She is working on one but she hasn't been able to decide a name so has been waithing to publish until a decision is made. Right now its between:

1. Revenge of the Heirlooms
2. Return of the Heirlooms
3. Heirloom tomatoes strike again!

I think she would welcome any suggestions because as you can see the choices are all pretty good ;-)

Greg

Wow Tom, you read my mind! But we all know that her health is not what is used to be and it takes so much effort to grow all the varieties for another book (assuming the same wonderful format is used). But I'm sure that many GWers would love to help her out by growing. I would but do not feel worthy of such an honor.

Chris

Male's Berry Tales

I heard she is going in a different direction..."Heirloom Chocolate, Identification and Use in the Modern Age"

Is there a part one of this thread? I would like to read it.

"Male's Berry Tales"

?????.....quirky!

Just so curious .... I mean think of all that knowledge and experience !!!!! ~ Tom

Enough already. LOL

Tom, there will be no part II of Heirloom tomatoes, although I'd love to be able to do it.

All the plants have to be grown at the same place b/c one photographer has to do all the shots so that color contrast/balalnce, background and all else are the same. And the time involved is really ridiculous.

Because of the different ripening times of various varieties Frank, the photographer for my book, drove to the old farm where I had all the plants growing, almost every single day for almost two months. And his one way commute time was one hour.

My job was to take a wee saw and saw off a representative branch of each variety, lug that branch, or several, in a shallow basket, to the outside tap by the house, wash them off, carry them inside, put them in large blue speckled canners with water and then the goal was to photograph everything within 30 min of my fetching them from the field.

And we met that goal.

Frank would lay them on the white background, trim off really bad branches/leaves, cut the fruits for those shots, write the name of the variety along the side of the background and then shoot.

But sometimes he'd forget which variety he was shooting and by that time I'd be back out in the field so he'd yell out the open window, what variety do I have? Was it Green Scene he said once, I said no Frank, it's White Queen. LOL

Then other shots in the book took quite a lot of setting up, for instance the one showing BER where Frank hung the branch from a ladder and shot underneath, or the ones shown as mixed fruits where we both harvested loads of fruits from the field.

And on and on.

Physically I could never do that again. No way.

Would I do some things differently? Sure, but the format for the book was already set so I had few degrees of f reedom. It was part of a series contracted to Workman by Smith and Hawken and the format, page numbers, etc. were set in that contract.

I had to fight mightily to even get the appendix where I listed my sources for varieties and where I listed a few seed sources, now sadly out of date, and where I listed a few reference books, also now out of date.

I also had to fight mightly to get the one on the cover b'c the Workman design editor wanted a different one, which was not a famnily heirloom as I wanted.

It bothered my Editor John that I didn't have a story to tell about each variety, but that's life with tomatoes. LOL

Of course there would be different choices for varieties to feature, and I've been asked in the past which ones I'd work with. But a second time I wouldn't try to feature tomatoes of different types, such as commercial oldies, fuzzy ones and the like, because even though I clearly wrote in the introduction that not all were my favorites, that I wanted to show different types of varieties, some folks think I liked and recommend every single variety shown.

So it's their problem that they didn't read what I wrote in the introduction.

Some have even asked if I'd just do the writing as regards different varieties, and I suppose that's something I could do sometime, who knows when. LOL

But Bob is closest when he says a book on dark chocolate might be more my style these days. LOL

Craig and I have had this project of trying to feature some of the older Off The Vines in some way and he has some at his website, but only his articles b'c mine are still on a disc somewhere, and with my new computer I don't have a disc drive.

I still have back issues of most of them and at one time his daughter was going to look into putting them all together and selling them for a modest price but that didn't come to be.

And I know Craig still intends to write his own book and thinks about it from time to time, but his focus would probably be different. Right now he's so busy at work that it's on the back burner.

The book almost didn't come to be. There was an article in the NYTimes with a picture of me and under it it said something like this idiot has grown over 1000 ( now nearer 2000) tomato varieties and as a result of that I got several calls from publishers, and turned them all down except one. At that time my mother was still in the old farmhouse and not in good health and the situation was dicey. it had become clear that she needed to go to an adult home where she had closer supervision.

But one Executive Editor, from Workman, was persistent and nice and it was a matter of convincing her that if I were to write such a book it would be about heirlooms and not hybrids as she suggested, which she finally agreed to.

I had to chose the varieties in 1997, the growout was in the summer of 1998 and the book published the following June. I never saw many of the pictures in the book until it was published. I did see the pictures of the different varieties since I had to ID them, and I do have two sets of those as slides as well as some of the other ones Frank took, but there were others in there I never even saw. LOL

My mother was moved to an adult home late in 1997 so in the summer of 1998 the photography so called studio was set up in the living room of the old farmhouse.

Frank took all the fruits home every day and made quarts and quarts of sauce, and why not, for I wasn't going to. LOL

So in retrospect I'm glad the book got written and it did win two awards from the Garden Writers Association of America, one for graphic design and one for my writing. I have the plaques and they misspelled the word heirloom. LOL

Carolyn

We can only dream that another book about heirlooms will be published.... Heck, I would buy a book about heirloom tomatoes even if it didn't have pictures in it because I love to read about the history of each tomato (if it exists)
Carolyn,
I know that you have answered this question before....but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the variety that is on one of the first couple of pages- sorry, I am at work and don't have the book in front of me. The picture is of the entire plant where we see a very large truss of medium red tomates with beautiful darker green foliage.
Jeff

As Carolyn says, I am getting closer to buckling down and working on a book....spent some time pondering which varieties, etc as I sat at the Outer Banks on vacation last week. Maybe I should set a limit of 2-3 years to finish it! (esp. since I first considered a book about 20 years ago!!!)

Craig

I know that you have answered this question before....but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the variety that is on one of the first couple of pages- sorry, I am at work and don't have the book in front of me. The picture is of the entire plant where we see a very large truss of medium red tomates with beautiful darker green foliage.

Jeff,

After the green page the one on the right has angora foliage with a few fruits of that nestled in the foliage and is the variety Angora.

And I haven't the faintest idea what the picture on the reverse is, the one with the cluster tomatoes. I never saw that until I was sent my first copy of the book.

Actually the variety Bulgarian Triumph can look like that and is a great variety, but that's not BT b'c all my plants were grown by sprawling.

And as I said above, there are some others in there that I never saw before, like the one on page 20.

Carolyn

"Jeff, After the green page the one on the right has angora foliage with a few fruits of that nestled in the foliage and is the variety Angora. " [Carolyn]

Seed Saver's Exchange 2006 Public Catalog offers "Velvet Red" (#1226) about which they say, "Unique, silvery-gray, dusty miller type foliage. Heavy yeilds of 1-inch cherry tomatoes, excellent sweet flavor. Fruits are also slightly fuzzy, but not as furry as the peach tomatoes. First listed by SSE member Carolyn Male in 1997, identical to Angora Super Sweet. Indeterminate, 75 - 80 days from transplant."

Is that the same tomato, Carolyn? It looks very interesting.

Bill

"this idiot had grown over 1000 tomatoes," LOL. Thank goodness it turned out to be a good thing.
I love the book. I know I said a long time ago, but I bought it before I frequented the Tomato Forum. I purchased it because of the book, 100 Heirloom Roses for the American Garden, which is also a great book. When I received the book, I read the inside of the back cover and thought,"This book should have good advice in it. This lady doesn't grow her tomatoes too far away." : ) I have read it many times. And I would love to see another heirloom book come out. With all the wonderful record keeping Craig does, a great idea must be swirling around in his brain.
Remy

Is that the same tomato, Carolyn? It looks very interesting.

Angora is not the same as Velvet Red/Angora Supersweet. All they share in common is angora foliage. The former is a small red maybe 3-5 oz and the latter is a cherry.

Actually Velvet Red is one of the most beautiful plants I've ever grown. When the sun shines on that narrow angora foliage it just sparkles. But I don't think the taste of the fruits is that great, but then others do.

Carolyn

Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the information. Yes, I was refering to the cluster tomato on the other side of the angora picture.
By the way, I did grow Bulgarian Triumph and aboslutely loved the taste- intense sweet taste.
Jeff

Carolyn,

This may seem silly, but I was looking all over the Discussion forum for your reply to my Velvet Red question. I was sure that's where I had posted it and even did a search ... but just of that forum, not this one. Stupid huh?

Anyway, thanks for answering my questions both here and in the thread I started earlier today in the other forum. I think I'll order Velvet Red/Angora Super Sweet from SSE just to enjoy the special foliage.

Bill

This may seem silly, but I was looking all over the Discussion forum for your reply to my Velvet Red question. I was sure that's where I had posted it and even did a search ... but just of that forum, not this one. Stupid huh?

No Bill, not stupid.

It's called CRS and I suffer from it as well from time to time. ( smile)

Carolyn

Carolyn, my boss's initials are C.R.S. and he says it's the curse of being aptly named. He suffers from CRS very regularly.

"It's called CRS and I suffer from it as well from time to time. ( smile)" [Carolyn]

Okay ... now I know I've seen that CRS thing explained somewhere I think in these forums ... how does that search function work again ... uh, where did I lay my reading glasses ... oh yeah, I'm wearing them.

I hear ya Carolyn, but I really wish you could ... Your book by far is the most down to earth , with great detail ... Looking forward to OTV "Revisited" ~ Tom

Hey Tom,

Psst! Come here! It's OK, Carolyn won't read this. I promise. I've got an idea on this book deal.

You can "fool" Carolyn into writing another book by posting requests for history on your favortie tomatoes (i.e. "What's the story behind XYZ?"). Then all you have is sit back and wait for her inevitable reply. Then copy the text and reformat to fit the sytle of the book. This plan is foolproof since she knows about virtually every tomato since the Mesozoic era. I bet you could even make up tomato names and I'm sure she's heard of it somewhere.

Then all you have to do is post requests for some pictures and the usual picture posters like Grubby and Bruce_B will provide excellent examples of each one. It can't fail.

And if we coax rain/chicken/tomato-stunted man to include his secrets for growing minature versions of giant tomatoes - we could make a fortune!!!

Whaddya think?

Chris

lol Chris .... thats too funny ~ that would be ???
aaaawwwwwesome ~

Sometimes I do take blurbs and cut and paste them into my own garden "blog". Alot of the times, the descriptions given in those "winter rags" arent quite what you want to hear , or dont live up to what they tell you .. I don't grow in "optimum" growing conditions so it is good for a more "dirty hands approach" ... you may have something here ~ lol ~ Tom

Some have even asked if I'd just do the writing as regards different varieties, and I suppose that's something I could do sometime, who knows when. LOL

See Chris, I beat you to it in my above post. LOL

But b'c of your post I will no longer answer questions about varieties at GW.

Why should I be feeding info to folks so they can write their own books? LOL

Mesozoic indeed. Maybe I should learn more about Mesozoic flora and fauna and if a floriferous Lycopersicon was present maybe I could track down some seeds embedded in amber or else in one of the many preserved dinosaur bodoes around , germinate those seeds, get some seeds ahead and send them to you know who, who can them charge $100/seed. ( smile)

Maybe there would even be genes for a BIG tomato in those Mesozoic seeds in which case I personally would sell them for a modest $1000/seed, but only to US and Canadian buyers since I don't want to stand the postage costs to elsehwere. LOL

And you know and I know that someone out there would buy them at that price. LOL

Carolyn

...or maybe preserved in dinosaur droppings. (lol)
Jeff

"But b'c of your post I will no longer answer questions about varieties at GW."

Oh no! What have I done?!? I will be forever known as the one who deprived the masses of Carolyn's pearls of historical tomato wisdom. I am like Soliari to Mozart (well, in that historically inaccurate movie "Amadeus" anyway). I can hear the forum old timers forming a posse to administer a little old school GW justice. "Hanging's too good for him! Take his seeds instead!"

As for recovering ancient tomato seeds locked away in prehistoric amber - that's preposterous. No one would pay that much for a tomato seed! What do you think this is?!? Marianna's Peace?

Actually, I do know who would buy them, especially if the buyer was guaranteed the world's largest tomato.

Chris, who must enjoy the taste of his own foot.

Chris, who must enjoy the taste of his own foot.

Poor, poor Chris. LOL

Reminds me of the huge mayonnaise jars that my Swedish grandmother used to use for the pickled pigs feet she made for my German grandfather. LOL

Those and the head cheese she made I could not and would not eat. LOL

Carolyn, who is definitley NOT referring to Chris as a "pig", just going along with the reference to "foot/feet" LOL

Oh gack! head cheese and pig's feet, my mom and dad loved that stuff, it was a big treat for her, as we rarely had the money for something that the rest of would not eat. Gad! I hated even thinking about that stuff

Bob

A hot dog is just head cheese ground up finer, stuffed into a link of gut, and dipped in Red Dye #3.

The only thing more disgusting than pickled pigs feet is watching someone eat some (especially when they spit out the cartilage).

I think "blood and tongue" loaf is pretty awful too. :P

I'm pretty sure I'll stick with my maters ! The above posts sound pretty rough ! lol ~ Tom

AAhhh...the beauty of the internet.....

Confession time.

You folks should know up front, that I would never, ever admit this to someone in person. It would be just too humiliating...

When I was a young kid, my mom and grandma gave me pickled pigs feet sometimes, and I liked them! I cringe in shame and disgust when I remember it, and have never told a living soul!

(Just for the record, I'm a vegetarian now)

Jen

you all should try kishka now that is a great dish.

tomatoesunted - KISHKA ? Is that polish ? ~ Tom

kishka is a cows intestines stuffed with matzo meal, schmaltz and flour.

In the B----- locusts were good to eat I think I will stick with tongue loaf if I have a choice.

Any one for tamales they are made from hogs head traditionally.
Tamales, "so you can make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Worth

How did we get to alternative animal parts for food from where this thread started? LOL

And I'm not going to let this one drop off the edge just b/c a certain person has introduced so many threads with the intention of forcing lots of threads off the edge b/c he wants to.

To me that's manipulation and abuse of Forum guidelines.

Carolyn, who doesn't e-mail webmasters, so someone else can do that re the abuse of Forum guidelines. Sorry Early, but you've really gone over the proverbial edge this time.

Carolyn137 you the one who brought up the topic of food from uncommonly eaten animal body parts, with comment about pigs feet.

also a neat food item grebelas

"And I'm not going to let this one drop off the edge just b/c a certain person has introduced so many threads with the intention of forcing lots of threads off the edge b/c he wants to." [Carolyn]

Ditto ... and besides I haven't had a chance yet to cut and paste that great description of layin' all those tomato vines out for pictures.

bump - book sales are up !!! ~ Tom

Be very careful germinating seed from Amber or preserved dynosaur droppings.
You don't want to start 'The Revenge Of The Killer Tomatos."

Has anyone heard of the Fuzzy Hog tomato?
I was told that the seeds were sent in an order for the customer to trial, but can't remember from which company.

Has anyone heard of the Fuzzy Hog tomato?
Oldpea, it would be best if you started a new thread and ask your question on the (on Topic) Discussion side of the forum. You can find the link just above the list of threads on this side of the forum.
This side is for (off topic) conversations, and gets very little traffic these days.

Good luck in your search for the info.

Sue