Gary Ibsen and Cynthia Sandberg are both well-known tomato people in California.
Ibsen has been selling seeds for awhile (
TomatoFest) and he used to put on a summer tomato festival in the swanky Carmel Valley with extensive tomato tasting, as well as loads of celebrity chefs who made all kinds of crazy tomato dishes (including cocktails and desserts). I went to one of these. The food was outstanding, and the crowd was diverse, from gardeners and farmers to foodies and corporate types.
Cynthia Sandberg is well known out here for two things: 1. She was a long-time close collaborator with a 3-star Michelin restaurant --
Manresa, and that collaboration has been extensively covered by the press, and 2. She sells oodles of heirloom tomato plants each spring, at all kinds of events in Northern California. She also gives lots of workshops at her "farm" on biodynamic growing and tomato growing. She is a local tomato Guru.
Here is what I see at the World Tomato Society website:
It is not a store. The World Tomato Society is not selling tomatoes.
In fact, the "
Seed Catalog" of tomatoes indicates a link where they can be purchased. For example, if you are interested in the tomato "
Solokha" the link provided directs you to Tatiana's Tomatobase to purchase seeds.
For a few of the tomatoes, TomatoFest (Ibsen's company) is suggested. But the suggested sources for majority of the tomatoes are an array of outfits that represent a
"who's who" of heirloom seed sellers, many of whom are well-known here at Tomatoville.
There are a number of blog-type articles at the site, and education is the stated goal of the site.
Why the non-profit status, and what are they up to? They clearly state that the
organization is raising $$ to build an educational campus near San Jose that will be focused on tomatoes.
While some of the principles clearly are involved in "for profit" business related to this society, and you could argue that the society website will link people to their businesses, my personal feeling is that the conflict of interest factor is relatively benign compared to alot of other stuff I see going on between "foundations" and the businesses of people that run them. These guys seem to be trying to spread the love in the tomato world, and trying to get people onto numerous tomato sites to buy OP tomato seeds (not just their own).
Plus, raising funds for (and setting up) an educational facility seems, to me, to be a pretty dumb thing to do, if you are simply trying to promote your own businesses. These people are pretty successful already, and I would argue they will likely invest more $$ than they will make on this endeavor.
Just my 2 cents.
Oh.. an
article about the project in the local "Edible" publication.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha
I stumbled on this website when doing research on a particular variety.
Not a forum where you can ask a question and get direct responses like here.It seems to be a store, a database, and a bunch of blogs rolled into one.
Just curious. It's a non-profit but the purpose isn't apparent to me. Lovely photos.
- Lisa
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