Garden geek Auntie Beak, wearing her other hat (literally) as Tomato Captain of the North Stonington Garden Club.
Dirtynailz’s garden catalog post, below, which mentions the Totally Tomatoes catalog, prompts me to mention my own very happy experiences with Totally Tomatoes.
I love heirloom tomatoes. No, really, I LOVE them. And Totally Tomatoes has a great selection. Now, besides being the DiggingRI resident garden geek, I am also a member of my local garden club, just over the border in North Stonington, Connecticut. We hold just one fundraiser a year, which is a massive Plant Sale, and as part of that sale, I run a Tomato Poll. The poll has lots of heirloom varieties from Totally Tomatoes, and allows anyone to vote for their favorite heirloom tomatoes, which we then raise for our sale.
I realize you all will probably have lots of choices for plant sales to visit this spring, including the East Farm Festival, which is always on the same day as my plant sale. But if you love heirloom tomatoes like I do, you’ll surely want to make some time to visit the North Stonington Garden Club’s sale too. No reason, really, why you couldn’t hit both!
Especially if you voted for Cherokee Purple and Lemon Drop.
Digging RI 
I love this sale, but because there is SO much to choose from at such reasonable prices, gardeners should bring along a cart or wagon and get there early!
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too true! we grow our tomatoes in the ns wheeler high greenhouse, and space is limited (we have to share). so we only grow 300 plants, and these get snapped up very early in the day.
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I went to that sale last year, but didn’t get there early enough. By the time I got there, the two tomatoes I wanted to try were all gone. I did score the other item I went for, worms. I could never bring myself to pay to have worms mailed, so I was really excited when I discovered they’d be available at a local plant sale. There were so many wonderful plants, too.
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yes, having the worm ladies there was fantastic. you know you can always contact them via email and pick up your worms, right? they’re only over in charlestown, ri.
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Do you have a recommendation for most prolific heirloom tomato? I do love the ‘Green Zebra’ for its’ tart freshness.
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most prolific? i had simply tons of flammé a few years ago. this is an old french heirloom with small- to medium-sized orange fruits. they kind of looked like persimmons and were very tasty and very early. also, i had a lot of success with cosmonaut volkov, although the taste doesn’t stand out for me (not that any fresh tomato can taste bad…!). you can get seeds for flammé at totally tomatoes. and i believe tomatofest carries cosmonaut volkov.
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Two years ago I decided to grow only Romas; I put two plants in each of 3 Earth Boxes and ended up with over 50 lbs. of delicious, red tomatoes!
These are wonderful for sauces, salsas and in salads, but they are determinates so the whole crop comes in at the same time! BTW I love the Earth Boxes. They let me grow veggies on the second floor deck where the deer can’t get them!
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Wow! You must have some canning operation at the end of the season. Where did you get your earth boxes?
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I actually bought them from a flyer in the local newpaper, and it was a special at the time…3 complete boxes for under $100; no shipping. For those that don’t know about them, they have a grate in the bottom and a fill tube on one end. The box is filled with a soiless mix (I use Farfard), a cup of so or lime, your choice of time-release fertilizer, and covered with a plastic cover that resembles the old-fashioned salad bowl covers. Cut x’s in the top and plant. Watering is accomplished through the fill tube until it runs out at the bottom. No overwatering and no weeds with a spectacular return!
And yes, come August my house is always in full canning mode! My family likes to joke that I burn the wallpaper off the walls with the homemade pickles! 🙂
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I actually bought them from a flyer in the local newpaper, and it was a special at the time…3 complete boxes for under $100; no shipping. For those that don’t know about them, they have a grate in the bottom and a fill tube on one end. The box is filled with a soiless mix (I use Farfard), a cup of so or lime, your choice of time-release fertilizer, and covered with a plastic cover that resembles the old-fashioned salad bowl covers. Cut x’s in the top and plant. Watering is accomplished through the fill tube until it runs out at the bottom. No overwatering and no weeds with a spectacular return!
+1
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