metro farming: Tomatoes 2009

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tomatoes 2009

I am really looking forward to getting my tomato seeds started, but I am still about one month away from the time line for here in Philly. I have five varieties of tomato seeds from Amishland Heirloom Seeds, and I will probably grow three plants of each of these varieties for a total of 15 plants. Here are the five varieties I will be growing this year. Photos are from the Amishland Seed web site. I highly recommend them as a seed supplier, and their website is a fantastic education in heirloom tomatoes.

My primary reason for using these varieties is that they are all genuine Amish and Mennonite farmer developed varieties that have been grown successfully in the Philadelphia area for many years. I like the idea of continuing that local tradition.

schmmeig creg

mule team

howard german

harfeuer

glicks 18 mennonite

Amish Land Seeds website

Have you decided on your tomato varieties for the coming season?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: The howard german tomatoes look pretty cool. I thought they were red bell peppers when I first scrolled through the pics earlier today.; March 12, 2009 at 12:28 AM
Christopher Paquette said...: I can't wait to taste them...; March 12, 2009 at 7:44 PM
alison said...: yellow pear cherry tomatoes, big beef slicing tomatoes, and brandywine heirloom tomatoes (my favorite, as i come from a long line of se pa farmers)...; July 13, 2009 at 3:13 PM

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Welcome to Metro Farming! A blog devoted to the joys and rewards of growing, eating, and sharing high quality organic produce.

"The time is past to think of this as a hobby for enthusiasts; it is a fundamental part of human life."

Those words were written 30 years ago by Christopher Alexander in his book A Pattern Language in the chapter on vegetable gardening. Alexander warned of the disconnection that people have from their food sources, and the resulting insecurities and imbalances that follow. I firmly believe that we are now almost past the point of no return for most of American society in the loss of connection to the soil and our food sources. We make ourselves feel warm and fuzzy by buying organic foods at the Supermarket, and yet we have no idea where these foods were grown or how they were processed and packaged.

It is only by growing at least some of our own foods in soils that we have dug and prepared with our own hands, and in sharing that produce with our friends and neighbors, can we truly get back to the fundamental organic security that we all need as humans.

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