Tante Ci
 

I read an old post here that listed Tante Ci (Aunt Ci) as a Norwegian heirloom and I was wondering if anyone knew more about it/ had grown it/ or knows a source for seed. It is not listed in the TomatoBase and there are no Google results beyond TVillle.

[quote=Mudman;215110]I read an old post here that listed Tante Ci (Aunt Ci) as a Norwegian heirloom and I was wondering if anyone knew more about it/ had grown it/ or knows a source for seed. It is not listed in the TomatoBase and there are no Google results beyond TVillle.[/quote]

[URL]http://www.nordgen.org/ngdoc/plants/hillerod/abstracts/Norwegian_Seed_Savers.pdf[/URL]

I don't know of anyone who has grown it but you may wish to e-mail the person mentioned in the above link b'c that variety is one of just two that they have. As you noted Tania doesn't list it under Swedish tomatoes and no separate list for Norwegian ones.

Being of Scandinavian heritage myself I know that the cusines of those countries is not tomato based and most of the named varieties grown there in the past are small red ones, so I haven't pursued it myself.

[URL]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=16864[/URL]

I assume that the above is what you read here at Tville and the history of the Tante Ci was given there, but I have no idea where seeds can be found for it or some of the others mentioned in that Tville thread.

So perhaps if you contact someone at the first link, there is an e-mail linkm you might find more if Tante Ci is the only Norwegian tomato variety you're interested in.:)

Thanks Carolyn! I will send an email to the above. And I am interested in all the varieties listed in the thread (Imur Prior Beta, Sterling Old Norway, and Norderås Busk) although this one was on the top of my list to find.

I was the one who posted the info about Tante Ci, and as far as I know it is completely unknown outside of Norway.

Here is a link to the 2011 yearbook:

[url]http://www.skogoglandskap.no/filearchive/aarbokgronns_potet2011_fin.pdf[/url]


As you can see the only one offering Tante Ci this year is SET10, and the only one offering Norderås Busk is AR07. (you can find the e-mails in the link). I suggest that you contact them directly and not the coordinator.

Let us know how it works out (if you need any help contacting them, or need to translate something just send me a PM).


/Soren

Soren, I don't get anything that comes up with that link.

I thought perhaps you were talking about the SSE 2011 yearbook but right now I think not after doing a quick search for Tante Ci in my paper 2011 SSE Yearbook unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

What color is Tante Ci? I thought it was red and checked there as well as pink and also checked to see if had been listed as Aunt Ci and not Tante Ci, with my quick search.

The link worked for me although I can't understand any of it.

Carolyn, the link I posted is the yearbook of the Norwegian Seeds Savers (it is still in the "baby" stage). It started up in 2006 I think, and with only 90 members it is still tiny compared to it's sister associations - Frøsamlerne in Denmark and SESAM in Sweden (which are tiny compared to the US SSE)

Here is the description I posted in the other thread:
[I]From UØS06. Unni said: "My aunt, Aunt Ci, is Cecilie Jensen, who ran the herb garden at the cathedral ruins. She got the seeds 25 years ago from a woman named Ansof. I think she has released a book about herbs. The family of this Ansof had had the seeds for much longer. I checked my notes, and my aunt said that the seeds have been in Norway for about 100 years.
- Medium-large yellow tomatoes. Very good taste.[/I]

[quote=DanishGardener;215243]Carolyn, the link I posted is the yearbook of the Norwegian Seeds Savers (it is still in the "baby" stage). It started up in 2006 I think, and with only 90 members it is still tiny compared to it's sister associations - Frøsamlerne in Denmark and SESAM in Sweden (which are tiny compared to the US SSE)

Here is the description I posted in the other thread:
[I]From UØS06. Unni said: "My aunt, Aunt Ci, is Cecilie Jensen, who ran the herb garden at the cathedral ruins. She got the seeds 25 years ago from a woman named Ansof. I think she has released a book about herbs. The family of this Ansof had had the seeds for much longer. I checked my notes, and my aunt said that the seeds have been in Norway for about 100 years. [/I]
[I]- Medium-large yellow tomatoes. Very good taste.[/I][/quote]

Soren, I linked to that thread in my post above in this thread and did read it there but somehow I missed that it was a med yellow tomato, which actually if it had been in Norway for 100 years would be a very unusual situation if it originated in Norway.

There's also the possibility that it could have been brought to Norway since yellow tomatoes were known elsewhere.

No way to know for sure.

Norderas Busk is on its way! Still waiting for a reply on Tant Ci.

I now have Norderas Busk and will get Tante Ci this summer. I guess I will work on getting the rest of the Norwegian tomatoes and grow them all next year. That will be nice to think about this winter when I am making lefse.

I have now started seedlings of Tante Ci and Norderås Busk and am waiting for germanation on Sterling Old Norway. I know it is cliche to say something is rare, but when I went to the original source for Tante Ci she was not able to give me any seeds until havest time because she had none. That made me a bit nervous. What if she got blight? Maybe others have seed but I couldn't find any. I am glad to have them growing and plan on having a SASE offer in the fall to get them distributed.

I'm excited to see what you end up with out of this project. Lots of the guys I hunt with in the UP are of Norwegian and Finnish descent.

[QUOTE=Mudman;265965]I have now started seedlings of Tante Ci and Norderås Busk and am waiting for germanation on Sterling Old Norway. I know it is cliche to say something is rare, but when I went to the original source for Tante Ci she was not able to give me any seeds until havest time because she had none. That made me a bit nervous. What if she got blight? Maybe others have seed but I couldn't find any. I am glad to have them growing and plan on having a SASE offer in the fall to get them distributed.[/QUOTE]

Yes please try to offer seeds later so more people have a chance to grow these. It would be horrible if these varieties disappeared due to only a few growing them. We know how easy it is to have a bad year and a lot of us have crop failures at the same time. :bummer:

Just did some searching on Google Norway and found this on a site-

[I]Appeared in 2007
In 2007, contributed one of the members with the seeds of a nameless yellow tomato that probably had been grown in Norway for about 100 years. The seeds came from her aunt Cecilia Jensen, who also was the one who ran the famous herb garden at the Cathedral ruins for many years. And because the denomination was unknown was the name 'Aunt Cis'. Tomato yellow Aunt Cisena handful of self-grown tomatoes of the over 100 year old variety which has been named Aunt Cis. Photo: Stephen Barstow

After planting the club's coordinator Stephen Barstow published the story about 'Aunt Cis' tomato in Norwegian Hagetidend in 2011 (see Appendix below) has Aunt Cecilie even provided details of the tomato variety, which she had once given Ansof Wyller Christophersen from Songe in Aust -College, who was one of the foremost experts on herbs at the end of the 1900s.

Seeds came to Norway with sailors
- I got the seed of Ansof Christophersen summer of 1975, the first time I was with her spices courses. At that time I understood it so that the seed had been in Norway for about 80 years, says Cecilie Jensen. Ansof had even received the seed by Helga Myklebostad, (who incidentally attended the same course) and who had received seeds from nests family she worked for in Arendal.[/I]

And a picture- [url]http://www.skogoglandskap.no/fagartikler/2012/cistomat/bilde/ingress[/url]

Bump!

Now in 2013 we in the norwegian seed savers have even more information about "Tante Ci"
The aunt, likes to refer to this tomato as "Ansofs gule" (Ansofs yellow), because she got it from The well known norwegian botanist Ansof Wyller Christophersen.

The tomato has been described as very similar to the variety "Golden Queen" and some of us here in Norway are growing both to see if they are the same variety.

[QUOTE=Eirik;333337]Now in 2013 we in the norwegian seed savers have even more information about "Tante Ci"
The aunt, likes to refer to this tomato as "Ansofs gule" (Ansofs yellow), because she got it from The well known norwegian botanist Ansof Wyller Christophersen.
The tomato has been described as very similar to the variety "Golden Queen" and some of us here in Norway are growing both to see if they are the same variety.[/QUOTE]In Norway there are at least four (women) members of a Polish gardening forum, of whom I know one fairly well (she grows tomatoes in a greenhouse). I'll ask them if they are interested, and of course mention both names ("Tante Ci" and "Ansofs Gule").

[QUOTE=Eirik;333337]Bump!

Now in 2013 we in the norwegian seed savers have even more information about "Tante Ci"
The aunt, likes to refer to this tomato as "Ansofs gule" (Ansofs yellow), because she got it from The well known norwegian botanist Ansof Wyller Christophersen.

The tomato has been described as very similar to the variety "Golden Queen" and some of us here in Norway are growing both to see if they are the same variety.[/QUOTE]
Hi Eirik. Did you ever find out if Tante Cis is the same as Golden Queen?

Steve
(from Sokna)

[QUOTE=sjamesNorway;499873]Hi Eirik. Did you ever find out if Tante Cis is the same as Golden Queen?

Steve
(from Sokna)[/QUOTE]

Steve, I just checked and Eirik was last here at Tville on July 27, 2014 so if you want to reach him maybe it's best to PM him, fingers crossed.

Golden Queen was released by the Livingston Seed Co in 1882

[url]http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Golden_Queen[/url]

So I'm not too sure about the story of sailers bringing varieties to Norway, especially Golden Queen.:)

[url]http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Golden_Queen[/url]

Carolyn

[QUOTE=carolyn137;499936]Steve, I just checked and Eirik was last here at Tville on July 27, 2014 so if you want to reach him maybe it's best to PM him, fingers crossed.

Golden Queen was released by the Livingston Seed Co in 1882

[url]http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Golden_Queen[/url]

So I'm not too sure about the story of sailers bringing varieties to Norway, especially Golden Queen.:)

[url]http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Golden_Queen[/url]

Carolyn[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that info., Carolyn. I've sent a PM.
And yes, sailors brought back varieties of all sorts of things, and not only undesirable things, so they might well have brought Golden Queen seeds. The story is that Tante Cis got the seeds from Ansof Wyller Christophersen, who had an extensive herb garden, and lived in Tvedestrand, a town on the Southeast coast.

Steve.... I haven't looked through all the discussion threads I have found, but I wondered if you had seen this link.

[url]http://www.edimentals.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Seedlist_070215.pdf[/url]

Third from the bottom is the offering of this person tomato seed of Tante Cis. They had 11 offerings.

I don't know who it is, but looks like it might be an offering from the NARGS site of folks.

[url]https://www.nargs.org/seed-exchange[/url]

You can look at the past lists and it looks like folks list for this year starts Dec 15th.

I don't have time to hunt through the past lists , but maybe you can and find them and a way to contact them, or see about joing this years offerings in hopes of somebody else having the Tante Cis seeds.

Thanks for the tip, Starlight. I found out I can get seeds for the Norwegian varieties from the Scandinavian seed bank, NordGen. They'll be available again (only to people living in Scandinavia) from March 1, 2016. I've posted more info. on the varieties from Norway, including Tante Cis (correct name), on the thread "Origin of Imur Prior Beta and Sterling Old Norway", if you're interested.

Steve

Steve... Glad you were able to find some and if things happen and you don't at least you know NARGS is there. I have gotten all kinds of seed from NARgs from folks around the world and if you get a chance you should check it out, as you may just find other Norwegian varieties of tomatoes and other veggies available.

Yes, I been reading and following along on the Imur Prior Beta and Sterling Old Norway thread. Very interesting for sure. Learning new things. : )

How did the Tante Ci grow? Was anyone happy with them?

I have some that I would like to try this year......

I haven't grown it, but it's reported to have very good taste. I never got an answer to the question about if it's the same as Golden Queen. They're said to be very similar. It's medium sized, and has a DTM of under 60 days in an unheated greenhouse in Norway. I'd forgotten about it, and I think I'll try it next year.


Steve

ps: I've checked out Golden Queen on a number of sites, and they all have it at over 75 dtm, so maybe they are different.

I grew Tante Ci last year - sadly - it produced more than I wanted to use. For me, the taste was so-so. I'll not regrow it.

Taste varies - weather conditions vary . . . it could be great for you.

Jeff

thanks for the info....