Ben T. Quisenberry -- One man's efforts to preserve old toma

[VGary]

Ben T. Quisenberry -- One man's efforts to preserve old tomato varieties. I hope you enjoy reading about his contributions to preserving Heirloom Tomatoes.
Gary/Louisville

Mr. Ben T. Quisenberry (1887-1986)
http://www.purewatergazette.net/quisenberry.htm

The Gazette is honored to give its Hero Award posthumously to Mr. Ben T. Quisenberry, who died in 1986 at age 99. Mr. Quisenberry lived in and operated a tiny mail-order seed company called Big Tomato Gardens out of a small building that had been an old post office in Syracuse, Ohio. He printed his own seed packets, complete with mottoes, on an old printing press.

Read more about Ben Quisenberry in My Secret Life as a Farmer -- On Seeds and Unsung Heroes
http://www.purewatergazette.net/secret.htm

[feldon30]

Very nice articles!

I too have come to a conclusion in that article. Have a problem with the tasteless tomato at the grocery store? The solution is to grow some! It's really not that hard. It's only when we get exposed to all these tomato varieties and we just HAVE to grow one of each.

[VGary]

Ben T. Quisenberry -- One man's efforts to preserve old tomato varieties. I hope you enjoy reading about his contributions of preserving Heirloom Tomatoes. I am beginning a listing of tomato seed varieties he grew and pass them along here. If anyone here knows of any please, feel free to list them. Perhaps each of us can help carry on the tradition!
Gary/Louisville

Ben T. Quisenberry Tomato Varieties ----
Bear Claw
Brandywine (his personal favorite)
Golden Sunray
Czech's Bush
Long Tom
Stump of the World
Tiger Tom
Big Ben
Long Tom
Red Cup
Mortgage Lifter
Marglobe

[travis]

Mr. Quisenberry also is credited with these tomatoes
from his collection:

Czech’s Excellent Yellow
Goldie
Gold Medal
Large Red Cherry
Ruby Gold (bicolor, maybe the same as Gold Medal??)
Tasty Evergreen
White Beauty

These names may be alternate names for some of the
others on Gary's list ... I don't really know ... but these
are also varieties I've found attributed to Ben
Quisenberry's collection.

Someone at one of the other sites where this same
thread is posted said he didn't think any of the Mortgage
Lifters were from the Quisenberry collection, Gary.
I really don't know about that either ... except that
in the next message below is a photo of an envelope
in which Mr. Quisenberry sent Ken Ettlinger seeds for
Mortgage Lifter back around 1982.

PV

[travis]

Below are two pictures of the envelope (front and back)
Ken Ettlinger received from Mr. Quisenberry circa 1981,
containing seeds for Brandywine (Sudduth), Big Ben
and Mortgage Lifter.





Mr. Ettlinger grew out and selected the Brandywine for three years
before selling seeds in 25c packets beginning in 1984.

In the "History of Brandywine" at the Victory Seed
Company's Website, Craig LeHoullier says, "The strain
carried by Johnny’s Selected Seeds came from a seed
donation by me – I received the variety from Roger
Wentling of Pennsylvania in 1986. He in turn received the
variety from Ken Ettlinger of the Long Island Seed and
Plant company. Ken received it from Ben Quisenberry,
thus the JSS strain is the Quisenberry/Sudduth strain."

So, when you think about it, that little envelope
carried one heck of a lot of history.

PV