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Journal #11

June 11, 2008

            The time has come for me to truly do what I do best and that is growing my heirloom garden. The 2008 garden will be a series of 3 gardens. I am fortunate to have two growers who have agreed to help me establish my seed bank for my business. In addition, I will be the third grower. Most of the three gardens will be dedicated to growing African American heirloom plants. It is my hope that the season will have good weather until we harvest the plants to get the seeds for the bank. I am indeed holding my breath that all will be successful.

             In my personal garden, I will be growing old favorites in addition to my heirloom varieties. Ever since I was a youngster, my family has always grown Sweet Banana peppers. I carry on that tradition, although Sweet Banana is not classified as an heirloom, it still is a favorite of “Chileheads” (people who like to grow peppers) I also have other favorite sweet peppers that I have grown such as Cubanelle, Sweet Pimento and Gypsy.

            The only hot pepper that I am growing this year is the famous African American hot pepper called the Fish pepper. This heirloom pepper will be in my seed bank to sell. The Fish pepper dates back to the 1870’s. It was used extensively in many crab houses along the Chesapeake Bay, Washington D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland areas.

             I am also growing five heirloom tomatoes. Each of these has been chosen with a great deal of care and thought before I started them from seed. Some of my choices were influenced by my family and others were old sentimental favorites, or tomatoes I thought to be different and unique. I usually try new varieties each year in my garden. This year I have chosen these wonderful tomatoes:

(1) Lillian Tomato – A Tennessee heirloom from Lillian Bruce. Lillian is counted among top 100 of heirloom tomatoes. It is the only yellow beefsteak type heirloom tomato. Fruits are 8 oz – 1lb with a citrus flavor. My sister talked me into growing Lillian. I grew this tomato several years ago and my sister just fell in love with the taste. The seeds are very costly and there are only a very few of them to work with, but Lillian is a lovely specimen Lillian is a late harvest tomato. You must wait about 90 days on her until harvest..

(2) Yellow Perfection – an old heirloom from England. Yellow Perfection is bright yellow with 4 -6 oz fruits. This tomato has good yields with a potato type leaf.

 75 days until harvest. Great low acid type tomato.

(3)Pink Oxheart Tomato – also known as “Giant Bullsheart” is a Hungarian heirloom dating back to 1920. The fruits are large and they do look just like a big pink heart. Oxheart is ready in 80-90 days. It has an old fashioned flavor and is still an old favorite of many growers of heirloom tomatoes.

(4) Thai Pink Egg Tomato - a small egg shaped pink colored tomato that is a real producer. It is from the land of Thailand. It produces lots and lots of tomatoes during the growing season. My 85 year old father who loves every sort of tomato called Thai Pink Egg “a pretty little tomato with a great taste” Thai Pink Egg is ready to harvest in 70 days.

(5) Brandywine Tomato - Brandywine is considered “the” heirloom of heirloom tomatoes. Brandywine dates back to 1889. It was introduced by the Johnson & Stokes Seed Co. of Ohio. Brandywine is simple perfection in a tomato. It comes in several colors, but the most famous of the Brandywines is the red variety. This old Amish tomato is a real favorite of many heirloom growers. Brandywine is ready to harvest in about 85 days.

            In the coming weeks, I plan to create a photo album of my past few years’ heirloom gardens. I plan to place this on the AARP website for everyone to view. As in the past, the excitement is mounting as the gardens develop and hopefully flourish toward harvest time. Keep your fingers crossed that I will be able to take many of my seeds to the bank.