Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, central VA, summer
 

Sometime in August we'll have a tomato tasting (maybe even two) on our own farm here in central Virginia (Mineral, about halfway between Charlottesville and Richmond).

We'll have tastings for tomatoes, peppers, some melons, interesting greens and herbs, and tours of our seed crops + trial crops + seed business.

It'll probably be a Saturday, but just which one will depend on the weather and how fast our tomatoes ripen up! Since we do a couple big tomato tastings in September (Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, and Mother Earth News Fair in Pennsylvania), we do our main tomato planting later than usual, and so we won't be getting seedlings into the ground til next week... so, yeah, if hot summer, then earlier in August, and if cooler summer, then later in the month.

Once we figure out the date, we'll send out an email announcement to local customers a week or two ahead, and I'll post a note here, and give an update about what varieties we'll have and what sort of crops we'll have for folks to look at!

Ken:

Thanks for the post - we'll be there this year unless out-of-town!

Jeff

Milder summer so far, so I'll guess late August... will update this next month!

Set for Sat, Aug 26th, 1-4 PM! PM me for address/directions.


We'll have maybe 30-50 tomatoes and some peppers and watermelons for tasting. Mild weather's slowing down the crops some, but we'll have a good amount of stuff for folks to try.


Interesting trial crops to look at = sesame, rice, amaranth, peanuts, roselle, winter squash, cowpeas, asparagus (yardlong) beans, tomatoes, variegated striped peppers, other peppers, melons, and flowers (cosmos, marigolds, zinnias, others).


There's a bunch of seed crops, probably the most interesting/unusual = Geranium Kiss tomato, Jasmyn Rissie spice pepper, Silverleaf sunflower, Carolina African Runner peanut, Job's Tears, and Erlene's Green cotton.


And: for any folks wanting to get some, it's a good chance to buy garlic, cover crops, etc. since you don't have to pay shipping!

Slight correction: 2-4 PM, not 1-4 PM. (Since some folks will show up an hour early, and if we say we start at 1 PM, then we get some folks showing up at noon while we're still eating lunch...)

We will be there! I'll save all my tomato questions for the poor person who gives the tour! :twisted:

Jeff

Yep, good chance that'll be me (or Irena) -- ask away!

Looks like great weather!

(And wanted to give you a bump for tomorrow!)

JT -- did you make it out for? (If you did, guessing you went on one of Irena's tours!)

Anyway, yeah, nice weather for! Once we had the usual hustle and bustle of being all ready out of the way, it was a pretty good time, I had a nice mellow time giving tours and enjoying talking to folks.

Ken:

I did make it! We ended up in Irena's tour which we really enjoyed.

Everyone was wonderful at the farm - old and young. The tomato tasting was great with a good number of "new to me" tomatoes I tried. The watermelon was really good too. Best of all, I knew if the plants grew well for you - that they should grow in Williamsburg too.

I think I heard the angels sing when I entered into the seed room!!! I picked up some Appalachian Red garlic and a bunch of seeds.

It looked like you had a great turn out. Thanks for opening your farm up to us.

Jeff

I was there too, but just noticed this thread now. Irena's tour was really interesting, and the tasting was so much fun. There was a tiny red cherry tomato that was out of this world, but I forgot the name. It definitely wasn't Matt's Wild Cherry. Any chance someone remembers? I brought a friend along, and we both want to grow it next year.

Hopefully Ken B will jump on to confirm but I think it was Riesentraube.

Jeff
Williamsburg

Maybe Everglades? That was the other small one we had at the tasting, it's one we're trialing, it's been doing pretty well so far (interested to see how it holds up in the cool fall weather) -- a Florida grower shared seed with us -- I can ask her where the seed came from.

Other possibilities (which we do carry) = Red Cherry (1"), Riesentraube (1.5" -- has pointy end), Red Pisa Date (1" or so, elongated shape).

Glad y'all liked Irena's tour! She's my sweetie, very proud of her.

... and our Florida grower said the online folks that she'd originally gotten Everglades from seem to no longer be active. So, no easy way to tell if that strain is different from other Everglades strains offered online.

(But, if it does well in our trials, chances are good we'll have it in the SESE catalog in a few years!)

Thanks, it was definitely Everglades. I'll keep an eye on the catalogue. Plenty of others to keep us busy in the meantime...

[QUOTE=Ken B;663549]... and our Florida grower said the online folks that she'd originally gotten Everglades from seem to no longer be active. So, no easy way to tell if that strain is different from other Everglades strains offered online.

(But, if it does well in our trials, chances are good we'll have it in the SESE catalog in a few years!)[/QUOTE]

Ken, I think you might consider a PINK one labeled as red,it's called

[url]http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Ted%27s_Pink_Currant[/url]

And it's great and I have a full history on that one and how Ted Darnowski found it and he didn't know how to save seeds,so sent me fruits instead,double bagged, fruits smushed open when I got them,and they were just fine.

Carolyn

Bumping the thread to say that we should be having another one this summer, on a Saturday afternoon, probably late August -- will update later this summer when we know more!

Ken B:

I was out last year and had a great time. Would recommend it to anyone. The tours and tastings were terrific.

I picked up seeds for Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad, Barnes Mountain Orange and Pink, Brimmer, Costoluto Fiorentino and Georgia Streak - they are growing great!


I also bought some Appalachian Red garlic - when do you usually harvest yours?


Jeff

I don't think we've got any Appalachian Red planted on our own farm this year -- this year we're giving our soil a break from garlic, and "only" doing Egyptian Walking Onions and Perennial Leeks and some other perennial alliums.

Garlic harvests vary by date from year to year with the weather, they're usually spread out during June for us, depending on variety. Generally the most reliable harvest indicator for us is to go and harvest bulbs once the plants are down to only 5 green leaves (or less, if we don't catch them before this).

Update -- date is set -- Saturday, Aug 25th, 2-4 PM. We'll be sending out an email about it to local customers this next week.

We're in Mineral, VA -- ~15-20 minutes off I-64, halfway between Charlottesville and Richmond -- PM me for directions!

We'll have maybe 30-40 tomatoes and some peppers and other crops for tasting. Mild July weather slowed down the tomatoes some -- doubt we'll have much of the larger beefsteaks ready for the tasting, but we'll have a lot of cherries and smaller slicers. I'll try to post a list when we get closer to the date.

Interesting trial crops to look at this year = lettuce, cilantro, sunflowers, eggplants, amaranth, tomatoes, sweet + spice + hot peppers, cucumbers, basil, okra, beets, and flowers.

With seed crops, the most interesting/unusual = Yellow Centiflor tomato, Brazilian Starfish hot pepper, Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate flower + some other flowers, and Red Foliated White cotton.

And: for any folks wanting to get some, it's a good chance to buy garlic, cover crops, etc. since you don't have to pay shipping!

[B]***DATE CHANGE: Saturday, Sept 1st, 2-4 PM***
[/B]


We've folks away this week (some at a wedding, some to help friends fix up their barn), and we need to wait til they're back to help us get ready for the tomato tasting -- so, pushing it back a week -- hope that still works for anyone who was thinking of coming out on the 25th!

I have a better chance of making that date!

SESE people give a great tour of their farm, have a very organized tomato tasting tent, and my favorite . . . you get to look through the seed room and buy what you want! Last year, I bought some terrific red garlic and about 7 different tomato seeds - all are doing well this year:

Peg's Round Orange, Barnes Mountain Orange and Pink, Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad, Brimmer, and Georgia Streak.

It's worth the trip.

Jeff

I am interested, as well.

Here's this year's list!


Today's forecast = partly sunny, 30-40% chance of rain this aft.

[B]
[/B]
* = trial variety/variety SESE doesn’t currently carry
Black Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Coyote
*Dances with Smurfs – indigo/red cherry
*Don’s Double Delight –bicolored slicing
Eva Purple Ball
*Everglades – pink-red cherry
Garden Peach
German Johnson
*Green Giant – green slicing
Green Grape
Green Zebra
Hege German Pink
*Indigo Cherry Drops – indigo/red cherry
*Isis Candy – red/yellow cherry
*Isis Candy, large fruited off-type – red/yellow slicer
*Ivan – red slicer
Joe Thianamen Australian Heart
*Kellogg’s Breakfast – orange slicer
*Kopek Hayasi – red slicer
*Little Lucky – gold/red slicer
*Lucky Cross – gold/red slicer
Marglobe VF
*Marvin Marvel, Ph. D (LARGER SEED CROP IN 2019 FOR 2020 CATALOG?)
Matt’s Wild Cherry
*Mountaineer Delight – red slicer(SEED CROP BEING GROWN OUT FOR – will be in 2019 catalog)
Old Virginia
*Pear Shaped – red cherry
*Pink Bumble Bee – pink/yellow cherry
*Puerto Cortes – red cherry
*Purple Bumble Bee – purple/green cherry
Red Cherry
Roma VF Virginia Select
*Salvaterra’s Select – red paste
Super Italian Paste
*Tiger Tom – orange/red slicer
*Turner – pink slicer
West Virginia 63
*White Cherry – pale yellow cherry
Yellow Bell
*Yellow Centiflor – yellow cherry (SEED CROP BEING GROWN OUT FOR – will be in 2019 catalog)

[QUOTE=Ken B;713563]Here's this year's list!


Today's forecast = partly sunny, 30-40% chance of rain this aft.

[B]
[/B]
* = trial variety/variety SESE doesn’t currently carry
Black Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Coyote
*Dances with Smurfs – indigo/red cherry
*Don’s Double Delight –bicolored slicing
Eva Purple Ball
*Everglades – pink-red cherry
Garden Peach
German Johnson
*Green Giant – green slicing
Green Grape
Green Zebra
Hege German Pink
*Indigo Cherry Drops – indigo/red cherry
*Isis Candy – red/yellow cherry
*Isis Candy, large fruited off-type – red/yellow slicer
*Ivan – red slicer
Joe Thianamen Australian Heart
*Kellogg’s Breakfast – orange slicer
*Kopek Hayasi – red slicer
*Little Lucky – gold/red slicer
*Lucky Cross – gold/red slicer
Marglobe VF
*Marvin Marvel, Ph. D (LARGER SEED CROP IN 2019 FOR 2020 CATALOG?)
Matt’s Wild Cherry
*Mountaineer Delight – red slicer(SEED CROP BEING GROWN OUT FOR – will be in 2019 catalog)
Old Virginia
*Pear Shaped – red cherry
*Pink Bumble Bee – pink/yellow cherry
*Puerto Cortes – red cherry
*Purple Bumble Bee – purple/green cherry
Red Cherry
Roma VF Virginia Select
*Salvaterra’s Select – red paste
Super Italian Paste
*Tiger Tom – orange/red slicer
*Turner – pink slicer
West Virginia 63
*White Cherry – pale yellow cherry
Yellow Bell
*Yellow Centiflor – yellow cherry (SEED CROP BEING GROWN OUT FOR – will be in 2019 catalog)[/QUOTE]

Ken, I know almost all of them and here are a few comments.

Ivan is a great one,not well known, I'd like to have that one grown for me some time.

Marvin Marvel, Ph.D. Had to Google him and found him in Fort Collins, CO, as a therapist,but what's the connection with tomatoes?

It was Alan Kapuler at Peace Seeds who bred the red Centiflor, but his daughter got interested in breeding tomatoes and bred the Yellow Centiflor. But you probably know that already.

Great looking list.:)

Carolyn

hi Carolyn --


Ivan has had good flavor, but just OK production so far. We're starting to get more Septoria in our trial patch now, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up over the next few weeks.


I wrote down the name wrong -- it's "Mason Marvel, Ph.D." -- Mason Marvel was part of the group that worked on West Virginia 63 tomato. Back in the '50s, he collected WV heirlooms with Late Blight resistance for the project. This tomato's a big pink heirloom-type that emerged during the breeding work -- Mason kept it going as his own private project for 55+ years -- he gave seed to Florida grower Herman Holley, who passed it on to us. It's really good! We're saving a small amount of seed this year, will do a larger growout next year.


Yellow Centiflor -- we like it a lot! We're growing the seed crop here on our own farm. Nice flavor, really productive, good vigor. It's got a lot of size variability -- from dwarf to determinate/short indeterminate; Irena's saved a stock selection, I'm guessing that she's selected for shorter plants for our next seed crop growout.

We haven't set the date yet for this year's -- we'll see how the weather goes -- but right now we're guessing that it'll *probably* be Saturday, August 24th.

Here's tentative list for now -- a lot of these are ones we trialed last year, we're looking at them again since it was so wet last summer and we wanted a better look at them! We'll be adding some to this list, depending on what friends and neighbors bring.

*Alston Everlasting -- red slicing (seed crop being grown out for -- will be in 2020 catalog)
Amish Paste -- red sauce
Black Cherry -- black cherry
Cherokee Purple -- purple slicing
Djena Lee's Golden Girl -- gold slicing
*Don’s Double Delight – gold/red slicing
Dwarf Emerald Giant (dwarf) -- green slicing
*Everglades – pink-red cherry (seed crop being grown out for -- will be in 2021 catalog) (seed has some dormancy issues, will take 1-2 years to pass germination tests!)
Garden Peach -- yellow slicing
Geranium Kiss (dwarf) -- red slicing
Green Zebra -- green/yellow slicing
Hege German Pink -- pink slicing
Illinois Beauty -- pink slicing
*Ivan – red slicing
Joe Thieneman Australian Heart -- red slicing
*Kellogg’s Breakfast – orange slicing
*Kopek Hayasi – red slicing
*Little Lucky – gold/red slicing
Marglobe VF -- red slicing
Matt’s Wild Cherry -- red cherry
Mortgage Lifter VFN -- red slicing
Mr. Fumarole -- pink paste
*Mrs. Housewife -- red paste (seed crop being grown out for -- will be in 2020 catalog)
Old Virginia -- red slicing
OTV Brandywine -- orange-red slicing
*Pear-Shaped Cherry (dwarf) – red cherry
Purple Bumble Bee – purple/green cherry
*Salvaterra’s Select – red paste
San Marzano -- red paste
*Summer Sweet Gold (dwarf) -- gold slicing (seed crop being grown out for -- will be in 2020 catalog)
Super Italian Paste -- red paste
*TOMI 1815 -- red slicing
Williams Striped -- gold/red slicing
Yellow Centiflor – yellow cherry

* = not in current (2019) SESE catalog


Also, we'll have a *lot* of interesting sweet peppers + spice peppers + hot peppers -- will post the list of those later this summer when we get close to the date! We're trialing a couple of Craig's lavender sweet peppers, hope to have those at the tasting...

I'm growing your Old Virginia I picked up at your farm two years ago.

Last year, I grew Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad, the Barnes Mountain group, Brimmer, and Peg's Round Orange - all great tomatoes from your open house.

I also grew Kopek Hayasi and really liked it - hope it does well for you.

Jeff

Great list - hope things are well on the farm!

Jeff -- good to hear that you liked Kopek Hayasi! We were crazy busy last summer, didn't have time to take many notes, so mid-September Irena did a smart thing where she went through the tomato patch and took photos of each variety... so when it came time to plant this year's trials, we looked through the photo files and could see which varieties had still looked good in mid-September despite all the rain. Kopek Hayasi was one of the good ones, so it's getting another look this year, and hopefully will also get better notes this time.