble finding the things I had always grown and when researching found out how many heirloom varieties there were and how many we had lost and I was hooked!

**Side note: I didn't know that you had a stroke and I hope you've recovered completely from it. I can say that from the way you answered the questions, I couldn't tell that ever happened to you!

Q: Do you have a personal favorite bean or tomato variety?
A: Not really. I love them all!

**Side note: Me, too, Terry! Me, too! Well, except for Blue Beauty tomatoes. I grew those last year. They were stunning to look at and tasted like nothing.  I'll add in that photo just so that there is a tomato photo in this blog post. 😉

Coincidentally, you'll know that you've reached the right tomato group on Facebook if you see this photo. This is one of those dreaded Blue Beauty tomatoes. They are stunning to look at but they have no flavor.

Q: On average, how many types of beans and tomatoes do you grow in a year and how big is your garden? A: Up until this year my garden has been from a 1/4 acre up to a 1/2 acre plus assorted raised beds and containers here and there. This year I’ve moved to a new place and am still working on getting the new garden space going. I’m hoping eventually here to have about a half acre in cultivation. An average year I’ll plant around 20 bean varieties and at least 100 tomato varieties. I haven’t started my beans yet this year but currently have 112 varieties of tomatoes I’ll be setting out in the next few weeks.

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: In gardening in general is definitely my grandpa. Most everything I know I learned following him and that old mule. In tomatoes it’s Kim Lund. I met her online through my friend Martin Longseth and through several online groups. She’s been so helpful in guiding me to where I can find info on varieties that have me stumped and has been so generous with her time and knowledge.

**Side note: I'm hoping to have a Q&A with Kim Lund coming up soon!

Q: How many varieties of heirloom beans and tomatoes do you have in your personal seed collection?
A: I’m a relative newcomer to seed saving. I currently have a bit over 300 varieties of tomatoes and about 200 of beans.

**Side note: Holy Cow!! My husband thought I was crazy for around 100 varieties of beans and 200 varieties of tomatoes. I'm going to need to have you have a talk with him.

Q: Do you sell seeds and, if so, how do people get in touch with you?
A: I occasionally sell or trade seeds although my focus is on preservation more than sales. I can be reached through Facebook and my wife is currently working on a website which hopefully will be up and running by mid summer. Although I’m meaning for it to be mainly a educational resource, I will offer seeds for sale there too.

**Side note: Just let me know when your site is up.

Q: What is the rarest bean or tomato seed in your collection right now?
A: I couldn’t say. Most likely some of the tomatoes I’m growing out from the late Mr. Longseth’s collection. There are several of those I’ve never heard of and can find absolutely no information on. But each and every seed is precious to me regardless of rarity.

Q: What's the best bean or tomato group on Facebook?
A: The Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups! (Don’t make me chose between them because I can’t!)

Thank you, Terry, for doing this for me. I am enjoying getting to know everyone through these Q&A's. I'm learning more and more about the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous members that I had no idea of!

Heirloom Bean Chat With Rita Milburn

 I'd like to continue on with my Q & A blog posts. I enjoy posting these. I enjoy getting to know the people that I am interviewing and I hope you guys enjoy them, as well.

Today, I'd like to talk to Rita Milburn about heirloom beans. Rita and I became Facebook friends because she was looking for Egyptian Walking Onions bulbils and I had some that I could trade. We traded. She loves the onions, they are growing really well for her. I'm still in awe over everything that she sent me. What I'm most looking forward to is planting out the bean variety that she developed called Brown-Eye Bobby. There will be more on that bean later on.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: I like anything different or unusual and odd, but I have more beans in my collection than anything. I remember my dad always trying different things . I can remember him raising garden huckleberry and peanuts! I've raised garden huckleberry and will be raising peanuts this year.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom bean varieties?
A: When I went to my first seed swap in Berea at Bill Best farm. I was hooked. Then I found some cornfield beans that was in my grandmother's old freezer when we purchased her house. Raised them and was amazed. They were saved 1980. Went the seed swap with a few of these, traded them and came home with several seeds and that's when it began.

Q: Do you have a personal favorite bean variety?
A: That's a hard question to answer! I love them all! The fact that you put that seed into the ground and it becomes a beautiful and edible plant. But I do raise Bill Best NT 1/2 runner every year. No matter what stage you pick these beans they are always (non-tough) tender. You can pick young for green beans and pick them fuller for shelly beans and still tender. Same bean, different taste. They bare good too! The more you pick the more they bloom.

Q: On average, how many types of beans do you grow in a year and how big is your garden?
A: Last year in 2021, I raised 98 different kinds of beans, but honestly that was too many! Keeping my records and diagram of my garden was a challenge. I managed it but it took a lot of work keeping it straight. I usually planted different color seed beans so when they rambled I could tell which on was which. On the average I have grew 25 kinds. I have 700 square feet and vertical is the way to go pole beans grow up!

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: My mom and dad and my dad's parents. They raised a big garden. My dad would do the planting and together my parents would keep the garden clean. Mom would pick and can all summer. I remember my grandmother's garden and how she would sit and very carefully gather her carrots. She would pick the biggest out to thin, but they were still little! But by the end of season she would have some nice carrots! I tend my garden in the same spot she did!

Q: How many varieties of heirloom beans do you have in your personal seed collection?
A: The last time I counted it was 400 bean seeds give or take. I document all my seeds, where they come from, type and any history that is past down with them. I also mark the ones I've raised and the year , most of the time. I have tomato, peppers, flowers, herbs and a lot of other seeds.

Q: Do you sell seeds and, if so, how do people get in touch with you?
A: I only sell my seeds at seed swaps, but I'd rather trade for something I don't have. In 2020 with covid, seeds were getting hard to find and I had a lot of my Facebook friends wanting a few seeds. I would send package seeds to Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Hawaii. Sometimes they would send me seeds and sometimes I would just receive a big thank you. I'm ok with that because I like to "Sow Seeds of Kindness".

*I'd like to add that your seeds came to Washington state, too. My onions made their way to you in Florida. My garden is truly bi-coastal this year!


Q: What is the rarest bean seed in your collection right now?
A: I have a bean that I have developed that has taken me about 5 years to get it stable? It's was a cross of Hidatsa shield and another unknown bean. But it's a stringless bush bean with long full pods with a kidney shape bean. When it first crossed, the next year, Bill Best suggested I raise the beans separate from any other bean and raise it a couple of years and if it stayed the same as what I planted, I could name the bean. I named it Brown Eye Bobby in memory of my dad!


So, back to the Brown-Eye Bobby. Rita has sent me some seeds of this variety to grow and I'm super excited about it.
It's people, just like Rita, that have made the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups as successful as they are. I want to extend a huge thanks to her for taking the time to indulge me and my questions.

Happy Planting!

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.