Any storytellers out there?
 

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and am collecting heirloom tomato stories for possible use in a children's book that I am writing. It is a fiction book for 5th-6th grade students, and serves as a vehicle for lots of elementary science content as well as authentic stories about several heirloom varieties. If you know any great stories, I'd love to hear them. Also any old pictures would be delightful. I'm particularly interested in accounts of how tomato seeds were brought from the Old World--the more stealthy the better! Of course full credit will be given in the bibliography.

One thing I've noticed is that for all of the various heirloom tomatoes, those with nice, long, specific stories are quite rare. Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter is perhaps the best; another that is kind of amazing is around the tomato Opalka (not so much about the naming or creation of the variety, but an indication of how small a world it is! I will let Carolyn tell that one).

There are plenty of examples of heirloom tomato related stories that are less detailed than we would have wished - the Sudduth-Quisenberry Brandywine story, J. D. Green - Cherokee Purple story, Anna Russian, etc. It always seems that there should be more info, but usually there just isn't.

I have lots of stories as does Craig, and I will tell the Opalka one as well.

But beware of the trditional Mortgage Lifter Charlie story per the info about the Estler family claim and that story can be found at heirloomtomatoes.net

When I have time I'll try to relate a few, but honestly, I don't see many of them fitting into a children's book.

So how about a little feedback on what kind of story about any heirloom tomato might be of interest to children, which is the topic of this thread? Frankly, I just don't see the relationship and usefulness, offhand .

So convince me. :)

Oh, I see all kinds of wonderful and fun stories about tomato history that would be great for a children's book. I can't relate them, because I don't know enough about it yet, but there are so many neat stories of how different varieties came to be. Marianna's Peace is one. If the story I read was true, it would be a delight to kids.

On the other hand, the versions of so many varieties I've heard about may be romanticzed, and maybe C and C have the true versions that aren't so enticing. But overall, I think her idea is a good one. And I think one of the best things a tomato grower can do is to get the little ones interested early. I just wish I knew more about this to give her a story.

Don

I reread the first post and I guess we could concentrate on tomato seeds that were brought over here by immigrants, or arrived in other countries via the same way, b'c it also serves as a geography lession for the kids.

Will give it some thought as to which ones might be best, and when I have time will relate a few, and include Opalka, due to Craig's request, will be one of them.

There is this story about Earl trading the family cow for a magic tomato seed...but I'll let him tell it.. :D

Seriously though, great idea for a thread I love tomato history and heirloom stories.

I am not sure if it is true, but some sites claim that Polish seed was smuggled out of Poland on the back of postage stamp.
That would be interesting to kids, and a good way to get them to learn more about the Iron Curtain.

Good Luck!

Tyffanie

Although I don't know if it's a story for kids, but the Burracker's Favorite story is a good one. Not sure telling kids about moonshine is a good idea. LOL

Smuggling a tomato seed on the back of a postage stamp?! That's the kind of stuff I'm/she's talking about! Great stuff!

Don

Don and others,

That's the story, re the postage stamp and the variety Polish, except there are several just named Polish, but it really doesn't make any sense to me since there was no need at all to smuggle any seeds from Europe to the US.

Between the late 1800's and about 1920 was the major wave of immigration to the US and thousands of immigrants brought their seeds with them, tomato and otherwise.

And that's b'c they were treasured family heirlooms, just as much as other treasured heirlooms that they brought with them.

Time and time again when I'd get a new family heirloom from someone it could be traced back to that time period.

And it's still happening, witness the seeds I got for Sandul Moldovan and a few others that came over to the US with families that have immigrated just within the last decade or so.

I have been giving thought to this and will post some stories, but I want them to have more detail to be able to help the kids learn more, for I think that should be the purpose/focus of gw's putting those in a kid's book.

gw, what say you on that? Haven't heard from you lately.

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, everybody! I was very pleased to get so many responses in the first 24 hours.

It is hard to be more specific about what I'm looking for, because it seems that every few days the project changes trajectory somewhat... What i can tell you is that I'm inspired by books like Louis Sachar's Holes and Roald Dahl's Danny, Champion of the World. Since 9-10 year olds are searching for belonging and an authentic way to contribute, I thought that the idea of seedsaving and growing heirloom tomatoes as a way of preserving history has a lot of potential. Also the feeling of powerfulness one could get by adapting a variety--not hybridizing--to a new region over a few generations is giddy stuff. A good project for an after-school student garden club, I think.

It also intregues me that ethnic groups from geographically isolated areas selected for such different characteristics in their tomatoes. It is such a tempting metaphor for the value of differences over the boredom that is conformity. I'd love to know why someone chose to make Black Krim black, for example--was it for a specific ethnic dish, or to break some unwelcome association with things demonic?

Definitely don't worry about censoring your contributions for child appropriateness--there is always a way of spinning a posative moral out of seedy details.

yes... Dunkel, forget the censors.... I'd like to know the story behind Burracker's Favorite & 'shine.... I had some ancestors in WV that knew a lot about 'shine.

Larry, go to heirloomtomatoes.net for Chuck's original description.

Gw, adaptation of varieties just doesn't happen in a few generations. Adaptated varieties, and not of tomatoes, are called landraces and it takes hundreds, yea thousands of years to adapt, as has been shown by many studies, especially those with Ethiopian grains.

If it's a sense of belonging that you're after does that mean belonging in the sense that it's only US originated heirloom stories that you're after?

Or in a larger sense of belonging in terms of ethnic differences per the backgrounds of most of us in the US.

Folks don't actually select for varieties specific for a region, with few exceptions. What happens is that tomato varieties can and do cross creating a hybrid. Then that hybrid has to be dehybridized to what's called the open pollinated (OP) state where it is genetically stable and all seeds of that OP sown will give rise to the same plant/fruit unless another X pollination occurs or a spontaneous mutation occurred.

The tremendous number of OP varieties known, probably around 12,000 or so, evolved primarily by X pollination and dehybridization for most, and secondarily by mutation.

Thanks, Carolyn!!