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!

Planting Cucurbits & Okra and May Garden Update

 I've got a schedule that I'm holding to, as far as planting stuff out this year. Today was the day to get cucurbits planted and okra started. Luckily, I have this nifty greenhouse to help me out with things. I am grateful for that. I sat in there, in the pouring rain, and planted. It was peaceful.

It's, by no means, big enough for what I want to do...but it's a start.

Today, I planted out my cucurbits. Cucurbits are squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and gourds. They only need like a 4-week head start before being planted out. I'm planning on these going out by mid-June. It rains too much here for really any other time. Some of these will stay in this greenhouse to grow because they need the heat, like the Cucamelons.

Here is the list of what I got seeded in today:
*Parisian Pickling Cucumber (heirloom/OP variety)
*Arctic F1 Cucumber (hybrid variety. I'm going to see if I get a better harvest from these than I get from the heirloom variety)
*Dragon's Egg Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Marketmore 76 Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Jealous Neighbor F1 Cucumber (hybrid)
*White Wonder Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Balcony Swallowtail F1 Cucumber (hybrid)
*Armenian Cucumber (heirloom/OP)
*Mexican Sour Gherkin aka Cucamelon
*Siamese Bitter Melon
*Sugar Baby Bush Watermelon
*Kajari Melon
*Tigger Melon
*Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe
*Loofah Gourd
*Svitozar Zucchini (yellow variety)
*Dark Green Zucchini
*Patisson-Panache Et Vert Scallop Squash
*Gelber Englischer Custard Squash
*Rampicante Zucchino
*Hulless Dana Pumpkin
*American Tondo Pumpkin
*Musquee de Provence Pumpkin
*Lakota Squash
*Table Queen Acorn Squash
*Iran Squash
*Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua Squash
*Delicata Squash
*Kobocha Squash
*Pineapple Squash

I also planted 9 seeds each of Okinawa Pink Okra and Jing Orange Okra. Life is too short for boring green okra!

I got these all tucked away in the green house with the peppers.

I do have to say that it stays rather warm inside of this greenhouse. I'm impressed. I haven't lost any pepper plants due to being too cold yet.

My little baby tomato plants look great. The biggest one is the Red Dumplin Winner Pink. It's a variety that I got from Tomato Jim Wyant.
We figured out what was eating my plants while they were in the shed. It was a chipmunk.

We got another nice surprise today (I had several, garden-wise). I wasn't sure how my potato bed idea would work out. They seem to be really liking it. For whatever reason, we didn't harvest the Red Gold potatoes that I ordered last year. I paid $10 for a pound of them. Anyhow, they are growing!  I may leave my Jerusalem artichokes in a container for this year because I need to find where I can dedicate a space for them. They will take over. I don't mind them doing this, but since they get really tall (like 10 feet or better), I don't want them in my main garden area. I want them to have their own place. It's going to be the same with my Egyptian Walking Onions. They need their own space to grow.

The peas are doing fantastic. They are already grabbing onto the shrog netting.

We need to get this grass cut down. Eventually, that is all going to be wood chips. I'm going to kill off the grass. It will make it easier to maintain and, unless you have grazing livestock, grass is stupid.

The raised beds are doing ok. They'll last a few more years before they get rotten and fall apart. I planted all sorts of spring type plants in there: lettuce, kale, broccoli rabe, cilantro, radishes, etc.

My carrots have sprouted. I have 5 varieties planted out in the deep tub. I have Parisienne Market, Gniff, Kyoto Red, Uzbek Golden and Longue Rouge Sang.

In the biggest bed, I've put in cabbage, broccoli, Walla Walla Sweet Onions and various beets, radishes and some Black Nebula carrots.

Baby radishes. These are 18 Day French Breakfast Radishes.

Strawberries and raspberries in the terraced garden.

These are honeyberries and a pot of black raspberries. There's also some different mints back there.

A bit of a sidetrack here, but I have a washer and dryer fully installed and working now.

This is the site of my future greenhouse.
So, that's how things are growing in my garden so far.

Heirloom Bean Chat With Russell Crow

I've thoroughly enjoyed chatting with various people that are admins of the Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups. There are also a few members that I reached out to and asked if they would do a quick Q & A with me and send me some photos that they would like for me to include in the post. I knew, right away that I was going to message Russell Crow and ask him if he would agree to this. I was certainly relieved and happy that he said yes!

I've admired Russell Crow's heirloom bean growing abilities for quite some time. I think a lot of people think that heirloom tomatoes are my thing, but they aren't. I enjoy growing them, for sure, but my favorite things to grow are beans and peas.

Growing up in Forks, Washington, my dad would put in a backyard garden every year. He would always say that beans were his gig. Well, after trying to fight it and bend to my will and make it tomatoes, I finally acquiesce that I have a knack for growing beans and peas. And along came Russell's website, A Bean Collector's Window. Well, this is Russell's interview, so I'll save my journey for another time.

Mr. Crow says, "At my Deer fenced plot view from  about 150 feet in the air. The owner of the property has a drone and he took pictures in July when all the bush beans were growing well last year. He calls my garden project here "Bean Acres".

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?

A: I specialize in growing mostly heirloom beans. Pole types, bush, semi runners and Pole limas. For my own use I do grow tomatoes every season from seed I save myself and some seasons I will also grow a carrot crop. 

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom bean varieties?
A: Back in the middle 1970's I was gardening and growing bush snap beans I had about 10 different varieties of commercial snap beans and was growing about a half dozen of dry beans all purchased from commercial seed catalogs. When I read the article that Rodal Press's Organic Gardening & Farming published in January 1978 about John Withee from Lynnfield, Ma "The Bean Man" and his "Wanigan Associates" bean network. I ordered his bean catalog and got 35 varieties of heirloom beans from him in February 1978. That was when I was off and runing with obscure bean varieties or heirlooms. I very rarely bought seed from seed catalogs after that. I still do grow some of the old commercial snap bean varieties of the 1950's and 60's. I've even obtained some pre-1950 bush snap bean varieties that were released by seed companies in the 1930's and 40's.

Q: Do you have a personal favorite bean variety?

A: I have so many bean varieties that it's a challenge to pick an absolute favorite. There are many good beans to grow. I would say for the last 10 years a pole bean called Louisiana AKA Louisiana Snap Bean. Is currently my top favorite snap bean to grow and use. It is very productive and it's beautiful to look at on the vine. Straight 7 to 8 inch green pods that are round and striped in purple. Of course those purple stripes fade away when cooked. I don't have a favorite dry bean. Again there are many good ones.
  

Q: On average, how many types of beans do you grow in a year and how big is your garden?

A: I grow about 150 varieties of beans in most seasons. Currently I cultivate about 4,000 square feet of garden space. I have a small amount of garden ground in my back yard and two flower beds around my house that are really used for tomatoes and beans most of the time. I have two offsite gardens on other people's property that I obtained by placing want ads in our local newspaper. One site is three miles from my house and it's about 2,200 square feet. The other offsite is 9 miles from my house and is behind a deer fence that I had constructed in 2017 at a cost of almost $4,000. This fenced off gardening enclosure is 80 feet long and 48 feet wide. It contains two 960 square foot raised bed garden plots that I had built at an approximate expense of about $3,300. The soil is beautiful loamy black soil but the drainage was not good so the raised beds so far seem to have fixed my drainage problem. Each bed has about 10 inches of topsoil that of course was already there. So my beans grown there might have 18 to 20 inches of topsoil to sink there roots into. I have a small roto-tiller that I load up on a small 4 foot trailer to go to my offsites to work the gardens there.   

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?

A: I can't say I ever had a mentor. There is nobody that I had that guided me or I asked gardening advice from. A lot of what I know I have probably picked up in reading here and there in books or articles. Plus my own garden experience. My father gardened in the 1950's when I was a small child which I observed and I think gardening just must have appealed to me. I'm the only one of 4 other siblings that have taken on gardening in a big way. There are people in the seed world that I have admired. John Withee with his Wanigan Associates bean network. Who had the foresight to seek out and save old bean varieties. I never met him I'm sorry to say. I have great admiration for the founders of the Seed Savers Exchange Kent and Diane Whealy. I joined SSE as a member in late 1978. They came to the realization that when older gardeners who were also saving old varieties of all sorts of cultivars passed away. The varieties they kept could possibly become extinct. Since the start of Seed Savers Exchange I think seed saving of heirloom varieties has caught on internationally also. I think another person to admire was Gary Nabhan who I believe started Native Seed Search in New Mexico. He had sounded the alarm I believe about loss of varieties and genetic loss of many of our food crops back in the late 1960's or early 70's. These people might just have been the spark that got all this heirloom seed saving going with the last 50 years. 

Side note: Russell Crow may not have had a mentor, but he's certainly one of mine!

This photo is one of the raised beds behind the deer fence with the bush beans at their peak of beauty in July last year.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom beans do you have in your personal seed collection?

A: My bean collection contains probably close to 1,300 varieties including original beans of mine that came about from outcrosses. I'm not a purist when it comes to heirlooms. I also have an open mind towards new cultivars. After all there might be over 100,000 bean varieties in the world today. Considering the they all genetically came from their wild ancestors in Central and South America that as far as they know number about 50 varieties in the wild today. Where did all these other bean varieties come from. They have to be the result of crossing and selecting by all kinds of people over a number of centuries. I think the process even continues today.    

Q: Do you sell seeds and, if so, how do people get in touch with you?

A: I do sell seeds. My website A Bean Collectors Window.com does attract people that are searching for beans on the internet and find my website. Last year I had 144 paying customers from around the U.S., Canada, all over Europe, South Africa, and I've even sent beans to people in the Ukraine and Russia. I have also attended 4 different seed swaps in various states like Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky where I have sold a small number of beans.   

Q: What is the rarest bean seed in your collection right now?

A: That might be difficult to know but it might be a recent bean I got from a fellow in eastern Kentucky who is a registered member of the Cherokee nation. I got a bean from him called Awahsohs Bear. How many people know this native bean. I would think not too many. I don't know where he collects his native beans. He live in the mountains of south eastern Kentucky. 

If you want to visit Russell Crow's website, A Bean Collector's Window, click here.

You can also find him in Heirloom Bean Addicts Anonymous. Click here to join. He can also be found in Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. Click here to join.

So, in conclusion, I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Russell Crow for agreeing to do a Q & A for me. He may not have had a mentor, but he inspires people more than he can possibly know. I know. I'm one of those inspired people!

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.

 

Heirloom Tomato Chat With 'Tomato Jim' Wyant

 I've mentioned before that I own several heirloom gardening groups on Facebook. Today, I want to have a chat with my main administrator, Jim Wyant aka Tomato Jim.

I met Jim through a Facebook group several years ago. It was back in mid-to-late 2013. Things happened and I decided that I wanted to create my own Facebook group where people could chat freely about tomatoes and if, for whatever reason, the conversation evolved into something else, that would be just fine, too. If memory serves, I do believe that I asked Jim to be an admin for Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous first. To date, there are several admins, but we have close to 6500 members in just that group alone. By the time you factor in the 6 (yes, 6) other Heirloom Addicts Anonymous groups, we are getting gardening and growing information out to around 10,000 people on a daily basis.

Jim specializes in rare and obscure heirloom tomato varieties that originate from the area of eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Southern Ohio and Georgia. This is the area that most people think of when they think of Appalachia.

I did a quick Q & A with Jim.

Q: What do you specialize in, as far as gardening?
A: Heirloom tomatoes. My nickname is Tomato Jim for a reason.

Q: When did you first get interested in growing rare and/or obscure heirloom tomato varieties?
A: Some new neighbors, Donnie and Teresa Fields, moved into the log home that is further back our lane. Really nice people! Mrs. Fields loves cooking and liked my fresh tomatoes. One day she asked me if I had ever grown Opalka tomatoes. Someone in her family grew them and she thought they were the best sauce tomato she had ever tried. I had never heard of them but the computer age was upon us so I started investigating. I found seeds available for them. I also found out they were something called “heirloom” tomatoes. Hmmm. During this search I also found references to a tomato called Romeo. Reviews for this one generally were much better than for Opalka. I figured I would surprise Mrs. Fields with two kinds of sauce tomatoes. But, I could not find Romeo seeds anywhere on line. Some places that carried them were out. I also discovered forums for tomato growers. In one of these forums I found a conversation between a couple folks referencing Romeo seeds. A gentleman named Gary Millwood had agreed to send another person some Romeo seeds. I sent a message to Mr. Millwood inquiring about buying a few Romeo seeds. Weeks went by with no reply. One day nearly two months after my request, Mr. Millwood answered. He stated that he had nine seeds that were at least nine years old. No guarantee they would germinate but that I was welcome to them for free. Free! Nothing in return! I couldn’t talk him into taking anything. Little did I know how that conversation would change the rest of my life!

Q: Do you have a personal favorite tomato?
A: My favorite tomato is a ripe one. No real favorite. I am partial to oxhearts but not a certain favorite and I will eat any that are ripe!

Q: On average, how many tomato plants do you grow in a year?
A: I grow between 100 and 250 plants a year. I average 150. I try to grow 100 varieties each year with varying degrees of success.

Q: Tell me about your mentor. Who are they and why?
A: This question is actually a continuation of how I got started. Gary Millwood sent those seeds to me. All nine germinated for me! When I told Mr. Millwood of my success at germinating them he was very excited. He quickly asked me if I would like to try another variety since I still had plenty of time before planting time. I said sure. How do you refuse someone who just gave you his last nine seeds of a variety? He sent me Sochulak seeds. He said it was a delicious ugly tomato in danger of disappearing. He said the shoulders were real rough but the tomato was very tasty! Both varieties did very well for me that year. Gary and I communicated often all year about their progress. That was the start of a great friendship. Gary was very patient with my questions. I now know some of them really showed how inexperienced I was about heirloom tomatoes. He explained how the fermentation method of preserving seeds worked. I sent hem a couple hundred seeds from Romeo and Sochulak. He was tickled! Gary and I talked on the phone, texted and wrote old fashioned paper letters. I always wanted to visit him. He only lived in Louisville.’ about three hours form me. My work schedule always seemed to get in the way. We were friends for three years before I finally scheduled a vacation to coincide with something he called Mater days at Thienemen’s Nursery in Louisville, where he volunteered as their heirloom tomato guru. Gary passed away before that day came. I had no idea how badly I would miss someone I had never laid eyes on.

Q: You've been featured in a book. What is the title of that and who is the author?
A: From Our Seeds & Their Keepers by Bevin Cohen.

Q: How many varieties of heirloom tomato seeds do you have for sale currently?
A: I currently have approximately 200 varieties of seeds available for purchase.

Q: How would people get in touch with you to order?
A: People can contact me through Facebook or email at jjwyant1@frontier.com. Facebook is preferred. The purchases are made through Messenger.

Q: Are you planning on having a website in the future?
A: I have zero plans to create a website. I am a hobbyist and plan to stay that way.

Q: What is the rarest tomato seed in your collection?
A: I have no way to rate the rarest tomato I have. Captain Meyers may be it. I got it in Livingston, Tennesee from Joe Brown who was in his 90's. He stated that he was the only one left in the area that still grew that tomato. Captain Meyers had brought it back Livingston when he returned from the War of 1812. I have sent a lot of those seeds out to folks to continue its legacy.

Q: What's the best tomato group on Facebook?
A: Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous of course!!

Wrapping up my interview with Jim, I'll add that this guy is a legend in the tomato world. I'm not even kidding. He's a damn legend and I'm equally damn lucky to have him on my admin team.
If you have any tomato questions, Jim's the one you want to ask. The most well-informed tomato group on Facebook today is Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous. If you want to join, click here and make sure to answer our membership questions.

So, as I wrap up this conversation with Jim, I'll leave you with a thought. If you want to grow tomatoes, learn how to grow great tomatoes! HTAA (Heirloom Tomato Addicts Anonymous), Jim and all the other members in the group can teach you that.