Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Goose Creek and Creole ramblings in history

**carolyn137** · January 1, 2010

The variety Creole was bred by Louisiana State University and released in 1940.

And yes, as the Spanish went north from Mexico they took with them and spread around what we call today currant tomatoes ( S.pimpinellifolium) and cerasiforme ones ( S. lycopersicon, cerasiforme) as is the variety Matt's Wild and in the other species section of the SSE Yearbooks there are many of these two kinds. They were spread all along the Gulf coast over to FL as the Spanish missionaries had carried them from Mexico. How the various species of tomatoes got to Mexico from their place of origin in the highlands of Chile and Peru is still not known for sure.

Jimmy Williams Goose Creek has been a highly debated tomato variety and I think there may even be a thread or two here about it. He claimed that it dated from, and now I can't remember the date off hand, but the problem is that his Goose Creek is a pink smooth variety and at that time there were no smooth varieties,

Several years ago I was contacted by a fact checker from a magazine that had planned to write a story about him and his tomato. I did a lot of background checking and even though I knew that there were no smooth tomatoes at that time I went ahead and contacted Andrew Smith who wrote a good book about tomato history, and I know Andy, and he agreed with me that the story didn't hold true b'c there were no smooth tomatoes at that time. I don't know if the magazine ever ran that story or not.

Jimmy Williams also tried to patent his Goose Creek and in most threads where this variety is talked about someone usually gives a link to his patent application and I'm telling you it's weird as can be, and makes no sense. Besides, one can't patent an heirloom variety; one needs to show genetic input into a variety in order to patent it.

And if there's one Indian tribe I'm up to date on it's the Cherkee, not only b'c of the varriety Cherokee Purple but also b'c of the variety Indian Stripe, which is a version of CP a friend of mine found in Arkansas, where some Cherokee settled after they were forced by the US government in the Great Migration to move west from their ancestral areas in Fl, GA, SC, NC and Tennesee. Actually there were several migrations west of the Cherokee.

There is still a Cherokee presence in Arkansas as there are in several other states. Not all made it to Oklahoma where they were forced to go. My brother now lives in NC and very near a Cherokee site that's being studied by archaeologists which I also know b'c I subscribe to three different such magazines and it was featured in one of them, b'c history is one of my passions, especially archaeology.

Hope that helps.

January 1, 2010	#3
carolyn137 Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a Posts: 21,169	The variety Creole was bred by Louisiana State University and released in 1940. And yes, as the Spanish went north from Mexico they took with them and spread around what we call today currant tomatoes ( S.pimpinellifolium) and cerasiforme ones ( S. lycopersicon, cerasiforme) as is the variety Matt's Wild and in the other species section of the SSE Yearbooks there are many of these two kinds. They were spread all along the Gulf coast over to FL as the Spanish missionaries had carried them from Mexico. How the various species of tomatoes got to Mexico from their place of origin in the highlands of Chile and Peru is still not known for sure. Jimmy Williams Goose Creek has been a highly debated tomato variety and I think there may even be a thread or two here about it. He claimed that it dated from, and now I can't remember the date off hand, but the problem is that his Goose Creek is a pink smooth variety and at that time there were no smooth varieties, Several years ago I was contacted by a fact checker from a magazine that had planned to write a story about him and his tomato. I did a lot of background checking and even though I knew that there were no smooth tomatoes at that time I went ahead and contacted Andrew Smith who wrote a good book about tomato history, and I know Andy, and he agreed with me that the story didn't hold true b'c there were no smooth tomatoes at that time. I don't know if the magazine ever ran that story or not. Jimmy Williams also tried to patent his Goose Creek and in most threads where this variety is talked about someone usually gives a link to his patent application and I'm telling you it's weird as can be, and makes no sense. Besides, one can't patent an heirloom variety; one needs to show genetic input into a variety in order to patent it. And if there's one Indian tribe I'm up to date on it's the Cherkee, not only b'c of the varriety Cherokee Purple but also b'c of the variety Indian Stripe, which is a version of CP a friend of mine found in Arkansas, where some Cherokee settled after they were forced by the US government in the Great Migration to move west from their ancestral areas in Fl, GA, SC, NC and Tennesee. Actually there were several migrations west of the Cherokee. There is still a Cherokee presence in Arkansas as there are in several other states. Not all made it to Oklahoma where they were forced to go. My brother now lives in NC and very near a Cherokee site that's being studied by archaeologists which I also know b'c I subscribe to three different such magazines and it was featured in one of them, b'c history is one of my passions, especially archaeology. Hope that helps. __________________ Carolyn