Some people (nurseries) have emailed/called to order large quantities of plants and/or tomatoes. However, I'm just a home gardener who got hooked on heirloom tomatoes after reading The Great Tomato Book by Gary Ibsen. I wanted to try a lot of different varieties but, of course, the family couldn't consume them all. So, I decided to sell the "left overs" roadside. Well, with only 30 plants in the garden, I wasn't able to keep the stand open for more than an hour or two a day (and when people stop by, they don't like to see an empty tomato stand). So now, 100 plants seems to be suitable - enough to keep the stand open and few enough so I keep my sanity.
So what to do with those extra seeds (thirty in a pack, you know). Well, grow them and sell the extra plants. It's a lot of work, but I enjoy it. I also enjoy meeting and talking with people who are excited about trying different tomatoes that taste, well, like a tomato!!
Have you tried a taste test?
The difference between a store-bought tomato and a home-grown heirloom is amazing!! I was dumbfounded: the store-bought tomato tasted like plastic - tasteless. The heirloom, well, that's the kind of tomato that Grampa used to grow!! You remember, the flavor is incredible!!!
Web Site Definitions:
Thanks to TomatoFest.com for seeds and terminology below.
Heirloom Tomato: An heirloom is generally considered to be a variety that has been passed down, through several generations of a family because of it's valued characteristics. Since 'heirloom' varieties have become popular in the past few years there have been liberties taken with the use of this term for commercial purposes. Heirloom tomato experts, Craig LeHoullier and Carolyn Male, Ph.D. have classified down heirlooms into four categories:
1.Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940.
2.Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.
3.Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.
4.Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.
Note: All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirloom varieties.
Open-pollinated: Seeds from open-pollinated varieties produce plants and fruit that are identical to their parent.
Hybrid Tomato: Where as Heirloom Tomatoes are open-pollinated or purebred tomato varieties, hybrid tomatoes are those which are the direct result of cross-breeding two or more varieties together.
Maturity: xx days - The number of days from transplanting seedling to the first mature fruit. Early-Season varieties generally mature between 55 to 68 days; Midseason varieties- 69 to 79 days; Late season varieties from 80 days and beyond.
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Grampa's Tomatoes' sells Heirloom, Open Pollinated and Hybrid tomatoes. In general, an heirloom will taste better than a hybrid but not look as pretty. But, there are some hybrid's that have excellent taste, like Big Beef and Sun Gold Cherry. When selecting a variety, I go for taste first and foremost.